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But this was a risk they had to shoulder, as have all who are not prepared to subscribe to the dogma of Passive Obedience without limit. They accepted it as the less of two evils. But there was something humorous in the pretence put forward in 1916 and afterwards that the violence to which the adherents of Sinn Fein had recourse was merely copying Ulster.
Then the sales-manager, that driving but festive soul, Mr. Charles Salmond, whom everybody called "Chas." pronounced "Chaaz" a good soul who was a little tiresome because he was so consistently an anthology of New York. He believed in Broadway, the Follies, good clothes, a motor-car, Palm Beach, and the value of the Salvation Army among the lower classes. When Mr. Fein fought for real beauty in their suburban developments it was Chas. who echoed all of New York by rebelling, "We aren't in business for our health this idealistic game is O.
But it was the rebellion of Easter Week which crystallised and fused all these various thoughts and ideals into one direct channel of action and made Sinn Fein the mightiest national force that has perhaps arisen in Ireland since first the English set foot upon our shores for purposes of conquest.
Henry perceived that the correspondent of the Morning Post was actuated, in the matter of Bolshevists, Germans, trade-unions, and gold, rather by a deliberate and considered pre-judgment than by the hasty and makeshift impressions of the moment, or, anyhow, that the two had in his mind concurred. He asked after Macdermott. "Oh, Macdermott found Sinn Fein plots all over the place.
In the upper back room, earnest young secretaries worked in swift silence. One of them, a curly-haired girl with her mouth o-ed about a cigarette, puffed unceasingly. At last Harry Boland, secretary of Sinn Fein, entered. "The council decides tonight," he admitted. His eyes were bright and faraway like one whose mind is on a coming crisis.
It is futile to ask Sinn Fein to lay down arms and to abjure their opinions as a preliminary condition to negotiations. I doubt whether the Sinn Fein leaders could impose such a condition upon their followers, even if they were so inclined which they are not and never will be. Let there, then, to start with, be no preliminary tying of hands. The initiative must come from the Government.
There is a strong feeling in Ireland that the Prime Minister's recent peace "explorations" are not honestly meant that they are intended to rouse the "sane and moderate" elements in opposition to Sinn Fein. Whilst this feeling exists no real headway can be made by those who seek a genuine peace along rational and reasoned lines.
To be one and the other, this principle must also be applied in the same sense and under the same conditions to the peoples of Ireland, India, Egypt, and to such other people as have not yet secured the exercise of the inherent right.... Irish labor claims no more and no less for Ireland than for the others." After the republic, a workers' republic? After Sinn Fein, the Labor party?
I do not know whether Sir Edward Carson's presence in the Attorney-General's office, or his absence from the Opposition benches in debates, was worth ten thousand men; but that is a small measure of what was lost in Ireland by his inclusion. The formation of the Coalition Government marks the first stage in the history of Redmond's defeat and the victory of Sir Edward Carson and Sinn Féin.
Once given leadership, and confidence, fidelity, and sincerity follow among the rank and file as naturally as water flows from a spring being the common factor of humanity and this seems to have been the case in the Sinn Fein rebellion of 1916. On the whole they had no reason to be ashamed of their leaders, though they might have questioned their wisdom.
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