The Irish standard., 1918-06-08

hopeless. He told why he ana MS
friends would come forward to die, IT
conscription were attempted. He said:
I've chosen the lesser of two evils.
Ill fight. l don't expect a long life.
I've fought one. I'll fight again. I'm
an electrician. l get ninepence happen
ny an hour. But l never worked for
ninepence ha'penny as l worked in
Sackville Street for no pay at all. l
work by the day, but not too much.
My evening l work for Ireland, and
there is no money in that belong to
club in Dublin. l was a prisoner in
Frongoch for three months. They
put us in solitary confinement for three
weeks. Solitary confinement is hard
on the mind. But they never got me,
because l knew was in it for Ireland.
III fight for Ireland, but not for Eng
land. Go to any county-Australia
America, anywhere i'll the world, and
they hate England. And they hate her
for what she has done to Ireland. They
hate her for those seven hundred
years. The reason we rose was what
we have suffered for seven hundred
years. We have tried the way the
speaker tells us of. We have been
peaceful. The blood was getting rot
ten in our veins. We needed some
thing to freshen us. The London Times
wrote about Mac Dnaugh and Pearse as
if they were children, not knowing
what they did. We knew what we
were doing. 1 don't expect to come
out of this alive. l haven't any rifle
that is, not now. But know where
there are few. If they put conscrip-
ton on us, We'll fight.
"tWe'l be fighting for Ireland. What
use will 10000 Irishmen fighting for
England be to them? When we were
fighting for Ireland, we did more work
in six days, than in twelve months
We knocked our way through brick
walls. We built barricades. There
was food, but we didn't take time to
eat it. An Irishman works best when
he's working for nothing, and when
he is working for Ireland. am a
Christian, Roman Catholic. 1 hate
bloodshed. saw a soldier go across
the street when we were fighting.
said to the man next me, See him.
He aimed his gun and shot him. But
couldn't shoot the man. l didn't
want the sin on my oul. We don't
want bloodshed. But is there any
other way? We don't want the insult
of conscription put on us.
The point is not that he rebelled
last Easter says the American jour-
nalist, but that he will rebel again if
England applies pressure. Two thou
sand rose then, but twenty thousand
will rise next time. The rebellion was
only a bloody, unimportant riot, but
Ireland today is in the most critical
state since the 1S5O's. England can
give lasting peace, or she can let
loose slaughter which will spoil her
memory of the costly and noble sacri-
flee in Flanders
What will my country do? AS I
write, the fates seem to be dark. The
men who have chosen themselves to
govern us are rushing through Parlia-
ment bill which imposes conscrip-
tion on Ireland. If it passes-and if
1t does not pass-the speech of this
young Irish mechanic and the COM
ment of this American journalist will
deserve to be read for the warning
they contain. The speech is not class
ical; but it is not invented-on min
vente pas ainsi! It is just human, and
touches the heart of Ireland's refusal
to let England take her sons. She is
nation herself? She sees us objecting
to the Prussians militarizing Poland
and Belgium, and cries, That is my
case Englishmen deny parity, but
Ireland maintains her ground; she is
nation and never has yielded her
claim to nationality. Give her SELF
government, and her own Parliament
will deal with conscription. Refuse it,
impose conscription on her, and?
Poor Ireland! God save her! Cannot
the mass of Englishmen see. how she
will take the conscription of her young
priests and her young men? Have
we not wars enough, but we must Gre
ate another? Truly; with sad times
and low vitality man may be excused
for letting his memory dwell on the
lyrics in which the old Greek told of
the sorrows of age, and be tempted to
say with him
Not to be born is, past all prizing,
BEST"