The Irish standard., 1919-11-01
Speeches Delivered
At the De Valera
Meeting in this City
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country is held bq $50 thousand armed
soldiers. Our island is surrounded
with England's warships. We have in
Ireland the British-appointed censor, to
whom all the news of the papers must
be submitted before they can be print
ed. We find it necessary everywhere
we go not only to preach the right
of Ireland to liberty, but we find we
have to take time to answer the lies
that are published against us. Since
our arrival in America we have had
tremendous meetings. and it has be-
come necessary at these meetings to
answer the charges leveled against US
by British propaganda. We believe
that as nation separate and dis
tinct, as a distinctive people, we are
entitled to liberty. (Applause and
cheers, and voice: Eve will get
it.'o We have never accepted the
connection with England. We have
battled bravely against it. And we
are determined to battle on until our
Ireland enjoys that freedom to which
she is entitled. (Applause and
cheers.)
will point out that in the general
election of 1918, we of the Sim Fein
organization appealed to the people
of Ireland on the program of an Irish
Republic. We asked the people in
Ireland by their votes to endorse the
action of the men who proclaimed the
Irish Republic in arms in Easter week.
We asked the people of Ireland to de-
clare for an Irish Republic, to deny
the right of England or any other for
eign power to rule us, promising them
that if elected we would not attend
the English PARLIAMENT, that we
would not swear an oath of allegiance
to England's king and constitution;
that we owed allegiance to one land
and one alone, and that land was our
own land-Ireland. tremendous ap-
plause and cheers.)
The election was the most extra
ordinary election that ever has been
held. We were there in country in
which England had poured in any
where from $50 thousand to 200 thou
sand troops, with 103 leaders of the
Irish people lying in English prisons,
without charge or trial; 100 men TAX
en- from the different constituencies
in Ireland and interned in English
jails, the reason being that they in
their own locality were the leaders Of
the movement for the Irish Republic.
We had opposed to us men who be-
lieved in the right of Ireland to full
self-determination, men who had rep
resented the country in an English
Parliament, and who in their day had,
according to their lights, done good
service to the Irish people. On the
other hand, we had opposed to us all
the vested interests and all the Loyal
lists and Tories of Ireland. We fought
the election with British airplanes fly
ing overhead, dropping down leaflets
on the people, advising them not to
vote republican, with our post-ottices
filled with literature from the public
purse, to be used against us, with all
the economic treasure that a power
full empire could bring to bear on the
people to intimidate them against vot-
ing for the men who are holding up
the banner Of the Republic. We had,
in turn, four directors of election ap-
appointed they we're arrested and cast
into prison; and in spite of all the
power of the empire weighed against
up, we returned, after the election,
with 73 representatives on the repub-
lican side out of a full representation
of 105. (Applause.)
At the time of the election we nom-
mated men whom the British govern
ment had arrested and imprisoned,
and when the result of the elections
was declared we found that 81 of the
men elected to the Irish congress were
lying in English prisons.
We met in Dublin to honor our
pledges to the Irish people, and we re-
affirmed our independence. We are
here now seeking international recog-
milton of the expressed will of the
Irish people, and we are sure that
America will honor the principle of
self.determination and will apply it to
Ireland as it has been applied to all
other nations in Europe. We today
are the only white people in the world
who are condemned to live under a
form of government alien to the ma
jority of the people of Ireland, and we
feel that it is only necessary to point
this out to the American people and
that they will see that justice, simple
justice, is done to Ireland. GA voice:
."Sure we will!")
One of the charges leveled against