Party Groups.
the year went on, though as yet they were confined to a number of more or less limited areas in the South and West.
On Jan. 25 the situation was further complicated by a great strike of the Belfast shipyards workers; but this had nothing to do with politics, and was settled on Feb. 19. More significant of political undercurrents was the attack by Mr. Joseph Devlin, in the House of .Commons (March 4), on the Belfast Harbour bill, the rejection of which he moved on the ground that, under the actual franchise, no Catholic was ever elected on the Board of Commissioners. Asked what religion had to do with this, Mr. Devlin replied, " Religion, or irreligion, has everything to do with everything in Belfast." 1
Meanwhile the result of the general election was leading to certain developments of opinion in the South, which are histor- ically more important rather for the influence they ex- erted outside Ireland than within it. On Jan. 24 occurred the split in the Unionist party already men- tioned, the Anti-Partition League, under the lead- ership of Lord Midleton, supporting a moderate form of Home Rule for all Ireland. On the same day was established, under the chairmanship of Capt. Stephen Gwynn, 2 the Irish Centre party, which advocated self-government on the Dominion models for a united Ireland within the Empire. This subse- quently developed into the Irish Dominion League, of which the secretary and moving spirit was Capt. Henry Harrison, (b. 1867), who in early life, though coming of a well-known north of Ireland family, had cast his lot in with Parnell, becoming Nationalist M.P. for mid-Tipperary (1888-1892), and during the war, having obtained a commission in the Royal Irish Regiment, had won the Military Cross and Bar by distinguished gallantry on the western front. This organization was sup- ported by a certain number of former Unionists as well as Home Rulers of the less extreme type, including Sir Horace Plunkett and Gen. Sir Hubert Gough, and had for its chief organ the Irish Statesman, a high-class weekly. Its effect on public opinion was, however, relatively small in Ireland. Its main success was in encouraging Lord Northcliffe to use his powerful influence in the English press in favour of a full measure of Irish self-government. During the year 1919 the columns of the newspapers, both in Ireland and Great Britain, were filled with the most varied suggestions for a solution of the problem, 3 but in Ireland itself mass opinion seemed to have become stereotyped, under one influence or another. With the internment of the leading Sinn Fein orators, the flood of elo- quence, punctuated with revolver shots, which enlivened the first half of 1918, had stopped, and Ireland was divided into two camps, by no means silent, but more concerned with acts than arguments. In the North, though no attempt was made to revive the Volunteer force, the Ulstermen remained as de- termined as ever, and they made full use of the tactical advan- tage given them by the refusal of the Sinn Fein M.P.'s to attend at Westminster. In the South Dail Eireann claimed the undivided allegiance of Irishmen, and enforced this claim by penalties which, since they were ruthlessly applied, tended more and more to make it effective.
The prestige of Dail Eireann in Ireland was increased by American support. The proclamation by President Wilson of the principle of " self-determination " as the basis of America the com i n g peace treaty, and its acceptance by the other Powers, gave Sinn Fein a lever which it was not slow to use; and the President himself, before the experience of a month or two in Europe had taught him prudence, had held out hopes that the Irish question might be
1 Parliamentary Debates, 119, vol. cxiii., p. 329.
2 Son of the Rev. John Gwynn, D.D., Professor in Dublin Univer- sity and senior fellow of Trinity, b. 1864. He was Nationalist mem- ber for Galway city from 1906 to 1918, enlisted in Jan. 1915, and obtained a commission in April, and served in France till 1917, when he was nominated by the Government,. as a member of the Irish Convention. He was a well-known writer.
3 The more important of these are noted under their dates in the " Diurnal " given in Notes from Ireland (Ir. Un. All).
and Ireland.
raised at the Peace Conference. To the Sinn Feiners, at a very critical period, this hope seemed about to be realized when it was announced that Mr. Lloyd George, then in Paris, had authorized the issue of passports to a deputation of three Ameri- can-Irish gentlemen whose ostensible mission was to report to President Wilson on conditions in Ireland, but whose prin- cipal aim was to confer with " President " De Valera on the question of securing international recognition of the Irish Republic at the Peace Conference. These envoys, who appeared to be invested with a quasi-official status from the Peace Con- ference, arrived in Dublin on May 3, and on the gth were welcomed by Dail Eireann in special session. On the i2th they left for Paris, to prepare their report and lay it before President Wilson. The nature of this report could hardly be doubtful. The three American " commissioners," Messrs. Frank P. Walsh, Edward F. Dunne and Michael J. Ryan, were closely associated with the Clan-na-Gael and other extremist American-Irish organizations, the first named being chairman of the " American Commission on Irish Independence." It is not surprising then that an eight days' stay in Ireland sufficed to supply them with the most amazing stories of English " atroc- ities " and of English misgovernment and misbehaviour gen- erally, which they proceeded to present to the American people and the American Congress as facts proved by unimpeachable evidence. 4 But their efforts to persuade President Wilson to champion the cause of Irish independence at the Conference were vain, and on May 31 the American Peace Delegation definitely refused to request the Conference to receive " the representatives of the so-called Irish Republic." 6 In vain they pointed out, in a personal interview with President Wilson, that he himself had stated at the plenary session of the Confer- ence on Jan. 25 that among the instructions of the American delegates, of which " they would not abate one jot," was that of seeing " that every people in the world shall choose its own master." 6 The President had realized by this time that, in loudly championing the principle of " self-determination," he had brought to Europe not peace but a sword. " You have touched on the great metaphysical tragedy of to-day," he said, " my words have raised hopes in the hearts of millions of people. . When I gave utterance' to those words, I said them without the knowledge that nationalities existed which are coming to us day by day." 7
Disappointed in their hopes of obtaining satisfaction from the Peace Conference, the Sinn Feiners determined to use their wide-spread organization in an attempt to wreck its work, and especially the League of Nations, which they had supported so long as they believed that independent Ireland would be represented in its Assembly. To this end an intensive propa- ganda campaign was set on foot in the United States. On Feb. 4. Mr. De Valera had succeeded, with two others, in escaping from Lincoln gaol; and the release of all interned Sinn Fein prisoners early in March, which regularized his position, enabled him to receive the American delegates in Dublin. After the breakdown of the negotiation at Paris, the " President " decided
4 " Much of the detailed evidence of atrocities committed against women prisoners in Ireland was furnished us by Countess Mar- kievicz." This was written by Messrs. Walsh and Dunne in a letter to Mr. Lloyd George, dated Paris June 19 1919 (see 66th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document 106, p. 817). The report of evidence given by the three envoys, with others, before the Foreign Rela- tions Committee of the Senate is given verbatim in the Document. The value of this evidence may perhaps be gauged by one or two quotations. " When the Irish get together, north and south, they always agree " (p. 835). " Ireland is the most law-abiding country on the face of the earth " (p. 835). Liberty Hall is the headquarters of " the most conservative labor organization in the world " (p. 853). " England allows no ship to come trans-Atlantic to her (Ireland's) ports " (p. 828). " There is no religious question in the Irish movement " (p. 859). " Mercenary Gurkhas are imported to police Ireland " (p. 906).
5 Senate Document 106 cit., p. 809.
7 Interview between President Wilson and Messrs. Edward F. Dunne and Frank P. Walsh, at the President's house, II, Place des Etats-Unis, Paris, Wed. June II 1919 (ib., pp. 835 seq).
