TwentyPlainFactsForIrishmenDownload

From The Irish Review, September 1914.

  1. It is one thing to see the enemy’s point of view; it is another thing to fight the enemy.
  2. The Irishman who says he would prefer to be under German rule than under English rule is a slave.
  3. The Irishman who says he would prefer to be under English rule than under German rule is a slave.
  4. The Irishman who knows he should be under Irish rule and under no other is capable of attaining freedom.
  5. The Belgian owes no allegiance to Germany.
  6. The Pole owes no allegiance to Russia, to Germany, or to Austria.
  7. The Irishman owes no allegiance to England.
  8. The organisation of the Irish Volunteers was begun on the 25th of November, 1913.
  9. The British Government, on the 4th of December, 1913, issued a Proclamation prohibiting the importation of arms into Ireland.
  10. Under the Arms Proclamation the British Government did what it could to hinder the Irish Volunteers from obtaining the arms necessary to equip them for the defence of Ireland.
  11. The Arms Proclamation was withdrawn in August, 1914, after the outbreak of an International European War.
  12. Every foreign country from which the Irish Volunteers could have procured arms is now in a state of war or of neutrality.
  13. Ireland, having no arms factory of her own, is thus still hindered from obtaining arms for her defence.
  14. The Irish Volunteers have been organised first to secure the rights and liberties of all the people of Ireland, and then to maintain those rights and liberties.
  15. The Irish Volunteers have not yet secured the rights and liberties of the Irish people.
  16. The Irish Volunteers have no rights and liberties to defend.
  17. The Irish Volunteers have not been enrolled to defend “England and her Empire,” for the defence of which, according to the British proclamation, Your King and Country Needs You, the present war is being waged.
  18. No body, committee or person, has any right or liberty to use or to promise to use the efforts of the Irish Volunteers for any purpose other than the securing and the maintenance of the rights and liberties of the people of Ireland.
  19. The Union Jack is the symbol of the Act of Union of 1800, by which the Irish Nation was deprived of her last rights and liberties.
  20. The Irish Nation lives.