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 FACTS OF IRISH HISTORY 
 
 AND 
 
 ENGLISH PROPAGANDA 
 
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 " Ignorance of Irish History is the greatest 
 impediment to our dignity." — O'Halleran. 
 
 By PATRICK J. LALLY 
 
 14 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I „ Page 5 
 
 Why England Went to Ireland; How They Ridiculed the Irish; 
 How They Declared It no Crime to Kill or Rob an Irishman; 
 Two Concrete Cases; The Statutes of Kilkenny. 
 
 CHAPTER II Page 9 
 
 Massacres; Massacre of Seventy Prisoners; Strongbow's At- 
 tempt; Massacres by: The Duke of Ormond, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 Elizabeth, Coote Clifford, Swanley and the Earl of Warwick; Mas- 
 sacres of: Mullaghimast, Island Magee, The Fitzgeralds, Gibbets Rath; 
 Quotations from : Begbie, Smiles, Du Boies, Mrs. Green, Hollinshed. 
 
 CHAPTER III Page 14 
 
 Confiscations, Exterminations and Famine; Confiscations by: 
 Strongbow, Edw. Third, Henry Eighth, Elizabeth, Cromwell; Quota- 
 tion from Arthur Young; Short Story of the Famine and Know- 
 Nothing Propaganda. 
 
 CHAPTER IV Page 18 
 
 The Reformation; How Ireland was Persecuted; Price Placed on 
 the Heads of Priests, Monks, Schoolteachers, Bards and Wolves; 
 Methods of Priest Hunting — Various Forms of Torture; Bishops 
 Tortured for Their Faith; Story of Father Enright; Quotations 
 From: Milner, Mitchel, Montesquien, Godkin. 
 
 CHAPTER V Page 23 
 
 How Ireland Fought for Her Freedom in the Field of Battle and 
 Legislative Halls; Continual War From 1169 to 1691; Tremen- 
 dous Number of Victories Won by Irish; How Ireland Fought for 
 and Won Self Determination; How England Won the Union by 
 the Worst Bribery and Corruption in History; Quotations by: 
 Gladstone, Lecky, Begbie. 
 
 CHAPTER VI Page 30 
 
 How Irish Industries were Crushed, Including Wool, Cloth, 
 Cattle, Fisheries, Glass, Tobacco, etc.; Why Ireland Should be 
 an Independent Nation; Date of Enactment of Various Prohib- 
 itory Laws; How Ireland's Population were Scattered and How 
 She is Overtaxed; Quotations from Froude. 
 
 CHAPTER VII Page 34 
 
 What Ireland has Contributed to the present War; What Ireland 
 Has Done for the United States; Why Irishmen Should Organize 
 to Meet the Propaganda Aimed at Them; Quotations from R. L. 
 and Captain McMahon; How England Charged Ireland with 
 Being Pro-American and Carried the Irish Prisoners to England 
 to Execute Them; How President Madison Interfered and Saved 
 the Irish. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII Page 42 
 
 Propaganda; How England Pensions Her Authors; Names of 
 English Writers Who Insulted Ireland; How England Easily 
 Shapes the Literary Policy of the World; A Review of the Vari- 
 ous Forms of Propaganda; Anonymous Writers; Brief Reference 
 to cohalan and o'leary; quotations from general marshal 
 and Michael McManus. 
 
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 NOTE 
 
 The author of this pamphlet has planned to publish a work on Irish 
 history as soon as more data relative to the war can be procured. By group- 
 ing together many important, neglected and interesting facts, the writer thinks 
 it possible to treat the history of Ireland in about a five hundred page book. 
 
 From this contemplated volume, this pamphlet is practically taken. 
 The present is surely the most opportune time to call attention to a few of the 
 salient features of our case, because of the painful fact that heretofore Eng- 
 lish propaganda has made Irish subjects of any kind very unpopular in the 
 United States. 
 
 In order to arrive at logical conclusions, we must lay bare the relation- 
 ship that existed between England and Ireland. We must show how the 
 stream was polluted at its very source. We can never discuss a question 
 fairly by scratching its surface; we must lay bare the root of the whole evil. 
 This the writer has attempted to do in the eight brief chapters contained 
 here. 
 
 The main and principal claim of this pamphlet is a strict adherence to 
 the well established facts of European and American history. To mislead 
 purposely or make false statements will answer no useful purpose; therefore, 
 whatever demerits it possesses, the author has aimed at plain, unvarnished, 
 simple truths. 
 
 The assertions made here are so startling that the writer thought it 
 wise to re-enforce his charges by such quotations as are found at the end of 
 each chapter. 
 
 If this little pamphlet succeeds in stirring up a little interest in the noblest 
 cause that tongue or pen ever fought, he will feel well repaid for his labor. 
 
 Patrick J. Lally. 
 
 Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 4137 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Tk> discuss any subject by merely scratching its surface leads to noth- 
 ing. England's methods are abuse and misrepresentation. To arrive at a 
 logical conclusion we must dig deep and lay bare the root of the evil. 
 
 The Irish question is a very simple one. England, according to her 
 own reasons, was commissioned by an English pope to go and reform the 
 morals of the Irish people. In the words of Hume, "She introduced humanity 
 and justice among a race who had lived previously in profound barbarism." 
 
 In the month of May, 1196, on the Wexford coast, there landed a small 
 Norman army. They were so badly beaten that the clergy of Ireland ap- 
 pealed to Roderick O'Connor, then King, to stay his hand. A conference 
 was called and a meeting held at the Church of Ferns, before the high altar 
 of which the Normen swore that they would go back home as soon as shipping 
 could be procured. Soon reinforcements arrived; the Normen or Saxons 
 broke their treaty by remaining and they are there yet. 
 
 Henry Second soon arrived, his hands red with the blood of St. Thomas 
 a Beqket, his body polluted with the outrage of his son's betrothed wife and 
 his lire of shame was known to all. His wife was tied up in chains, his son 
 thrown into jail. He had robbed the Church, defied the Pope and boasted 
 that he had no more dread of excommunication than he would of a rotten 
 egg. He later passed away, cursing the day upon which he was born and 
 the children he left behind him, without the last rites of the Church. 
 
 He sized up the situation and diplomatically decided that he merely 
 wished to be recognized as Suzerain. A treaty was made, known as the 
 "Treaty of Windsor," and was properly approved of by Henry and Archbishop 
 Duffy in behalf of Ireland. This treaty was promptly broken, as was also 
 the treaty of Limerick, solemnly subscribed to. England is the worst of- 
 fender in the world as a treaty breaker, to which truth the United States 
 and France, as well as Ireland, can testify. Not only has England broken 
 her treaties with impunity, but she has been able to convince the world that 
 she is the only country which has a right to do so. 
 
 England went to Ireland primarily for conquest. A favorable oppor- 
 tunity was found. " William the Conqueror and William Rufus openly boasted 
 that they would conquer Ireland. Pearson, the English historian, is author- 
 ity for this statement. England carried war into France, Scotland and 
 Wales, and why not into Ireland? It was simply a question of opportunity. 
 How can any sane person think that conquest was not England's motive? 
 And yet she has been fairly successful in confusing the world on that subject. 
 
This question is no argument; it is a simple statement of fact. England 
 felt herself to be strong enough and through her insidious diplomacy she had 
 read in all the churches of Ireland letters purporting to have come from the 
 Pope, calling upon the people of Ireland to accept Henry in the interest of 
 religion and morality. 
 
 The main question is, has Ireland gained by allowing England to be- 
 come her master? The blindest English partisan must admit that English 
 rule is a curse to Ireland. She has lost all and gained nothing. Here is 
 where English intricate diplomacy shines. England has gained the ear of 
 the world and has convinced its people that the Irish are unable to govern 
 themselves and that they will allow nobody else to do so. 
 
 England does not wish to appear as a brutal conqueror, but would rather 
 pose as a benefactor, the leader grand of civilization; yet there has not been 
 a crime committed by Germany in Belgium or France that England has not 
 committed a worse one in Ireland, which may be proved by incontrovertible 
 facts. 
 
 Ireland contends that she has ever been misrepresented, that she has 
 never been given a square deal. Because she is not satisfied with slavery, 
 England contends that Ireland would not be satisfied with liberty. Ireland 
 says, I have never had the opportunity to govern myself, and because I am 
 indignant with slavery, it is stupid to say that I would be dissatisfied with 
 freedom. Besides, I am only asking what belongs to me, what was taken 
 away from me by brute force and superior treachery. 
 
 The next question the world asks is why did not Ireland accept English 
 laws, customs, manners, religion, ideals, etc., and become a contented limb 
 of the great British Empire? In order to understand this question thor- 
 oughly, we must read Irish history, follow it to its very source and point out 
 how England has ruled her by a process of extermination and confiscation 
 unparalleled in the world's history. Strangely enough, the Tory Englishmen 
 keeps himself purposely blind on the Irish question. He would like to throw 
 a wet blanket of obscurity over the whole scene. The next best thing he can 
 do is to abuse the Irish and throw dust in the eyes of the world in order to 
 confuse the situation. 
 
 The English made all kinds of fun of the Irish. They ridiculed their 
 dress, manners and speech. To illustrate: John, afterwards King of England, 
 was sent over as Lord of Ireland. He invited a number of the leading rep- 
 resentatives of the Irish nation to his court and treated them with the ut- 
 most contempt. The most dangerous thing in the world to do to an Irish- 
 man is to ridicule him. John commenced the fun by pulling the whiskers 
 of Prince O'Brien, who promptly left the court and in a very practical man- 
 ner headed, organized, drilled and disciplined an army. John, as the cus- 
 tom went, started on a triumphal tour. O'Brien threw his army against 
 him at Ardfinnan, Tipperary, and disastrously defeated him. The English 
 
 6 
 
were now everywhere defeated. John was suddenly recalled in disgrace and 
 the Irish were temporarily appeased. 
 
 To illustrate the contempt the English had for the Irish, we will quote 
 from Froude, who unwittingly bares England's methods. "Before experience 
 it would have been equally reasonable to expect that the modern Englishman 
 would adopt the habits of a Hindu or a Mohican as that the fiery Knights of 
 Normandy would have stooped to imitate whom they despised as slaves." 
 
 As English law unfolded itself it became more and more brutal. Year 
 by year she tried to extend her conquests, sometimes partly successful, at 
 other times disastrously defeated. Froude informs us* that in the year 1515, 
 three hundred and fifty years after her invasion, all England owned was a 
 strip of one thousand square miles, or one thirty-second part of Ireland. 
 The English forced the Irish outside the pale of the law and declared them 
 everlasting rebels whom it was honorable to kill, rob, murder or outrage. 
 This seems incredible, and were it not for England's own state papers, it 
 would be a hard task to convince the world that such brutality was resorted to. 
 
 Sir James Davies, Attorney General under James First, and author of 
 "Historical Tracts," proved a hundred different times that it was no crime 
 to kill an Irishman, in fact, he cheerfully justifies the crime and recommends 
 that the Irishman be robbed for his own sake. We will here introduce two 
 concrete cases as proof positive. 
 
 In the year 1301 at the city of Drogheda, Thomas Le Bottelier brought 
 suit against Robert De Almain for the recovery of stolen goods. The case 
 was surrounded with all the formality and solemnity of English law. De- 
 Almain did not deny his guilt. His plea was that Le Bottelier was an Irish- 
 man who had changed his name; therefore, he was not bound to answer the 
 charge. The jury was sworn and retired to determine, not De Almain's in- 
 nocence or guilt, but Le Bottelier's nationality. The jury found that Le- 
 Bottelier was an Irishman who had changed his name; therefore, he had no 
 standing before the court. The case was therefore dismissed. 
 
 In the year 1311 at Limerick, one Fitzrogers was tried for murdering a 
 man named De Cantellon. His plea was that De Cantellon was an Irish- 
 man who had changed his name; therefore, he was not bound to answer the 
 charge. The jury retired and brought in a verdict that De Cantellon was 
 Irish and had no standing before the Court. 
 
 These two cases will give a fair idea of English law. Year by year the 
 law became more and more brutal, the two races becoming more and more 
 antagonistic towards each other. The Irish were always looked upon a 
 slaves and they in turn struck back hard and often. In order to thoroughly 
 separate and prevent any possible intercourse, assimilation or amalgamation 
 between the Irish and English, Edward Third instructed the English colony 
 to meet at Kilkenny and that infamous code known as the "Statutes of Kil- 
 kenny" was passed. Search the history of legislative assemblies all over the 
 
civilized world, and you will find no law so low, base and brutal as the Kil- 
 kenny Statutes, directed as they were against a race which then knelt at the 
 same altar as themselves. The Statutes of Kilkenny declared it a capital 
 crime to intermarry with the Irish, the offender to be shamefully mutilated 
 while alive and his property confiscated. It was declared a crime to speak 
 the Irish language, to go into an Irish house of worship, to play Ireland's 
 ^national games, to be controlled by Brehon laws; in fact, the law was thor- 
 ough and covered every phase of relationship that would be likely to exist 
 between two peoples. 
 
 Why should England look upon the Irish with such horror and contempt? 
 Because Ireland refused to be conquered. She gave them blow for blow. 
 The original stream was thus poisoned. The stream has grown into a river 
 and as it has flowed onward, it has increased in fury. Each crime forced 
 the races farther and farther apart until, after seven hundred and fifty years, 
 England is no farther advanced in the affections of the Irish than she was that 
 memorable May morning in the year 1169 when she first planted her foul 
 footsteps on our soil. 
 
