Six days of the Irish Republic: A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish PoliticsRedmond-Howard, L. G., (Louis George)
History
Six days of the Irish Republic: A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics
Redmond-Howard, L. G., (Louis George)
Ireland -- History -- Easter Rising, 1916
All this, I say, jumps to the eyes of anyone perusing the literature
that produced the rising.
It is beside the point whether such argumentation be true or false,
patriotic or seditious. The only point, as far as we are concerned in
this quasi-medical diagnosis of diseased mentality, is whether or not
these thoughts were present in the psychology of the combatants, and I
maintain that the evidence is undeniable.
The attitude of "conscientious objectors" to militarism in England is
England's own affair. Yet I cannot, in my own mind, separate the
personality of Sir John Simon from that of John Hampden. No doubt
ship-money was necessary, and it was the patriotic thing to give it up,
and no doubt the same applies to men for the Army: but when it came to
the principle of the King taking money without the consent of
Parliament, John Hampden thought it his duty to the traditions of his
country to resist, just as Sir John Simon thought it his duty to the
traditions of the British conscience to passively protest--but that
again, I say, is a matter for Englishmen.
The attitude of the Irish conscientious objector, however, has always
been of a more militant form, and this began to assert itself among the
labour leaders in Ireland through the medium of the more outspoken of
the English labour leaders. Whereas in England the masses of workers are
naturally loyal, in Ireland loyalty is a sustained effort against the
grain of tradition. Hence, while in England the right to rebel fell on
unsympathetic soil, in Ireland it merely relit the smouldering embers of
past grievances into flame.
For there had been a growing epidemic of the phrase "Shoot them,"
applied almost indiscriminately, like a quack panacea, by political
orators to every opponent on every conceivable subject since the war,
and this was producing the most evil results.
Two quotations may suffice from the work by J. Bruce Glasier on
"Militarism," which was freely circulated in Dublin by means of Liberty
Hall, to illustrate the strength of the feeling on this subject:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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