A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient GrudgeWister, Owen
History
A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient Grudge
Wister, Owen
Great Britain -- Relations -- United States; United States -- Relations -- Great Britain
Americans are being told in these days that they owe a debt of support
to Irish independence, because the “Irish” fought with us in our own
struggle for Independence. Yes, the Irish did, and we do owe them a debt
of support. But it was the Orange Irish who fought in our Revolution,
not the Green Irish. Therefore in paying the debt to the Green Irish and
clamoring for “Irish” independence, we are double crossing the Orange
Irish.
“It is a curious fact that in the Revolutionary War the Germans and
Catholic Irish should have furnished the bulk of the auxiliaries to the
regular English soldiers;... The fiercest and most ardent Americans
of all, however, were the Presbyterian Irish settlers and their
descendants.” History of New York, p. 133, by Theodore Roosevelt.
Next, in what manner have the Green Irish incurred our thanks?
They made the ancient and honorable association of Tammany their own.
Once it was American. Now Tammany is Green Irish. I do not believe that
I need pause to tell you much about Tammany. It defeated Mitchel, a
loyal but honest Catholic, and the best Mayor of Near York in thirty
years. It is a despotism built on corruption and fear.
During our Civil War, it was the Green Irish that resisted the draft in
New York. They would not fight. You have heard of the draft riots in New
York in 1862. They would not fight for the Confederacy either.
During the following decade, in Pennsylvania, an association, called
the Molly Maguires, terrorized the coal regions until their reign of
assassination was brought to an end by the detection, conviction, and
execution of their ringleaders. These were Green Irish.
In Cork and Queenstown during the recent war, our American sailors were
assaulted and stoned by the Green Irish, because they had come to help
fight Germany. These assaults, and the retaliations to which they led,
became so serious that no naval men under the rank of Commander were
permitted to go to Cork. Leading citizens of Cork came to beg that this
order be rescinded. But, upon being cross-examined, it was found that
the Green Irish who had made the trouble had never been punished. Of
this many of us had news before Admiral Sims in The World’s Work for
November, pages 63-64, gave it his authoritative confirmation.
Taking one consideration with another, it hardly seems to me that our
debt to the Green Irish is sufficiently heavy for us to hinder England
for the sake of helping them and Germany.
Not all the Green Irish were guilty of the attacks upon our sailors; not
all by any means were pro-German; and I know personally of loyal Roman
Catholics who are wholly on England’s side, and are wholly opposed to
Sinn Fein. Many such are here, many in Ireland: them I do not mean. It
is Sinn Fein that I mean.
In 1918, when England with her back to the wall was fighting Germany,
the Green Irish killed the draft. Here following, I give some specific
instances of what the Roman Catholic priests said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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