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The Separatist Idea
An electronic edition
Pádraic H. Pearse
Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by
Pádraig Bambury
University College, Cork
Second draft.
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Select editions
P.H. Pearse, An sgoil: a direct method course in Irish (Dublin: Maunsel, 1913).
P.H. Pearse, How does she stand?: three addresses (The Bodenstown series no. 1) (Dublin: Irish Freedom Press, 1915).
P.H. Pearse, From a hermitage (The Bodenstown series no. 2)(Dublin: Irish Freedom Press, 1915).
P.H. Pearse, The murder machine (The Bodenstown series no. 3) (Dublin: Whelan, 1916). Repr. U.C.C.: Department of Education, 1959.
P.H. Pearse, Ghosts (Tracts for the Times) (Dublin: Whelan, 1916).
P.H. Pearse, The Spiritual Nation (Tracts for the Times) (Dublin: Whelan, 1916).
P.H. Pearse, The Sovereign People (Tracts for the Times) (Dublin: Whelan, 1916).
P.H. Pearse, The Separatist Idea (Tracts for the Times) (Dublin: Whelan, 1916).
Pádraic Colum, E.J. Harrington O'Brien (ed), Poems of the Irish revolutionary brotherhood, Thomas MacDonagh, P.H. Pearse (Pádraic MacPiarais), Joseph Mary Plunkett, Sir Roger Casement. (New and enl. ed.) (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1916). First edition, July, 1916; second edition, enlarged, September, 1916.
Michael Henry Gaffney, The stories of Pádraic Pearse (Dublin [etc.]: The Talbot Press Ltd. 1935). Contains ten plays by M.H. Gaffney based upon stories by Pádraic Pearse, and three plays by Pádraic Pearse edited by M.H. Gaffney.
Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, Liam Ó Reagain (ed), The best of Pearse (1967).
Seamus Ó Buachalla (ed), The literary writings of Patrick Pearse: writings in English (Dublin: Mercier, 1979).
Seamus Ó Buachalla, A significant Irish educationalist: the educational writings of P.H. Pearse (Dublin: Mercier, 1980).
Seamus Ó Buachalla (ed), The letters of P. H. Pearse (Gerrards Cross, Bucks.: Smythe, 1980).
Pádraic Mac Piarais (ed), Bodach an chóta lachtna (Baile Átha Cliath: Chonnradh na Gaedhilge, 1906).
Pádraic Mac Piarais, Bruidhean chaorthainn: sgéal Fiannaídheachta (Baile Átha Cliath: Chonnradh na Gaedhilge, 1912).
Pádraic Pearse, Collected works of Pádraic H.
Pearse (Dublin: Phoenix Publishing Co. ? 1910 1919). 4 vols. v. 1. Political writings and speeches.—v. 2. Plays, stories, poems.—v. 3. Songs of the Irish rebels and specimens from an Irish anthology. Some aspects of Irish literature. Three lectures on Gaelic topics.—v. 4. The story of a success, edited by Desmond Ryan, and The man called Pearse, by Desmond Ryan.
Pádraic Pearse, Collected works of Pádraic H.
Pearse (Dublin; Belfast: Phoenix, ? 1916 1917). 5 vols. [v. 1] Plays, stories, poems.—[v. 2.] Political writings and speeches.—[v. 3] Story of a success. Man called Pearse.—[v. 4] Songs of the Irish rebels. Specimens from an Irish anthology. Some aspects of irish literature.—[v. 5] Scrivinni.
Pádraic Pearse, Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse … (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company 1917). 3rd ed. Translated by Joseph Campbell, introduction by Patrick Browne.
Pádraic Pearse, Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse. 6th ed. (Dublin: Phoenix, 1924 1917) v. 1. Political writings and speeches — v. 2. Plays, stories, poems.
Pádraic Pearse, Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse (Dublin: Phoenix Pub. Co., 1924). 5 vols. [v. 1] Songs of the Irish rebels and specimens from an Irish anthology. Some aspects of Irish literature. Three lectures on Gaelic topics. — [v. 2] Plays, stories, poems. — [v. 3] Scríbinní. — [v. 4] The story of a success [being a record of St. Enda's College] The man called Pearse / by Desmond Ryan. — [v. 5] Political writings and speeches.
Pádraic Pearse, Short stories of Pádraic Pearse
(Cork: Mercier Press, 1968 1976 1989). (Iosagan, Eoineen of the birds, The
roads, The black chafer, The keening woman).
Pádraic Pearse, Political writing and speeches (Irish prose writings, 20) (Tokyo: Hon-no-tomosha, 1992). Originally published: Dublin: Maunsel & Roberts, 1922.
Pádraic Pearse, Political writings and speeches (Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse) (Dublin and London: Maunsel & Roberts Ltd., 1922).
Pádraic Pearse, Political writings and Speeches (Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse) (Dublin: Phoenix 1916). 6th ed. (Dublin [etc.]: Phoenix, 1924).
