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- g .~THE "..
EDITED
BY
EOIN MAC NEILL..
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Vol. 2.
No.19.
(New Series.)
L_N_oT_ . E_s_.----=I \Ve have passed through an extraordina.ry yc.;u of l ris h histo_ry . Littl e more than a year ago, we saw · J\'1r. R ed mond, through the me dium of Mr. Richard Hazle ton, utterly and absolutely condemning and scoffing at the notion of an Irish Voluntee r organisation. Cn last Easter Sunday, we find Mr. R edmond, supported · by Mr. Hazleton, officiating as president of an Trish Vol unteer organisation and. rev iewing some 20 , 000 Volunteers in military array. On Easter J\fonday , Mr. R edmond add resses a Voluntee r c01wention, and he exµla ins hi s po ition by tell ing them that it wa. necessary to pbce the· Volunteers unde r the guidance of tried and experienced men, and not to trust the men who called them into existence and laboured hard to org~111ise them throughout the country , "howe,·er worthy those men might be in e\·e ry o the r res pect.
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The ordinary man can hardly help th inking the question : ·where would the Vo lunteer organisation be and where ,~;ould the prospect of H orne Rul e be by this time, if e ver ything had been left to th€ guidance of the tried and experienced men? All life is expe rience, and experie nce rnries g"reatly . An experienced ~ailor is not al ways a good farmer, anJ an experienced farmer may not be an expe rt mariner. Even Mr;. R eclmond·s experience, large as it is, has not made him infall ible. Certain men", by their experie nce of their f ellow-_countrymen, which · not less tba1i Mr. R edmonrfs, can1e : to the conclusio n that Ireland was ripe and ready for .the Volunteer n:1ove,rnent. Mr. R edmond now ad mits that these men kne w best. H e says the V olunteer mo\·ement is a move m.eut of the Irish peop le's own. But it took the accomplished fact, after some months, to enable this truth to maste r Mr. R edmond's experience, though the truth was fully realised and anticipated by the men whom Mr. R e<lmon<l would set aside as untried :ind inexperien<.X:•I.·
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, SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1915.
Mr . Redmond's present a ttitude amounts to a complete admiss ion th~lt his experience and his judgment left him completely at fault about the Volunteer movement until othe r meri hail JHo,·ed the 1·alue of the Volunteers. It is no w admitted no t merely that the Volunteers, arc a valuable factor, but that the Horne Rule situat ion would be utterly hopeless without them. Seldom have untried and inexperienced men been able by a year and a half of \YOIK to achieve such a success in public affai rs as wa. tes tified to by Mr. R edmond and the Irish Party 111 Dublin on Easte r Sunda~··
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[t \rould ha,·e been better if en lighte nment had arrived before the surrender of March, 1914, on the q uestion of exclusion. Coming afte r that catastrop he, the desire to be identified with the Volunteer movement and to dominate it bas the appe arance of selfprotect ion .
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·F rom · Mr. Diflon·::; recent utterances, we . gather that he · desires the urrende r to l.:e revoked. There is every right to revoke it, for tbe surrender was offered as the price of agreement and was refused . . But the Prime Ministe r a nd the Liberal lea de r in the House of Lords, six months after optional temporary exclusio11 was put forward as tbe. p ri ce of agreement and rejected, announcecl unqualified and u11restrictcd exclusion as a part of tbe Mini ster.ial programme. The Gm·ernment has - given its assent to the policy of partition. Mr. Dillon repudiates that pol icy. Tbe Vol unteers repudiate it . Mr. R edmond is si lent as yet 0 11 the point, and until be also rep ud iates partition in the cleares t" words, no ·matter what votes of confidence may be voted, Mr. R edmond ha: not the confidence of any section of the I ri sh people, excep t possibly the hand of Whi g Imperial ists who ba.ve recently been flocking to
Price One Penny.
Some haif dozen members of the National Comm ittee were p ublicly p ledged to giv~ p lace to ·an elected committee. ~ ecess ity, like the fm pcrial re gime in Ire la nd , knows no law.
~ Trl:'~t''.J, t;Jfo'.:. B;J\i\ili£~ W~~tf!i.¢..1
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aq,_;'"·'.< frust °iibei:a L-Go.,~r..ttme+:t ty4f.~t·ht;·W·~"-0ffice, ··trus ~ anybody except the Irish people! Mr. Redmond has ·. spoke11 repeatedly about some "offer " made by him to the ·war Office ? What is the offer? We know from the i1e\\"spapers that within the last f e\1" weeks ~ir. Re<linon<l has been se,·e ral" times closetted with ~fr . Asquith, and from his Manchester. speech we know that he has been in intimate coi1'im.u1iication with the War Office. Is Mr. Redmond's Committee a ware of the terms of his offer? It is not for want of t ria ls and ext'Jeriences that I . ask the question. However far Mr.' Redmond may trust the Briti sh Democrac)i,' his way of working in Ireland is any thing otit democratic : H e has not consulted his suppo_rters Geforeh:incl on the subject of a sing le one of his departures since 19 14 began . As .fo r National. Comention , they are a thing of the pas t. ·i s any fresh departure in contemplation? ·X·
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As [ wish well to the N;atio11al Volunteers, and desire to sec them do their part. for tbc liberation of Ireland, I warn them against any plan to dep ri,·e the~ of National cont rol. Tbat would be the crowning mistake of a se ries of mi stakes, and would leave Ire land .at the mercy of hostile force , probably under a lJ nionist-Liberal coalition .CV I know on the best • • possible , evidence _ that in milit;i[_y circles _the proposa 1 to " ta.ke owr " the >;,a tion.a,l Vol uu-, teers is free!y disc ussed.
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I know it is rumoured that the Govern n,1ent'·s intention is to "take over " both the National . Vol unteers and the :U lster Vol unteersc;-yes, his standard . ·X· the Partitionist Government.. Think what that *, I note that unde r the ne\\' .constitution proc means. The P artitioni sts could then ,count 0 1.l pounded . for the N a tlonal Volu11teers, their being in a position to aboUsh . a ll . Voluntee rs governing body" is to consist in nearly equal who will not consent .to be take!) O\·er·. Already . t•art.s o f :rn clc t-<•d :rnd a nornin:\tcd clenwnt: .. lh<'y h:t,.<' lw<'n exper.ime.n ting ho.w f:i r .t.hey cai1