 Ireland, so renowned for its sanctity, missionary zeal and great institu- 
 tions of learning — Ireland, the only country in the world that Rome could not 
 conquer, that accepted Christianity without bloodshed, that became the 
 educator of Europe, that founded the Kingdom of Scotland, that defeated 
 the Saxons, Picts and Welsh and finally defeated the Danes, now fell a victim 
 to English treachery or propaganda work and allowed them to get a foothold. 
 Remember this one fact — and we cannot reiterate it too often — that in the 
 field of intricate diplomacy, treachery or propaganda the Irish were never a 
 match for the English, in fact, they became easy victims to English propa- 
 ganda since the day that De Burgo, Henry's agent purporting to have letters 
 from the Pope, proclaimed in all the Churches that Ireland, under penalty 
 of excommunication, was ordered to accept Henry and the English as their 
 rulers. 
 
 In Ireland it was always Catholic first and Ireland afterwards, while in 
 England it was England first, last and all the time. Then, as now, they 
 cared no more about excommunication than they did about a rotten egg, as 
 Henry declared. Then and now they are past masters in the art of propa- 
 ganda. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Massacres 
 
 As Germany's crimes in Belgium and Northern France are still green in 
 our memories, and as they have stirred the world as it was never stirred be- 
 fore, a comparison might be made by declaring that the worst crime charged 
 against the Germans cannot be compared in atrocity with the crimes Eng- 
 land has actually perpetrated on the Irish people in every age of her history, 
 covering the long period of seven hundred and fifty years. This startling 
 charge we can easily prove, not alone by Irish, but even by English and other 
 foreign writers. 
 
 Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, shortly after landing in Ireland, invited 
 the leading men within his reach to a great love feast or banquet. At the 
 appropriate time, he gave word to murder them all. It happened that a 
 knight named Pendergast carried the invitations to the Irish, their leader 
 being the Prince of Ossory. At the thought of such a foiil deed his noble 
 nature stirred, and springing up, with a solemn threat he swore by the cross 
 on the hilt of his sword that he would defend them with his life. Suiting 
 his action to his words, he led the party from the hall in safety, interposing 
 himself between the unarmed Irish and their murderous enemies. For this 
 noble act, he has been eulogized in song and story ever since and is known in 
 history as the "faithful Saxon." Unfortunately for Ireland, the faithful 
 Saxons have been too few. 
 
 In one of the series of battles fought, at Dublin seventy Irish prisoners 
 were captured. They were condemned to have their bones broken with 
 hammers, to remain stretched on the ground all night, and while yet alive 
 to be dragged towards a steep cliff and thrown into the sea. All the his- 
 torians of the time refer to this; even Cambrensis and C. H. Pearson, the 
 English historians, admit that "they were foully murdered." 
 
 This method became England's set policy whenever she wanted to de- 
 prive Ireland of a great leader or leaders. The victim was reached by poison, 
 or by inviting him to a meeting, a conference or a banquet, and as soon as he 
 fell into English hands, his life was forfeited. Art McMurrough, Prince of 
 Leinster, attended a banquet tendered to him by the Saxons. He was warned 
 by a friendly bard, and pretending that he had forgotten something, he strayed 
 from the hall, sprang on a horse and escaped to safety. He solemnly vowed 
 he would never again talk to an Englishman except across a stream or in 
 some other secure place. And yet, with all his precautions, he was poisoned 
 by an old woman. As he was passing by, she proffered him a drink, from 
 which he died. 
 
 9 
 
Shane the Proud fought as a hero should, and when all his resources 
 were exhausted, he threw himself on the mercy of the Scots, who, at the 
 request of an Englishman named Piers, foully cut off his head. The head 
 was placed over Dublin Castle, and a popular poem, "Shane's Head," com- 
 memorates the event. 
 
 Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyrconnel was invited on board an 
 English ship by the Deputy. He was soon lodged in Dublin jail, where he 
 suffered tortures, but fortunately escaped through the aid of powerful friends. 
 Owen Roe O'Neill, victor of Benburb, was killed by poison. Even the 
 great Hugh O'Neill was invited to a meeting in Dublin, the Deputy having 
 had private instructions to apprehend him. Fortunately he was warned 
 and avoided the trap. 
 
 After every massacre the lands and property of the murdered ones were 
 divided among the murderers. Perhaps 'tis needless to say that that was 
 their primary motive. The Earl of Essex, with a powerful colony, settled on 
 Shane O'Neill's confiscated estates. Constant war followed. Brian O'Neill 
 invited Essex to a conference and banquet at his castle at Clannaboy. The 
 Earl accepted, and at the head of a strong, well-armed party, he visited the 
 unsuspecting Brian. At the proper time the Saxons drew their secreted 
 weapons, sprang upon their entertainers and murdered them to a man. Brian 
 and his wife were temporarily spared only as hostages, and were murdered as 
 soon as Essex had escaped, which he was compelled to do hurriedly after the 
 massacre. 
 
 Hugh O'Connor, King of Connaght, was offered a home by one Muresco. 
 He accepted and was promptly murdered. The Fitzgeralds were all mur- 
 dered. It would take a whole volume to cover their sad story. One sick 
 boy suffering from small pox was carried away by a priest; he alone escaped 
 the general slaughter. But the bloodhounds were promptly on his trail. 
 He was smuggled into the O'Neill's country, next to the McCarthy's, and 
 finally he was smuggled to France. England promptly demanded him, owing 
 to treaty rights. France was not then friendly with England so he escaped 
 to Brussels. Once again England demanded him, but Cardinal Pole, a rela- 
 tive of Henry Eighth, succeeded in carrying him to Rome, where he was 
 educated. In Queen Mary's time he was finally reinstated in his possessions. 
 Silken Thomas Fitzgerald was offered pardon by Lord Grey if he would 
 surrender. He did, and with his five uncles he was executed at Tyburn on 
 the same day. Smerwick on the Kerry coast was defended by a small Span- 
 ish force. Upon promise of quarter they surrendered, when the knightly 
 Raleigh of cloak fame had them all murdered in cold blood. The gentle 
 poet Spencer defended the foul deed, and Lord Grey himself in contempt, 
 as he saw them all stretched out on the sand, declared, "They are as goodly 
 personages as I ever saw." 
 
 The Duke of Ormond boasted that "he put to death six thousand dis- 
 
 10 
 
affected persons," while Froude claims "Munster was so vigorously laid waste 
 that the lowing of a cow or the sound of a plow-boy's whistle was not to be 
 heard from Valentia to the Rock of Cashel." Hollinshed, a bitter old Eng- 
 lish writer, said, "The traveler would not meet any man, woman or child 
 except in the cities," and Spencer declared with crocodile tears, "A stony 
 heart would rue the same." 
 
 MASSACRE OF MULLAGHMAST 
 
 Sir Francis Cosby, the Queen's representative in Leix and Ofally, 
 invited all the leaders of that section of the country to a great feast at the 
 Fort of Mullaghmast. All the influential people attended, particularly the 
 O'Moore's, to the number of four hundred. Cosby's plan was to get them 
 all together and murder them in one general massacre, needless to say, with the 
 consent of good Queen Bess. They were all in the midst of rejoicing and 
 good fellowship when Cosby admitted his armed soldiers, who fell upon the 
 unsuspecting and unarmed guests and murdered them to a man. This foul 
 crime is without doubt one of the blackest in history, yet it is a mere inci- 
 dent in our annals. Since the day Strongbow first attempted to murder 
 the Prince of Ossory and his party, until the present, England's favorite 
 policy was massacre. 
 
 Proofs are hardly necessary, yet should any person doubt the story, 
 Leland, as well as other English historians, substantiates it. Lord Claren- 
 don informs us that Sir Charles Coote, a notorious villain of the Cromwell 
 type, plundered and burned the town of Clontarf and massacred the towns- 
 people, men, women and children, and "three suckling infants." The men, 
 women and children of the village of Bullock, to escape the soldiers, set out to 
 to sea in boats. They were pursued and overtaken by Col. Clifford, and all 
 thrown into the sea and drowned. Castlehaven, a contemporary writer of 
 fame, informs us that Sir Arthur Loftus, Governor of Naas, marched out 
 with a party of horse, and being joined by Ormond from Dublin, "they both 
 killed such of the Irish as they met." The people retreated for shelter to a 
 great strait of furze situated on a hill. This was surrounded, set on fire and 
 any who tried to escape were driven back until all the men, women and chil- 
 dren were roasted to a crisp. Castlehaven emphatically states, "I saw the 
 bodies and the furze still burning." Throughout the whole country similar 
 scenes were enacted. 
 
 The Massacre of Island Magee, County Antrim, has been immortalized 
 by Ethna Carbery in a passionate song, "Brian Boy Magee." The soldiery 
 burst into the island at night, and murdered men, women and children in 
 bed. They drove the remainder before them at the point of bayonet towards 
 the awful Gobbins Cliffs, where they forced them over to a fearful death 
 below. 
 
 11 
 
In 1644 the English Parliament ordered no quarter to Irish troops in 
 Britain. Captain Swanley seized a ship bound from Galway to Bristol. 
 Among the troops he found seventy Irish soldiers, whom he had thrown into 
 the sea. For this manly act he was thanked by the British Parliament and 
 given a great gold chain as a reward of merit. When the Earl of Warwick 
 captured an Irish ship, he tied the Irish sailors back to back and threw them 
 into the sea, according to Clarendon. 
 
 Of all the world fiends, however, Cromwell was the wickedest. He 
 went through Ireland like a hyena, rending and tearing, and stated in his 
 correspondence, "I thought it not right or good to restrain off the soldiers 
 from the right to pillage nor from doing execution on the enemy." "The 
 enemy were about three thousand strong. I believe we put to the sword 
 the whole number. I wish that all honest hearts may give the glory of this 
 to God alone, to whom indeed the praise of this mercy belongs." Parlia- 
 ment went on record appointing a day of Thanksgiving (October 2, 1649), 
 approving of the massacres as an act of justice to the murdered ones and 
 mercy to others who should be warned by it. 
 
 Cromwell's sickening slaughters would fill many volumes. We must 
 pass them over and content ourselves with citing a single case from Arthur 
 Wood, an Oxford historian whose brother served as an officer under Crom- 
 well. He says, "Each of the assailants would take up a child and use it as 
 a buckler of defence to keep him from being shot or brained. After they 
 had killed all in the Church, they went into the vaults underneath, where 
 all the choicest of women and ladies had hid themselves. One of these, a 
 most handsome virgin, arrayed in costly and gorgeous apparel, knelt down 
 to Wood with tears and prayers, begging for life, and being stricken with a 
 profound pity, he did take her under his arm for protection. But a soldier, 
 perceiving his intention, ran his sword through her." 
 
 In the year 1798 the Kildare insurgents to the number of about three 
 thousand, opened up negotiations with General Dundas to surrender. Dundas 
 promised them pardon upon surrendering their weapons and sent General 
 Welford to give them protection. The insurgents assembled at "Gibbet 
 Rath" in the Curragh, and on June 3rd gave up their arms. They were then 
 set upon by Sir James Duff and Lord Roden's fencible Calvary and mur- 
 dered to the number of three hundred and fifty; the remainder escaped. 
 
 "Men, women and children wherever found were indiscriminately put to 
 death. The soldiery were mad for blood. Priests were murdered at the 
 altar, children at the mother's breast. The beauty of woman, the venerable- 
 ness of age, the innocence of youth, was no protection against these sanguinary 
 demons in human form," says Dr. Smiles, Scotch Protestant. 
 
 "Not only did the English destroy crops and drive the cattle into their 
 own camps that the Irish might be starved, not only this, but they deliber- 
 
 12 
 
ately and with cunning purpose made a great slaughter of infants. 'Nits will 
 be lice,' was the laughing murderous and devilish justification for this slaugh- 
 ter of babies. The steel of England's might ran red with the blood of Irish 
 infancy. 'Nits will be lice,' cried these slaughtering devils, and the beautiful 
 flower of Irish childhood was crushed into the bloody ooze of a land that was 
 like hell." — Harold Begbie. 
 
 "There was no protection for any soul — the old, the sick, infants, women, 
 scholars. No quarter was allowed, no faith kept, no truce given. . . . Poets 
 and historians were slaughtered and their books of genealogies burned." — 
 Mrs. Green, English historian's wife. 
 
 "The slaughter of Irishmen was looked upon as literally the slaughter 
 of wild beasts." — Lecky, Anti Home Ruler. 
 
 "The soldiers were so eager that they spared neither man, woman or 
 child." — Hollinshed, English historian. 
 
 The following is from Paul DuBoies: "In the Desmond country, when 
 all resistance was at an end, the soldiers forced the people into old barns, 
 which they set on fire, putting to the sword any who sought to escape. Sol- 
 diers were seen to catch children on the points of their swords, making them 
 squirm in the air in their death agony. . . . Women were found hanged from 
 trees with the children of their bosoms strangled in the hair of their mothers." 
 
 13 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Confiscations, Exterminations and Famine 
 
 As the terms are practically synonomous, we will group together a few 
 cases of confiscation and the accompanying exterminations, including the 
 great Famine. The Romans of old, by a brutal application of power, were 
 able to have a few free men control a great mass of slaves. One well armed, 
 well drilled Roman was able to safely control five ignorant unarmed slaves. 
 England in a like manner enslaved the Irish, killing off or banishnig the spir- 
 ited ones, and she felt herself strong enough to control them in the proportion 
 of five to one for the purpose, of course, of drawing water and hauling wood. 
 In the first place, if the rich lands of Ireland were not held out as a prize for 
 the adventurers, they never would have gone there. 
 