Pádraic Pearse, Plays Stories Poems (Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse) (Dublin, London: Maunsel & Company Ltd., 1917). 5th ed. 1922. Also pubd. by Talbot Press, Dublin, 1917, repr. 1966. Repr. New York: AMS Press, 1978.
Pádraic Pearse, Filíocht Ghaeilge Pádraig Mhic Phiarais (Áth Cliath: Clóchomhar, 1981) Leabhair thaighde ; an 35u iml.
Pádraic Pearse, Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse (New York: Stokes, 1918). Contains The Singer, The King, The Master, Íosagán.
Pádraic Pearse, Songs of the Irish rebels and specimens from an Irish anthology: some aspects of Irish literature: three lectures on Gaelic topics (Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse) (Dublin: The Phoenix Publishing Co. 1910).
Pádraic Pearse, Songs of the Irish rebels (Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse) (Dublin: Phoenix Pub. Co., 1917).
Pádraic Pearse, Songs of the Irish rebels, and Specimens from an Irish anthology (Collected works of Pádraic H. Pearse) (Dublin: Maunsel, 1918).
Pádraic Pearse, The story of a success (The complete works of P. H. Pearse) (Dublin: Phoenix Pub. Co., 1917) .
Pádraic Pearse, Scríbinní (The complete works of P. H. Pearse) (Dublin: Phoenix Pub. Co., 1917).
Julius Pokorny, Die Seele Irlands: Novellen und Gedichte aus dem Irish-Gälischen des Patrick Henry Pearse und Anderer zum ersten Male ins Deutsche übertragen (Halle a.S.: Max Niemeyer 1922)
James Simmons, Ten Irish poets: an anthology of poems by George Buchanan, John Hewitt, Pádraic Fiacc, Pearse Hutchinson, James Simmons, Michael Hartnett, Eilean Ní Chuilleanáin, Michael Foley, Frank Ormsby & Tom Mathews (Cheadle: Carcanet Press, 1974).
Cathal Ó hAinle (ed), Gearrscéalta an Phiarsaigh (Dublin: Helicon, 1979).
Ciarán Ó Coigligh (ed), Filíocht Ghaeilge: Phádraig Mhic Phiarais (Baile Átha Cliath: Clóchomhar, 1981).
Pádraig Mac Piarais, et al., Une île et d'autres îles: poèmes gaeliques XXeme siècle (Quimper: Calligrammes, 1984).
Select bibliography
Pádraic Mac Piarais: Pearse from documents (Dublin: Co-ordinating committee for Educational Services, 1979). Facsimile documents. National Library of Ireland. facsimile documents.
Xavier Carty, In bloody protest—the tragedy of Patrick Pearse (Dublin: Able 1978).
Helen Louise Clark, Pádraic Pearse: a Gaelic idealist (1933). (Thesis (M.A.) —Boston College, 1933).
Mary Maguire Colum, St. Enda's School, Rathfarnham, Dublin.
Founded by Pádraic H. Pearse. (New York: Save St. Enda's Committee 1917).
Pádraic H. Pearse ([s.l.: s.n., C. F. Connolly) 1920).
Elizabeth Katherine Cussen, Irish motherhood in the drama of William Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge, and Pádraic Pearse: a comparative study. (1934) Thesis (M.A.) —Boston College, 1934.
Ruth Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse: the triumph of failure (London: Gollancz, 1977).
Stefan Fodor, Douglas Hyde, Eoin MacNeill, and Pádraic Pearse of the Gaelic League: a study in Irish cultural nationalism and separatism, 1893-1916 (1986). Thesis (M.A.) —Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1986.
James Hayes, Patrick H. Pearse, storyteller (Dublin: Talbot, 1920).
John J. Horgan, Parnell to Pearse: some recollections and reflections (Dublin: Browne & Nolan, 1948).
Louis N. Le Roux, La vie de Patrice Pearse (Rennes: Imprimerie Commerciale de Bretagne, 1932). Translated into English by Desmond Ryan (Dublin: Talbot, 1932).
Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, Quotations from P.H. Pearse, (Dublin: Mercier, 1979).
Mary Benecio McCarty (Sister), Pádraic Henry Pearse: an
educator in the Gaelic tradition (1939) (Thesis (M.A.) — Marquette
University, 1939).
Hedley McCay, Pádraic Pearse; a new biography (Cork: Mercier Press, 1966).
John Bernard Moran, Sacrifice as exemplified by the life and writings of Pádraic Pearse is true to the Christian and Irish ideals; that portrayed in the Irish plays of Sean O'Casey is futile (1939). Submitted to Dept. of English. Thesis (M.A.) —Boston College, 1939.
Sean Farrell Moran, Patrick Pearse and the politics of redemption: the mind of the Easter rising, 1916 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1994).
P.S. O'Hegarty, A bibliography of books written by P. H. Pearse (s.l.: 1931).
