The Irish standard., 1919-11-01

the men who fought and died for an
Irish Republic in '9S, were the Presby-
terians of the north of Ireland. CAP
plause and cheers.) will also point
out that three hundred years before
there were any Protestants in the
world, Irishmen were fighting the bat
tie of Irish liberty against the British
invader. (Applause and cheers.)
We in Ireland honor the republican
fathers of our country. In every home
in Ireland the names of Tone Fitzger-
aid and Emmet are honored. In every
home wherever 1rishmen are all over
the world the names of the patriot
dead, the Protestant patriot dead of
Ireland, are honored and revered.
(Applause.)
In the proclamation of our Republic
of 1916 we declared civil and religious
equality for all our citizens. Gap
plauseD And we in Ireland are proud
of the men. who, in every generation,
from the time the Republic was pro-
claimed by Tone Fitzgerald and his
companions, the men who have fol-
lowed in the footsteps of those repub-
licans. We know that McCracken and
his men who fought in Antrim for the
Irish Republic were all of Presbyterian
stock. We know that in Dawn Patrick
Jail four Presbyterian ministers were
hanged for fighting for the Irish Re-
public. And it should be unnecessary
in the twentieth century, in this age,
that we, the representatives of peo-
pie, should have to answer such OBJ
vious lies that we are intolerant of our
Protestant fellow countrymen. We
have in our party and in our Parlia-
ment Protestant representatives, and
the Unionists have in their party in
the English Parliament Catholic rep
resentatives. 1t is not a religious
question, and it is not an Irish ques-
ton. There is only one question in
Ireland-and that is the English ques-
ton. (Applause and cheers.) We are
satisfied that with England's interfer-
ing hand removed, the people of Ire
land can settle down and settle their
own minority questions, as every 9TH
er nation has done.
Another point | would like to deal
with. 1t is said that during the war
we were slackers, that we have stab
bed the Allies in the back. In Ireland,
at the outbreak of the war, when Eng
land placed the cry of freedom to small
nations on our banner, we knew that
England was not in earnest, we knew
that the nation, the empire, who said
she was about to enter war for the
freedom of small nationalities, had at
her own door a small nation who had
battled for centuries against her rule;
and we asked them to give an earnest
ness of the truth that she was fighting
the battle of small nationalities by
setting free the oldest nation in Eu-
rope-Ireland. We had men who an
swered the call of liberty in Belgium.
Two thousand Irishmen volunteered
to fight for liberty in Flanders. They
fought believing that in this battle
they were fighting for the liberty of
Ireland. Over 100000 are dead, and
their very bones are being used by
England as an argument against Irish
freedom. The Irishmen, in the words
of Lord Kitchener, have done splen-
didly, and the London Daily Telegraph,
during the period when it was a ques-
tion of voluntary enlistment, stated
that England was not fit to tie the
latches of Ireland's shoes. We could
not fight as Ireland because we held
that only the people of Ireland could
declare war for Ireland. We had no
government to declare war for us. We
refused as nation to fight, we re-
fused to fight as slaves of England.
(Applause.)
l stood on a platform at Mohill,
County Leitrim, with our President
when he asked England that if this
were war for small nationalities and
if they wanted troops, let them release
their grip on Ireland and they could
Immediately release the 250,000 British
soldiers who we're in Ireland keeping
the Irish people in subsection. CAP
plause.) And that when that were
accomplished, the Irish would see that
no foreign foe landed on our shores,
and that they would do as they have
ever done, fight where liberty and duty
called them. (Great ApplauseD
Ireland gave in proportion to her
people, by voluntary enlistment, in
what they considered the cause of
liberty-she gave 100000 men, and the
men of Irish birth who Joined up in
England numbered something like half
million. Now, there were other men
in Ireland who believed that the bat
! tie for Irish liberty could best be
fought on the soil of Ireland-men in
-