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Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only. The text is here reproduced with kind permission of the editor. CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts the whole essay. Text has been proof-read twice and parsed. The electronic text represents the edited text. Italicized or capitalized sections of the text are tagged Direct speech is tagged Soft hyphens are silently removed. When a hyphenated word (and subsequent punctuation mark) crosses a page-break, this break is marked after the completion of the word (and punctuation mark). Dates are standardized in the ISO form yyyy-mm-dd. Names of persons (given names), and places are not tagged. Terms for cultural and social roles are not tagged. The compositor fiend had his innings last week. Whether it was revolutionary enthusiasm or loyalist spleen which disturbed his brain we know not, but we do know that pages 3 and 7 and part of page 6 of our last issue presented to the readers a new species of grammar and orthography decidedly unknown to the writers of this paper. The spelling was as vile as the principles of a hireling scribe on an Unionist or Home Rule newspaper, and the grammar was as doubtful as the patriotism of a politician. We are assured by the printer that precautions have been taken to prevent the recurrence of such mistakes. We hope so. The fiend capable of such an atrocity as we complain of ought
It asks can we not recognise the distinction between the men who ostentatiously drink a toast which a Nationalist cannot with regard to himself honour, and the person who, though present when the toast is given, does not drink it, but treats it with calm indifference
?
How beautifully that sentence is worded. The
We can imagine these gentlemen as soon as they read the paragraph in
Yes, that's it, we were there of course but we did not drink the toast, we treated the toast with indifference.
But swallowed the liquor with joy.
Now in order to prove the absurdity of this excuse let us put a parallel case. Suppose that at each of the functions referred to, viz, the Press Banquet at Malahide and Health Congress Banquet in Dublin, the convenors had put upon the list of toasts, An Irish Republic; would the loyalists present have sat in silence or allowed their names to go to the newspapers as participating in the function?
And if they had would
Is it too much to expect that our Nationalist politicians (so-called) shall at least be as consistent in their public actions as the Unionists whom they pretend to oppose?
Does not the howl set up by all those middle-class journalists when any of their number is exposed, and their little treacheries held up to the light of day, betray an uneasy conscience?
But
at a dinner recently not only drank the health of the Queen but proposed the toast himself and bubbled all over with delight when he saw his guests honouring it?
Well, never in our wildest dreams did we imagine Alderman Pile to be a Nationalist. He owes his position in the Corporation of Dublin to the fact that that body is elected on a restricted franchise. He is a fitting representative of the middle-class who elected him.
Like yourself, Tim, my dear boy, he is not, nor, perhaps, ever would be elected to that body by the workers' votes. But,
Alderman Pile was, a few days before this loyal performance, co-opted on the Wolfe Tone Committee.
Sorry to hear it, but not surprised. The Wolfe Tone Committee is the child of the '98 Executive, which at its inception was thoroughly honest and patriotic, but which is now dominated and controlled by the quondam members of Mr Harrington's United Irishmen Centennial Association.
It is a pity the Wolfe Tone Committee should so co-opt some men who propose and other men who drink loyal toasts, but after swallowing Mr Harrington's nest of wire-pullers, it should easily assimilate a common or garden Alderman.
Why do we insist so much upon outspokenness in such matters? Because there is just now a perfect land-slide in a loyalist direction in Ireland. Home Rule Lord Mayors shaking hands with Tory Lord Lieutenants, Home Rule Editors drinking loyal toasts to-day and writing 'patriotic articles' tomorrow, Home Rule Corporations electing Tory Lord Mayors, the conquest of Ireland at last accepted and ratified by her sons.
Said Darby the Blast in Lever's novel,
Bad luck to the gintry, 'tis the gintry ever and always betrayed us.
Since our Home Rule politicians were graciously permitted to associate with Lords and Earls on the Financial Relations agitation, all the virility and aggressiveness has gone out of our public life, and our politicians are now afraid to utter a single sentence which might not suit their new allies.
If this loyalist reaction is to be stopped and the tide of public feeling set flowing in a more healthy direction, we require strong, vigorous speech and action, both in public and private.
Therefore we say: away with middle-class leadership, which means middle-class compromise, middle-class trickery, middle-class time-serving, middle-class treachery. Room for the strong hand and clear brain of Labour.
We can assure our friends there is no trace of personal feeling in our attitude towards the middle-class politicians and their hireling scribes.
If we cherish any other feeling towards them than that of amused contempt it must be that feeling which animates the naturalist when he gazes upon some strange freak of nature – just newly caught and not yet classified.
The 'freaks' which abound in Irish politics to-day are in our opinion the outcome of the foolishness of so many of our countrymen in insisting upon a 'broad platform.'
They will have no exclusiveness, they tell us, and open out their ranks to all who like to enter, and no questions asked. Their organizations are run on the same principles as Barnum's menagerie. Pay the entrance money and you have the run of the show.
As a result they get what they want, a 'broad platform,' so broad in fact is it you can neither discover where it begins or ends.
For our part we are for a narrow platform, a platform so narrow that there will not be a place on it where anyone not an uncompromising enemy of tyranny can rest the soles of his feet.
And yet broad enough for every honest man. Eh, Tim.
Next for shaving.
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll.
So sang the poet in his most condescending mood. But I have never heard that the ocean rolled either faster or slower because of the permission thus graciously accorded to it.
And I am just inclined to think that the onward rolling ocean of Labour will pay as little heed to the bland advice which the Dublin dailies are so freely distributing on the question of labour representation.
Now that the scribes perceive the working men are determined on having their class represented they are all purring forth their approval of the step. As they are not strong enough to oppose they seem resolved to try what flattery can do to prevent the working men entering the Council animated with strong class feelings.
If they are so convinced of the value of labour representation, how many parliamentary seats are they prepared to hand over to labour candidates? Eh, my soft-spoken friends.
Now don't all speak at once. We know you all are in Parliament at an immense sacrifice to yourselves, and that you only
What, no answer. You are still resolved to sacrifice yourselves for your country's good – on the cushioned seats and in the well-upholstered smoke-rooms of the British Parliament.
Heroic self-sacrifice, unselfish devotion!
The
It declares that the recent engineers' lockout has proven the crushing strength masters can bring to bear when organized, and regrets the defeat of the unions, not, mark, because the
they the unions have acted as themost effective of all defences against the revolutionary ideas that find such fertile soil in France, Germany or Italy. Their disappearance would not mean the cessation of the activity of the workers for their advantage, but the diversion of it into new and far more dangerous channels.
I am glad to hear a capitalistic organ like the
The London correspondent of the
the Trades Union Congress is presided over, for the first time, by a Socialist, and moreover by an Irishman, Mr James O'Grady of Bristol.He then goes on to say –
Mr O'Grady is possessed of sound common sense.Of course, Mr Correspondent, that is why he is a Socialist.
Go thou and do likewise.
And be assured that the democracy of Ireland are not in the least afraid of 'revolutionary ideas' even if the old woman of Prince's Street is.
If you shriek in our ears about Continental Socialism
, we will shout back 'tis better than British capitalism,
which will be a comforting reflection to cheer the heart of a