Máiread O'Mahony, The political thought of Padraig H. Pearse: pragmatist or idealist (1994). Theses—M.A. (NUI, University College Cork).
Daniel J. O'Neill, The Irish revolution and the cult of the leader: observations on Griffith, Moran, Pearse and Connolly (Boston: Northeastern U.P., 1988).
Mary Brigid Pearse (ed), The home-life of Padraig Pearse as told by himself, his family and friends (Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1934). Repr. Cork, Mercier 1979.
Maureen Quill, Pádraic H. Pearse—his philosophy of Irish education (1996). Theses—M.A. (NUI, University College Cork).
Desmond Ryan, The man called Pearse (Dublin: Maunsel, 1919).
Nicholas Joseph Wells, The meaning of love and patriotism as seen in the plays, poems, and stories of Pádraic Pearse (1931). (Thesis (M.A.) —Boston College, 1931).
The edition used in the digital edition
Pádraic Pearse
The Separatist Idea
Political Writings and Speeches
Dublin
Phoenix Publishing Co. Ltd.
1924
251–293
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By Pádraic Henry Pearse (1879-1916).
1st February 1916
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PREFACE
This is the first of three pamphlets in which I propose to develop the
contention put forward in
Ghosts, the whole forming a continuous
argument. The further pamphlets of the series will be entitled
The Spiritual Nation and
The Sovereign People, respectively.
P. H. PEARSE.
ST. ENDA'S COLLEGE, RATHFARNHAM, 1st February,
1916.
The Separatist Idea
In stating a little while ago the Irish definition of freedom, I said
that it would be well worth while to examine that definition in its
breadth and depth, in its connotations as well as in its denotations,
contenting myself for the moment with making clear its essential idea of
Independence, Separation, a distinct and unfettered national existence.
And I said that I proposed to do this in a sequel. Such a sequel is
necessary, for, while the statement that national freedom means a
distinct and unfettered national existence is a true and complete
statement of the nature of national freedom, it is not a sufficient
revelation of the minds that have developed the conception of freedom
among us Irish, not sufficiently quick with their thought nor
sufficiently passionate with their desire. Freedom is so splendid a
thing that one cannot worthily state it in the terms of a definition;
one has to write it in some
flaming symbol or to sing it in music riotous with the uproar of heaven.
A Danton and a Mitchel can speak more adequately of freedom than a
Voltaire and a Burke, for they have drunk more deeply of that wine with
which God inebriates the votaries of vision. But even the sublimest
things, the Trinity and the Incarnation, can be stated in terms of
philosophy, and it is needful to do this now and then, though such a
statement in no wise affects the spiritual fact which one either feels
or does not feel. So, it is sometimes necessary to state what
nationality is, what freedom, though one's statement may not reveal the
awful beauty of his nation's soul to a single man or move a single
village to put up its barricade.
The purpose, then, of such statements?
At least they define the truth, and enable men to see who holds the
truth and who hugs the falsehood. For there is an absolute truth in such
matters, and the truth is ascertainable. The truth is old, and it has
been handed down to us by our fathers. It is not a new thing, devised to
meet the exigencies of a situation. That is the definition of an
expedient.
Now, the truth as to what a nation's nationality is, what a
nation's freedom, is not to be found in the statute-book of the nation's
enemy. It is to be found in the books of the nation's fathers.
I have named Tone and Davis and Lalor and Mitchel as the four among us
moderns who have chiefly developed the conception of an Irish nation.
Others, I have said, have for the most part only interpreted and
illustrated what has been taught by these; these are the Fathers and the
rest are just their commentarists. And I need not repeat here my reasons
for naming no other with these unless the other be Parnell, whom I name
tentatively as the man who saw most deeply and who spoke most splendidly
for the Irish nation since the great seers and speakers. I go on to
examine what these have taught of Irish freedom. And first as to Tone.
He stands first in point of time, and first in point of greatness.
Indeed, he is,as I believe, the greatest man of our nation; the greatest-hearted and
the greatest-minded.
We have to consider here Tone the thinker rather than
Tone the man of action. The greatest of our men of action since Hugh
O'Neill, he is the greatest of all our political thinkers. His greatness,
both as a man and as a thinker, consists in his sheer reality. There is
no froth of rhetoric, no dilution of sentimentality in Tone; he has none
even of the noble oratoric quality of a Mitchel. A man of extraordinarily
deep emotion, he nevertheless thought with relentless logic, and his
expression in exposition or argument is always the due and inevitable
garb of his thought. He was a great visionary; but like all the great
visionaries, he had a firm grip upon realities, he was fundamentally
sane.
