Ireland Since Parnell   By: D. D. (Daniel Desmond) Sheehan (1873-1948)

BY CAPTAIN D.D. SHEEHAN

BARRISTER AT LAW LATE M.P. FOR MID CORK

LONDON

DANIEL O'CONNOR 90 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C.1

1921

CONTENTS

FOREWORD CHAPTER I. A LEADER APPEARS II. A LEADER IS DETHRONED! III. THE DEATH OF A LEADER IV. AN APPRECIATION OF PARNELL V. THE WRECK AND RUIN OF A PARTY VI. TOWARDS LIGHT AND LEADING VII. FORCES OF REGENERATION AND THEIR EFFECT VIII. THE BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT AND WHAT IT CAME TO IX. THE LAND QUESTION AND ITS SETTLEMENT X. LAND PURCHASE AND A DETERMINED CAMPAIGN TO KILL IT XI. THE MOVEMENT FOR DEVOLUTION AND ITS DEFEAT XII. THE LATER IRISH PARTY ITS CHARACTER AND COMPOSITION XIII. A TALE OF BAD LEADERSHIP AND BAD FAITH XIV. LAND AND LABOUR XV. SOME FURTHER SALVAGE FROM THE WRECKAGE XVI. REUNION AND TREACHERY XVII. A NEW POWER ARISES IN IRELAND XVIII. A CAMPAIGN OF EXTERMINATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES XIX. A GENERAL ELECTION THAT LEADS TO A "HOME RULE" BILL! XX. THE RISE OF SIR EDWARD CARSON XXI. SINN FEIN ITS ORIGINAL MEANING AND PURPOSE XXII. LABOUR BECOMES A POWER IN IRISH LIFE XXIII. CARSON, ULSTER AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS XXIV. FORMATION OF IRISH VOLUNTEERS AND OUTBREAK OF WAR XXV. THE EASTER WEEK REBELLION AND AFTERWARDS XXVI. THE IRISH CONVENTION AND THE CONSCRIPTION OF IRELAND XXVII. "THE TIMES" AND IRISH SETTLEMENT XXVIII. THE ISSUES NOW AT STAKE

FOREWORD

The writer of this work first saw the light on a modest farmstead in the parish of Droumtariffe, North Cork. He came of a stock long settled there, whose roots were firmly fixed in the soil, whose love of motherland was passionate and intense, and who were ready "in other times," when Fenianism won true hearts and daring spirits to its side, to risk their all in yet one more desperate battle for "the old cause." His father was a Fenian, and so was every relative of his, even unto the womenfolk. He heard around the fireside, in his younger days, the stirring stories of all the preparations which were then made for striking yet another blow for Ireland, and he too sighed and sorrowed for the disappointments that fell upon noble hearts and ardent souls with the failure of "The Rising."

He was not more than seven years of age when the terrible tribulation of eviction came to his family. He remembers, as if the events were but of yesterday, the poignant despair of his mother in leaving the home into which her dowry was brought and where her children were born, and the more silent resignation, but none the less deeply felt bitterness, of his father a man of strong character and little given to expressing his emotions. He recalls that, a day or two before the eviction, he was taken away in a cart, known in this part of the country as "a crib," with some of the household belongings, to seek a temporary shelter with some friends. May God be good to them for their loving kindness and warm hospitality!

He wondered, then, why there should be so much suffering and sorrow as he saw expressed around him, in the world, and he was told that there was nothing for it that the lease of the farm had expired, that the landlord wanted it for himself, and that though his father was willing to pay an increased rent, still out he had to go and, what was worse, to have all his improvements confiscated, to have the fruits of the blood and sweat and energy of his forefathers appropriated by a man who had no right under heaven to them, save such as the iniquitous laws of those days gave him.