- Sinn Féin, October 17, 1914
- October 12, 1914
- The declaration was made on October 12 at a public meeting in Dublin attended by James Connolly, Arthur Griffith, John MacBride and Countess Markievicz.
By the operation of English Government in Ireland the male population of the country between the ages of 20 and 45 has been reduced from over 2,000,000 to less than three-quarters of a million in the last sixty years. In the same period the annual food production of Ireland has been diminished from a sufficiency to feed a population of twenty millions to a quantity sufficient only for a population of seven millions.
England, for the prosecution of the war which it has declared upon its trade competitor, Germany, is seeking further drafts from the remnant of the population of fighting age which still remains upon our soil. It is suggested by an English newspaper, the ‘Liverpool Weekly Post,’ that the Irish should be coaxed to provide 300,000 of her 700,000 men of military years to form England’s fighting force, while the Englishmen of the same age should be kept at home in England ‘to capture German trade.’
There are to-day in England 7,000,000 men between the ages of 20 and 45, or nearly ten men for every man of that age in Ireland. Thus England, herself, has ample material to draw upon to do her own fighting. She is determined, however, in the language of the ‘Liverpool Post’ not to ‘derange her industry’ by drawing to any serious extent upon her own people if she can induce the Irish to fight her battles. Ireland must be equally determined to safeguard her present and future interests by keeping her manhood in Ireland to work for Ireland.
Already the casualty lists disclose that, as in the war against the Boers, the proportion of Irish soldiers in the English army falling victims in this war is far greater than the proportion of English soldiers in that army. From last Friday’s casualty list it appears that the loss of regiments recruited in Ireland was 57, as against 12 in the regiments recruited in England. That is, almost five Irishmen suffered to one Englishman—indicating that as in the past England’s Irish recruits are sent to bear the brunt of the battle.
It is the first duty of Ireland to protect and conserve the lives of its own people. No good Irishman can stand by indifferent if coercion, concealed or open, be applied to Irishmen to join the British army. That coercion of a secret kind is at present being used we have reason to know. Against hints or threats of loss of employment or custom, or any other of the methods of the complex machinery of intimidation which exists in this country against the liberty of the individual, it is the duty of the nation as a whole to guard its people. With this as one of its main objects the Neutrality League is instituted.
Unlike England, Ireland is not dependent upon the maintenance of a fleet to ensure its food supplies. We raise upon the soil of Ireland more than sufficient food for our whole population. To safeguard so much of it as is essential to the maintenance of the population between this harvest and next harvest is a prime national necessity. The Neutrality League is also instituted with the object of carefully watching that the food reserves of the country are not depleted beyond the point necessary to the welfare of the people.
Finally, as this war was entered on by England without consulting Ireland or in any way regarding Irish interests or opinion, the League is instituted to protect, so far as possible, the interests of Ireland from being sacrificed to English exigencies. Its creed and watchword, therefore, is—Ireland for the Irish.