It is necessary at times to insist on Tone's intellectual
austerity, because the man's humanity was so gracious that his human
side constantly overshadows, for us as for his contemporaries, his grave
intellectual side. Most men of his greatness are loved at best by a few,
feared or disliked or mistrusted by the many. Tone was one of the
extremely rare great men whose greatness is crowned by those gifts of
humility and sweetness that compel affection. Some men are misunderstood because they are disliked; a few men are in danger of being
misunderstood because they are loved. If the greatest thing in Tone was
his heroic soul, the soul that was gay in death and defeat, the second
greatest thing was his austere and piercing intellect. That intellect
has dominated Irish political thought for over a century. It has given
us our political definitions and values. Constantly we refer doctrines
and leaders and policies to its standards, measuring them by the mind of
Tone as an American measures men and policies by the minds that shaped
the Declaration of Independence. Tone's mind was in a very true sense a
revolutionary mind. The spokesmen of the French Revolution itself did
not base things more fundamentally on essential right and justice than
Tone did, did not pierce through outer strata to a firmer bedrock than
he found. And it was an original mind. Influenced no doubt by
contemporary minds, and responsive to every thought-wave that vibrated
in either hemisphere, Tone for the most part worked out his own
political system in his
own way. He did not inherit or merely accept his principles; he thought
himself into them.
Tone's first political utterance was a pamphlet in
defence of the Whig Club, entitled
A Review of the last Session of
Parliament (1790). Of this pamphlet he writes in his Autobiography:
… Though I was very far from entirely approving the system of the
Whig Club, and much less their principles and motives, yet, seeing them
at the time the best constituted political body which the country
afforded, and agreeing with most of their positions, though my own
private opinions went infinitely farther, I thought I could venture on
their defence without violating my consistency.
The pamphlet contains no definitely Separatist teaching. Before the
end of the year, however, Tone had found his voice. It is a Separatist
that speaks in
The Spanish War (1790), but a cautious Separatist,
one who is feeling his way. Tone himself describes the expansion of
his views which had taken place between the publication of his first and
his second pamphlets:
A closer examination into the history of my native country had very
considerably extended my views, and, as I was sincerely and honestly
attached to her interests, I soon found reason not to regret that the
Whigs had not thought me an object worthy of their cultivation. I made
speedily what was to me a great discovery, though I might have found it
in Swift and Molyneux, that the influence of England was the radical
vice of our Government, and consequently that Ireland would never be
either free,
prosperous, or happy until she was independent, and
that independence was unattainable whilst the connection with England
existed.
Accordingly:
On the appearance of a rupture with Spain, I wrote a pamphlet to prove
that Ireland was not bound by the declaration of war, but might, and
ought, as an independent nation, to stipulate for a neutrality. In
examining this question, I advanced the questionof separation, with scarcely any reserve, much less disguise; but the
public mind was by no means so far advanced as I was, and my pamphlet
made not the slightest impression.
The pamphlet, in fact, tended to prove the impossibility of Grattan's
constitution, i.e., of the co-existence of a British connection with a
sovereign Irish Parliament. It did not propound this in so many words,
but the logical conclusion from its extraordinarily able and subtle
argument is that no half-way house
is possible as a permanent
solution of the issue between Ireland and England. There were and are
only two alternatives: an enslaved Ireland and a free Ireland. A dual
monarchy
is, in the nature of things, only a temporary expedient.
In
1790 Tone met Thomas Russell. Theirs was the most memorable of Irish
friendships. It was in conversations and correspondence with Russell
that Tone's political ideas reached their maturity. When he next speaks
it is with plenary meaning and clear definition. Towards the end of 1790
he made his first attempt in political organisation. He founded a club
of seven or eight members eminent for their talents and patriotism
and who had already more or less distinguished themselves by their literary
productions.
It was a failure, and the failure satisfied Tone that men of
genius, to be of use, must not be collected in numbers.
In 1791 Russell
went to Belfast. An attempt of Russell's to induce the Belfast
Volunteers to adopt a declaration in favour of Catholic emancipation,
which Tone had prepared at his request, was unsuccessful. Russell wrote
to Tone an account of the discussion, and, says Tone:
It
immediately set me thinking more seriously than I had yet done upon the
state of Ireland. I soon formed my theory, and on that theory I have
invariably acted ever since.
To subvert the tyranny of our execrable
Government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing
source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my
country—these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to
abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common
name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant,
Catholic, and Dissenter—these were my means.
I have said that I hold all Irish nationalism to be implicit in these
words. Davis was to make explicit certain things here implicit, Lalor
certain other things. But the Credo is here: I believe in One Irish
Nation and that Free.
Tone had convinced himself as to the end and the
means. And now for work:
I sat down accordingly, and wrote a pamphlet addressed to the
Dissenters, and which I entitled
An Argument on behalf of the
Catholics of Ireland, the object of which was to convince them that
they and the Catholics had but one common interest and one common enemy;
that the depression and slavery of Ireland was produced and perpetuated
by the divisions existing between them, and that, consequently, to
assert the independence of their country, and their own individual
liberties, it was necessary to forget all former feuds, to consolidate
the entire strength of the whole nation, and to form for the future but
one people.
