“But they murdered women. Look at the women they shot, and by order, too. More than one woman. We shot no women. And look at their terrible Sinn Fein regiment, the Black-and-Tans.” “But, my dear, the Black-and-Tans were British Government police,” I gasped. It was no use. She smiled in a superior manner. “You think I don’t know,” she said, “but I’ve followed every line in the papers about the Irish question ever since you were over there. I was always so afraid you might have been shot in an ambush, and I should so hate not seeing it. I remember seeing in the paper--I cut out the paragraph to show you, but I lost it--that the majority of the Black-and-Tans were Irishmen.” “But a Government force.” “Nonsense. I’m sure you’re mistaken. I must look for the paragraph. More tea?” Years of Sinn Fein propaganda had accomplished no more than that. CHAPTER XXIX LOOKING BACK Out of the whirlpool of lies, misunderstandings, prevarications, distortions, inaccuracies and passions which go to the making up of history, can one secure some of the causes and effects connected with the Irish struggle since the Sinn Fein movement put aside pacific methods and became militant? Are there conclusions to be drawn? Three separate traditions seem to have been welded together for the purpose of uniting Ireland in a common cause. One tradition is the political tradition that Ireland possesses a national individuality, and must continue to struggle for the expression of that individuality until it is obtained. A second tradition is the Gaelic tradition, that Ireland must revive and cherish the Gaelic spirit, the Gaelic culture, the Gaelic language and literature. The third tradition is the tradition that internal affairs must be altered and improved. These three traditions came together in the Sinn Fein movement. The Irish Republic was to be an independent republic, it was to be as far as possible a Gaelic republic, and as a state it was to be an example to the world. Each generation of Irish leaders, to grind their patriotic axes, have insisted that Ireland is a conquered country, suffering the fate of the conquered. The statement is too sweeping. Ireland has been part of a united kingdom with a common legislation. She has suffered to a certain extent from the too centralised parliament at Westminster, where her local affairs have frequently been crowded out. She has been legislated for as an industrial country when she is in reality an agricultural country. She has suffered from absentee landlords, another effect of centralisation. She has suffered in other ways; but she has suffered most of all from herself, from her inability ever to become united, to hold an individual opinion, to cease being hag-ridden by religion, which has starved her educationally.