Republican farmer., 1919-12-19
DR, ALEX IRVINE
 ANALYzES THE
 MIND OF ULSTER
Former New Havener Tells of Mental Transformation on Leaving This Province of Ireland.

That the mind of the people of Ulster is vastly different from that of the other three provinces of Ire land is explained in an article quoted from the Northern Echo, a great organ of public opinion in the north of England. from the pen = Dr. Alexander Irvine. Dr. Irvine is well known in New Haven. Some years ago he was a minister in Fair Haven, East. and afterwards went 10 New York, where he Was engaged in uplift work. He is al author of some repute.
 Dr. Irvine's article, which Is largely autobiographicaI. tells of his ! birth and early life in the north l Irish province; how zeal for Eng land is a devouring element in tha | Ulster soul, and how he did not become an intelligent thinking hI- ! man being until he got out of it and 1 saw what was being thought anI ] done in the rest of the world. The i following extracts from the articie ] tell vtvidly of his mental SransfOr- i matiOn:
 i hopeless poverty" he writes, ''bu- l t never occurred to me- (until he 1 was g years of age and left Ul- 1 ster, that there might be even re- ! mOtely any connection between i poverty and politics. Wealth and ! poverty, to me, were the arrange ments of God, and were never l questioned.
 l T can think of no greater para l dox in my rather paradoXicaI i career than the fact that with | scarcely enough clothing on me 10 1 dust a violin, I was shouting for 1 Queen and Constitution. Living on 1 the edge of pauperism all my- i youth, my supreme earthly concern ! was the Protestant succession or l the throne of England, something | apparently of no concern to the 1 youth of England, but of first and ! primary importance to the youth Of !! Ulster.
 'stupidly ignorant of history. I 1 was acquainted with one date, one l fact. The year 1890 was the most 1 sacred of all dates, and the 18th
 of July the most holy of all holy
 days. On that date the world was 1 saved from Popery. was sure of 1 that had the Ulster mind
 l Tn common with my kind, I was possessed with an implacabIe hatred
 of the Roman Catholic religion I l feared, as l feared nothing else, its 1 spread or progress. My dearest was a tdIhCHC boy, but | l could never fully trust him. He 1 probably felt the same about me. l Distrust between the sects was quite | the normal thing.
 When the Ulster mind leaves | Ulster something similar happens to 1 it.
 Whatever of art, or poetry, or
 literature is produced in Ireland 1 enanates from DubIin-Belfast pro-
 duces business, and business only. l The Celtic Irish mind cannot live
 on spindles. The Ulster mind an
 parently can.
 ''The former lives on the past, the
 latter is eternally. projecting itself
 into the future. One is a HeIot 1 mind, the other is the mind of q i rebel. As utterly dis!nterested
 spectator, look upon the Irish question as a problem in psychoI- i ogy - problem Of the human mind
 If Ulster was political province l in the ordinary sense Of the word, l the solution would be easy.
 Ulster is a state of mind, and l political action hardly touches the 1 situation. The democratic ideal l overspreading the world in the 20th 1 century Is unknown-or nearly un- l known - in Ulster. Not until it
 reaches Belfast is there much hops for Ireland.''