 Strongbow confiscated a large portion of the island and divided it among 
 his barons, involving a continual war, as will be shown under the head "Ire- 
 land's Wars." W. Warburton, English historian, informs us that Edward 
 Third of Kilkenny Law infamy, "inherited the barbarous and iniquitous 
 traditions of English rule in Ireland. He declared void every grant of land 
 in Ireland and made new grants of the lands thus recovered to the crown." 
 Henry Eighth confiscated all the lands of Ireland by creating new titles and 
 transferring them over to those who would recognize him as head of the 
 Church. Incidentally he robbed the churches and divided the spoils between 
 himself and his followers. James First confiscated one-fourth of the lands 
 of Ireland and planted them with a landed aristocracy. These are mainly 
 the Orangemen of to-day. 
 
 Cromwell confiscated three-quarters of Ireland and portioned it out to 
 his own followers. Queen Elizabeth confiscated one-fourth of Ireland, the 
 whole province of Munster, and mopped it up as cleanly and thoroughly as 
 Froude informs us. Hollinshed and Spencer make similar statements. When 
 Raleigh murdered the Smerwick prisoners, he confiscated for himself six 
 hundred acres of the best land in Cork. 
 
 To sum up the whole mournful story of confiscation, Arthur Young, Eng- 
 lish author, in his "Tour of Ireland" (1776), declared, twenty-one million 
 acres, nineteen twentieths of the kingdom, changed hands from Catholic to 
 Protestant. Each confiscation was accompanied by extermination. One 
 was the logical complement of the other. After the sad close of the King 
 William War, Catholic Ireland was torn up by the roots and scattered all 
 over the world. Governor Dungan of New York was known in Ireland as 
 the Earl of Limerick. All his estates were confiscated and given over to one 
 
 14 
 
of William's generals. To crown the work of infamy, every industry was 
 closed by law, which will be treated under another head. 
 
 We have now a fair idea of how England did her work in the field of con- 
 fiscation and extermination. The saddest of all was the great famine of 
 '46-48. Henry Giles once declared that "the story of Ireland was one of 
 blood and tears." He spoke truly. Sorrow permeates nearly every line of 
 her history; the bright spots are few and far between. Bloodstained, tear- 
 ful and sorrowful as her story is, the great famine and its terrible consequences 
 are the most sorrowful portion of it all. 
 
 Ireland received many sad. and heartrending blows. She engaged in 
 rebellion after rebellion. Norman and Plantagenet, York and Lancaster, 
 Tudor and Stuart, Orange and Brunswick vied with each other in savage 
 and inhuman brutality. But the famine was the saddest of all. Let us now 
 follow it out as it really occurred. The crops of 1845 were not very good. 
 They gave promise of failure and consequently the people were unable to 
 put by any supply. The year '46 was warm, but wet, yet the crops gave 
 excellent signs when suddenly a dense white fog hung heavily over the whole 
 country and completely destroyed the potato crop in one night. The people 
 were struck dumb and went round in a stoical half stupor. They at once 
 realized the gravity of the situation; their condition was something like a 
 community which lost all through fire or flood and had no place to go and 
 no way of selling their labor. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell arose in Parliament and pointed out the conditions 
 as they actually existed; he begged, exhorted and tried in every way to arouse 
 the Parliament as man never appealed before. Parliament replied by pass- 
 ing a coercion bill. The people began to die in hundreds, thousands, tens of 
 thousands and hundreds of thousands. The government looked on com- 
 placently. The people were dying faster than could be hoped for, as de- 
 clared by the gentle poet Spencer on a former occasion. The gaunt, worn 
 and hungry father went out in the morning looking for something to eat and 
 generally came home at night empty handed and broken hearted, to see his 
 children stretched out on the ground sick, weak, emaciated, their bones stick- 
 ing nearly through their skin, their lips green from eating dock leaves and 
 water cresses. The father, very often wasted and worn, lay down and died 
 of either hunger or a broken heart, the rest of the family usually following. 
 
 From one end of the country to the other this terrible condition of af- 
 fairs existed, some districts, of course, being worse than others. The govern- 
 ment looked delightfully on. The landlords now decided on a general evic- 
 tion. Organized crowbar brigades commenced the terrible work, and from 
 one end of the country to the other the people were thrown out on the road- 
 side. The blowing up and burning of houses, the crash of falling walls, the 
 wails of the sick and dying and groans of the strong and desperate, mixed with 
 the curses of the brutal landlord hirelings, reverberated throughout the land. 
 
 15 
 
Did England try to prevent the evictions? No! She was simply delighted. 
 The Irish question, the knotty Irish question was at last going to be settled 
 in an unlooked for way. 
 
 This fact should be understood. Irish eviction means total eradication, 
 the rooting out of the whole family. There is no hope or shadow of hope 
 after being once evicted, no work, no land; emigration is the only alternative. 
 
 The triple calamity of famine, plague and eviction drove the people lit- 
 erally emigration mad. Sadly, sorrowfully, silently, broken-heartedly, sul- 
 lenly and in blank despair they left, not buoyed up with the hopes or aspira- 
 tions of the average emigrant. Their real sorrows and trials had as yet only 
 begun. They scattered themselves everywhere, — Scotland, England, Aus- 
 tralia, Canada and the United States. They were packed into ships like 
 sardines in a box, where a total disregard for all sanitary laws prevailed, and 
 in their weakened condition they became easy victims of the dreaded ship 
 fever, and the steady splash, splash of throwing the dead into the ocean be- 
 came familiar to all. Whole families died on the trip across, and it was noth- 
 ing unusual to have one member of the family reach these shores alive, the 
 rest having all perished. Emily Lawless estimates that "one-fifth of the 
 emigrants died from the dreaded fever alone." 
 
 Fortunately the New York authorities kept a record of the number of 
 sick immigrants entering port. This is what the records state: 
 
 Percentage of sick emigrants on English vessels 30 
 
 Percentage of sick emigrants on German vessels . 8 3/5 
 
 Percentage of sick emigrants on American vessels 9 3/5 
 
 The foregoing figures speak for themselves and are the most terrible arraign- 
 ment of English brutality that could be conceived. There were hospitals 
 to take care of the sick, and the Board of Aldermen of New York appointed 
 a committee to see how they were conducted. Here is an extract from their 
 report: "In one apartment fifty feet square there were one hundred sick and 
 dying emigrants lying on straw, and among them, in their midst, the bodies 
 of two who had died four or five days before, but had been left for that time 
 without burial." They further found putrid meat, decayed vegetables and 
 bad flour especially purchased for the strangers. 
 
 This is a terrible picture, yet it only introduces the subject. Henry 
 Giles, in his lectures, comes as near picturing conditions as they existed as 
 any man could. One would think that Ireland's abject condition would 
 draw a sigh of sympathy from England. No such thing. From one end of 
 England to the other the people on the whole were chuckling with glee. The 
 London Times exultingly declared that "A Catholic Celt in Ireland would 
 soon be as rare as a red Indian on the shores of Manhattan." High and low 
 rich and poor were delighted at the turn affairs had taken. 
 
 England, diplomatic to the last, and rightly judging that the poor emi- 
 
 16 
 
grants would stir up sympathy in the United States, pursued them here as 
 unrelentingly as ever. Every possible agency she could engage was aroused 
 against them. The libraries were packed with books blackening the Irish 
 character. England's agents and secret service men found access to all 
 influential societies and by appealing to the old religious and sectional preju- 
 dices she succeeded in stirring up the "Know-Nothing" movement. 
 
 "Porter drinking propertyless knaves," "Departing demons of assassina- 
 tion and murder," "A population preternaturally ignorant and lazy," "A 
 race of cowards," "Eternal rebels against the despotism of facts," "Like a 
 witch of Endor mumbling curses because they could not burn at the stake 
 and shed blood as of yore," "They might be all right in a polling booth, but 
 could not handle a rifle" were some of the things said against them by serious 
 historians, and to complete the work of malignity, Froude made a tour of the 
 United States, exercising his talents to blacken them still more. A charac- 
 teristic propaganda article by J. T. Buckingham to the Know-Nothings of 
 New York City is quoted herewith: 
 
 "In the plenitude of that generosity which has induced us to feed the 
 hungry and clothe the naked, we have warmed into life the torpid viper and 
 fanged adder that already begin to show their teeth and spit their venom 
 upon our dear and blood-bought privileges, our sacred and most cherished 
 institutions. Already the foreigners attempt to control our legislators to 
 nominate our magistrates and to brow-beat our voters at the ballot box ; and 
 if any of them are too diffident or too ignorant to talk to us in the tone of 
 defiance and domination, they sell their votes to the more enlightened and 
 crafty demagogue and perjure their souls at the hand of profligate leaders." 
 
 As late as 1855, Governor Gardener of Massachusetts recommended in 
 his inaugural address "an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the 
 right of aliens to vote until they were twenty-one years in the country." 
 "The honor of the American flag," he contended, "should be confided to 
 those only who are born on the soil, hallowed by its protection; they alone 
 can justly be required to vindicate its rights." Fortunately for the Irish in 
 the United States, England did all she could to break up the Union, there- 
 fore her propaganda work was not quite so effective because of her hostility. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Religious Persecution 
 
 Ireland's sufferings were many and varied, but the so-called Reformation 
 fell upon her the heaviest of all. The basest scoundrels on earth were en- 
 gaged in priest-hunting. Many of the hunters made a regular business of 
 it, employing a number of men as well as bloodhounds. A well-equipped 
 priest hunter was generally possessed of a smattering of education, and by 
 assuming the role of a priest he Very often succeeded in getting information 
 leading to their capture. The price of the head varied from time to time, 
 depending on the importance of the priest and the spirit of the times. It 
 was not unusual to capture five or six priests in one hunt. The English 
 state papers inform us that a Lieutenant Wood captured five priests and 
 three friars in one hunt. Henry Eighth commenced the work in a very 
 shrewd manner. He abolished all the old titles and created new ones. Any- 
 one who recognized him as head of the Church was treated in a princely 
 manner. To each new title he granted generous revenues by robbing the 
 churches and dividing the spoils between himself and the newly created 
 nobles. 
 
 Of course, the old Celtic Irish were proof against such materialism. 
 The converts to a man were Anglo-Irish. This was the commencement of 
 what was afterwards termed the Penal Code. Year after year brutal laws 
 were passed until, as declared by Montesquieu, "They were conceived by 
 devils, written in human gore and registered in hell." Every possible pun- 
 ishment that could be thought of was resorted to. This led to perpetual 
 war. 
 
 The Catholic religion was solemnly declared high treason. Commencing 
 in Henry Eighth's time, the horrors continued year by year until as late as 
 George First's time the inhuman, brutal and horrible law of castration was 
 passed. Is it possible that England would degrade herself by allowing her 
 Irish Parliament to pass a law that would make Nero blush with shame? 
 Such is unfortunately the case! 
 
 To debase Ireland and prevent her from being able to present her case, 
 education must be crushed; therefore, a price was placed on the head of a 
 schoolteacher. Is it possible? Yes. And what is England's excuse. The 
 Irish must reform and go to Protestant schools. Churches were closed. 
 The Irish were not alone commanded to go to Protestant Churches, but 
 they were compelled to support them. Schools, churches and colleges were 
 closed, type broken and every possible agency of education closed against 
 
 18 
 
Catholics. A price was offered for the head of a bishop, priest, bard or a 
 wolf. This law gave birth to a school of priest hunters. The most success- 
 ful ones were specially trained in the Continent for such work. The Irish 
 maintained sixteen colleges in Rome, France, Spain, Belgium and Portugal 
 for educating priests who very often had a foreign accent. A Portuguese 
 Jew named Garza captured five priests in one year in and around Dublin, 
 according to John Mitchel. Catholics could not go to school at home, nor 
 could they be sent abroad. Discovery of such a crime as education wrecked 
 and ruined the parents of the child or man. 
 
 Catholics could not own property except by connivance. They could 
 not make a will, take a lease or become the guardian of their own children. 
 They could not sit in Parliament or vote, in fact, they could not enter the 
 Parliament house as observers. Any Protestant who informed on a Cath- 
 olic owning property became possessor of the same. Upon being summoned, 
 Catholics were compelled to testify when and where they had last heard 
 Mass. Refusal meant fines and flogging. 
 
 If a wife turned Protestant, a jointure was fixed upon her by law. If a 
 boy or girl consented to turn Protestant, he was placed in the hands of a 
 Protestant and well supplied with his father's property if his parent had 
 any. If a priest turned Protestant, he was granted a pension by the govern- 
 ment, even if the rope were about his neck to be hanged. 
 
 A Catholic could not enter a walled city at night. A Catholic could 
 not practise law, sit on a jury, act as judge, practise medicine or handle a 
 gun. How could the spark of faith be kept alive under such circumstances, 
 you will ask? By the noblest sacrifice that a nation ever offered. A stream 
 of priests kept pouring into Ireland. Assuming the garb of beggars, farm- 
 ers, jobbers, minstrels or actors, they lived in caves, in the woods, in the 
 bogs, away from the haunts of man. Word would be given that Mass would 
 be said at a certain time in some secluded spot or lonesome byway where the 
 faithful would gather, very often to be surprised and to meet their doom at 
 the hands of a brutal soldiery. There is hardly a place in Ireland where 
 some noble martyr did not offer up his life for his faith. It was calculated 
 with cold-blooded exactness that one hundred years of such persecution 
 would completely obliterate every trace of the Catholic faith. 
 
