There, in Davitt's words, you have the central belief of Sinn Fein:
reliance on the moral solidarity and economic power of a Nation. Even a
small determined minority, if prepared to suffer, can effect enormous
reforms. The English Suffragettes have won the franchise for women. It was
certainly not by physical force--even the militant suffragettes did not
rebel, though they burnt houses, broke statues, and harried politicians. A
handful of determined women made government extremely difficult and thus
they won the vote =in spite of Parliament=. If such is the power of a
minority, how irresistible would be an entire nation. Secure even only one
million determined adherents of Sinn Fein, and in six months English
government will be at an end. That is our belief, and it is based on solid
facts of history--Hungarian Independence, English suffrage struggle, Irish
victory over conscription. There are limits to the possibilities of brute
force. At this stage of the world it is impossible to slaughter a nation,
it is impossible to cope with a nation of passive resisters. What is to be
done with a million or so of people who refuse to pay taxes, who combine
to secure the products of their own country, who repudiate the authority
of the intruders? That is the problem which England does not want to face
in this country. The only way for Irishmen to secure a government based
on the consent of the governed is to withdraw all practical consent and
concurrence from the present usurpation. There is no other way. To go on
accepting the English government, co-operating with it as farmers,
workers, tax-payers, policemen, etc., and at the same time to keep whining
and petitioning--this is despicable folly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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