"Grievance"--that is the way the British sum up our sense of wrong, and
with such effect that people the world over fancy our wrongs are not
wrongs but imagined grievances. The word itself counts against us in the
eyes of those who have never been to Ireland and seen for themselves the
conditions under which the great majority of the population must live.
To be sure, there are always complaints carried to Parliament and then a
"commission of inquiry," followed a little later by a "report upon
conditions." But the actual results seem small. It was disgust for this
sort of carrying out complaints in a basket and bringing back reports in
the very same basket that roused Arthur Griffith to write his pamphlet
on Hungary and her rebuilding from _within_. He felt that the Irish,
too, must set about saving themselves without political help from
parliamentarians. He even went so far as to say that, since Irishmen who
went to Parliament seemed so soon to forget their country except as it
served their political advancement, we ought not to send men to
Parliament. Ireland, he declared, should concentrate upon the economic
and industrial life possible to her--a life that could be developed
wonderfully if men set out to win Ireland for the Irish. This propaganda
of Griffith's--for it soon became such--stirred all the young men and
women who before had been hopeless. "Ireland for the Irish!" The
movement quickly became what is called the "Sinn Fein," which is Gaelic
for "Ourselves Alone."
That this organization should be considered in America as a sort of
"Black Hand," or anarchistic society, is evidence of the impression it
made upon the English as a powerful factor to be reckoned with. It had
come into being overnight, but its principles were as old as Ireland. It
sprang from a love of Ireland and not, as many believe, from hatred of
England. It could not have thrived as it did wherever it touched a young
heart and brain if it had merely been a protest. It had a national ideal
and goal. Every day was dedicated to it. To speak the Irish language; to
wear Irish-made clothes of Irish tweed; to think and feel, write,
paint, or work for the best interests of Ireland; to make every act,
personal or communal, count for the betterment of Ireland--all this was
animated by love of our country. The Sinn Fein was constantly inspired
by poems and essays which appeared in Arthur Griffith's weekly magazine.
That poetry to-day is known throughout civilization as the poetry of the
"Celtic Revival."
There was a gospel of "passive resistance," too, which led Irishmen to
refuse to pay taxes or take any part in the Anglicizing of Ireland. It
was this phase that soon won the disapproval of the party that stood for
parliamentary activity, and naturally it aroused dissatisfaction in
England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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