 England declared that any Catholic ecclesiastic coming into Ireland 
 against the law would be executed as a traitor. Therefore, England justifies 
 herself on the ground that she warned them. The Germans warned the 
 world that they were going to sink the Lusitania. This only justified her in 
 her own eyes; she could not convince the world that she was right. 
 
 In order to remove all doubt as to the horrors of the Reformation in 
 Ireland we will quote Dr. John Milner, a noble-minded English bishop who 
 went to Ireland to study the subject. He informs us that the currycomb 
 and bowel ripping knife were freely used, that "beating in the priests' skulls 
 
 19 
 
with cobble stones was a favorite way of killing them." He tells us that 
 good Queen Bess granted safe conduct passports to fifty-one monks stationed 
 in the island of Scattery on the Shannon, and as soon as the ship upon which 
 they embarked was a little distance from the shore, they were all set upon, 
 thrown into the sea and drowned. ■ 
 
 Various forms of torture were used in killing Catholics, especially priests 
 — throwing them into lime-kilns; tearing them apart by mill wheels; tying 
 them to a galloping horse and pulling them along the ground ; crushing their 
 skulls with their own girdles ; throwing them from high points, towers, gates, 
 etc.; breaking their bones with hammers. The Catholic Encyclopedia 
 gives the names of two hundred and forty-two martyrs who are now going 
 through the process of canonization, all Catholic clergymen who died for 
 their faith in Ireland. All this could have been avoided by simply changing 
 their faith, England will say, therefore, that it was their own fault. Why 
 should they superstitiously adhere to a degraded faith, was England's brutal 
 query? 
 
 To add insult to injury, England has charged Ireland with being ignor- 
 ant, after deliberately making her so. English historians, one after another, 
 have a stock in trade abuse against Catholics. The Inquisition, St. Bar- 
 tholomew Massacre, Guy Fawke's plot, etc., are told of, but they know noth- 
 ing of Henry Eighth's seventy-eight thousand murders, Elizabeth's slaughter 
 of thousands of priests and bishops, the Massacres of Glencoe, Mullagh- 
 mast and Scattery. They know all about Smithfield's and nothing of Ty- 
 burn. Irish history is strangled; it cannot be taught in Irish schools, and 
 England has made it unpopular in the United States because of her super- 
 diplomacy. Even Colonial laws under English rule of not so many years ago 
 were so brutal that they allowed the ears of Quakers to be clipped off, their 
 tongues pulled out and red hot irons plunged through them, to say nothing 
 of putting them to death. What can we think of a race of people that dug 
 up Oliver Cromwell's remains one year after he was buried and hanged the 
 skeleton to a public gibbet. Not yet satisfied, they dug up his old mother 
 and did the same to her. 
 
 Surrounded by such a chain of multiplied horrors and calamities, the 
 people never faltered, never weakened, never showed the white feather. Irish 
 fathers and mothers saw their sons and daughters swept into slavery and 
 shame. They lost their language, lost their laws, lost their lands, houses, 
 property, money and were actually reduced to serfs. Only enough of them 
 were allowed to live to hew wood and draw water, and yet they kept the 
 priceless gift of their faith untarnished, and to it they clung with passionate 
 devotion. Misery, want, pain, rags, hunger, thirst, the rack, the gibbet, 
 the bowel ripping knife everlastingly hung over them, yet they never wav- 
 ered, but looked forward to a bright future, hoping and trusting and pray- 
 ing, knowing that the term of their thralldom would some day end. 
 
 20 
 
Just by way of illustration, we will mention a few of the bishops who 
 were martyred for their faith sooner than live in wealth and luxury by con- 
 forming to English materialism. 
 
 Archbishop Plunkett, Primate of Ireland, quartered in the year 1681. 
 
 McQueely, Archbishop of Tuam, tortured, 1645. 
 
 O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, tortured, 1584. 
 
 Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, tortured, 1584. 
 
 'Haley, Bishop of Mayo, tortured, 1578. 
 
 O'Brien, Bishop of Emly, tortured, 1586. 
 
 O'Gallagher, Bishop of Deny, tortured, 1600. 
 
 O'Devanny, Bishop of Down, tortured, 1612. 
 
 Herlihy, Bishop of Ross, tortured, 1579. 
 
 Dungan, Bishop of Down, tortured, 1628. 
 
 Tanner, Bishop of Cork, tortured, 1579. 
 
 William Walsh, Bishop of Meath, tortured, 1578. 
 
 Robert Netterville, an old, bed-ridden priest, was captured at Drogheda. 
 He was dragged along the ground, beaten with clubs, kicked brutally and in 
 this manner he was allowed to live three days until death came to his relief. 
 The Bathe brothers, two priests, were beaten, dragged along the street, tied 
 to stakes and shot by Cromwell. 
 
 In Elizabeth's reign, in the town of Clonmel, Tipperary County, a Father 
 Enright was in jail, the English hoping that he would conform. A Mr. White 
 bribed the jailer to let him out to say Mass. The authorities were warned 
 and made a raid on White's house, searched it thoroughly, but could not 
 find the priest. The soldiers probed everywhere with their bayonets, all 
 to no avail. It happened that the priest was placed under a pile of straw 
 which was thoroughly bayoneted by the soldiers and in doing so they ran 
 him through in two places. Such was his mastery of mind over matter that 
 he never betrayed himself, but escaped. Although seriously hurt, he was 
 not mortally wounded. White was arrested and given until next morning 
 to live if Father Enright did not apprehend himself. The good priest was 
 informed of the situation and hobbled towards the jail to give himself up. 
 He was offered power, place and pension if he would take the oath of allegiance. 
 This he manfully refused to do. He was then hanged, his head cut off and 
 placed on the jail tower. This is a fair sample of what Ireland suffered. 
 
 Let us again quote J. Milner. "P. O'Hurley, O. S. F., Archbishop of 
 Cashel, who falling into the hands of Sir William Drury in the year 1579, 
 was tortured by his legs being immersed in jackboots filled with quicklime, 
 water, etc., until they were burnt to the bone, in order to force him to take the 
 oath of supremacy, and then with other circumstances of barbarity, executed 
 on the scaffold, having previously cited Drury to meet him before the tri- 
 bunal of Christ before ten days, who accordingly died within that period 
 amidst the most excruciating pains." 
 
 21 
 
The same authority states, "In Elizabeth's reign it was a usual thing 
 to beat with stones the shorn heads of the priests till their brains gushed 
 out. Others had needles thrust between their finger nails and flesh or the 
 nails themselves torn off. Many were stretched upon the rack or pressed 
 under weights. Others had their bowels torn open or their flesh torn with 
 currycombs." 
 
 John Mitchel, a Protestant minister's son, tells us that "Archbishop 
 Healy of Mayo County was captured, had his bones broken with hammers 
 and sharp instruments driven in between his finger nails and flesh. In this 
 manner he was tortured, combined with other indignities, and then executed." 
 
 It is not necessary to call for any authority in proof of the truth of the 
 statements made here. We will close the chapter in the words of the well- 
 known Protestant writer, Godkin: 
 
 "The 18th Century was the era of persecution in which the law did the 
 work of the sword more effectually and more safely. Then was established 
 a code framed with almost diabolical ingenuity to extinguish natural affec- 
 tion, to perpetuate brutal ignorance, to facilitate the work of tyranny by 
 rendering the vices of slavery inherent and natural in the Irish character 
 and to make Protestantism almost irredeemably odious as the monstrous in- 
 carnation of all moral perversions. Having no rights or franchises, no legal 
 protection of life or property, disqualified to handle a gun, forbidden even 
 to acquire the elements of knowledge at home or abroad — forbidden even to 
 render to God what conscience dictated as His due — what could the Irish 
 be but serfs? Is it not amazing that any social virtue could have survived 
 such an ordeal?" 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Ireland's Struggle for Freedom in the Battlefield 
 and Legislative Halls 
 
 In order to fully estimate Ireland's claim we must briefly review her 
 struggles. Let no man think for a moment that she laid down after the 
 first shock of battle. 
 
 Year after year, century after century found her engaged in war after 
 war, winning battle after battle. Making sacrifice after sacrifice, but, in 
 the end, she was always vanquished by the foul invader. A mere recital of 
 the battles would become monotonous, so will group the struggle into epochs. 
 
 Many times England was beaten to her knees, only to come back through 
 some strange luck, for instance, such as the United States going into the 
 present war, famine, wind, etc. We will here group together Ireland's many 
 victories, but it is only fair to state that they were often defeated. 
 
 In the first one hundred years Ireland had twenty-one wars with Eng- 
 land, during which time they won thirty-nine big battles, to say nothing about 
 private strife, skirmishes, forays, and the battles they lost. To better illus- 
 trate : great battles were won over the English according to the Four Masters, 
 in the years 1185-88-92-95-96-1212-13-21-27-33-47-48-50-53-57-58-60- 
 62-63-64^-70-75. In some of those years the Irish won many victories and 
 also lost many. Our main object is to prove that we did not surrender with- 
 out a bitter struggle. 
 
 The English were literally swept out of Ireland. Edward Bruce was From 
 crowned King, and with the aid of his famous brother, Robert, England 1315t0 
 was defeated in twenty-seven big battles. Famine saved her this time. 
 
 In this year a great battle was fought at Limerick in which the Deputy, 1350 
 the Earl of Desmond, was killed and his army destroyed. 
 
 Art Second McMurrough, Prince of Leinster, fought England for forty- 
 two years, won over twenty great battles. Killed Richard Second's son in 
 one battle, disastrously defeated Richard, who conducted two great cam- 
 paigns and personally led the two largest English armies that ever trod on 
 Irish soil. After his second defeat, he hastened back to England, only to 
 lose his head and crown to the Lancastrians who conspired against him in 
 his absence. 
 
 The Duke of Lancaster, surrounded with England's greatest generals 
 collected another mighty army. Art swooped down on them at Kilmainham 
 
 23 
 
and won the most brilliant victory of the time. The Duke was badly 
 wounded, carried into the city of Dublin, whose stout walls saved the wreck 
 of his army. 
 
 Frem Ireland was in a continuous state of war against England. 
 
 1540 Con O'Neill, 
 
 1600 Shane O'Neill, 
 
 Silken Thomas, 
 
 Gerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, 
 Bryan O'Neill, 
 Hugh O'Neill, 
 Hugh Roe O'Donnell, 
 struck England some awful blows. England's greatest generals and over 
 twenty large armies were destroyed in the great Irish victories of Kilmallock, 
 Athlone, Blackwood, Canillo, Monastir Neny, Graufin, Gurt-na Pisa, Glen- 
 dalough, Dublin, Maynooth, Ballahoa, Deny, Cossog-Derg, Enniskillen, 
 Battleford-Bridge, Portmore, Benburb, Clontibret, Armagh, Killoter, Pass 
 of Plumes, Crome, Corsleibh, and the Yellow Ford. 
 
 In this series of wars over twenty of England's greatest generals were 
 defeated and many of them killed. Failure and destruction of crops ruined 
 the Irish who were compelled to yield. 
 1640 to From 1640 to 1691 Ireland was again in a continual state of war. 
 
 1691 The Civil war of 1641 was followed by Cromwell's Butcheries. Out of 
 
 the general salughter shines the great victory of Benburb, won by the cele- 
 brated Owen Roe O'Neill. 
 
 Then came the 
 
 Williamite War, and although the Irish won at 
 
 "Athlone," 
 
 "Ballyneety," 
 
 "Limerick" and other places. And although Sarsfield covered himself 
 with undying fame, they were in the end overpowered and the Irish army 
 volunteered to go to France, where they formed the "Irish Brigade," so fa- 
 mous in history. The manhood of Ireland now turned towards France and 
 the United States, and the nation fell into a comatose condition lasting a 
 hundred years. 
 
 Wolfe Tone succeeded in once more rousing the spirit of the people, and 
 after efforts never before excelled by one man, he succeeded in getting the 
 French government to equip a fleet of fifty Battleships, well manned, com- 
 manded by three great admirals. 15,000 veteran troops were on board. 
 The grand armament left France for Ireland, December, 1796. A storm of 
 unnatural severity broke and scattered them like chaff. A thick fog also 
 settled over them, to addto the confusion, and once more England was saved 
 
 24 
 
by the elements. Again the Batavian Republic collected a great fleet of 26 1798 
 Battleships, 15,000 veteran troops, and offered them to Ireland. The ex- 
 pedition was ready for months and could not start, being becalmed. This 
 is known as the Trexel expedition and was one of the best ever organized. 
 And England was again saved by the elements. 
 
 Once more Tone succeeded in having France furnish another force for 
 Ireland. Once more it was wrecked by a storm. Tone was captured and 
 either murdered or committed suicide. 
 
 Small battles were fought here and there in the Rebellion of 1798; the 
 Irish won at 
 
 "Mount Norris," 
 "Oulart Hill," 
 "Wexford," 
 "Gorey," 
 ' ' Tubberneering, ' ' 
 "Castlebar" (By the French), 
 "Carnew." 
 How England forced the people into rebellion for the purpose of bringing 
 about a union we cannot touch upon. As a fair sample of her brutality, 
 however, we will refer to how Father John Murphy was treated. George 
 Taylor, historian, states: — 
 
 "Lord Mountnorris ordered his head struck off and the body thrown 
 into a house that was burning, exclaiming at the same time, 'Let his body 
 go where his soul is.' " 
 
 Rev. James Gordon states: — 
 
 They "cut open the dead body of Father Murphy, took out his heart, 
 roasted the body and oiled their boots with the grease that dripped from it." 
 
