Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home RuleBuckley, Robert John
History
Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home Rule
Buckley, Robert John
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Irish question
"Returning to my own affairs, I say without hesitation that though the
mere threat of the bill has paralysed my business, and that the
passing of the bill would drive my men to England, yet--throw out the
bill, deliver us from the impending dread, and during the next two
years I shall myself expend L150,000 in railway material manufactured
by British artisans. Emphatically I repeat that Home Rule to the
British working man means increased competition and direct pecuniary
loss."
Mr. S. McGregor, of 30, Anglesea Street, Dublin, has been located in
the city for 34 years, and seems to have been a politician from the
first. Coming from the Land o' Cakes, he landed an advanced Radical,
and a devoted admirer of the Grand Auld Mon. Once on the spot a change
came o'er the spirit of his dream. His shop has the very unusual
feature of indicating his political views. Her Gracious Majesty, Lord
Beaconsfield, and Mr. Balfour look down upon you from neat frames. I
am disposed to regard Mr. McGregor as the pluckiest man in Ireland. A
quiet, peaceful citizen he is, one who remembers the Sawbath, and on
weekdays concentrates his faculties on his occupation as a tailor and
clothier. I did not seek the interview, which arose from a business
call not altogether unconnected with a missing button, but his
opinions and his information are well worth recording. Mr. McGregor
said, "I thrust my opinions on none, but I have a right to my
opinions, and I do not affect concealment. The great defect of the
Irish Unionists is want of courage. They dare not for their lives come
forward and boldly state their convictions. If Lord Emly or some other
Irish Roman Catholic nobleman had come forward earlier, it might have
induced weak-kneed members of the party to do likewise. The Unionists
do not exercise the great influence they undoubtedly possess. They
allow themselves to be terrorised into silence. Let them have the
courage of their opinions and they have nothing to fear. The masses of
the industrial population are not in favour of Home Rule. The
corner-men, who want to spend what they never earned, and the farmers,
who hope to get the land for nothing, are the only hearty Home Rulers
in Ireland. I employ ten people, all Roman Catholics, some of them
with me for twenty-five years. None of these are Home Rulers. I became
a convert to Conservatism by my intimate knowledge and personal
acquaintance with many of the leaders of the Fenian movement. I saw
through the hollowness of the whole thing, and declined any connection
therewith. Poor Henry Rowles, who was to be told off by signal to
shoot Mr. Foster, was one of my workmen. He died in prison, some said
from sheer fright, but two or three of his friends were hanged. He was
mixed up by marriage with the Fenian party, and was drawn on and on
like many another. I would rather not name the Fenian leaders I knew,
and the reason is this. I knew them too well. Speaking of the Unionist
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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