The Irish standard., 1918-04-13
Dillon Pays compliment
To President Wilson
Continued from page u

League of Nations.
Mr.. Dillon subsequently addressed
q large demonstration in the old Jail
Square, at which Mr.. Gillen presided.
A procession, in which several bands
and contingents, mostly A. o. H., from
various parts of the county took part,
was held previous to the meeting. On
the motion of the Very Rev. Canon
Mcmahon, P. P, seconded by ]. O'Don-
nell, j. p, Co. c., chairman, Lisnas-
kea, r. d. c., resolutions were passed
deploring the death of Mr.. Redmond;
affirming the right to fun self-govern.
ment; pledging confidence in the Irish
Party; expressing the hope that the
Convention would evolve an accept
able settlement; protesting against
the interference with the bacon-curing
establishments; demanding the re-
moyal of the controlled price, and the
establishment of an open competitive
market for pigs
Canon Mcmahon believed the best
thing they could do would be, as far
as possible, to close up the ranks and
unite as one body and one people in
the constitutional movement.
Mr.. billions Speech.
Mr.. Dillon said they met under the
shadow of a great sorrow, for they
had lost leader who, for 1S years,
conducted the national cause with
Skill and ability which won for that
cause and for himself as leader the
respect and the support of millions,
not only of their race and blood, but
of foreign nations. There were some
of them who, for IS years, were privi-
legged to enjoy his intimate friendship
and his confidence, who could appre-
ciate far more the loss he was to
Ireland and to their cause than could
any stranger.
In the history of human statesman
ship there was nothing more remark
able than the character of the crowds
who gathered around his grave, united
for once in their lives, men who rep
resented different parties, who had
been few years ago pledged to civil
war rather than to support his policy,
united in the work of doing honor to
his unselfish labors and great states
manship and ability.
A Lesson From the Grave.
From his grave there was a great
lesson to be learned by British states
men. He had faced unpopularity mis-
understanding, and horrible calumny
in his endeavor to conciliate the Irish
and the British peoples, and had Min
listers been honorable men and stood
by him, and emulated his honor as a
statesman, that work would have been
done today, and Ireland, instead of
being; as she admittedly was, an en-
barrassment and weakness in this
great hour of trial to the Allies and
to England, would have been a source
of strength and support; but they,
unlike Mr.. Redmond, were false to
their honor and to their pledges, and
they betrayed him, while he was faith
full and loyal, and they were now reap
ing the bitter harvest of their own
misdeeds.
He himself had interviewed mary
foreign statesmen, and statesmen from
Australia, Canada and the u. S. A.,
and they nearly all united in the opin-
ion that Mr.. Redmond was the great
est figure in the British House Of
Commons. 1t was strange-and to him
humiliating characteristic of Sec
tion of their people-that when an
Irishman became great and illustrated
his country, by showing that they
could produce statesmen equal to
those of the greatest nations on earth,
there was a section of Irishmen who
Immediately began to show their pa
triotism by calumny. suspicion, and
hatred of their own greatest and best
statesmen, simply because they we're
admired by others outside his land
"contemptible Spirit"
That was narrow and contempt
Bile spirit, and until Irishmen dropped
that spirit, and ceased to believe that
they showed their patriotism by hat
ing everybody who spoke the English
language outside of Ireland, it would
be very hard to carry the Irish cause
to victory. In all his long career, in
all that he did for Ireland, did Mr..
Redmond ever on any single occasion
turn down Ireland or be false to the
principles of Irish Nationality in Or
der to win the support Of the Domin-
ions of the Crown or the sympathy Of
the democracy Of England? He never
did, and those who had said so were
libelers and utterers of falsehood.
Irish Convention.
Nobody ever pretended that the
Convention was a body for the pur-
pose of what was known as self-de-
termination. It's real and only object
was to find out in friendly discussion
whether the Ulster difficulty could be
settled by agreement. They had sat
for very long time, and faced all
kinds of Misrepresentation and at
tempts in certain quarters to make
their deliberations impossible, but the
mass of the Irish people had shown
the greatest possible patience, and he
thought they were right, because If it
were possible to settle the Ulster