The Sacred Egoism of Sinn FéinBoyd, Ernest Augustus
History
The Sacred Egoism of Sinn Féin
Boyd, Ernest Augustus
Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1910-1921; Sinn Fein
Unfortunately, the future does not present itself to the Irish mind in any
such simplified terms, and some Irishmen, too, offer the will for the deed
of participation, but their reception is the most unfavourable. They are
accused of supporting a war in which they refuse to fight. There is to be
no reciprocity in this exchange. The pro-Ally Irishman is to give his life
at once, but no instalment is forthcoming of the common ideal he has been
invited to achieve. The democratic millenium to which the Milners,
Curzons, and Carsons are leading, under the special patronage of Lord
Northcliffe, is apparently so certain, that only the rudeness of parochial
and provincial minds could prompt a demand for the commonplace
realizations of here and now. So it comes, as the war progresses, that
the number of Ireland's grievances is increased simultaneously with the
demands upon her honour, her credulity and her patience. Consequently, as
is the way of human nature, her egoism is exasperated, and becomes more
firmly concentrated upon her own welfare. Precisely at that moment of
exasperation an appeal is made for the voluntary surrender of that which
was witheld even under threat of force. Since it is only the tactless Hun
who is lacking in psychological subtlety, this strange phenomenon must be
otherwise explicable.
The truth is that our sacred egoism, strong and exacerbated as it is, has
not yet touched the sublime heights of British selfishness and
self-complacency. England refuses absolutely to be convinced, by the
painful and reiterated facts of our history, that this country is not
merely a turbulent province! Therefore, it ought to be possible to break
our resistance, or to cajole us, as was done in England when the various
Military Service Acts were passed. The men of the country were split up
into antagonistic groups; the married against the single, the middle-aged
against the young, trade against trade. Each wanted to escape at the cost
of the other. In Ireland, of course, no such division can be created, for
the simple reason that we have never refused to fight for our own
country. Our detestation of pacifists equals even that of the English
gutter-press, and our incredible indifference to personal, as distinct
from national, convictions makes Ireland a paradise for militarists. But
they must be militarists of our own creation. Sinn Fein fosters the
development of native industries, and supports home products, often with
an embarrassing disregard for the consequences. The Irish anti-militarist
is, therefore, rarely a pacifist, and his objections are of a very
different order from those which are surmounted or crushed by the
advocates of military service in Great Britain. But it does not seem as if
this elementary fact will be recognized, for to recognize it would be for
England to admit that Ireland is a nation. To the denial and obscuration
of that enduring truth centuries of English policy have gone, and in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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