This pamphlet, signed A Northern Whig
, gave
Tone his place in Irish politics. The Catholic leaders approached him
and commenced the connection which led ultimately to his selection as
their agent; the Volunteers of Belfast elected him an honorary member of
their corps. He was soon afterwards invited to Belfast, where he
founded, with Russell, Neilson, the Simmses, Sinclair, and MacCabe, the
first club of United Irishmen. Tone wrote for the United Irishmen the
following declaration:
In the present great era of reform when unjust governments are falling
in every quarter of Europe; when religious persecution is compelled to
abjure her tyranny over conscience; when the Rights of Man are
ascertained in Theory and that Theory substantiated by Practice; when
antiquity can no longer defend absurd and oppressive forms against the
common sense and common interests of mankind; when all government is
acknowledged to originate from the people, and to be so far only
obligatory as it protects their rights and promotes their welfare; we
think it our duty as Irishmen to come forward and state what we feel to be our heavy grievance, and what we
know to be its effectual remedy.
We have no National Government; we
are ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is
the interest of another country; whose instrument is corruption; whose
strength is the weakness of Ireland; and these men have the whole of the power and patronage of the country as means to seduce and subdue the honesty and the spirit of her representatives in the legislature. Such
an extrinsic power, acting with uniform force in a direction too frequently opposite to the true line of our obvious interests, can be resisted with effect solely by unanimity, decision, and spirit in the people, qualities which may be exerted most legally, constitutionally, and efficaciously by that great measure essential to the prosperity and
freedom of Ireland—an equal Representation of all the People in Parliament…
The declaration was not openly Separatist. Tone, however, avows that,
while not yet definitely a republican, his ultimate goal even as early as 1791 was Separation: the union of Irishmen was to be but a means to an end. Commenting on the foundation (9th November, 1791) of
the Dublin Club of United Irishmen, in which the republican Tandy
co-operated with him, Tone writes:
For my own part, I think it right to mention that, at this time the
establishment of a Republic was not the immediate object of my
speculations. My object was to secure the independence of my country
under any form of government, to which I was led by a hatred of England
so deeply rooted in my nature that it was rather an instinct than a
principle. I left to others, better qualified for the inquiry, the
investigation and merits of the different forms of government, and I
contented myself with labouring on my own system, which was luckily in
perfect coincidence as to its operation with that of those men who
viewed the question on a broader and juster scale than I did at the time
I mention.
Thus, Tone in November 1791 had not yet settled his views on abstract
theories of government, but on the practical business of separating Ireland from
England his resolve was fixed and unshakable.
In June 1791 there had
been issued a secret Manifesto to the Friends of Freedom in Ireland
which is attributed to Tone in collaboration with Neilson and others.
Tone himself makes no reference to this document in his Autobiography.
If it is really his it is the nearest approach to a formulation of the
theory of freedom which we have from the mind of this essentially
practical statesman. Whether it be Tone's or another's, it is one of the
noblest utterances of the age and it is a document of primary importance
in the history of Ireland. It may be described as the first manifesto
of modern Irish democracy. It bases the Irish claim to freedom on the
bedrock foundation of human rights:
This society is likely to be a means the most powerful for the
promotion of a great end. What end? The Rights of Man in Ireland. The
greatest happiness of the greatest numbers in this island, the inherent
and indefeasible claims of every free nation to rest in this nation—the
will and the powerto be happy, to pursue the common weal as an individual pursues his
private welfare, and to stand in insulated independence, an imperatorial people.
The greatest happiness of the Greatest Number.—On the rock of
this principle let this society rest; by this let it judge and determine
every political question, and whatever is necessary for this end let
it not be accounted hazardous, but rather our interest, our duty, our
glory, and our common religion: The Rights of Man are the Rights of God,
and to vindicate the one is to maintain the other. We must be free in
order to serve Him whose service is perfect freedom…
Dieu et mon Droit
(God and my right) is the motto of kings. Dieu et la liberté
(God and liberty), exclaimed Voltaire when he beheld Franklin, his
fellow-citizen of the world. Dieu et nos Droits
(God and our
rights)—let every Irishman cry aloud to each other the cry of mercy, of
justice, and of victory.
The Rights of Man in Ireland is almost an adequate definition of Irish
freedom. And the historic claim of Ireland has never been more worthily stated
than in these words:
The inherent and
indefeasible claims of every free nation to rest in this nation—the
will and the power to be happy, to pursue the common weal as an
individual pursues his private welfare, and to stand in insulated
independence, an imperatorial people.
