Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government
The name of the last movement to be referred to sums up all the others,
Sinn Fein. Unlike the others, it had a purely political origin, and for
that reason, probably, never made the same progress. Yet the explanation
is simple. In pursuance of the general purpose of inspiring Irishmen to
rely on themselves for their own salvation, economic and spiritual, Sinn
Feiners, like John Mitchel and others in the past, and like the
Hungarian patriots, attacked, with much point and satire, the whole
policy of constitutional and Parliamentary agitation for Home Rule. The
policy, they said, had failed for half a century; it was not only
negative and barren, but positively harmful. Nationalists should refuse
to send Members to Westminster and abide by the consequences. Sensibly
enough, most Irishmen, while recognizing that there was an element of
indisputable and valuable truth in this bold diagnosis, decided that it
was premature to adopt the prescription. Public opinion in Britain was
slowly changing, and confidence existed that this opinion would be
finally converted. If the Sinn Fein alternative meant anything at all,
it meant complete separation, which Ireland does not want, and a final
abandonment of constitutional methods. If another Home Rule Bill were to
fail, Sinn Fein would undoubtedly redouble its strength. Its ideas are
sane and sound. They are at bottom exactly the ideas which actuate every
progressive and spirited community, and which in Ireland animate the
Industrial Development Associations, the Co-operative movement, the
thirst for technical instruction, the Gaelic League, the literary
revival, and the work of the only truly Irish organ of government, the
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.
Now, where do we stand? Are the phenomena I have reviewed arguments for
Home Rule or against Home Rule? Do they tend to show that Ireland is
"fitter" now for Home Rule, or that she manages very well without Home
Rule? These are superfluous questions. They are never asked save of
countries obviously designed to govern themselves and obstinately denied
the right. Who would say now of Canada or Australia that they ought to
have solved their economic, agrarian, and religious problems and have
evolved an indigenous literature before they were declared fit for Home
Rule, or--still more unreasonable proposition--that their strenuous
efforts after self-help and internal harmony in the teeth of political
disabilities proved, in so far as they were successful, that external
government was a success?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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