Vol. 2. ·No. 30
(New Series).
SATURDAY, JULY 3, 19J5.
.SIN1STER PO-.GROM ·PLOT AT )MONSTER ME·ETING IN COUNTY
~EXPOSED T_YROfiE~
,UNirfY VERSUS G-RAVEYARD -UNIFOR-MIT.Y. VOLUNTEERING THE ONLY POLICY IN FACE OF DANGER! What was probably the largest gathering in County Tyrone since O'Connell's Monster Meetings was addressed on Tuesday, 29th inst., · l>y l'rofessor Eo.in }l[ac:Neill and Mr. A. Newman, at Cappagh near Pomeroy. Volunteers from Tyrone, and indeed from all parts of Ireland were present. Arrangements were made that those companies po sessbg tents should bring them. Hospitality, as far as accommodation was available, was provided. But those intending to come were warned through the medium of the Press that they must be prepared to " rough it," and bring their own provisions. This warning pro1·ed by no meai1s unnecessa.ry . Besides the Volunteers, the countr yside was coYered with a Yast assernbly which gaYe the impression that tbe whole county bad concentrateJ its population into one spot.
driving force which nothing could resist. These men saw eYery move of .the ene1ny before it was made. They had exposed every trick of the Garrison before it took place. The l ris!t Volunte er was a paper you could read to finJ out what was going to happen. Let the Volunteers of Ireland drill, arm, and perfect themselves, confident that their leaders would be intellectually equal to the sharpest .minds in the enemy's camp; and that when the pen was laid down, those who had wielded it so well 11·ould also wield the sword with honour·. (LouJ and sustained applause.)
EOIN MAC ~ ElLL Eoin Mac Neill, who was U).'Jable lo speak for a considerable time owing lo the storm of cheering which greeted him as he rose, said that he thanked the men of Tyrone, a count y wfiich he loved, for coming on .that evening in THE CHAllZMA.\'. such--vast numbers to prove that they meanl Mr. Joseph Camp:bell occupieJ the chair, business, and that they would stand no more ( A!pplause.) There was a word anJ said it was an honour to stand upon a nonsense. platform . with a man whose name would go which one freq uently heard - in Ireland- that down to history as the founder of the Irish was the word Unity. When people spoke of Volunteers, and who had held the Volunteers unity they neaTly always meant uniformity. to_gether, and con ·istently armed them and No possible advantage could come from rigid maintained the genuine traditions of an Irish uniformity, except perhaps in a graveyard .· It Army in the face of Jifficulties whose magni- might be very . pleasing for a leader of men tude could not be estimated . The leaders of to have a whole nation dragooned into a rigid the Volunteers, with Eoin Ivlac Neill at their and uniform mass, to follow him wherever he head, had met all the forces of the Garrison, chose to lead them. That was the ambition of the darts of the felon-setter, a united and hos- any autocrat. It was very bad for a people ; Lile Press, the powers of t;nmity within and it might lead to the most terrible consequences. without, and they stood to-day victorious, a It meant that the instinct of the Irish people great body of men, properly armed, excellently· was to be se t aside, that they-were to have no drilled, and with qne object before them- the will of their own. It meant this-that if <J. man with his ambition of uniformity realised ~al vation of the Irish .\" ation. England faced in the men who led the Volunteers to-day a chose to 'become Imperialist, to wave the Union new type of Irishman. They faced not J ack, to disrupt the Volunteer movement, to mere enthusiasts, but scholars and men of a rm his followers with ammunitionless weaacute intellect. Eoin Mac Neill was a i;ions, while the Orangemen were armed to the man whose name was uttered with respect in teeth with the finest .modern rifles and millions every University in the world. His resea rches of rounds of ammunition, and if he chose to in Irish and Celtic history had placed him start off on a sharp curve which sensible people among the four or five greatest living authori- knew was the road to national damnation, that ties on the subject. Mr. Newman they knew the whole people of Ireland were to follow him and loved as a t earless worker for Ireland ; rigid and protestless. Real unity was a fine but be also represented the new type of Na- and noble thing. Felon-setting and terrorism 1.io11ali:;t which England had lo face . People never produced it. It came to a nation from the hand of Almighty God. H was the force said Lh at the will was unlimited in its power ; but if you added intellect to 1rill you got a \rhich held a people together as a nation al
Price one Penny. entity. .\"ationality was a mystery; it ·was a h~ly _ t hing; it 1rns a thing with which no rna11 might t trifle with in:1rnnity. I ts loss Lrough t. upon men greater e n ls than could be im-agint'•I. Th<lt was why D-aYi~ 11·as right when he Jecl~red that he >1:ould rather haYe a people tru ly Insh and s._tarvrng ·than hare them the .veopk of no man·s land, the fattened slaves of a corrupt master. LoYe and fidelity to Ireland repaid a man tenfold . Let them no longer confuse unity and u;1iformity. There was unity in !~eland to-day. 1 hey were alert and awake. They had ·Leen cheated for the thousandth time ; the l\ at ional instinct was asserting iself. When every ma n in Ireland felt the spirit of S ationality withi n bim he would lie truly a man; and when be was truly a ma,n he would remain no lunger outside the ranks of the Volunteers. There were many who were too old; there were, at present, many who could not openly iden tify tbernsell·es with the Irish Volunteers. These men asked him- -What can ire do? Tb:: answer. was : You can contribute the s<1me amoun t to the funds o.f the Volunteers as all\· ordinary volunteer. It was difficult enough fo'.r a free people to arm itself. The fi1w11ci ~ii stra'.n of oroviding weapons and keeping a big staff ait work at H eadquarters was tremendous e.ven in the case of a free peo1)le. Let them th.ink of what it was in the case of the Jri sh Volunteers. Let them think of the fina 11 cial problems. which Headquarter:; had to fact:, when the Defonce of the Realm Act tri pped them at every step , when it was a crime to buy a rifle. But he was there to tell them that in spite of eve ry difficulty, the supply of arms and ammunition was greater than- the demand . H e recommended unarmed county companies to start an arms fund at once, get the men to contribute a hilling a week, get up entertainments and raise the money, and theu let them come to H eadquarters, and they would not go ~1 way empty -handed. If he told them how rn<Jll) ' rifles and automatic pistols had >been got into the country since the split, they would call him - -well, an ·-untruthful person ! (Laughter a111 I sustained applause.) The Irish Vo!unteern meant business ; and they meant busineso i11 this case more than ever for two reasons . Th:: first reason was 'because it bad been recc:ntl ,. disclosed that the real secret of the Horne Rul~ disaster was out at las t. Peop le wondered wliy Mr. Redmond had allowed the In surance At·t to precede Home Rule when he had the GoYernment in bi s power. The truth was that Mr. Redmond h~td never had the Government under control, as it had .been cl early int,imated to hin t that if he a~teinpt~cl to throw out the Go,·e mment for delaying the passage of H ome Ru le, t_he Opposition would vote with the Li~rals. That threat was \!Ver before Mr. Redmond , and he was in no way to blame for the H ome
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