The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-10-25
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT De MLtRA
Continued from page IL

n page IL
facts; we believed that Ireland under
such misrepresentation might gradual
| ~ be led away from their national
faith. No fight could be continued if
the British empire was broken up;
| Ireland would be free. They are a
! separate people, nation as apart as
any on earth, and which has given
as much to the world and civilization
as any other nation. If Ireland want
ed to become a part of the British
empire, she might have done that long
| ago without the loss of oceans of
blood We feel therefore it was nee
| essary to put up fight in order to
preserve that existence for the Irish
people, for their nationality. The men
who went out to fight, did not go out
under any false ideas, that they were
going to annihilate the British en-
pire; they went out with the ideal of
protesting in blood before the world,
to show that Ireland was alive, her
liberty, her nationality, her independ-
ence; that there were Irishmen ready
to die and to offer up their lives as a
sacrifice for it.
A Real Nation.
There is no nation perhaps in the
world that is so clearly a nation as
our nation; nation that could have
its sons to do what these men did
must necessarily be a nation. And
there is one thing, anyhow, England
can never say as the result of recent
actions show, she can never say we
cared so little for our liberty, as she
said after the Boer war, we would
That was the sheer OF an English
statesman, that Ireland didn't take adj
vantage of the Boer war. England
can't point the finger of scorn at us,
and tell US we are not ready to fight
for it.
Don't think for a moment that it
was small handful or only a small
body that went out to fight in Dublin.
And every old man and woman would
have gone out to fight if they had had
arms. There is not a man or woman
that would not be willing to fight
under the circumstances. (Great
cheers.
Alien Propaganda.
1t has been part of the British prop
uganda to misrepresent us and our
movement as being handful of fana-
tics, handful of revolutionists. True,
those really fighting behind the bara-
2ades were comparatively handful,
but they represented what the people
Of Ireland wanted. And when we got
out of prison, the immediate object
We set ourselves to was to prove to
the people OF the world that the ideals
in Easter week, who laid down their
ives for Ireland, were the ideals that
,ound place in the heart of every Irish
nan and every Irish woman. We had
10 connection with politics; we were
simply the leaders for the Irish pso-
pie; recognizing the Irish nation as
)ur masters, we went out as employees
)r deputies of the Irish people. They
nay have considered it failure. We
.elt what we were going to attain by
that was what the Irish people want
ed, and we went to the Irish people
md asked them to tell to the world
whether these men that just died had
represented their ideals or aspira-
ions, or whether they did not. In this
election before the Irish people, we
said, ''These men have declared an
Irish republic. Their right to do is
questioned. We stand for republic
Tell by your votes whether you want
an Irish republic or whether you want
whether you want to have an indie
pendent Ireland or be a part of the
British empire" And so we put it to
the vote of the whole people of Ire
land in general election, which
meant that every adult man and
woman had a vote. 1t was put before
The people with the result that no
less than three to one of the peoples
representatives were chosen on the
principle of self-determination; on the
principle that the will Of the people
Of Ireland as expressed by their vote
and the power that that will was to
determine what their government
should be. Only rs members out of a
total of 105 warn a1actnd IN tho Mo
form of union with England; 70 for
the principle of self-determination
which means that those who were
elected on that principle bound them
selves to obey the will of the ma.
Jority of the people. Now, of the 70
there were 73 unequivocally elected
not for the wide principle of self-de
termination, but for the principle that
when they were elected, they would
repudiate the British parliament
Irish representatives had long hoped
that they would ratify the republic es
tablished in 1915 by the men who went
out and faced the British military, and
who sealed their declaration of indie
pendence with their blood, sealed the
establishment of the republic with
their blood-that they by their votes
would ratify that republic and set ur
d government that could claim to be
OF the people, by the people, and DOS