From Fianna Fáil, September 26, 1914.
There is apparently no limit to Mr. Wm. O’Brien’s folly. In Monday’s ‘Free Press’ he has written anew asking us to fight England’s battles. What he has to say about German despotism does not interest us. Our concern is with English despotism; and in that concern we must nail his false comparisons. Here is just the sort of thing ignorant people swallow, and by which they are misled:
‘France has forgotten Waterloo, and even a humiliation so late as Fashoda, to welcome the English alliance. The Russians have forgotten Sebastopol; the Boers have forgotten the extinction of the South African Republics. In Heaven’s name, why should Irishmen be the only race on earth to be incapable of showing similar good sense?’
We reply: France could forget Waterloo and Fashoda, because no English soldiers hold French soil subject to England. But note, France is on the opposite side to Germany, because Russia could not forget the lost provinces. Russia could forget Sebastopol, because no English soldiers held Russian territory for England. Who told him the Boers have forgotten the extinction of the South African Republics and does he not know that the Boers dominate South Africa? They have entered the war, not to fight England’s battles, but, as General Botha said, to have a say in the future of Africa. That is precisely how an independent Republic might have acted. Ireland refuses to forget because England dominates this country. May we in turn ask Mr. O’Brien a question? Why should Irishmen be the only race to accept such guidance as he offers? But we hasten to say, on all sides now he is repudiated. ‘Nobody in his senses proposes to fight England,’ he writes. Thousands of us in our senses propose to fight her, we rejoin. ‘Why not go one step further, and help her to fight her battles?’, he says; but we say, if she cannot fight her own battles, let her go down.
When Mr. O’Brien issues his fiat, there is little use in arguing with him. This, then, is all we say. We are a generation younger than he; our generation will dominate the future, and rule the destinies of this country; and the last word must, of the nature of the case, be with the young men. And our last word is to give a flat negative to his proposal.
As we go to press we read the leading article in Mr. O’Brien’s paper, ‘The Free Press,’ 23rd instant. It can only be described as a snarl, because we won’t enlist in England’s army. Since we can’t be wheedled, we’re to be taunted. ‘Cowards,’ he cries. No use, Mr. O’Brien. The recruiting statistics for Ireland are painful reading, you say. For you. Yes. But they make us very, very happy. Thank God for our sanity come again. The spirit of Mitchel is abroad in the land.