The deep and radical nature of
Tone's revolutionary work, the subtlety and power of the man himself,
cannot be grasped unless it is clearly remembered that this is the
secret manifesto of the movement of which the carefully constitutional
declaration of the United Irishmen is the public manifesto. Tone
himself, in a letter to Russell at the beginning of 1792, admits his
ulterior designs while at the same time laying stress on the necessity
of caution in public utterances. Referring to the declaration of the
United Irishmen, he says:
The foregoing contains my true and sincere opinion of the state of
this country, so far as in the present juncture it may be advisable to
publish it. They certainly fall short of the truth, but truth itself
must sometimes condescend to temporise. My unalterable opinion is
that the bane of Irish prosperity is in the influence of England: I
believe that influence will ever be extended while the connection
between the countries continues; nevertheless, as I know that opinion
is, for the present, too hardy, though a very little time may establish
it universally, I have not made it a part of the resolutions, I have
only proposed to set up a reformed parliament, as a barrier against that
mischief which every honest man that will open his eyes must see in
every instance overbears the interest of Ireland: I have not said one
word that looks like a wish for separation, though I give it to you and
your friends as my most decided opinion that such an event would be a
regeneration to this country.
In 1792 Tone became agent to the General Committee of the Catholics.
Before the end of the year his dream of a union between the Catholics
and the Dissenters was an accomplished fact. In December the Catholic
Convention met. Catching Tone's spirit, it demanded complete
emancipation. The Government proposed a compromise to the leaders. Tone
was against any compromise,but the Catholic leaders yielded. Merchants, I see, make bad
revolutionists
, commented Tone. The Act of 1793, admitting Catholics to
the Parliamentary franchise, marks the end of Tone's constitutional
period. He pressed on towards Separation, adopting revolutionary
methods. The United Irishmen were reorganised as a secret association,
with a Republican Government and Separation from England
as its aims.
In 1795 Tone, compromised by his relations with Jackson, left Ireland
for America. It was out of settled policy that at this stage he chose
exile rather than a contest with the Government. He had already
conceived the idea of appealing for help to the French Republic. Shortly
before he left Dublin he went out with Russell to Rathfarnham, to see
Thomas Addis Emmet.
As we walked together into town I opened my plan to them both. I told
them that I considered my compromise with Government to extend no
further than the banks of the Delaware, and that the moment I landed I
was free to follow any plan which might suggest itself to me, for the
emancipation of my country…I then proceeded to tell them that
my intention was, immediately on my arrival in Philadelphia, to wait
on the French Minister, to detail to him, fully, the situation of
affairs in Ireland, to endeavour to obtain a recommendation to the
French Government, and, if I succeeded so far, to leave my family in
America, and to set off instantly for Paris, and apply, in the name of
my country, for the assistance of France to enable us to assert our
independence.
To the fulfilment of this purpose Tone devoted the
three years of life that remained to him. He landed in France in 1796.
The notes in his Journal of his conferences with the representatives
of the French Government and the two masterly memorials which he
submitted to the Executive Directory remain the fullest and most
practical statement, not only of the necessity of Separation, but of the
means by which Separation is to be attained, that has been made by any
Irishman. In the concluding passage of his second memorial Tone sums up
as follows:
I submit to the wisdom of the French Government that England is the implacable,
inveterate, irreconcilable enemy of the Republic, which never can be in
perfect security while that nation retains the dominion of the sea;
that, in consequence, every possible effort should be made to humble her
pride and to reduce her power; that it is in Ireland, and in Ireland
only, that she is vulnerable— a fact of the truth of which the French
Government cannot be too strongly impressed; that by establishing a free
Republic in Ireland they attach to France a grateful ally whose cordial
assistance, in peace and war, she might command, and who, from situation
and produce, could most essentially serve her: that at the same time
they cut off from England her most firm support, in losing which she is
laid under insuperable difficulties in recruiting her army, and
especially in equipping, victualling, and manning her navy, which,
unless for the resources she drew from Ireland, she would be absolutely
unable to do; that by these means—and, suffer me to add, by these means
only—her arrogance can be effectually humbled, and her enormous and
increasing power at sea reduced within due bounds—an object essential, not only to France, but to all Europe; that it is at least
possible, by the measures mentioned, that not only her future resources,
as to her navy, may be intercepted and cut off at the fountain head, but
that a part of her fleet may be actually transferred to the Republic of
Ireland; that the Irish people are united and prepared, and want but the
means to begin: that, not to speak of the policy or the pleasure of
revenge in humbling a haughty and implacable rival, it is in itself a
great and splendid act of generosity, worthy of the Republic, to rescue
a whole nation from a slavery under which they have groaned for six
hundred years; that it is for the glory of France, after emancipating
Holland and receiving Belgium into her bosom, to establish one more free
Republic in Europe; that it is for her interest to cut off for ever, as
she now may do, one-half of the resources of England, and lay her under
extreme difficulties in the employment of the other. For all these
reasons, in the name of justice, of humanity, of freedom, of my own
country, and of France herself, I supplicate the Directory to take into
consideration the state of Ireland; and by granting her the powerfulaid and protection of the Republic, to enable her at once to vindicate
her liberty, to humble her tyrant, and to assume that independent
station among the nations of the earth for which her soil, her
productions and her position, her population and her spirit have
designed her.
