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..EDITED ·8Y EOIN MAC NEILL. · : ,, ·. Vol. 2.
No. 18.
(New Series.)
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1915.
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Price One Penny .
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--L_N_oT_·E_s.......___I :rho~e
who_ stand faithful to the cause of · Lrish· Da.tional.ity, .as d etl.ned ·by tl10~e wbo are the. fathers of our nationnl faith, the patriots of _our . great past, may sometimes feel as if the)· were fighting an isolated fight. They see agai1Jst. them in. serried alliance the ralli ed forces_ of _ Imperia !ism, Whiggery , the old \Vest -Britonism and the new, every selfish and sord id . vested jnterest, ·the money-grubl!e rs, the tuft-h unter$ , tb ~ place-bunters, and what galls them m o~ t of all,. man y true bel1 e1·ers in Irish na.tionality who are not n,llowed to bear and see the truth, or who have thei.r eyes blinded and th e i~·- ea r~ deafened l>y deft] y chosen and co~1tinually raised watchword s of faction. The en tire . daily Press and alrr.1ost all the weekly J;'ress of Ireland is roped into the campaign again~.t lris!J nationalism. For a tim: many hoi)ed ancl others feared _that this combination of"for\.·es wo:uld prove irres istible. But the true men..ai1d the true women of .Ireland were not chunted a. moment, their resolution · and their: confidence remained unshaken. And now it is cl ear to all _that. there can be no triumph over them. Every clay that_ passes brings the Jay of their vindication and their ,·ictory, with the help o~ God, nearer and nea rer . .
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·. 'l'he ·defenders '. of the cit::tdd of Iri sh nationality .have .both staunclmess and r_esour-oi,o t:nough to hold . that fortress · with.out - ~cioki11g for ·:relie{ .or symiJathy to any outside quarter. SirU:i.t is-.well to kno\i-. that the stand they are making" is watched and appreciated by many ,d}o ·are not . in the ranks of . their· b.e?iegers. Whatever niay l>e · pretended .to the Go.ntr.a_ry, the Irish in America are practical! y as ·o·ne man for the.. 8ause · sustained in Ireland by the Irish Volunteers. WeJ1ave often seen the"hope held out that the . ·est::tblishment .of_, lrish selfgovernmen~ .would make way ,for -better rebtions betwee1J th~' United States and England. W e m;y guess, the~, wh,; t the effec·t l1as b~e11; ~vl1en it bel'.:ame known \n "America_ Lhai. eYen the n1odf~u~1 of · seif-go;·~ rnment · to which · the
Asq uith ministry stood pledged bad hee n withdrawn by the A~quith ministry .
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There is ca use lo believe too tbat" the lr ish in · Australia and other countries are not altogether in the t:la-rk about the_true aspect of affairs in Ireland , however carefull y the truth has been economised. And it is not am.o ng Irish people only, or people of Irish descent and loyalty to Irish nationality, that the light has spread and is spreading. The neighbouring island contains some people who, even in a sup1°eme crisis of their own, remain true to th e ideals of nationality and li berty. 1 have before me now the last issued number of T !te Scottislt Review, a quarterly edited by tbe H on. R. Erskine. I strongly recommend this review to Irish readers and Irish libraries. Its editor takes hi s stand by genuine . Scottish nationality, in contradistinction to the sordid and sp iritless time-serving that· would hare Scotland content to be not even a subject and dependent nation but a mere province of Britain, with just enough d istinctive traits to provide turns of amusement for London rnusich alls.
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In his opening article, the editor of. the Scottislt Review writes on "The Liberty of the Press ." It would _be a fai_r question in h istory for . our schoolboys to ask, " \\Tha1: was _the Lil;Jerty of the P ress, and when did it exist?" In common with many _B ritish journali sts of all part ies, the Scottish Review deals openly and severely with the conduct of t~e existing Press Censorship. When Irishmen abandon liberty, liberty aba ndo1~s . them, and the utmost extent of protest that the Irish Press bas offered a.ga!nst the -cerisorship has been shyly to quote 'something.. sa id m so.me London fla:per. Thoroughgoing Tory peers in the H ouse of Lords . have ·con:demnecl · the . unconstitutional a1:icl ·arbitrary" powers created by the-" Defence o_f the Realm Act," but the Irish Pre~s tacitly a~quie.sces in the use of - those powers ·by Dublin ·castle, not for · ·the "de_fence ·of the realm," , but for the defence ·· :o{ a: British political p.arL;- that ha ..; f.-.res\\·01·i, it·s pl0J ge,; to the Irish eleCtorate.
" Our second head/' says · the · Scottislt R e:view, "relates to a more serious matter....:... the suppressio;1 of ·cert~n Irish journals by: the Eng iish Govern~1ent. · We understand that it was to please Mr. J ohn Redmond and ·bis friend s that . this act · arbitrary .rule . wa s suffered to ·be consummated. But whateYer was the immediate cause thereof, no tnie loYer of liberty can do more than unfeignedly to regret and · i.mcompromisingly to condemn ·· it. · .T he necessity or the excuse · for this high-h'<l.ncle d action is stated· to have been 1)rovicled by; t>hc possession, on the part of the authorities; ' {)j information to tlte effect tltat t!tese· jouttials were being subsidised by Germany. The -real reason, however, of their arbitrary suppression .would appear to be that the propaganda. in which they were engaged (and had long beeu employed) \\'as obnoxious to .Mr. Redmond and inimical to the interests of his bonclservants, the English Liberals."
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"At a ll events," con tinues the edi tor > '" it is obvious that in a free cotmfry, ·whose Cons titution (such as it is) !fas be'e n ii ublicly neither abrogated nor suspended, it is- an abus<: of power to suppress a journal without_showing cause why that usurpation should caiTy. ; ·. : Obviously, if certain' .currents of poirt'ichl thought, together with the organs tbey support in the Press , do not choose to accept prevait"ing political conceits, they have, in a fr ee country, a perfect right to reject them; ·and no· p retended rio·bt deri ved · from . an alle.gecl b . ' ..... ' national ' necessity of support111g an authority ·which is obnoxious to ·those currents, T he should be allow eel to b · exereised. p rinci1:rles on wh ich the national propaganda in Scotland arid Ireland rests itre as old as the hills_::a " gr~at deal oicler ·at all e\'ents · thai1 are the corresponding tenets in England-'-and -this circumstance, if not the fa ct <Jf their harmlessness (for of this they are constitu ted . if the offici~I estimate is tc> 'be .accepted); should ha,·e preser.~ed ·them: fioni : tl1e· insults ai1d the ·outrages 1diich th~ GO\'~rnment no"w in-po,ver has subjected them . · So far; Scotland has escaped l'rom any ·of these arbit riiry and rnt:dcllesom'-' proceedi:ngs ;·- but; ll'ith .so·' gre at . a muster ' of
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