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The Irish rebellion of 1916 and its martyrs
The Irish rebellion of 1916 and its martyrs Author:Padraic Colum Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I POLITICAL ALIGNMENT IN IRELAND AT first sight Irish politics seem hopelessly incomprehensible to any one but an Irishman, but that is merely beca... more »use people persist in thinking that their main issue can be summed up as "for or against England." That issue may be found in the hearts of the people, but not on their political platforms to-day, except in the case of that brilliant and sincere minority who crowned their lives by their recent insurgence. There is no party "for England" in Ireland. There is a party for Ulster which has happened in the past to be identified with the English cause, but which showed recently that its loyalty to England would cease on the day when England passed legislation peculiarly obnoxious to it. Politically, Irishmen are divided into Unionists, Home Rulers and Separatists. The Unionists believe that the status established in 1800 when the Irish and British Parliaments were amalgamated by the Act of Union, should be maintained. The Home Rulers believe that Ireland should have a parliament of her own similar to those of Canada and Australia; they want to become citizens of the British Empire on terms acceptable to a self- respecting nation which is willing to recognise that her complete independence is impossible, even if it were preferable to a partnership in a far-flung empire. The Separatists believe in an independent Ireland for the reasons that King Albert believes in an independent Belgium or George Washington believed in an independent America. No nation, not even Ireland, can have a majority of heroic idealists, and, as a consequence, the Separatists are fewer in number than the Home Rulers. Unionists correspond to the Tories who opposed George Washington, Home Rulers think Ireland should be as independent of Westminster as T...« less