NATIONALIST HELP FOR ULSTER
"Resistance to the "Death" against Devlinism" STRIKING PROPOSAL HOW TO SETTLE HOME RULE By D. D. Sheehan, Nat. M.P.
Lead
[Mr Daniel D. Sheehan is M.P. for Mid-Cork. He has held his seat as a Nationalist since 1901, and is central honorary secretary of the All-for-Ireland League. Mr. Sheehan authorizes the “Express” to state that his proposals for a Home Rule settlement outlined below have the entire support of Mr. William O’’Brien, M.P.]
Referring , in a speech a few days ago at Batley, Yorkshire, to the Home Rule question, Mr. Birrell said the Government would not recede a single inch from their position, except in pursuance to a design which would accomplish their main object. They would meet with friendly compromise any reasonable or unreasonable proposal having that object in view.
This inclines me to deliver myself of some reflections on the situation from the point of view of an Irish Nationalist representative, who is not awed or dominated by the tyranny of the official caucus, and who is accordingly in the position to express his views independently and fearlessly. The door is not yet banged upon friendly negotiation, and it will not be well, in my opinion, for England, Ireland or that closer union of the Empire which some of the best minds in all parties intensely yearn, if the weeks are allowed to pass without something better than indefinite conversations between the leaders taking place. These only tend to cloud and confuse the issue and to lead to hopeless misunderstanding- for the reason that neither "conversationalist" is in a position to postulate anything with authority or to concede anything to reason.
CONFERENCE AND CONCENT. Only a duly delegated conference or convention – on the South Africa model if you will – could discuss and consider the various difficulties and complexities, which hedge the Irish question round, and hammer out a solution which would reconcile differences and appease the temper of the rebelliously inclined.
From some experience of my own in the south of England, I am absolutely convinced that if the moderate opinion of Englishmen, not of one party or the other,, but of every political belief – could assert itself, it would insist on a settlement of the Home Rule problem on lines of conference and consent. Let me briefly state what happened.
Lord Hythe – whose part in blazing “the trail of imperial evolution” as Earl Grey happily phrased it, is well known to your readers – recently inaugurated a campaign to promote a settlement of the constitutional controversy by the application of the federal principle to the United Kingdom.
INDEPENDENT ATTITUDE. At a dinner given by him to the mayor and corporation and some of the leading citizens of Hythe on January 13, he developed this view, and as a keenly observant and interested spectator, I was impressed at the intention given to his arguments. Then came my own turn to explain what I and the other Independent Nationalist associated with Mr. William O’Brien in the All-for-Ireland League conceive to be rational Irish standpoint.
We do not fatuously build our positions upon foundations of sand. We do not ignorantly declare with Redmond that there is no Ulster difficulty. We do not shortsightedly, with the Irish leaders, seek to irritate the susceptibilities of our fellow-countrymen in Ulster by telling them that all their warlike preparations are nothing but bluff and blackmail.
We take what we modestly contend is the more statesmanlike and soundly patriotic attitude. We say to the Protestants and Unionists in the northern Irish province: “Rightly or wrongly, you scent danger to your liberties in the present Home Rule bill. You are not satisfied with it – neither are we. You want to protect and secure yourselves against legislative and administrative aggression. We likewise seek to secure that the individual liberties of every Irishman – no matter what his creed or class – shall be safeguarded and assured.
EQUAL DETESTATION. “You hate and detest Molly Maguireism, but not with a more virile detestation or a more robust determination to make war upon its methods than we Independent Nationalists of the Catholic faith in the south, and if you want proof of our sincerity in this matter, well, we can refer you with pardonable pride to the fight we have made for the past ten years in Munster against the malignant influences of this secret sectarian association, a fight which we would have extended long before now to every other province and county in Ireland, only that the introduction of the Home Rule Bill stayed our hands.”