Fein prisoners had been far from wholesome. The Sinn Fein organization had never been broken up, but it had languished because its " brains " were in prison. The sickness was now cured, and it at once displayed an astonishing vitality, Mr. De Valera, crowned with the double glory of his share in the rebel- lion and his victory in Clare, becoming its recognized leader. While the Convention was continuing its more or less amicable discussions in the academic calm of Trinity College, Sinn Fein ora- tors were touring the country inspiring increasing crowds of igno- rant and excitable people with their own venom and their own views as to how Ireland was to find salvation. Their text, generally speaking, was the dictum of Parnell, uttered in 1883: " It is no use relying on the Government ; it is no use relying on the Irish members; it is no use relying on the House of Commons. You must rely on your own determination, and if you are determined, I tell you, you have the game in your hands." 1 Their programme remained the same; to capture the parliament- ary representation and the elected organs of local government; to boycott and supersede the royal courts and the officers of the law; to organize and arm a force capable of effective re- sistance to the forces of the Crown. The latter object was pursued with no attempt at disguise. On July 28 the Govern- ment issued a proclamation prohibiting the carrying of weapons, or of objects capable of being used as such, in public places. On the following day Mr. De Valera, after addressing an as- sembly of 10,000 people at Tullamore, reviewed 1,000 Irish Volunteers; and on the same day 100 men carrying hurleys 2 marched from Liberty Hall through Dublin to Terenure. On Aug. 5, the anniversary of Casement's execution, a vast con- course of people assembled at Tralee in county Kerry and went in procession to " Casement's fort." Sinn Fein tricolours were worn and waved, and it was noted that large numbers of Volun- teers appeared in uniform. 3 From county Clare the police reported that De Valera's advice to the people to ' 3 combme " to make English law impossible " had pro- duced a complete condition of lawlessness, the sup- porters of the Nationalist candidate at the recent election being boycotted together with the police; from Tipperary, that Sinn Fein had become violent and menacing, especi- ally in Thurles, and that the movement was being worked up in concerts, dances, club meetings, Gaelic athletic tournaments, lectures and public meetings; from Cork, that serious disturb- ances had broken out, including a cowardly attack on female munition workers. 4 A similar agitation, with similar results, was taking place in many other parts of Ireland. Already there were reports of attacks on police barracks, and in many places the drilling of Volunteers was being resumed. At the same time the Sinn Fein clubs, and in some cases the County Councils (e.g. Kerry, Aug. 26), were calling upon their National- ist members to resign. The result of all this was advertised by another victory of Sinn Fein at the polls, at Kilkenny (Aug. u). 6 It became absolutely necessary for the Government to take action, if any semblance of authority was to remain to it; on Aug. 14 prominent Sinn Feiners were arrested in Death of every province of Ireland; and this was followed by Ashe. ' the seizure of arms belonging to the Irish and National Volunteers. The prisoners, many of whom had taken an active part in the German plot of 1916, were sentenced under the Defence of the Realm Act to various terms of penal servitude or imprisonment. But the greatest care was taken not to interfere with the free expression of opinion, so long as this did not amount to incitement to illegal acts; and when meetings were proclaimed, which was comparatively rarely, it was always because, in the opinion of the police, they
1 Quoted by Darrell Figgis in Nationality, Aug. 4 1917. He adds: " That is Sinn Fein! "
1 Practically a hockey club. The Daily News, among others, ridiculed the prohibition to carry these " toys." It was with a hurley that Inspector Mills was murdered in Dublin.
' Irish Times, Aug. 7 1919.
4 On Sept. 2 and 3 American sailors walking out with girls were mobbed and maltreated by the Sinn Fein " Vigilance Committee."
The figures were : Cosgrave (S. F.) 772 ; Magennis (Nat.) 392.
would lead to grave disorder. Throughout the year, and during the earlier months of 1918, De Valera and his lieutenants continued their agitation practically unchecked. Their cause was helped by an untoward event which occurred on Sept. 25 - the death of Thomas Ashe as the result of forcible feeding in prison. For some time past Sinn Fein prisoners had been imitating the suffragette device of the " hunger strike," in order to secure their treatment as prisoners of war or political prisoners. Ashe, the hero of the Ashbourne affair, had been tried for murder and condemned to death by court-martial after the Easter week rebellion, but reprieved. Released by the general amnesty, he was rearrested on Aug. 14, and on the 2oth was condemned to one year's hard labour for attempting to cause disaffection among the civil population. He went on hunger strike, was forcibly fed by the prison doctor in the ordinary execution of his duty, and died of heart failure as a result of the process. The affair created an immense sensation, and Sinn Fein exploited it to the full. The funeral of the latest martyr in Dublin was attended by a vast concourse of people; the coffin was draped in the Sinn Fein tricolour and escorted by Irish Volunteers in uniform and armed; the Lord Mayor of Dublin (Alderman O'Neill) and Dr. Walsh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, sent their coaches to swell the cortege, while the Dublin Cor- poration adjourned for a week as a sign of sympathy and respect,
For the Government, which during the inquest was loudly accused of deliberate murder, nothing could have been more unfortunate. On the 2gth the authorities decided to modify the treatment of political prisoners; but the hunger strikes continued; the Government, afraid of the effect of forcible feed- ing, and as yet unwilling to allow the prisoners to take the consequences of their self-imposed deprivation, had recourse to the provisions of the " Cat-and-Mouse Act," under which prisoners on hunger strike could be released but were subject to rearrest when they had recovered their strength. The result in Ireland was to make imprisonment little more than a cheap advertisement, prisoners being released after a few days' abstention from food. By Nov. the situation had become so farcical that Sir John Ross, in the Land Judges' Court, declared that the government of Ireland had been abandoned. Yet even the feeble half-measures employed by the Chief Secretary, Mr. Duke, roused the opposition of the Nationalist members, who saw in obstructing the action of the Irish Executive the only surviving hope of retaining their weakening hold on the country. In reply to Mr. Redmond, who on Oct. 23 opened the attack on the Government in the House of Commons, Mr. Duke enlarged on the peril of the situation, pointing out that 200,000 young men were being enrolled in Ireland for the purpose of a new rebellion. Point was given to this by the news^ next day that the United States had frustrated an elaborate scheme for a new rising, with German aid, by the arrest of the Sinn Fein agent Liam Mellowes and Dr. Patrick MacCartan, Sinn Fein " ambassador " in America.
The forbearance of the Government was illustrated by the assembling on Oct. 25, in the Dublin Mansion House, of a Con- vention summoned by Sinn Fein to formulate a constitution for Ireland. This Convention, which slan Fela claimed to represent 12,000 Sinn Fein clubs with y on> 250,000 members, concluded with a public session on Oct. 27, when the Sinn Fein constitution was announced. The object of the organization was declared to be to secure the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Republic, and to " make use of any and every means available to render impotent the power of England to hold Ireland in subjection by military force or otherwise." Mr. De Valera was elected president, Mr. Arthur Griffith and Father Michael O'Flanagan vice-presidents, Messrs. Austin Stack a'nd Darrell Figgis sec- retaries. " Departments," under " Ministers," were to be created for military organization, political organization, educa- tion and propaganda, foreign relations and finance. After the meeting a convention of Irish Volunteers was held in a large store in Dublin. At this meeting De Valera said that by proper organization and recruiting Sinn Fein would secure
