The New York herald., 1922-12-10
Caused Downfall
Of Parnell and
4 Stood Alone In
Parlia ment AS
Champion Of the
Cause of Ireland.
BY SEUMAS MacMANUS.

BY SEUMAS MacMANUS.
N the day on which Gov.-Gen.
4 Tim Healy was first seen rid
ing down O'Connell street I
know well, without having
seen it, that the face of Parnell on
his statue at the head of that street
took on a stonier stare than the
sculptor gave 1t. Dubliners will not be
astonished even If, after enduring a
couple of months OF the reign of Tim
the First. the upper lip of the statue
should develop a noticeable curl. One
does not need to guess-for it Is GER
tain-that the melancholious John
Dillon, on reading in his Freeman's
Journal of the choosing of Tim to rule
over him, drew the shades on his win
dows. nailed them down with TEN
penny, nails, locked his front door and
threw away the key. And Wee joe
Dcvlin will now never more come
nearer to Ireland than Belfast-where
we can in fancy see him ascend the
great brewery chimney stack at the
head Of Falls road and gaze SORROW
fully toward the Promised (but
snatched away Land, where now
reigns king who knows not Joseph
who, in fact, would spit on Joseph IL
he met him In desert.
few years ago one OF those queer
turns Of the wheel of Fate suddenly
relegated to the political morgue John
the Melancholy, Wee Joe" and the
half dozen other little Kaisers who.
believing that they owned ireland
body and soul, had already planned to
divide the rule and the revenue among
themselves and their 10000 aunts and
thirty-second cousins-and had with
particular satisfaction arranged to in
stall Ireland's black beast, Tim Healy.
in specially constructed steel cage
on OConnell Bridge, to drag out the
remainder of his miserable days on a
diet of bread and water, supplemented
by the peanuts presented to him by
passing Children terrible warning
to the world against the flinging of
monkey wrenches into political ma
chimes. BY a second fantastic turn
the same wheel lifted Tim out Of the
obscurity into which he had long
since retired and elevated him to rule
the land which was to have been his
prison.
When the Young Timothy Healy
Dazzled ireland, Terrified England
Yet the present Governor Of the
land, late Ishmaelte wandering in the
desert. began his political career as
ono Of the most favored and most
promising Of the Chosen. AS a young
man in the original band of Parnell's
Home Rulers, the brainy. brilliant and
witty Tim, whose tongue was a silver
rasp and pen a surgeons scalpel. cleo
trified his fellow members, dazzled
Ireland and terrified England. Par
nell saw in the scintillating young
politician his most brilliant satellite;
ireland saw in him future leader,
and the English saw in him one Of the
most dangerous Irish bulls that the
devil ever turned loose In their Par
liamentary china shop. And. starting
out with two of the greatest advan-
tages that young Irishman could
then possess. namely, the worship of
the Irish race and the hatred of the
English, Tim Healy, after successfully
smashing all the traditions Of the
British Parliament and becoming the
fashionable bogie man wherewith
British matrons frightened their
babies, fought every leader who tried
to lead him, chased away every fol-
lower who tried to follow him. re-
solved himself into guerrilla army
generallssimo, officers, privates, all
rolled In one-and eventually couple
OF decades ago entirely disappeared
from the field--or the stage--as your
favor or prejudice may dictate.
At time when Tim was trying to
drive the Irish Parliamentary army
in a direction opposite to that in
which its leaders wanted to lead 1t,
and that things were consequently 60.
ing badly for the cause, Tins name-
sake and fellow wit, Father Healy of
Bray. being asked by an American
visitor who was speculating upon the
personnel Of a future Irish Cabinet:
"What will Mr.. Timothy Healy be
when Ireland gets home ruler" re-
piled: "Troth, I'm thinking he'll be a
very ould man." If he had replied:
Hell be Governor General Of an Irish
Free State" the joke would have cre-
ated even more uproarious laughter.
Fantastic fact has again outstripped
prosy imagination.
Tim Healy was one of the seven or
eight original picturesque obstruction
lists who introduced into the British
House OF Commons an entirely new
era, and a new weapon that paralyzed
its proceedings. 1t Is In dispute as to
whether IL was Parnell himself, or his
friend the brutally blunt Belfast pork
man, Joe Hggar, who invented tho
obstruction policy: but undoubtedly
Biggar was the prince Of obstruction
lists. with Tim Healy running him
close for the laurels. For two and a
half centuries, since Cromwel1s day.
the British people have not been
treated TO such shocked thrills as a
little handful Of Parnellites gave them
when. forty years ago, these wild
Irishmeu began making a mat OF the
sacred traditions OF the House. and
with this mat insolently wiping the
bog from off their Irish brogans. Hear
William O'Brien's description Of the
first littH shock Tim gave the House
a faint precursor OF real shocks that
were to follow quick and fast. "A
quarter of an hour after he took his
seat as member for Wexford he
started up to make his maiden speech
tiny of frame. sardonic of visage.