 This story is so horrible that, were it not vouched for by such a witness 
 as Captain Holmes of the Durham Regiment, many would doubt it. 
 
 John Mitchell informs us that Hunter Gowan, a Captain of Yeomanry, 
 carried the finger of a papist in his pocket to mix the drinks with, etc. 
 
 The 1803-46-67 and 1916 affairs we will pass over. To give an idea of 
 English justice, no farther back than three years ago, Connolly, one of the 
 leaders of the Dublin Rebellion, was captured in a dying condition. To die 
 an honorable soldier's death would not satisfy English brutality, so they 
 marched a firing squad into the hospital, propped him up in bed and poured 
 a stream of bullets into his body. 
 
 The foregoing will give us at least an idea of how Ireland struggled for 
 her freedom in the field of battle and although she has not been successful, 
 yet she has been instrumental in humiliating the Common enemy ^on many a 
 battlefield, and we are as determined as ever not to^quit. 
 
 25 
 
LEGISLATIVE STRUGGLE 
 
 We will now briefly cover Ireland's constitutional struggle for self gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The Statutes of Kilkenny were enacted by the English in Ireland, as 
 we have shown in the first chapter. The Irish were then considered eternal 
 Rebels whom it was no crime to kill, and in every age the Celtic Irish have 
 been treated in a like manner. They were never considered except as ene- 
 mies and slaves. 
 
 Through English stupidity or vanity many of the colony broke away and 
 adopted Irish manners, customs, etc. 
 
 The Statutes of Kilkenny were aimed at such and to better protect 
 England against Irish ideals, what is known in history as Poynings Law was 
 enacted. 
 
 Henry Seventh, First of the Tudors, sent to Ireland as his Deputy, Sir 
 Edw. Poynings. A meeting was called at Drogheda and the announcement 
 made that no more laws could originate in Ireland. The Irish council could 
 propose a law and send it to England, where it could be altered, annulled, 
 amended, or in fact, treated as England thought fit. 
 
 Some contend that Henry acted through spite because the Irish favored 
 the Lancastrians in "The Wars of the Roses." 
 
 In order to keep Ireland under control, it was necessary for England 
 to exercise great care, and in making the Irish Parliament a mere conference, 
 she protected her interests. It was barely possible that in future generations 
 the colony might become Irish; therefore, a restraining hand was necessary. 
 Ireland was and is often charged with selling out to England. There was 
 not one single Catholic vote cast for the union. We should remember that 
 for a very brief space, when William and James contested for supremacy in 
 Ireland, a Catholic Irish Parliament was elected in the storm of Civil War, 
 and, although for generations they suffered many wrongs, yet their first act 
 was: — 
 
 "To establish free schools and the following, considering the circum- 
 stances under which they met, will forever redound to Ireland's glory: 
 
 "We hereby declare that it is the law of this land, that not now, or ever 
 again, shall any man be persecuted for his religion." (May, 1689.) 
 
 No wonder that Lecky would say, "The Protestants were guaranteed 
 full liberty." 
 
 Prior to the Independence of the United States, Parliaments were con- 
 trolled by a few. Every big man owned members of Parliament. The Bur- 
 roughs were often auctioned for sale. 6,000 voters elected a majority of the 
 members of Parliament of all England. They only had about one voter to 
 every one hundred persons. 
 
 26 
 
In Ireland through her system of stuffed Burroughs, only 72 out of 300 
 members were elected, and at that the Catholic population had no vote at 
 all except for a very brief period. 
 
 After Ireland was crushed in the Williamite war the Catholic population 
 was scattered. The Garrison then took a turn out of the Presbyterians and 
 struck fiercely at many of their industries. The Irish House of Lords refused 
 to be controlled by the English House, leading to a bitter controversy which 
 resulted in Act 6, Geo. 1st. England declared by that act that Ireland was 
 a subject country and England could bind her. The destruction of Irish 
 Industries and the persecution of Presbyterians created an opposition to the 
 government giving birth to the Patriot Party. 
 
 We must always remember that Lucas Swift and, in fact, all of the Irish 
 leaders of that period, were not alone Protestants, but in the great majority 
 of cases despised the Catholics and looked upon them with contempt. 
 
 Wolfe Tone was the first who came out unqualifiedly in favor of Cath- 
 olic rights. He clearly saw that with seventy-five per cent of the people 
 disqualified, England could easily keep them under control. 
 
 But why go back to the Statutes of Kilkenny Poynings' Law, William's 
 or George's Law? Have we not in Ireland to-day an English Garrison, 
 trained, tutored and bred in such a manner that they hate their own coun- 
 try with all the concentrated fury and blindness that the curse of bigotry 
 stamps upon them? Sooner than see their own country free, they would 
 give up their lives. 
 
 The man of to-day who wants to look honestly into Ireland's claims and 
 seriously consider its justice does not have to go back over five years to know 
 that as soon as a Home Rule measure was put on the Statute books of Eng- 
 land granting Ireland a small share of freedom, the English garrison, led by 
 Carson, armed and equipped an army and swore by the holy bones of William 
 the German that they would kick England into the Boyne water before they 
 would accept any law from Ireland. This is the story of to-day, and it's the 
 story of Ireland for seven hundred and fifty years, and the most insulting 
 part of it all is, England tells us to unite, otherwise she won't listen to us. 
 
 Just as the Colonists in the United States were slowly lashed into a spirit 
 of resistance, so also was Ireland. If Grattan struck for complete separation, 
 the map of Europe would be different to-day. His foolish idea about main- 
 taining independence under the British crown and the most absolute stupidity 
 of the garrison, thinking that they could maintain their freedom with five- 
 sixths of the people disfranchised would not seem to be the acts of men who 
 were as bright and intelligent as there were in any legislative body then in 
 the world. 
 
 The United States set Ireland a fine example. She commenced to agi- 
 tate for freedom. Finally, in the year 1780, Grattan introduced his famous 
 Bill of Rights. It was easily voted down. About 75,000 volunteers, well 
 
 27 
 
armed and equipped, threw down the gage of battle to England, and with 
 shotted cannon trained on the Parliament House, they called for Self-Govern- 
 ment or war. England granted their request. Grattan now introduced his 
 bill of rights. England was always proof against a good argument, but not 
 against a cannon, so she gave in. Ireland was free, and many thought that 
 the chains would be stricken from the Catholics in a short time. 
 
 England shone forth now as country never did before. The United 
 States, France, Spain and India pounded her into a standstill. Ireland was 
 then numerically greater than the United States. Nothing could prevent 
 her from gaining complete independence except the accursed bigotry of the 
 times. 
 
 England took advantage of it and stirred up trouble through her super- 
 diplomacy and propaganda work. Whether we like it or not, and no matter 
 how much it pains us, compared with England in the field of diplomacy, the 
 rest of the world are mere children. She has been able to impose on the 
 world and make it believe that she is right even when she is robbing and 
 plundering. 
 
 The work of ruining Ireland was easy. The first step was to disband 
 the volunteers. This was easily done through the Earl of Charlemont's 
 treachery, he being commander-in-chief. The French Revolution also helped 
 to line up the aristocracy, by half hanging free quarter and pitchcapping a 
 rebellion was stirred up. Pitt, Lords Cornwallis and Castlreagh were given 
 full power. A place bill, putting seven million dollars into their hands, was 
 passed and titles were freely dispensed. 
 
 A certain Lord Blacquere organized a shooting club, composed of des- 
 perate assassins, whose duty it was to shoot down any patriot who assailed 
 the government. These men were stuffed into Parliament. Lord Ely re- 
 ceived $225,000 for the vote of his burroughs. The bribe money was taxed 
 on the Irish people and so England easily carried the question. To make it 
 appear decent, she promised the Catholics emancipation. 
 
 The passage of the Union is rightly looked upon as one of the foulest 
 crimes in history and should be rightly considered as such. Lord Clare 
 declared, "There is not a nation in the habitable globe which has advanced 
 in cultivation, in manufactories with the same rapidity, in the same period 
 (1782-98) as Ireland." Of course, England well knew that, and to prevent 
 Ireland from expanding, she ruined the country. Gladstone declared, "I 
 know of no blacker or fouler transaction in the history of man than the mak- 
 ing of the Union between England and Ireland." Harold Begbie, English 
 author, states: "Ireland was swindled out of her national independence; 
 and the traitors in her own camp were either rewarded with titles or paid 
 like cash tradesmen with enormous sums of money which a shameless England 
 did not scruple to charge upon Ireland. England first set herself to con- 
 
 28 
 
quer, then to exterminate, and afterwards to beggar the inhabitants of Ire- 
 land by this act of union like a common scoundrel." 
 
 Lecky, the anti-home ruler, stated, "The sacrifice of nationality was 
 extorted by the most enormous corruption in the history of representative 
 institutions." 
 
 It is not the intention of the writer to go into the details of Ireland's 
 struggle after the passage of the Union, as space will not permit. It took 
 twenty years of almost civil war to win Catholic Emancipation. For every 
 act in behalf of Ireland placed on England's statute books the Irish members 
 had to fight as men never fought before. Many of them were sent to jail, 
 some were shot at. Even to-day thousands of Irishmen are in jail for loving 
 their country, and John Redmond is authority for the statement that in the 
 one hundred and nineteen years of union, England has given the Irish eighty- 
 seven Coercion Bills. Yet we are supposed to cheer for her. 
 
 29 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 How Irish Industries Were Crushed 
 
 It is almost impossible to believe that any civilized country would so 
 deliberately plan the ruin of another as England planned Ireland's ruin. 
 Were it not for the various enactments already referred to, we could not 
 without hesitation accept the story of Ireland's commercial ruin. It is need- 
 less to say that England would not scruple to destroy any foreign industry, 
 much less the industry of a country that she despised as heartily as she did 
 Ireland, which she succeeded in degrading to the lowest level of any people 
 in the civilized world. 
 
 As briefly as possible we will point out the facts and in this connection 
 McManus will be mainly used as our authority. In the year 1339 England 
 appointed an admiral whose duty it was to stop all traffic between Ireland 
 and the continent. This was the commencement. In 1465 Edward Fourth 
 prevented foreign vessels from fishing in Irish waters without an English 
 permit. The reason he gave was that he "deplored the prosperity of the 
 Irish trade." In the year 1494 England forbade the exportation from Ire- 
 land of any manufactured article without permission from England, and 
 even then the Irish were compelled to send their goods to English ports for the 
 purpose of taxing them. 
 
 Law after law was passed, until the year 1548, when the merchants of 
 England began to arm private vessels for the purpose of attacking, plunder- 
 ing and destroying Irish ships. In 1571 Elizabeth confiscated the commerce 
 of Munster, and the law ordained that no shipment could be made even to 
 England except by an Englishman or a merchant approved by the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 As early as the year 1447, England declared Irish money useless and 
 flooded Ireland with a debased currency. The Irish naturally favored their 
 own coin in preference to the spurious article, and England therefore de- 
 clared it treason to refuse to accept English money. In addition to Parlia- 
 mentary enactments, private agencies were at work discriminating against 
 and trying to destroy Irish industries. Just as soon as an industry began 
 to gain headway, complaints were made and laws enacted to crush it. Henry 
 Eighth prohibited the shipment of Irish cloth from Galway. 
 
 In 1663 sweeping laws were enacted against Irish trade. All foreign 
 ships except English boats manned by Englishmen were denied admittance 
 into Irish ports. The Irish shipping industry alone gave England much 
 
 30 
 
concern. In spite of laws, they found an occasional loophole and it took 
 about three hundred years to crush it completely. 
 
 The manufacture of cloths of any kind caused England great uneasiness. 
 Ireland was then noted for her woolen industry. She had the finest sheep- 
 raising pastures in Europe, the best wool and very industrious people. The 
 frieze is an echo of what Ireland once was in the woolen line. In the year 
 1660 the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland asked for more repressive laws to pre- 
 vent manufacturing, his main reason being, as he stated, to "keep the Irish 
 in nakedness and beggary." In the year 1660 the woolen trade was killed by 
 legislation. Ireland, however, had the raw wool left and commenced to do 
 a thriving business. England, although she needed the wool, decided to 
 abolish it by forbidding its exportation. In order to get the wool, however, 
 Irish sheep were permitted to be sent to England to be sheared and at the 
 same time the price was fixed. This law rooted out the raw wool industry. 
 But in order to finish it completely, it was recommended that the manufacture 
 of wool should cease even for home use. Therefore, the Irish could not make 
 the cloth to cover their own bodies. In spite of the severity of the law, how- 
 ever, the industry was not totally suppressed until the good and glorious 
 William of Orange's time. In the year 1698, approved by the Lords and 
 Commons of England, it was decided "To totally prohibit and suppress the 
 same under pain of forfeiture of goods, the ships that carried them, and five 
 hundred pounds fine." William, with thorough Dutch ideas, finished Ireland 
 as a manufacturing nation. 
 
 Ireland now turned to linen and developed it. In the year 1705 Eng- 
 land rooted out the industry by passing laws prohibiting its importation to 
 her colonies, and at the same time granting bounties to her own manufac- 
 turers. Catholic Ireland was now well plundered and the various enactments 
 against linen struck the Presbyterians also, but so determined was England 
 to pauperize Ireland that they were not spared, and as the Lord Lieutenant 
 declared, "The result is the ruin of Ulster and the flight of the Protestant 
 population to America." 
 
