IBELAND 409 nUESljAND
Parliament and rehr on themselves to improve their Their success was due to the fearless cooperation conditions, but it had come to mean the patriotic of the peasantry and the heroism of the women party that demanded complete national mdepen- and girls of Ireland. The atrocities reported from dence. The convention met without the Sinn F6in European coimtries during the war were now re- party on 25 July, 1917. There were iOl delegates, enacted in Ireland in cold blood with the knowledge none of whom was chosen by election. Meanwhile and cooperation of the Briti^ authorities. Cork £amonn de Valera, who had made a brilliant City with its library was burned, as were large areas defence of his position in the revolt of 1916, and i^ Limerick, Granard, and Balbriggan and a hun- who had been sentenced to death, a penalty com- <1^ villages and hamlets; 1355 stores or shops; muted later to penal servitude for life, was elected 52 cooperative creameries; 31 factories; 985 private for East Clare on the Irish Republic ticket. On residences; and 139 halls and clubs were among 25 October, 1917, he was chosen president of the ^^^ building destroyed by the British without mili- Sinn Fein organization, which piedsed itself to tary necessity, merely as reprisals or intimidation, make it impossible for England to nold Ireland, between January, 1920, and July, 1921. The As was expected, Lloyd Georfee, on 25 February, destruction of property was surpassed by the 1918, intervened in the convention and declared atrocities committed on non-combatants— a mas- that Great Britain must control the Irish customs sacre at Croke Park, Dublin, druing a football and excise. The convention failed, partly because game; of women and girls assaulted; young mothers of the attitude of the Unionists of N. E. Ulster, slain; priests assassinated; prisoners tortured before and partly because of the new limitations imposed execution; unprintable, unnatural tortures inflicted by Lloyd George in violation of his pledge. The op the prisoners in the Irish gaols; the assassina- Nationalists and the other Unionists, had agreed tion of the Lord Mayor ana ex-Lord Mayor of to accept limited self-government; but before Limerick; the murder of Lord Mayor MacCurtain reading their report Lloyd George announced he of Cork, which was followed by the remarkable had decided to conscript the Insh. His threat sacrifice made by Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney, was met at once by a union of the Sinn F^in, who, refusing; to eat while a prisoner of the Labor and Parliamentary parties to defeat this British lest his doins^so should be accepted as a attack on the nation's prerogative, and an appeal fiign that he acknowledged their right to hold him to the Irish to resist by force. The answer was & prisoner, died in Brixton prison, England, after unanimous, and the hierarchy declared their resis- a fast of more than 70 days. Thousands of young tance by force to be morally justified. A month Irishmen were flung into unsanitary, vermin-infected later the British replied, deporting and imprisoning concentration camps, without being told the why or about 100 of the leadine Irishmen without any wherefore. In August, 1920, Archbishop Mannix legal formality. To justify himself in the eyes of was seized on the nigh seas by the British Navy the world, especially of America, Lloyd Ueorae and excluded from Ireland.
laid he had discovered an Irish-German plot. He It had become apparent in the middle of 1921 was at once challenged by the Irish to substantiate that England could not suppress the guerilla war- his charge, but he failed to do so; the Britidi fare except by exterminating the whole Irish peo- viceroy in Ireland at the time, Lord Wimbome, ple. Foreign nations were becoming outspoken in admitting publicly that the plot was a mere fiction, their condemnation of her crueltv. An American It was seen soon that the enforcement of con^ commission had declared that Eneland had sub- scription would be a phsrsical impossibility, and stituted an organized anarch]^ for the orderly gov- Sinn F6in continued to spread rapidly. emment of the people's choice, justly established
In December, 1918, a general election was held in in face of opposition. Vigorous 'protests were made Ireland. The nation had a chance to make a ^ British generals, like Major-General Sir Herbert deliberate choice. The result was phenomenal: Gough, British i^omen like Lady Mark Sykes and the Republicans triumphed everywhere, except in Mrs. Annan Bryce, sister-in-law of Viscount Bryce, the N. E. comer of Ulster, where the British by the Anglican hierarchy and leading noncon- '^planters" were in a majority. The Republicans, formist clergjrmen. While the Irish hierarchy has however, refused to sit in the British Parliament, repeatedly protested against the injustice and as that would have involved an oath of allegiance atrocities being committed by the British Govern- to England, and forfeited thereby a deposit of ment, and condemned the excesses of some of the $700 for each of their members. The Republicans Republicans, they refused formally to recognize established a parliament of their own — ^the D4il Ireland's independence or the legitimacy of the £ireann— issuea a declaration of independence and D4il £ireann. On 12 December, 1920, Bishop elected De Valera president of the Irish Republic. Cohalan decreed the censure of excommunication
In 1919 the Bntish began a policy of brute ipso facto on anyone who should "within the diocese force. Republican leaders were seized and their of Cork organize or take part in an ambush or in organizations declared illegal; but the local elec- kidnappine,*' which practically forbade the Irish to tions in 1920 showed the country was solid for conduct their guerilla warfare in the district- and independence. The Republican victories in the in Januarv, 1921, Archbishop Gilmartin of Tuam rural elections in June were followed by a Reign declared the fight against the British to be a viola- of Terror. For nearly a year the lives and property tion of the moral law and therefore sinful. of the Irish were at the mercy of the constabulary At last a truce was called. Lloyd George and and a body of special auxiliaries from England De Valera met, but failed to agree. Meanwhile (popularly called Black and Tans, from their uni- the Dail £ireann assembled openly, and on 16 forms), some of whom were criminals specially August, 1921, all its members swore allegiance to
f)ardpned on condition that they would go to Ire- the Irish Republic in the following terms : "I . . . . and' and do what they were told without ques- do solemnly swear (or aflirm) that I do not and tioning. The Irish volunteers, whose supplies had shall not yield a voluntary support to anv pretended to be smuggled into Ireland in spite of the vigilance Government, Authority, or Power within Ireland of the British Navy, and transported through it, hostile and inimical thereto; and I do further despite the fact that the country was swarming swear (or affirm) that to the best of my knowl- witfi British soldiers, adopted guerilla tactics and edge and ability I will support and defend the carried on a mac^ficent fight for over a year. Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish
