From The Irish Volunteer, July 4, 1914. The text has been altered into the first-person.
I congratulate the Volunteers, Father Brennan, their commander, their company commanders and instructors, and I think I can congratulate the whole town and district of Tralee on having such a splendid corps of Irish Volunteers.
I note your splendid physique, your soldiery bearing, the military precision and accuracy of your movements, and I would like to add that I am favourably impressed with your splendid turn-out. At the railway station last night these silent, soldiery ranks, every man as straight and as steady as a spear in the hands of a warrior, was a far more impressing demonstration than the most enthusiastic, cheering crowd. We in Ireland to-day are again learning the nobility and dignity of military discipline and military service. It seems almost like a dream coming true—we have at long last an Irish army.
It has been given to the men of this present generation to realise the dream of the generations that went before them—the dream of Irish patriots for the last hundred years. We are creating on Irish soil again an Irish army. It is the most portentous thing in recent Irish history, and will be remembered in history to the credit of the men in this generation that they had the sight to see their opportunity and the courage to seize that opportunity.
I ask you to recall what has occurred in Ireland within the past year or two. A certain section of our countrymen, urged on by a political party in England, had taken up arms against Irish freedom. It was stated that the passionate desire for freedom had died in Irish hearts and that there were no men in Ireland to arm for Irish freedom. The reply we made was the only reply that could be made. The reply that our manhood imitated that of North-East Ulster armed against Irish freedom. The Volunteers are the most important men in Ireland to-day, and count more in the present political crisis and in the future history of Ireland than all the political parties, all the politicians, and all the newspapers combined, and it is no exaggeration to say that the issue of the present crisis depended upon the Irish Volunteers.
The future of Ireland is in the hands of the Volunteers to be moulded as we wish. We are determined to arm the Volunteers, and that done it will be impossible for any politician to force upon us any solution of the Irish question which we do not wish to accept. When we have an Irish Parliament in College Green, the work of the Irish Volunteers will be only then commencing. It will be a national defence force which is not going to be disbanded at the bidding of any politicians in Ireland or in England.
I refer to the marvellous growth and success of the movement which has swept through the country spontaneously and grown to enormous proportions in such a brief period of time, which shows that the movement appeals to everything that is straight and best and manliest in the Irish heart. It was only when the National Volunteers sprang into existence that the importation of arms was proclaimed. Well Ulster was able to get arms in spite of the Proclamation, and what Ulster did the men of Ireland can and will do.