Finally—after Bantry Bay, the Texel, and Lough Swilly—Tone before his
judges thus testified to his faith as a Separatist:
I mean not to give
you the trouble of bringing judicial proof to convict me, legally, of
having acted in hostility to the Government of his Britannic Majesty in
Ireland. I admit the fact. From my earliest youth I have regarded the
connection between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish
nation, and felt convinced that, whilst it lasted, this country could
never be free nor happy. My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by
the experience of every succeeding year, and the conclusions which I
have drawn from every fact before my eyes. In consequence, I determined
to apply all the powers which my individual efforts could move in order
to separate the two countries.
That Ireland was not able, of
herself, to throw off the yoke, I knew. I therefore sought for aid
wherever it was to be found. In honourable poverty I rejected offers
which, to a man in my circumstances, might be considered highly
advantageous. I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my
country, and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three
millions of my countrymen from…
Here the prisoner was interrupted by the President of the Court-Martial.
In order to complete this brief study of Tone's teaching it is necessary
to consider him as a democrat. And Tone, the greatest of modern Irish
Separatists, is the first and greatest of modern Irish democrats. It was
Tone that said:
Our independence must be had at all hazards. If the men of property
will not support us, they must fall: we can supportourselves by the aid of that numerous and respectable class of the
community—the men of no property.
In this glorious appeal to Caesar modern Irish democracy has its origin.
I have already quoted the secret Manifesto to the Friends of Freedom,
attributed to Tone, in which the right to national freedom is made to
rest on its true basis, the right to individual freedom. The abstract
theory of freedom was not further developed by Tone, who devoted his
life to the pursuit of a practical object rather than to the working out
of a philosophy. When, however, any question arose which involved the
relations of a democracy and an aristocracy, of the people and the
gentry (as they affect to call themselves
), of the men of no
property
and the men of property,
Tone's decision was instant and
unerring. The people must rule; if the aristocracy make common cause
with the people, so much the better; if not, woe to the aristocracy. One
passage from his Journal, under date April 27th, 1798, says all that
need be said as to the practical questionof dealing with a hostile
aristocracy in a national revolution:
What miserable slaves are the gentry of Ireland! The only accusation
brought against the United Irishmen by their enemies, is that they wish
to break the connection with England, or, in other words, to establish
the independence of their country—an object in which surely the men of
property are most interested. Yet the very sound of independence seems
to have terrified them out of all sense, spirit, or honesty. If they had
one drop of Irish blood in their veins, one grain of true courage or
genuine patriotism in their hearts, they should have been the first to
support this great object; the People would have supported them; the
English government would never have dared to attempt the measures they
have since triumphantly pursued, and continue to pursue; our Revolution would have been accomplished without a shock, or perhaps one
drop of blood spilled; which now can succeed, if it does succeed, only
by all the calamities of a most furious and sanguinary contest: for the
war in Ireland, whenever it does take place, will notbe an ordinary one. The armies will regard each other not as soldiers,
but as deadly enemies. Who, then, are to blame for this? The United
Irishmen, who set the question afloat, or the English government and
their partisans, the Irish gentry, who resist it? If independence be
good for a country as liberty for an individual, the question will be
soon decided. Why does England so pertinaciously resist our
independence? Is it for love of us—is it because she thinks we are
better as we are? That single argument, if it stood alone, should
determine every honest Irishman.
But, it will be said, the United
Irishmen extend their views farther; they go now to a distribution of
property, and an agrarian law. I know not whether they do or no. I am
sure in June 1795 when I was forced to leave the country, they
entertained no such ideas. If they have since taken root among them, the
Irish gentry may accuse themselves. Even then they made themselves
parties to the business: not content with disdaining to hold
communications with the United Irishmen, they were among the foremost
of their persecutors; even those who were pleased todenominate themselves patriots were more eager to vilify, and, if they
could, to degrade them, than the most devoted and submissive slaves of
the English Government. What wonder if the leaders of the United
Irishmen, finding themselves not only deserted, but attacked by those
who, for every reason, should have been their supporters and fellow-labourers, felt themselves no longer called upon to observe any measures
with men only distinguished by the superior virulence of their
persecuting spirit? If such men, in the issue, lose their property,
they are themselves alone to blame, by deserting the first and most
sacred of duties—the duty to their country. They have incurred a wilful
forfeiture by disdaining to occupy the station they might have held
among the People, and which the People would have been glad to see them
fill; they left a vacancy to be seized by those who had more courage,
more sense, and more honesty; and not only so, but by this base and
interested desertion they furnished their enemies with every argument of
justice, policy, and interest, to enforce the system of confiscation.
