From The Irish Citizen, May 22nd, 1915. From a public meeting held at Trades’ Hall, Dublin, on May 11th, arranged by the Irish Women’s Franchise League in protest against the British Government’s prohibition of Irish delegates from addressing the Women’s International Peace Congress in The Hague, Netherlands. The following is a letter of apology by Pearse for being unable to attend.
Mr. P. H. Pearse, Headmaster, St. Enda’s College, wrote:
The action of the British Government in preventing Irish women from attending the Women’s International Peace Congress is only the latest manifestation of the settled policy of Great Britain to eliminate Ireland from the counsels of Europe and the world. We have now been almost completely cut off from communication with other countries and peoples except through Britain. Our books and papers cannot get out; the books and papers of other countries cannot get in… The present incident will do good if it ranges more of the women definitely with the national forces.