New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-04-06
Irish Cheer
Sneers at u. S.
Part i'm War
Warehousemcn's u nj o n
Head Calls Liberty Bonds
''Slavery Bonds,'' in Adj
dress in This City
Troops sCulled,' He Says
Declares People Waved
Flags aud We're 100
Per Cent Jackasses'

Several hundred Irish men and
women gathered in Bohemian National
Hall, 321 East Seventy-third Street.
last night wildly cheered utterances
sneering at and belittling America
course in the war, voiced by spokcs-
nan of the Irish American Labor
League, under whose auspices the
meeting was held.
Thomas +. Ryan. business agent of
the Warehousemen's Union and a d.
rector of the American Association for
the Recognition of the Irish Republic
received an enthusiastic reception and
a sizeable donation for the crusade to
enlist American labor IN boycott
against British goods.
"ln 1917" Ryan detained, you used
to hear them say: Don't bite the hand
that fed you America never fed me.
I have fed myself. I owe nothing to
America. No Irishman owes anything
to America, but America can never re-
pay the debt she owes to Ireland"
This sentiment evoked loud cheers.
ireland is not fighting England, -
Ryan went on. Ireland is fighting
America. The Liberty bonds-I should
say, the slavery bonds--you bought arc
keeping the Black and Tans in Ireland
When the plaudits brought forth by
this had died away Ryan declared the
Irish in America had "sent their boys
overseas to make the world safe for
the British EMPIRE adding that they
had been gulled into going out and
waving flags and being 100 per cent
jackasses."
This tickled the funnybonc of
Ryan's audience. whereupon he pro-
ceeded to fay them for not having re-
fused to fight when the United States
entered the war.
There was just one time when you
Irish in America could have freed Ire
land and crushed England" he said.
But you didn't have the CUTS to do it,
In 1917, when the United States de-
clared war against Germany, if the
Irish in this country had been worth a
damn they would have gone down to
Washington and told the Englshman
in the Presidential Chair that not an
lrishman. nor the son of an Irishman,
would don uniform and fight until
Ireland was liberated"
Ryan characterized Samuel Gompers
as "canting, crawling, hypocritical
wretch" and asserted that only by or
gaining for industrial war and com
bining with the workers of England
Scotland and Wales. as we'll rs Ire
land, could results be obtained. With
that program effected, he added, ''the
British Empire will be overthrown.'
"Direct action is our motto" he con.
tinued, land we're going to live up to
'ur motto
Ryan prefaced his appeal for funds
with this comment:
eff a priest came into this hall and
asked you to give him $40 apiece you {
do it, even though he refused to say
word for Ireland. But when you're
asked to give $40 for your kith and kir
in Ireland you'll walk out and spend il
in some gin mill for hootch."
They didn't, though. Collectors went
around the hall and received $40, SIS ant
So subscriptions galore.
The money, it was announced. woule
be used to defray the expenses of Egar
Clancy, brother of the slain Lore
Mayor Of Limerick, and Emmett 0 Reilly
now on tour of American port cite:
endeavoring to line up the workers fol
a boycott against English shipping.
John l.. Jones, an organizer for thu
British Labor party, was another speak
er. The chairman was Thomas J
O'Flaherty, editor of The Irish People
Jones predicted the overthrow of the
Lloyd George Ministry in two months