The best that can be said in palliation of the conduct of the English
party, is that they are content to sacrifice the liberty and
independence of their country to the pleasure of revenge, and their own
personal security. They see Ireland only in their rent rolls, their
places, their patronage, and their pensions. There is not a man among
them who, in the bottom of his soul, does not feel that he is a degraded
being in comparison of those whom he brands with the names of
incendiaries and traitors. It is this stinging reflection which, among
other powerful motives, is one of the most active in spurring them on to
revenge. Their dearest interests, their warmest passions, are equally
engaged. Who can forgive the man that forces him to confess that he is a
voluntary slave, and that he has sold for money everything that should
be most precious to an honourable heart? That he has trafficked in the
liberties of his children and his own, and that he is hired and paid to
commit a daily parricide on his country? Yet these are the charges
which not a man of that infamous caste can deny to himself before the
sacred tribunal of his own conscience. At least the United Irishmen, as I have already said, have a grand, a sublime object in view.
Their enemies have not as yet ventured, in the long catalogue of their
accusations, to insert the charge of interested motives. Whilst that is
the case they may be feared and abhorred, but they can never be
despised; and I believe there are few men who do not look upon contempt
as the most insufferable of all human evils. Can the English faction say
as much? In vain do they crowd together, and think by their numbers to
disguise or lessen their infamy. The public sentiment, the secret voice
of their own corrupt hearts, has already condemned them. They see their
destruction rapidly approaching, and they have the consciousness that
when they fall no honest man will pity them. They shall perish like
their own dung; those who have seen them shall say, Where are they?
Tone did not propose any general confiscation of private property
other than the property of Englishmen in Ireland, and this only after
proclamation to the English people, as distinct from the English
Government, stating the grounds of the action of the Irishnation and declaring their earnest desire to avoid the effusion of
blood; if, after such proclamation, the English people supported the
English Government in war upon Ireland, Tone held that the confiscation
of English property would then be an act of strict justice, as the
English people would have made themselves parties to the war.
Emmet's
proposals in 1803 are a fuller and more detailed expression of the mind
of revolutionary Ireland on the subject of property. The first decree
drafted by Emmet for his Provisional Government was that tithes are
forever abolished, and church lands are the property of the nation
;
the second laid down that from this date all transfers of landed
property are prohibited, each person paying his rent until the National
Government is established, the national will declared, and the courts of
justice be organised
; the third made a like provision with regard to
the transfer of bonds and securities; and the fifth decreed the confiscation of the property of Irishmen in the Militia, Yeomanry, or
Volunteer corps who, after fourteen days, should be found in arms
against the Republic. When we speak of men like Tone and Emmet
as visionaries
and idealists
we regard only one side of their
minds. Both were extraordinarily able men of affairs, masters of all the
details of the national, social, and economic positions in their day;
and both would have been ruthless in revolution, shedding exactly as
much blood as would have been necessary to their purpose. Both, however,
were Nationalists first, and revolutionists only in so far as revolution
was essential to the establishment of the nation. We war not against
property
, said Emmet in his proclamation, we war against no
religious sect, we war not against past opinions or prejudices—we war
against English dominion.
One is now in a position to sum up Tone's
teaching in a series of propositions:
- The Irish Nation is One.
- The Irish Nation, like all Nations, has
an indefeasible right to Freedom.
- Freedom denotes Separation and
Sovereignty.
- The right to National Freedom rests upon the right to
Personal Freedom, and true National Freedom guarantees true Personal
Freedom.
- The object of Freedom is the pursuit of the happiness of the Nation
and of the individuals that compose the Nation.
- Freedom is necessary
to the happiness and prosperity of the Nation. In the particular case of
Ireland, Separation from England is necessary not only to the happiness
and prosperity but almost to the continued existence of Ireland, inasmuch
as the interests of Ireland and England are fundamentally at variance,
and while the two nations are connected England must necessarily
predominate.
- The National Sovereignty implied in National Freedom
holds good both externally and internally, i.e., the sovereign rights
of the Nation are good as against all other nations and good as against
all parts of the Nation. Hence—
- The Nation has jurisdiction over
lives and property within the Nation.
- The People are the Nation.
All this Tone taught, not in the dull pages of a treatise, but in the
living phrases that dropped from him in his conversation, in his
correspondence, in his diaries, in his impassioned pleas for his
nation to the Executive Directory of France. Some of the greatest
teachers have been literary men only incidentally; but their teaching
has none the less the splendour of great literary utterance. The masters
of literature do not always label themselves. When a great soul utters a
great truth have we not always great literature? That is why the true
gospels of the world are always true literature. Those who have preached
the divine worth of faith and justice and charity and freedom have done
so in glorious and imperishable words: and the reason is that God speaks
through them.
That God spoke to Ireland through Tone and through those
who, after Tone, have taken up his testimony, that Tone's teaching and
theirs is true and great and that no other teaching as to Ireland has
any truth or worthiness at all, is a thing upon which I stake all my
mortal and all my immortal hopes. And I ask the men and women of my
generation to stake their mortal and immortal hopes with me.