R. C. ESCOUFLAIRE
IRELAND---AN ENEMY
OF THE ALLIES?
Footnotes
1. The Adventures of Harry Richmond, chapter xxviii. Return to text
2. Casement's "mission" was mentioned in German newspapers I found in Belgium as early as August 25th, 1914. Return to text
3. These letters are still preserved in the Black Book of the Exchequer. Return to text
4. Before then any Protestant had the right to remove the horse of the first Irishman whom he met, by paying him £5. There has been a lot of exaggeration on this subject; we must not forget that even in England in Charles II's time a saddle horse was not worth more than £2 10s, (see Macaulay, King, Davenant, etc.).. Return to text
5. The Chauffeurs of the Revolutionary period in France were highwaymen who specialized in roasting the feet of their victims to find out where money was hidden in the house. Return to text
6. La Démagogie Irlandaise, 1906-1909. Return to text
7. House of Commons, February 23rd, 1909. Return to text
8. House of Commons, March 30th, 1908. Return to text
9. House of Commons, March 30th, 1908. Return to text
10. House of Commons, March 30th, 1908. Return to text
11. Speech to his constituents in Fife, October 21st, 1911. Return to text
12. It is not surprising that magistrates of high rank should appear in such a list; these American judges are chosen like our mayors and councillors in districts where the Irish voter rules the roost. Return to text
13. Speech to the University of Dublin, April, 1912. Return to text
14. House of Commons, February 11th, 1898. Return to text
15. Mr. Joynson-Hicks, House of Commons, June 11th, 1912. Return to text
16. The Soul of Ulster, by Lord Ernest Hamilton, pp. 107-39 passim. Return to text
17. Speech at Carlisle, June, 1912. Return to text
18. Speech at Barnsley, May, 1912. Return to text
19. The Life of Spencer Compton, eighth Duke of Devonshire, by Bernard Holland, C.B., vol. ii., p. 250. Return to text
20. Speech by Mr. Bonar Law, September 15th, 1914. Return to text
21. House of Commons, September 15th, 1914. Return to text
22. House of Commons, September 15th, 1914. Return to text
23. House of Commons, November 25th, 1914. Return to text
24. Ibid. Return to text
25. The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens, pp. 87, 88. Return to text
26. 403 votes against 105, of which 60 were Nationalists. Return to text
27. Before the war the regular army and the navy contained 26,000 Irishmen serving and 30,000 in the reserve. Return to text
28. House of Commons, January 6th, 1916. Return to text
29. 20,000 rifles captured in Russia. Return to text
30. She afterwards returned to Liverpool, and assisted in another agitation because the English authorities would not allow her to return to Ireland. Return to text
31. Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland (Mr. Birrell), May 19th, 1916, p. 25. Return to text
32. Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland (Major Ivor H. Price), May 25th, 1916, p. 57. Return to text
33. House of Commons, July 24th, 1916. Return to text
34. Kilkenny, October 14th, 1916. Return to text
35. House of Commons, March 7th, 1917. Return to text
36. De Valera is of South American origin. In all countries one often finds foreign protagonists or men of mixed descent et the head of nationalist movements. Return to text
37. House of Commons, October 24th, 1917. Return to text
38. This same correspondent, during the interminable exchange of Notes between Washington and our Allies on the subject of the right of blockades, of search, etc., was always putting us on our guard, with very remarkable prejudice, against the arguments of our diplomacy and invariably advised us to give in to the American point of view. Return to text
39. Report of the Convention, p. 33. Return to text
40. Report of the Convention, p. 38. Return to text
41. In Ireland these were increased by 50 per cent. in May, 1918, while in England this was done two years before. Return to text
42. July 15th, 1916. Return to text
43. The Times, March 15th, 1918, "Through German Eyes." Return to text
44. Official statement by Lord Curzon in the name of the Government, House of Lords, June 20th, 1918. Here are some quotations in defense of his statement published in his letter to The Times and Morning Post of June 27th, 1918:
"On Sunday, April 21st, 1918, at a meeting after Mass at Castletownbere, held to protest against conscription, the Rev. Charles Brennan, C.C., said they should resist it, that they should all approach the sacraments and be ready to die in their resistance, and that dying in their resistance they would die with the full blessing of God and the Church upon them. If they (the police) enforced it the people should kill them the same as they would kill any man who would attempt to take away from them their lives, and that the police had no right to their lives if they came to arrest any Irishman under the Conscription Act. . . . If the soldiers did attempt to enforce conscription they should be treated in the same way as the police. When the police and military would die in enforcing the Act---as die they would should they attempt to enforce it---they would die enemies of God, whilst the people would die at peace with God and under His blessing and that of the Church.
"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. Father Lynch, addressing the congregation in Ryehill Roman Catholic Church, said 'Do ye resist conscription by every means in your power; any minion of the English Government who shoots one of you, especially if he is a Roman Catholic, is guilty of mortal sin, and God will cry to Heaven for vengeance.'
"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. Father Murphy, C.C., addressing the congregation in Kilgarvan Roman Catholic Chapel, said that any Irishman who assisted the Government to enforce conscription in Ireland, as well as being a traitor to his country, is morally committing a sin against the law of God.
"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. James McInerney, at Mass.. Scarriff, said: 'No Roman Catholic Irishman, no matter what position he held, could assist in the enforcement of conscription in this country without being a renegade to his faith.'
"On April 21st, 1918, the Rev. Father Donnelly Murrough said: 'Those who were the means of enforcing it were guilty of a mortal sin because they had no legal right to put such an Act in force against the wishes of the Irish people!
"On April 28th, 1918, Father O'Callaghan after Mass, Killyclogher, said: 'If any conscription is enforced, any policeman who assists in any way in enforcing it is guilty of murder and can never get absolution.'
"On April 28th, 1918, Father Murphy, at Divine Service at Killenena Roman Catholic Church, said: 'On last Sunday I asked the police to throw off their jackets from a moral point of view as they were Nationalists and Irishmen with the same Irish blood through their veins, but to-day I ask them from a spiritual point of view to do so, because all Irishmen are asked by the Irish Hierarchy not to do anything to facilitate conscription, and that if any policeman went out to force Irishmen to join the English army and was shot when doing so, he would be damned in hell, even though he may be in the state of grace that morning.'
"The Rev. Gerald Dennehy, C.C., of Eyries, County Cork, told about three hundred men who received the sacrament in his chapel that any Catholic policeman or agent of the Government who assisted in putting conscription in force would be excommunicated and cursed by the Roman Catholic Church; the curse of God would follow them in every land; and he asked his hearers to kill them at sight; they would be blessed by God, and this would be the most acceptable sacrifice that could be offered."
Is it surprising that The Times asked if that was indeed the mission of the Catholic clergy? Return to text
45. House of Commons, June 25th, 1918. Return to text
46. Pitt, chapter xi. Return
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