 The cattle trade was very important to Ireland. As early as 1665 laws 
 were passed prohibiting the shipment of cattle. Ireland then turned to the 
 shipment of dead meat, which was soon prohibited. The hides were left, 
 and Ireland turned to the development of that branch of manufacture. Even 
 that was prohibited. 
 
 Ireland next turned to the making of butter and cheese, which were also 
 banned, after which times became so terrible in Ireland that a man could 
 buy a cow or a horse for a dollar. As late as William Fourth's time, tobacco 
 was crushed and legislated out of Ireland as far as its growth was concerned. 
 
 George Second destroyed the glass industry, and not content with crush- 
 ing it, England forbade the importation of glass into Ireland from any coun- 
 try except her own. 
 
 31 
 
Blow after blow was aimed at Irish fisheries. As late as 1819 twenty- 
 seven thousand boats employing one hundred and fifty thousand men were 
 engaged in this industry. Through various tricks of law, England crushed 
 it by withdrawing subsidies, etc., until less than twenty thousand men are 
 now engaged in this work. In a word, England controls ninety-eight per 
 cent of the commerce of England, Ireland and Scotland, while Ireland con- 
 trols only one-half per cent. And yet England has covered her work so 
 effectually that the world knows very little about her methods. Froude in 
 his history states, "England governed Ireland for what she deemed her own 
 interest, making her calculations on the gross balance of her trade ledgers 
 and leaving her moral obligations aside, as if right and wrong had been blotted 
 out of the statute books of the universe." In the whole range of history it 
 would be impossible to find another country that has persecuted a race as 
 relentlessly as England has persecuted Ireland. You may think of the pro- 
 gressive laws that England has passed in the interest of Ireland of late years. 
 England has never passed a law that was not wrung from her by the hardest 
 kind of fighting. 
 
 POPULATION 
 
 Ireland's population was often and repeatedly swept away. As we 
 have seen, Ireland was in a continual state of war from 1169 to 1691, and 
 every Englishmen who tried to extend his estates met with fearful opposition. 
 At the close of each big war the Irish were reduced lower and lower in the 
 social scale until only the hewers of wood and drawers of water were left. 
 They were killed off, banished or sold as slaves. 
 
 Elizabeth, in the most cold-blooded manner, deliberately set about to 
 mop up Munster, and she succeeded so well at the end of an awful war that 
 the people were driven into houses which were set on fire and the people 
 burned to death, as described by Paul DuBoies. The tiger Cromwell, who 
 tore up and rooted out two-thirds of Ireland's population and sent the people 
 to "hell or Connaght," reduced the population to a few, and as he stated, 
 the glory of his murders belonged to God alone. And with other circum- 
 stances of barbarity he banished approximately 100,000 to the Barbadoes, 
 selling them into slavery for life. 
 
 After each extermination the population would begin to grow again, and 
 they had once more reached respectable numbers in the time of William of 
 Orange. Great numbers were killed in the war, and it was then, after a 
 long series of oppressive laws, that the people scattered to the United States 
 or France, until there were only a little more than a million left in all Ireland. 
 
 Again they commenced to grow, and in spite of evictions and all kinds 
 of odious laws, Ireland had a population of over five millions in the year 1801, 
 while England in the same year had less than ten millions. In 1846 Ireland 
 had approximately nine million souls, therefore in seventy-five years her 
 
 32 
 
population has decreased over fifty per cent, while the population of England, 
 Scotland and Wales has more than doubled itself in that space of time. In- 
 stead of Ireland outnumbering Scotland three to one, Scotland actually out- 
 numbers Ireland. 
 
 Ireland is withering, decaying and falling to pieces; there is no hope 
 for her prosperity or regeneration under English law, even though they meant 
 to be honest with us. The fact cannot be reiterated too often that there has 
 always been an English colony in Ireland who have been doing England's 
 work and are still doing it. They are the office-holders and have a monop- 
 oly on all positions of trust. They hate Ireland a thousand times more than 
 the average Englishman hates it. With consummate diplomacy, England 
 calls upon the people to get together and unite, and through her incomparable 
 propaganda she can make the world think that the Irish are divided, that 
 they cannot unite and therefore it would be stupid to attempt to do any- 
 thing for them. 
 
 The question is often asked, could Ireland maintain herself as a distinct 
 nation? She did so before, longer than any other known country. Some say 
 that she would be swallowed up by some other hostile power. Ireland is 
 three times as large as Belgium, or nearly so. She is nearly three times as 
 large as Holland; over twice as large as Switzerland; over twice as large as 
 Denmark. Are they swallowed up? 
 
 In addition, Ireland is surrounded by a stormy sea with a distinct indi- 
 viduality, and above all, England's law has been a crime and a blunder, driv- 
 ing the people away from the country and reducing them year by year in 
 numbers, through under-industry and over- taxation. An English Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer was appointed by Parliament in the year 1893 for the 
 purpose of a thorough inquiry into Ireland's claim that she was overtaxed. 
 He had a corps of experts who went back to the date of the Union, and after 
 a painstaking study they arrived at the conclusion that Ireland was overtaxed 
 #13,000,000 a year. It is.no use dwelling on an established fact. No matter 
 how we look upon English rule — from an educational, a commercial or popu- 
 lative standpoint, we must agree that it is a scourge. It costs Switzerland 
 forty shillings a year per head to administer the laws of her country, while 
 it costs Ireland seventy-five shillings per head to be bound up in slavery. 
 
 33 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 After what Ireland has accomplished for the United States it is discour- 
 aging to think that England through super-propaganda work has been able 
 to gain her ear especially in trying to make it appear that the Irish have not 
 been true, that they were pro-German during the war. 
 
 The Irish well knew that America's entry into the war would save England 
 and in all probability strengthen her hand for more persecution of their race, 
 and yet they were loyal under circumstances that would have shaken any 
 other race on earth. This is no theory ; it is absolutely true. We know that 
 America is the daughter of Europe. Some call England the mother coun- 
 try. The Germans and the English are the same race, and yet it did not 
 save them from assaulting each other. England crushed Spain, Holland, 
 France and kept Russia land locked and prevented her from becoming a com- 
 mercial rival. 
 
 We have had more trouble with England than with all Europe combined. 
 Therefore, we should be very careful in dealing with her. Why should Ire- 
 land be allowed to remain the only unfree race in Europe after the United 
 States has said that she went into the war in the interest of Democracy and 
 small nations? If this is not so, our declaration of principles is a farce. 
 Washington in his Farewell Address, with prophetic wisdom foresaw two great 
 dangers to the United States, and he solemnly warned the people against 
 them. The first was to beware of entangling alliances, and the second was 
 a warning against Anglomania or Francomania. 
 
 Why should the United States desert Ireland in this great hour of world 
 achievement? She smashed Spain to set Cuba free. What did Cuba ever 
 do in comparison with Ireland? Poland, Armenia, Belgium, Bohemia, Czecko 
 and Jugo Slavia combined have not done as much for the United States as 
 Ireland has. If it is right for England to crush Ireland and rule her against 
 her will, it is right for Russia to crush the Poles, for Germany to crush Bel- 
 gium, for Austria to crush the Czecks. There is no exception; if it is right 
 for one, it is right for the other. Finns, Poles, Bohemians, Serbians, Bel 
 gians, Albanians, Armenians, Slavs, Jugo Slavs, Czecko Slavs and Jews 
 are justly looking for their freedom. Ireland alone is the only outcast race. 
 England owns one-fourth of the globe. She knows that the fate of nations 
 cannot be foreseen with certainty; therefore, to secure herself, a League of 
 Nations that would protect her is to her liking. 
 
 True, we had a League of Nations before, called The Holy Alliance, en- 
 tered into after the last world war. England found it to her interest to break 
 
 34 
 
it. There can be no real peace while one nation insists on governing another 
 nation against its will. Ex-President Taft called the Irish an Internal Prob- 
 lem. The Revolutionary war was really more of an internal question. 
 
 Did President Wilson consider the Irish a domestic question when he 
 said: — 
 
 "We shall fight for the things that we have always carried nearest to our 
 hearts; for Democracy — for the rights and liberties of small nations." 
 
 When the American soldiers, including at least thirty-five per cent Irish, 
 were pouring forth their lives with a bravery and a devotion never equalled 
 before, did our President say we are fighting for Democracy and for the free- 
 dom of all nations except Ireland? 
 
 Ireland is as truly a nation as any in Europe. Has she not struggled 
 longer, sacrificed more, and fought harder? She has in fact suffered and 
 struggled and bled more than any other race, and at the last election the 
 ballot stood five to one in favor of Self-determination. England, of course, 
 in order to justify herself, will make it appear that the Irish were false, pro- 
 German, unfit for self-determination, etc. 
 
 As a matter of history, the Hessians and Brandenburghers did as dirty 
 a piece of work in Ireland in the Williamite War and in the Rebellion of '98 
 as they did in the United States in the Revolutionary War. 
 
 For the benefit of those who accuse the Irish of being pro-German, Gen- 
 eral Crowders' report informs us that less Irishmen claimed exemption than 
 any other race in proportion to their numbers, including the English. 
 
 The following is an extract from an Article by R. L., for the "New States- 
 man", London: — 
 
 "Ireland's record in the war has been, from the point of view of the 
 Allies, magnificent. The magnificence of the Irish contribution to the cause 
 of freedom has been only less amazing than the flood of calumny and belittle- 
 ment that has been consistently poured on it ever since August, 1914. Ire- 
 land has made a greater voluntary contribution of men to the Allied forces 
 than any other unfree nation in the world. That is the leading fact of the 
 situation. Sir Charles Russell, speaking at a Red Cross Meeting at Dublin 
 a few weeks ago, declared that Ireland had given 250,000 men to the British 
 army and navy; and this leaves altogether out of account the equally large 
 number of Irishmen who have taken part in the war in the Australian, Cana- 
 dian and American armies. If these are added in, we need not hesitate to 
 accept Mr. John Redmond's estimate that 500,000 Irishmen have fought in 
 the ranks of the Allies for the liberty of the world. At the same time, as 
 was shown in the "New Statesman" some time ago, Ireland has been second 
 only to America itself in the supplies of food she has sent to England during 
 the perilous years of the war. Had it not been for the assistance rendered 
 
 35 
 
by Ireland, both in men and foodstuffs, it is doubtful whether the Allies would 
 yet have been able to force Germany to submission. He would be a knave and 
 a fool, who, having accepted the services of half a million Irish soldiers and 
 sailors, would pretend that Ireland has not made an immense and foreseeable 
 contribution to the victory of the Allies, and who would reward the Irish 
 dead with a weak sneer, about the abundance of butter in Ireland in war-time. 
 
 INSURRECTION OF 1916 
 
 "It may be asked why, these things being so, has the average Englishman 
 been allowed to get the idea that Ireland has stood aside and sulked during 
 the war. Some people think that the insurrection of 1916 is chiefly to blame. 
 Well, there were not enough Irishmen in the Dublin insurrection of 1916 to 
 make up even one battalion of the Irish Guards. One was told at the time 
 that the Dublin insurgents numbered about a thousand. One has learned 
 since then that they were hardly more than six hundred. Clearly, if Ire- 
 land's freedom is to depend upon whether her services to the Allies have out- 
 weighed her dis-services, she has earned her freedom about a thousand times 
 over. For every Irishman who shouldered a rifle on the insurgent side, a 
 thousand Irishmen have borne weapons on the side of the Allies. I doubt 
 if one Englishman in a hundred thousand realizes this. If they did, they 
 would insist on seeing that their Irish Allies had a free Parliament restored 
 to them before the Peace Conference sits. Never was the need of a national 
 government proved more completely. Had Ireland possessed a national 
 government during the war, she would have had an organ for making known 
 her services to the civilized world. Canada, Australia and South Africa 
 have but to speak of what they have done, and all the world listens." 
 
 Extract from an Article appearing in the Boston Globe by Capt. Thos. 
 McMahon of the Irish Guards:— 
 
 HAS GIVEN 58.1 PER CENT. 
 
 "When the war began, Ireland sent into the righting zone some 15 regi- 
 ments distinctively Irish from all four provinces. And as the war developed 
 there were the London Irish, Liverpool Irish, Tyneside Irish. And in the 
 Scotch, Welsh and English regiments were many more Irishmen. 
 
 "Then there came from overseas some regiments like the Vancouver 
 Irish Fusiliers, the Quebec Irish, a South African Irish regiment. And from 
 Australia came others, some 50 per cent of the men from there being of that 
 race. And we had thousands in the navy. 
 
 "We raised the 10th, the 16th and the 36th Irish Divisions, and we sent 
 thousands across to keep up the strength of our units. Yet a few days ago 
 
 36 
 
I read in a paper here that Ireland had contributed but 10 per cent of soldiers, 
 while Scotland and other places had contributed 40 per cent. 
 
 "Official figures available show that up to January last, Erin had con- 
 tributed 58.1 per cent of her available man power. Now these figures mean 
 only the men who were listed following a military census. It does not in- 
 clude the men who were in the English army and Navy when the war broke 
 out. 
 
 "Nor does it include those Irishmen working in Britain who swelled the 
 ranks of the units across the Channel, men who if at home would have gone 
 into Irish regiments. 
 
 IRISHMAN FIRED FIRST SHOT 
 
 "A trooper of the Irish Dragoons fired the first shot that opened the war 
 between Germany and England when the Huns started their big drive, and 
 the retreat from Mons was on. The Irish Guards broke up the whirling 
 charges of the mounted Uhlans, The 2d Royal Irish Regiment was terribly 
 cut up stemming the tide. And the 2d Connaught Rangers, outnumbered 
 five to one, at the word of Colonel Abercrombie, made a charge that scattered 
 the Huns like sheep. 
 
