Evening star., 1922-02-05
DUBLIN CASTLE FALL
IAN EVENT IN HISTORY
Rejoicing Both in England and Ireland
Over Collapse of the Irish
=, Bastile.".
BY DIR. PETER GUILDAY.
Professor Of History in the Catholic
UnlveFsity Of America.

BY DIR. PETER GUILDAY.
Professor of History in the Catholic
UnlveFsity Of America.
w Y HAT will be the national
NM holiday OF Ireland? viii
it be January z, when the
peace treaty with England
was signed; will it be Easter Sunday.
in memory Of Padraic Pearse. who led
young Ireland to deathless renown
that day, or will the Irish choose
January II, the anniversary Of the
fall of the Irish bastile. when the
most hated thing in Ireland. Dublin
Castle, was handed to Michael Collins
the provisional head Of the new Irish
government?
Perhaps it is too soon to decide
which of the events that have crowd
ed Erin's history the past few years
will be consecrated as Ireland's ma
tional Fourth Of July. Certainly, the
fall of the castle rule was the proud
est moment in the lives OF these
young Irishmen who have successful-
ly coped with Europe's Oldest and
shrewdest diplomatic leaders.
For almost seven hundred years
Dublin Castle remained the symbol OF
the English conquest of Ireland.
Small, ugly and unpretentious as the
castle was, it stood in the heart OF
Dublin, in the very center of rebel
lious Ireland, like grim reminder OF
the disaster that has overtaken every
rebel who dared affront its authority.
Everybody hated Dublin Castle. NO
English government but regarded II
as a dreadful legacy from the past; Nc
Englishman sent over to rule ireland
from within it's walls but loathed the
impossible task his party had asked
him to assume. No lrishman ever
lived who did not regard the castie as
the incarnation of all that was aphol-
rent and tyrannical. .,x
At any time during the past hall-
dozen centuries the English govern
ment might have won Ireland's hearI
by raziAg the castle to the grounu
and by obliterating every trace OF its
existence. But SO long as tne Ar.sn
bastile was allowed to stand IN Lne
heart Of Dublin the sight of that
tower with its sinister-looking barred
windows was sufficient to move Ine
Jrishman's heart to fury. was II not
within those gruesOme walis tae
Wolfe Tone died? Was 1t mot from tnose
merciless gates that Robert Enl!ie.
walked to his doom? Was it not with
in ;ts courtvard that the terrible pun
ishmcnt which followed Easter week
took place:
!. y !; =
If Ireland's past history can be told
in her ruins, if the round towers OF
Ireland speak to US of those ancient
peoples whose life carries US back
to prehistoric times. if the old moat
at Tara's Hill takes US up the steep
heights of Erin's history to the days
of Patrick, then around the Snug
and squatty building known as Dub
lin Castle all the wrongs, fancled
and real, of Irish men and women
can be gathered. For the castle was
tower of English strength, and
stood for years four-square to all the
winds of bitter hatred that have
blown upon it since time immemorial.
It was there they flung Daniel
O'Connell, in 1S43. Parnell was i'm
prisoned there in 1881. De Valera
was jailed there in 1915.
No name has been too vie IN the
past to hurl at this ancient fortress.
1t is only yesterday that one of Eng
lands foremost writer's trenchantly
attacked the mad dogs of Dublin
Castle" This is a strong phrase.
but one that sums up the popular
feeling in London and in Dublin. The
castle was the still. small voice of
a thousand machine guns in waiting"
But, in spite of all this, Dublin Castle
remained. During the last two years
of rebellion 1t was evident that the
only way to put an end to the wave
of assassinations in Ireland and the
reprisals and the cold-blooded mur-
ders by both Irish and English SOL
diers was to put an end to Dublin
Castle. Its spirit was the spirit of
evil in the land. 1t was of the castle
government that John Mitchell. whose
pen was dipped in the bitterest Irish
ink, said: You may call this abomi-
nation a pyramid balancing itself
on its apeX-one happy kick on
any side would turn it upside down.
Forever blest be the toe Of that boot
which delivers the glorious kick"'
= * *
Dublin Castle eswas at one and the
same time the palace of Irish viceroy
or lord lieutenant Of Ireland. the
central house of national adminis-
tration and chief Office building of
the Irish government. The castle
ruled Ireland. Under the viceroy