Present Irish Questions

Present
Irish Questions

BY
WILLIAM O’CONNOR MORRIS
County Court Judge and Chairman of Quarter Sessions of Roscommon
and Sligo, and
Sometime Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford

Νοσει δέ μοι πρόπας στόλος, οὐδ᾽ ἔνι φροντίδος ἒγχος ὡ τις ἀλέξεται.
—Sophocles.

‘Blessed is the Amending Hand.’—Old Proverb.

London
Grant Richards
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
1901

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION AND ESTEEM
TO
THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA, K.P.
THE MOST DISTINGUISHED IRISHMAN OF HIS TIME

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

Preface

I have written much on Ireland from early youth, especially in the Edinburgh Review and the Times; and two works of mine, ‘Ireland, 1494-1868’ published in ‘The Cambridge Historical Series,’ and ‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ have been received with more than ordinary favour. I have ventured to think that the opinions of a veteran inquirer into Irish affairs, with respect to ‘Present Irish Questions’ just now of much importance, and certain to be ere long fully discussed in Parliament and elsewhere, may be of some use to a younger generation, that will have to examine and must be affected by them. I am not unaware of the cynical remarks of Swift on the disregard shown to authors who may be said to have had their day; and I do not pretend that, in the instance of myself, ‘old experience’ has given something of a ‘prophetic strain’ to what is contained in this volume. But I can say, with truth, that few living men have had such opportunities as have fallen to my lot, during a long series of years, to understand Ireland in its different parts, and the feelings and sentiments of the Irish community; to form sound and moderate views on the many and perplexing phenomena called ‘Irish Questions;’ to deal reasonably with Irish political and social problems, free from the influences of party prejudice and passion; in short, to do my subject complete and impartial justice. How the accidents and associations of a life already protracted beyond the ordinary span, have, as I hope, given me these qualifications, I have explained at some length in my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898;’ I shall not repeat what I have already written. But Ireland has constantly been uppermost in my thoughts; and as regards the conclusions I have come to in these pages, I may say, with the Roman historian, ‘hæc senectuti seposui.’

The examination of ‘Present Irish Questions,’ in this work, shows the views I entertain with regard to the actual condition of Ireland in its various aspects, and to her probable future destinies. These views may be censured as too gloomy, and even paradoxical; but Ireland remains, as she was when Macaulay wrote of her, ‘A member indeed of the Empire, but a withered and distorted member;’ the revolution which has passed, nay, is still passing, over her, has destroyed a great deal that ought to have been preserved, and has put little that is solid and stable in its place; there is much that is threatening and even dangerous in her political and social order, and in the sentiments of the mass of her community. In the case of Ireland, indeed, as in that of any other people, I have faith in the effect of salutary legislation on wise and just principles, and of consistent good government steadily carried out, of both of which there has been but too little evidence, during the last twenty years, in Irish affairs; above all, my trust is large in the healing influences of Time. But I have not forgotten that the vision of ‘Pacata Hibernia,’ which flitted even before the majestic understanding of Bacon, three centuries ago, has not been realised; the thoughtless optimism, which, during the last two generations, has represented Ireland to be in a state of continual ‘progress,’ nay, as ‘contented and happy,’ whenever she has not been convulsed by disorder and trouble, or racked by poverty and distress, has been completely falsified; and with nations, as with individuals, the profound remark of Butler is true; a life of repentance often fails to redeem the errors of the past. I proceed to indicate some at least of the authorities which relate to the different parts of my subject. The material condition of Ireland of late years may, perhaps, be best ascertained by studying, over some length of time, the large body of statistics compiled by the Government, and contained in that valuable publication, ‘Thom’s Directory,’ and by a perusal of the Irish debates in Hansard. Reference, too, should be made to the important papers of Mr. Childers, of Lord Farrer, and of Mr. Sexton in the Report of the Childers Commission, and especially to the evidence of Sir Robert Giffen, and even of Sir Edward Hamilton, in the Blue Books appended to that inquiry. ‘England’s Wealth, Ireland’s Poverty,’ by Thomas Lough, M.P., though a one-sided book, also deserves attention; and useful information may be obtained from ‘The Five Years in Ireland, 1895-1900,’ of Mr. Michael J. F. McCarthy, too much a eulogy, however, of things as they are, and marked by a spirit of aversion to, and distrust of, the Irish priesthood, which are a characteristic of a small section of the Irish Catholics.

The sources of our knowledge respecting the moral, social, and political state of Ireland are numerous and ample; I shall confine myself, as much as I can, to those which relate to what may be called her recent revolutionary period, though Irish history in the past, even in the distant past, is anything but an ‘old almanack.’ This mass of evidence faithfully represents the disturbances and the troubles that have prevailed in Ireland, with intervals of time between, during the last twenty years and upwards, and the fierce animosities and conflicts which have been the consequence. Here a reader should again