New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-29
From, a s,ecio, Co,res,on6cn.

DUbLIN, aug. ll.--For the best part
of week in August every year ireland
forgets to be political and becomes
merely human. During the Dublin
Horse Show week the Ireland Of the
Valera and Carson fades into the
background, and its place is taken by
the Ireland of Somerville and Ross.
The tumults OF politics. the clash of
rival jurisdictions, outrages in the
South, reprisals in the North, escapes
of British generals, wanderings of
Catholic archcishops- these are
elbowed out of discussion in the press
and in private conversation by the
event which is to all factions in Ire
land what the Olympic games were to
the warning states of ancient Greece.
For the horse show is the supreme oc-
casion of Irish hunting and racing. and
the hunting field and the racing course
IN Ireland are additionally sacred
ground where all feuds must be laid
aside.
There has been nothing more elo-
quent OF the political cleavage in Irish
life than the fact that during last
season there Was some interference
with hunting as q protest against tho
treatment OF political prisoners. But
there has been no regular breach of the
truce of sport and no indication that
The times in Ireland are revolutionary
married the harmony of this years
horse show.
Niceregal Party Missing
Here, during the last two days, one
might see the country gentleman and
the sporting farmer, the squirecn and
the horse dealer. and hunting parsons
OF all denominations, gathered together
in representative Irish crowd in
which the accents OF all the four prov
lnces We're mUsically blended
British officers Of the army of oc-
cupation and Irish rebels rubbed shout
ders. careless for the moment Of each
more important rivalry of horsehesh
Unionist and Sim Feiner transcribed
their own differences in amicable argu-
ment on the points Of hunters.
Only one reminder there was that
Ireland is concerned about other things
besides horse breeuing--thc absence OF
the usual Niceregal party. The Lord
Lieutenant and his satellites are pris-
oners in Dublin Castle and in the lodges
in PheniX Park, which an armed
camp guards, and not even in horse
show week may they venture abroad
Again the relatively small attend
minder that. despite the Importance of
a large factor in Irish agriculture; the
fine weather which smiled upon the
show kept al home many middle class
farmers who dare not waste any spell
OF sunshine after a disastrously wet
summer. But there were visitors
aplenty from England, from the CONT
nent and from America and it is esti-
mated that the attendance at least
cqualed that of last Year, when there
we're 80 Zoo at the show.
There must be a considerable number
OF people whose knowledge Of Ireland
is entirely limited TO what they have
seen and heard during visits to Dublin
in the horse show week.
Champagne and picture hats are not
perhaps in all respects the best
medium through which 10 gain q clear
perspective OF the Irish situation. The
horse show discloses Dublin, whose
industrial conditions generally are not
prosperous, in an aspect not typical
Of the normal civic life. Nor is the
show itself in a sense q really typical
national event. While it is al event
OF n2tlOnal. and even international, sig
nsficanco in the sense that it adver-
tiscs tic irish production Of hunters
and thcroughbr eds unsurpassed in the
world, horse breeding is not in itself
large factor in the agriculture by
which the bulk Of the Irish people
live. Again, the Irish attendance at
the show is largely drawn from those
interested in this specialized industry.
and from what is convortionallv called
the society" element in Irish life,
rather than from inc community gen.
orally. 1t IS not re@lly es typical IS