 "It was the 6th Leinsters that topped Sari Bahir, the hardest spot on 
 the ridge, from which the Dardanelles could be seen. And to do this they 
 made a charge quickly when New Zealanders came retreating down the hill, 
 the Irishmen retaking the place in twenty minutes. 
 
 "Fight, fight and charge, was the story all along there. Just consider 
 fighting two hours and not advancing 100 feet. The Munsters and 6th 
 Dublins faced that, and then with a final charge up one side of a hill the 
 Munsters gained the top and victory. And to relieve these troops others had 
 to fight their way up, the 7th Dublins battling four hours one evening, ending 
 with a furious charge to clear the way to reach their comrades. 
 
 "In the general attack later on, when the Australians were cut off from 
 water, the Connaught Rangers earned the title 'The Courting Dangers' for 
 their charge to capture the wells held by the Turks. They poured across a 
 strip of land that took a terrible toll, but cleaned up the Turks. And these 
 same Rangers a few days later captured Hill 60, one of t'he most desperate 
 engagements in the closing days of the campaign. 
 
 MORE FANCIES THAN TRUTH 
 
 "What the Irish should do is to learn about what has been done by their 
 brothers across the ocean ; their brethren who crossed the seas from the Domin- 
 ions ; what their brethren in the American forces are doing now, so that they 
 can break down the barrier being raised against the race through false con- 
 
 37 
 
ceptions founded upon cables from abroad, some of which are more fancies 
 than truth. 
 
 "Admittedly, the Irish have not been surpassed in fighting on any battle 
 front, and at times they performed the supposedly impossible, such as the 
 Suvla Bay landing, where Von Golz, the German genius, had constructed what 
 he and other prominent officers claimed was an impregnable position, a ver- 
 itable death trap for attackers. 
 
 "So it is time we said a few things about ourselves instead of letting the 
 people here get the idea Ireland's share of the war is trying to help Germany." 
 
 The most aggravating part of the whole Irish situation is to be compelled 
 to listen to a country that hired German troops against France, Ireland and 
 the United States when it suited her purpose to do so, and then we are charged 
 with being pro-German. Let us not forget that on many occasions England 
 charged us with being pro- American. Many of us may not have read of the 
 Irish prisoners captured by England in the War of 1812. Although they 
 wore the American uniform they were considered traitors and thrown on 
 board a ship and hurried to England for the purpose of being executed as 
 traitors. Fortunately, the United States had a President with backbone 
 enough to retaliate. Briefly, the facts are as follows: Colonel Scott, with 
 about two hundred ninety men, was captured at Queenstown Heights. The 
 English General Sheafe began to pick out the Irish prisoners, being governed 
 by their names and accent. Scott, at the risk of his life, yelled out to them 
 not to answer another question, and told Sheafe that for every Irish soldier 
 executed, he would see that an English one suffered a like fate. The pris- 
 oners were hurried to England. Scott was soon exchanged. He captured 
 Fort George and selected twenty-three Englishmen to be executed. Lord 
 Bathurst ordered forty-six American officers to be prepared for execution, 
 and President Madison ordered forty-six Englishmen to be ready to die. 
 Needless to say, England weakened, and twenty-one of the Irish prisoners 
 returned, two dying from natural causes. 
 
 That Ireland did more for the United States than any other foreign coun- 
 try we will easily show by pointing out a few of her accomplishments. 
 
 Sullivan struck the first real blow on land at Fort William and Mary. 
 O'Brien struck the first blow on the water at Machias Bay, while Barry be- 
 came father of the American Navy. Wayne, the great infantry leader, 
 Moylan, the great cavalry leader; Knox, the great artillery leader; Morgan, 
 the great sharpshooter leader; Stark, the hero of Bennington; Montgomery, 
 the first general who perished; Moore, who won the first battle, were all 
 Irish by blood or by birth. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence was first signed, first copied, first read 
 to the populace and first printed by men of Irish blood. The richest man, 
 the man who lived the longest after signing it, was Irish, while it was an 
 
 38 
 
Irishman (Conway) who made the motion that was carried in the English 
 Parliament, recognizing America's independence. Ireland helped the Ameri- 
 can cause by sending out many shiploads of necessaries; in fact, Franklin 
 declared, "All Ireland is in favor of the American cause." George Washing- 
 ton Parke, Custis Washington's son, declared, "Before the coming of the 
 French, Ireland furnished in the ratio of one hundred to one of any foreign 
 nation whatever." The Irish showed their usefulness in the field of peace 
 also. The steamboat, submarine, lock canal, cotton mill, newspapers, farm- 
 ing implements, the telegraph and steel were invented and developed by 
 Irishmen and their sons. 
 
 The two great heroes of the War of 1812 were, strangely enough, con- 
 ceived in Ireland and born in the United States, Jackson and McDonough. 
 McDonough's standing claim was, "My keel was laid in Ireland and I was 
 launched in the United States." 
 
 The Butlers, of good Irish stock, developed five generals in the same 
 family, one of them having the honor to command the victorious American 
 troops at the close of the Mexican war. 
 
 In the Civil War, an Irishman (Gibbons) fired the first shot. An Irish- 
 man (Shields) first defeated Stonewall Jackson. A Celt (McClellan) de- 
 feated Lee at Antietam. Sheridan was the only general to turn disaster into 
 a brilliant victory. The last general to give up his life was the Irish-born 
 Thomas Smith. When Democracy or Slavery hung in the balance at 
 Gettysburg, Meade, always proud of his Irish blood, saved the Union. When 
 England was openly trying to line up Europe against the United States, the 
 wise Lincoln sent the good Irish Archbishop Hughes to Europe to counter- 
 act the foul work. The head of the Navy, Porter, was of Irish blood, while 
 second in command, Rowan, was Irish-born. One hundred seventy-five 
 thousand natives of Ireland served in the Union armies, while men of Irish 
 extraction constituted at least one-fourth of the Army, according to the 
 most accurate approximation. Irish loyalty to America was never hyphen- 
 ated, no matter who the enemy. 
 
 In this war we are just as loyal; we detest the Kaiser and every prin- 
 ciple that he stood for. The fact cannot be reiterated too often that between 
 the German Saxon and the English Saxon there is no difference. 
 
 Figures are not yet available as to the number of Irish engaged in the 
 war. In addition to the men from Ireland, large numbers enlisted in Eng- 
 land, Scotland and Wales, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, 
 to say nothing of the United States. John Redmond and Michael McDon- 
 ough estimated them at half a million in 1916. Of the United States army 
 at least thirty-five per cent had Irish blood in their veins. 
 
 By way of illustration we will quote figures taken from the records of the 
 city of Waltham, Massachusetts, as follows: 
 
 39 
 
Nationalities Represented on Service Roster 
 
 Armenians 2 
 
 French 145 
 
 Greek 5 
 
 Hebrew 22 
 
 German 27 
 
 Italian 72 
 
 Irish 695 
 
 Swedes 62 
 
 It will be some time before we can fully digest the work of the various 
 nationalities engaged in the war. It is no exaggeration, however, to claim 
 that the Irish stand now, as they have always stood, at the head of the list 
 in valor as well as numbers. 
 
 And now the whole world has been scourged by the greatest war of his- 
 tory, involving all creeds, races and colors — white, black, yellow, red and 
 brown — Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia — Christian, Moslem, 
 Pagan, Jew, Shinto, Confucian and Hindu — have added their portion to 
 the deluge of blood that has reddened the world. Old nations, great em- 
 pires, firmly imbedded oligarchies are crumbling into dust. Czars, Em- 
 perors, Kaisers, Sultans, Kings and Princes are swept away like autumn 
 leaves. In this awful cataclysm the oppressed nations of the earth are shed- 
 ding their century-bound chains of slavery. The map of the world is being 
 remade. America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, has startled 
 the whole world by proclaiming in the majesty of her might, "We shall fight 
 for democracy, for the rights and liberties of small nations." 
 
 From the rising to the setting of the sun, no other race and no other 
 nation has fought as long or as hard as Ireland has for her freedom. She has 
 suffered more and retained her ideals longer than any other race, and in this 
 hour of great events is it too much to expect, too much to hope that the day 
 dawn of her freedom is nigh? Every indication points to the fact that Eng- 
 land will once more use her old argument, the bayonet and bullet. In that 
 event, the Irish in the United States must steel themselves to humble Eng- 
 land's power, which they will do if that country ignores Irish claims. The 
 Irish in the United States must give a fair and unanimous warning that they 
 can favor no treaty that will bind our race hand and foot, making them the 
 outcasts of the earth. We are Americans first, last and all the time, but 
 we abhor now, always did, and forever will, any law, league or treaty that 
 would make us British Americans. Our immediate mission should be to 
 organize solidly, cohere and bring forth the fighting spirit of our race for the 
 purpose of warding off the blow that is aimed at our heads, hearts and prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 40 
 
Men who have in the past, because of lack of interest, pressure of busi- 
 ness or a disregard for England's methods, held aloof from organizing should 
 at once become active. The business and professional men must add their 
 weight, experience and sound practical knowledge to the movement. We 
 must organize in a permanent manner, create enthusiasm, watch our enemies, 
 prepare for propaganda assaults, and be prepared through the pulpit, the press 
 and every legitimate agency at our command to rub England up instead of 
 down. If we show the right spirit, and mean what we say, we can build up 
 a strong and lasting public opinion that will make England's influence doubt- 
 ful or negative. Through a system of public meetings, pamphlets, and the 
 right kind of well directed enthusiasm, we can educate the American people 
 to the justice of our cause. 
 
 To-day we are the only liberty loving race of slaves on earth. The 
 Irish in the United States must remove the stigma and they can do so only 
 by a carefully planned, thoroughly organized, well equipped and absolutely 
 unselfish society that will direct the many and important functions necessary 
 to combat the forces that we know are arrayed against us. 
 
 41 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Propaganda 
 
 Without doubt, England's greatest victory was in gaining the ear of the 
 world. Her propaganda has saved her on many occasions. At the outset 
 we should know that when England desires to do a piece of work she does 
 it; when she has an end to gain, she can use all classes and conditions of 
 people to gain it. 
 
 We should consider this point very carefully. The Printing Press and 
 the Reformation were contemporaneous. Henry Eighth promptly saw the 
 power of the press and used it to further his aims, and of course he had to 
 condemn the old order of things. In a word, the English press was founded 
 on bigotry and perpetuated by deceit. 
 
 Ireland remained true to the old faith, therefore we can readily under- 
 stand how easily and naturally it came to England to follow a well-thought- 
 out plan of propaganda abuse. She has been able, and has in the most com- 
 prehensive and consummate manner, through her propaganda works (hav- 
 ing every possible agency of publicity at her command) assailed the Irish 
 race with a persistency and a rancor unknown to any other people on earth. 
 Into every walk of life, business, religious and professional, she has carried 
 her underhanded, and sometimes open, work. Any person of literary talents 
 or fame may be employed and pensioned by England. 
 
 To illustrate, we will briefly refer to a few of England's leading histor- 
 ians and literary men who devoted their time and talents to making the Irish 
 character appear the vilest and lowest on earth. The Irish were referred to 
 as cowards, drunkards, moral degenerates, immoral, base, low, sanguinary 
 murderers, licentious, incestous wretches. In fact, there is not a crime known 
 to man that we are not charged with as a race, not by the so-called sub-cellar 
 writers, but by men whose fame is world-wide. Who would suspect Spencer, 
 Milton, Macaulay, Gibbon, Hume, Froude, Mahaffy, Orpen, Carlyle, Arnold, 
 Story, Chart, Carte, Falkiner, Bagwell, Fletcher, Kipling, Bryce and Defoe 
 of having engaged in such foul propaganda work, to say nothing of many 
 others with lesser reputations? Their object is to cover every field, leave 
 nothing undone, nothing to chance — the Irish must be made to appear the 
 scum of the earth. 
 
 It was the writer's intention to cite a brief extract from each of the fore- 
 going authors, but space will not permit. We must therefore content ourselves 
 with making a general charge against every one of them, as they have delib- 
 erately and with vicious intent insulted us and slandered our race or faith. 
 
 42 
 
Their works are what we might call propaganda proper, of which the world 
 knows so little, especially the main object that England aims at. 
 
 First of all, England has easily shaped the literary policy of the English- 
 speaking world. We may not like this, but there is absolutely no doubt about 
 it, which we will fairly prove, by calling attention to a fact that may not at 
 first seem of prime importance, yet it well illustrates why England has made 
 the world listen to her. I have before me a "History for Ready Reference 
 and Topical Reading," extending, as the author, J. N. Learned, states, "to 
 all countries and subjects, from the best historians, biographers and spec- 
 ialists," The work consists of six volumes covering nearly 5000 pages, and is 
 composed of extracts from the best writers as the author thought. At the 
 end of the fifth volume, a list of the authors' names is given, consisting of some 
 2500 books, and of this great number, England has supplied about 1750. An 
 American history of the world for American schools is stuffed with nearly 
 seventy-five per cent English ideas. In other words, England has supplied 
 more books for a world's history than all the rest of the world combined. 
 This is not fiction: it is a fact. We refer you to it — look it up. 
 
 England has been able to stuff the libraries of the world, and until Ire- 
 land can do likewise, she will never be able to meet England. Talk is cheap, 
 but books count. 
 
