The Irish standard., 1919-11-01
address of PRESIDENT De Valera

men: Before I thank you for this
resolution, which will be appreciated
by the people of ireland as much, If
not more, because here you certainly
are taking care that you would not
do things by halves-will be appre-
ciated with the other parchments, the
other resolutions, which it has been
my good fortune to get in number of
other cities. Before thanked you for
that, thought, as I had heard, that
there were not very many Irish in this
city-whether there was here some
thing which did not happen to me any
where else, an audience in which there
was not quite number who still un.
derstood the Irish language. If had
found here an audience that did not
understand the Irish language, I would
have to confess that it was the first
place in America where I found it to
be the case. l have been generally
greeted in our own tongue, the tongue
of the Gael, and speak in it at the
beginning of the meetings for a GER
tain purpose, not merely to give mes
| sage to those who understand it, and
p, for them it is message-a message
of goodwill and cheer, to tell them
that the English have failed to kill her
language exactly as they have failed
to kill her nationality; (applause) to
tell them that the most distinctive
characteristic of nationhood is still
preserved by the Irish nation, despite
of all the efforts of England aimed
against it; but also to tell the people
who might be listening to me-to indi-
cate at once to them the fact that we
have to proclaim wherever we go that
we are distinct and separate nation,
and know of no way of putting into
your minds at once that fact so good
as to speak to you in language which
is not the English language.
Now, Mr.. Boland has told you what
our fight is, and, in the main, what
our purpose here is. We are dis
tinct nation, and, being nation, we
hold that we are entitled to our liber-
ty. We desire that which every ma
| tion that possesses self-consciousness
must, by it's very nature, by the very
nature of man, desire-we desire to
be free, we desire that land which is
ours to be ours, that home which is
! ours be our home, to be left to us, and
! that it be not held by an alien power
that has no right to it. (Applause).
! The difficulty with us, in speaking
before an audience in America, is
this-that those who are listening
range from those who scarcely know
where Ireland is-mind, that is not
| strange; there are number of lands
you have heard about in Europe being
created as Independent nations now,
that many Of us, even those of us who
have some education, did not, scarcely,
know existed. We must, therefore, of
the Irish blood, know that that small
island lying as the outpost of Europe,
|
not of our blood what it means to us,
| that they do not realize that in that
island there is the home of a race,
which is one of the greatest races that
the earth has known, race that has
| given of it's best to civilization, that
at one time. saved Europe, that spread
it's culture abroad when the barbarians
were destroying the culture Of the Ro-
man Empire. That island means a
lot to us. We know that it is a ma
tion with immense possibilities, ma
! tion that once was great, and that
could be great again if the invader
were removed from it. But we know
that others, particularly the people of
America who have been in the habit of
studying this country of the United
States and see Ireland mere speck
compared with it, that they think it is
small, insignificant isle. AS a mat
ter of fact, our island home is bigger
than many Of the Independent nations
of Europe. It is much bigger than
Holland; much bigger than Belgium;
much bigger than Denmark; much big.
ger than Switzerland; as big as
Greece, even today with it's additions; /;
as big as Bulgaria, and bigger than
these were before the 1912 and 1913
Balkan War. Therefore we have diff
ficulty to overcome that those to whom
we are speaking do not realize what
our fight is and do not realize why it
is that what they think a small nation
should want its independence.
Now, on the other hand, we are
speaking to those to whom these are
ordinary commonplaces, and we have
to try to strike the mean and in strik-
ing the mean we often miss both;
beside the difficulty is that which
pointed out today, namely, that our
! cause is so simple that no proof can
I be given of it. 1t is a case which is
either at once accented or at once