 This may appear a mere incident to many. It proves, however, that our 
 literature is born in England and that it is crowded with assaults on Irish 
 and Catholics. Under the English Colonial Laws, if we look over the stat- 
 ute books of the time, we will find how deeply rooted and firmly imbedded 
 their hatred of us was. We are referred to as "Sons of Satan," "Malignant 
 Irish," granting toleration to all sects "except Catholics." The observance 
 of Christmas was declared "superstitious" and the observers were fined. 
 These laws forbade Irish or Catholics to come here. The very colony that 
 the Catholics settled, Maryland, deprived them of the right to vote. The 
 Cross was cut out of the Puritan flag as early as 1634, while John Adams 
 called Holy Communion "sanctified effluvia." Jefferson hammered the 
 Catholic Church even on his death bed, and Benedict Arnold gave as an 
 excuse for his treason that the Catholics would have too much power. C. W. 
 Eliot tells us that the English Colonists cut the ears off the Quakers, plunged 
 red hot irons through their tongues, to say nothing about executing them. 
 
 As late as the year 1800 Father Cheverus, afterwards Cardinal, was ar- 
 rested for marrying a couple in Maine. Through every line of Colonial 
 law, enactments were passed against Catholics. A few days ago I picked 
 up an old geography, dated 1828, by J. Olney. It had a few words to say 
 about the characters of the various races: 
 
 "The Welsh — Honest, brave and hospitable." 
 
 The Scotch — 'Temperate, industrious, hardy and are distinguished for 
 education and morality. 
 
 43 
 
The English — Intelligent, brave, industrious and enterprising, but pos- 
 sessed of great national pride. 
 
 The Irish — "Quick of apprehension, brave, active, hospitable, but pas- 
 sionate, ignorant, vain and superstitious." 
 
 Webster defines Jesuit in part as "A crafty person, an intriguer." 
 
 Parkman, the great writer, defines the Jesuit constitution or rules as 
 "superstitious rubbish." Wallis, in Ben Hur, refers to the Irish, when describ- 
 ing the galley slave as "red-headed savages." "Ten Nights in a Barroom" 
 insults the Irish on nearly every page. Even the child story, "Robinson 
 Crusoe," written by a bigoted English minister of the gospel, insults the 
 Catholics. 
 
 Josiah Flint, a college graduate, put forth a book in the year 1907, 
 "Tramping with Tramps." It is very interesting — treats the tramps of many 
 countries and refers to them as follows: "In this country the main offenders 
 are generally of Irish American parentage. More criminals trace their an- 
 cestry back to that country (Ireland) than any other where English is spoken . 
 Indeed, in America it is considered something out of the ordinary if the crim- 
 inal cannot attach himself to the Emerald Isle." 
 
 Not content with her open method, England has employed a class of 
 anonymous writers whose works are so horrible that to mention them would 
 make us blush with shame. We will call attention to one filthy work which 
 occupied space in the Boston Public Library for twenty-five years, Shelf No. 
 3469 A 40. The name of the book is, or rather was, "The Past, Present and 
 Future of the Roman Catholic Irish of New England," by Uncle Sam, Jr. 
 Throughout the book the Irish Roman Catholics are pictured without a re- 
 deeming trait. Every crime and every depravity is charged up against them. 
 The burning of the Ursuline Convent is justified and gloried in. General 
 Sheridan is described as "a drunken bummer, away from his post of duty." 
 Ninety per cent of all our paupers, thieves, murderers, are charged with being 
 Irish. They are called the scum of the earth, bounty jumpers, deserters. 
 He refers to as Irish, ninety-five per cent of the depraved women, and also 
 speaks of the Irish priest with the shape of a man and the look of -a beast. 
 He charges the Irish with attempting to murder Washington, the Catholics 
 with murdering Lincoln and Garfield, and finally he contends that the Roman 
 Catholic Irish originated from a wolf and an ape. 
 
 It is with sorrow and shame that we refer to this type, but it is abroad 
 and covers a certain field. It would be stupid to close our eyes to a painful 
 fact, and the fact is that we have in every community agents who picture us 
 as the vilest creatures on earth. 
 
 I remember reading about an Irish military force employed on the Con- 
 tinent. Of course, they were not brave or manly enough to carry a gun, but 
 were occupied in cutting the throats of the helpless wounded soldiers. 
 
 44 
 
As we have shown, the population of Ireland has been swept away be- 
 cause England has closed down her industries and legislated them out of ex- 
 istence. As a rule, one member of the family only remains at home, the 
 others are scattered into the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 
 South Africa, England, Scotland and Wales. Whenever England is engaged 
 in war, many Irishmen, as a rule, rush into the opposing armies. Why have 
 they not rushed into the German army? You may think that they had no 
 opportunity. They had many opportunities. To be more to the point, we 
 will cite a case from Michael McDonough, author of "The Irish at the Front" 
 and "The Irish at the Somme." The Munster Division held a section of the 
 British line about Loos, April, 1916. They carried a large green banner which 
 attracted the Germans' attention, and the Irishmen were startled one morn- 
 ing to see two large placards nailed to boards and fastened to poles, upon 
 which the following was written in plain English: 
 
 "Irishmen, in Ireland's revolution, English guns are firing on 
 your wives and children. The English military bill has been refused ; 
 Sir Roger Casement is being persecuted. Throw away your arms; 
 we give you a hearty welcome. We are Saxons. If you don't fire, 
 we won't." 
 
 At that particular period of the war, things looked good for Germany. We 
 cannot describe the sentiments that actuated the Irish at that moment. 
 They knew England and despised her, yet they knew that they were fighting 
 an autocracy just as brutal. This was their answer. On that very night 
 they crawled out of their positions and went over the top. Upon arriving at 
 No Man's Land, the Germans opened fire on them and many were killed 
 and wounded. They then lay down as though dead, and after some time 
 they crawled forward as noiselessly as possible. In the words of McDonough, 
 "They sprang with fixed bayonets and terrifying yells into the trench. The 
 Germans, startled out of 'their senses by this most unexpected visit, scurried 
 like rabbits into the nearest dugouts. The notice boards were then seized 
 and borne in triumph to the Irish trenches, and they are now treasures among 
 the regiment's most precious spoils of vanquished enemies." . . . "Up to the 
 end of 1916 the number, taking the Irishmen in English and Scottish regiments 
 and in the forces of the different Dominions, is altogether about 500,000.'' 
 To read "The Irish at the Front" and "The Irish at the Somme," as well as 
 other fields of carnage, is to better appreciate what they did. 
 
 General Marshal, an Englishman, stated, "They are the cream of the 
 army," and General Sir Bryan Mahon said, "No men could have fought 
 more gallantly or achieved better results." 
 
 The two best known cases of propaganda work in the United States 
 were those instituted to ruin Justice Cohalan and Jeremiah O'Leary. We 
 
 45 
 
will say a few words about both. Justice Cohalan despises England in pro- 
 portion to his knowledge of her crimes. He has read the story of Ireland's 
 wrongs as few men have; he sympathises with Ireland's sufferings, and who 
 can follow the story of her ruin, degradation and extermination without 
 being moved, if his blood is any thicker than skimmed milk? The author of 
 this pamphlet had the pleasure of seeing Justice Cohalan preside at two 
 meetings. He is one of the finest characters imaginable. Mild and agree- 
 able, he is possessed of a charm of manner and a peculiar magnetism that at 
 once give a person implicit confidence in his sincerity. Sometimes one would 
 think by his far-away look that he was more of a dreamer than a man of 
 action, yet he is the very soul of action. He can control a convention, keep 
 in touch with a number of committees, and in fact, with the greatest ease he 
 can get a convention to do as much work in three days as another man could 
 in a week. He does not love England and has a powerful attachment for 
 Ireland. He was therefore considered big enough to discredit the Irish race 
 if the Piggotts succeeded in bolstering up a case against him. A campaign 
 of slander was waged against him. The average citizen can tell you about 
 the charges ; how few there are, however, who can tell about the outcome of 
 the case. Let us for the present draw a veil over the Grand Opera House 
 affair. It succeeded in bringing out one point very strongly — that Justice 
 Cohalan can think quickly and think correctly. Suddenly confronted with 
 a problem fraught with tremendous possibilities for good or evil, and having 
 only a few moments to decide, he at once sacrificed himself for the good of the 
 cause, and in doing so, he has lifted himself up as a man to be trusted in any 
 emergency. We know that the people of the great state of New York, and 
 in fact, of the whole United States, have unanimously agreed that he is the 
 man of the hour. 
 
 JEREMIAH O'LEARY 
 
 Like Cohalan, a conviction in his case would place the Irish in a doubtful 
 position. He was represented as being rich; his pockets were well lined with 
 German money, etc. England, for the first time, had the opportunity of 
 working openly. She had perfect liberty to swing her very powerful and 
 unscrupulous propaganda club. The Irish themselves are a great deal to 
 blame. Blind to England's methods, knowing nothing and caring less about 
 her wiles, conscious that they were right and thinking themselves secure in 
 the affections of America, they despised the falsehoods, as unworthy of refu- 
 tation, and expecting that America would not believe the charge, they drifted 
 along, little thinking of the damage, the Smiths, Balfours, Northcliffes, Ian 
 Hays and Plunketts could do, and their friends the Tafts, and others of the 
 same tendencies. Irishmen and men of Irish extraction or sympathies should 
 learn this lesson well. When England desires to ruin any man or country 
 she is generally able to do so in the long run. Let no man lull himself into 
 
 46 
 
the silly theory that England is a decaying or a decayed nation, either in 
 war, peace, commerce or propaganda. You may think that she had her back 
 against the wall, crying for help, and that if it were not for the United States, 
 she would have been crushed. England was often in the same predicament, 
 yet she always got out of it. Take for instance, England's power before the 
 League of Nations. The four leading nations presented constitutions, and 
 whose was accepted? England's! This is painful, but true. England has 
 some strange power that shapes public opinion. She was engaged in what we 
 might call four world's wars. The elements and treachery saved her in one 
 war; French Huguenots in another; the Germans in another, and the United 
 States in the present one. England crushed democracy, propped up the 
 autocratic Bourbons in power, turned the clock of progress back, went into 
 a League of Nations called the Holy Alliance and was the first to break away 
 from it. At the same time she has made the world believe that she was fight- 
 ing for freedom and democracy. In turn, she has crushed the commerce of 
 Spain, Holland, France and Germany, and for generations she has kept Russia 
 a land-locked Empire. Her kleptic fingers have gripped one-fourth of the 
 globe. No matter what England does, whether it is turning the merciless 
 savages loose on this country, burning our Capitol, or keeping Turkey propped 
 up in Europe, she has the strange power of making the world think that she 
 is right. 
 
 Let no man underrate England. She has been at all times able to get 
 enough of people to do her bidding. Nor do we see any sign that her propa- 
 ganda proficiency is nearing the end. She is going to silence the Irish in the 
 United States if it lies in her power to do so. History repeats itself. Do 
 you suppose that if England saw in the United States her only dangerous 
 rival, she would not try to ruin this country? Germany often saved Eng- 
 land. The English people are Saxons mainly, and English kings are as Ger- 
 man as the Kaiser, even though the present one changed his name, and yet 
 England did not scruple to remove Germany. 
 
 Space will not permit even a synopsis of Jerry O'Leary's trial. It was 
 one of the most brutal trials ever held in America. The cables between 
 London and New York were kept hot, hints at great disclosures of Irish plots 
 as well as German plots were widely circulated. O'Leary was kept in jail 
 for nine months, every one belonging to him was arrested or ruined, his house 
 was sold, his family scattered, his four children going to different homes. 
 He was stricken with influenza and carried to Bellevue Hospital. Talk of 
 armistice frightened the propagandists and although his life hung in the 
 balance, it would be, in order to secure a conviction, necessary to try him 
 while the war passion was high. He was dragged before the court, suffered 
 a relapse and hovered between life and death for a long time. The story of 
 the trial appeared in the Gaelic American. The whole proceedings would 
 remind one of the Irish state trials. A packed jury, fortunately for O'Leary, 
 
 47 
 
was lacking. We will mention 'one phase of the trial. A Government ei 
 ployee by the name of Martin posed as a sailor. He was well and thorough 
 coached and was used for the rebuttal evidence. It was very importa 
 that O'Leary in some way should be an accomplice of Roediger, and 
 O'Leary swore that he never saw or spoke to the man, Martin was requi 
 tioned into service, but fortunately he was a transparent liar and became 
 badly tangled up in his cobweb of falsehood that he nearly fainted. He w 
 very unfortunate in picking out the places where he swore he had seen O'Lea 
 talking to Roediger. He could explain nothing. At this point, Osborne, 
 confuse O'Leary, cried out that he had six more witnesses to prove the charf 
 O'Leary retorted, "Bring forth six more perjurers." The whole trial was 
 farce from beginning to end. The Gaelic American declared, in commenti 
 on it, "James W. Osborne, Jr., and H. Snowden Marshall should now blu 
 to ask an American jury to convict even a dog upon such corruption, op 
 perjury, bribery and persecution." Fortunately for the Irish race, the c£ 
 fell through, and yet the propagandist would have us think that there w 
 a great Irish pro-German conspiracy in the United States. 
 
 There is not a race of people in the United States so intensely Americ 
 as the Irish. We are here by birth and blood to the number of twenty rr 
 lions — some say thirty. We are multiplying rapidly; it is our home and 
 must defend it against all comers, especially the English. They have giv 
 this country more trouble than all Europe combined. History repeats its< 
 England may do the same again. We must be on our guard. 
 
 Irishmen, if you consider this picture uncamouflaged, now is your m< 
 opportune time to repudiate it. 
 
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