IRELAND UNDER COERCION
THE DIARY OF AN AMERICAN
BY
WILLIAM HENRY HURLBERT
VOL. I.
SECOND EDITION.
1888
“Upon the future of Ireland hangs the future of the British Empire.”
CARDINAL MANNING TO EARL GREY, 1868
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
[pg v]PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Although barely a month has elapsed since the publication of thesevolumes, events of more or less general notoriety have so far confirmedthe views taken in them of the actual state and outlook of affairs inIreland, that I gladly comply with the request of my publisher for aPreface to this Second Edition.
Upon one most important point—the progressive demoralisation of theIrish people by the methods of the so-called political combinations,which are doing the work of the Agrarian and Anti-Social Revolution inIreland, some passages, from a remarkable sermon delivered in August inthe Cathedral of Waterford by the Catholic bishop of that diocese, willbe found to echo almost to the letter the statement given to me in Juneby a strong Protestant Home Ruler, that “the Nationalists are strippingIrishmen as bare of moral sense as the bushmen of South Africa.”
Speaking of what he had personally witnessed in one of the lanes ofWaterford, the Bishop says, in [pg vi]the report which I have seen of hissermon, “the most barbarous tribes of Africa would justly feel ashamedif they were guilty of what I saw, or approached to the guilt Iwitnessed, on that occasion.” As a faithful shepherd of his people, heis not content with general denunciations of their misconduct, but goeson to analyse the influences which are thus reducing a Christian peopleto a level below that of the savages whom Cardinal Lavigerie is noworganising a great missionary crusade to rescue from their degradation.
He agrees with Archbishop Croke in attributing much of thisdemoralisation to the excessive and increasing use of strong drink,striking evidences of which came under my own observation at more thanone point of my Irish journeys. But I fear Archbishop Croke wouldscarcely agree with the Bishop of Waterford in his diagnosis of theeffects upon the popular character of what has now come to pass currentin many parts of Ireland as “patriotism.”
The Bishop says, “The women as well as the men were fighting, and whenwe sought to bring them to order, one man threatened to take up a weaponand drive bishop, priests, and police from the place! On the Quay, Iunderstand, it was one scene of riot and disorder, and what made mattersworse was that when the police went to discharge their [pg vii]duty for theprotection of the people, the moment they interfered the people turnedon them and maltreated them in a shocking way. I understand that somepolice who were in coloured clothes were picked out for the worsttreatment—knocked down and kicked brutally. One police officer, Ilearn, had his fingers broken. This is a state of things that nothing atall would justify. It is not to be justified or excused on any principleof reason or religion. What is still worse, sympathy was shown for thosewho had obstructed and attacked the police. The only excuse I could findthat was urged for this shameful misconduct was that it was dignifiedwith the name of ‘patriotism’! All I can say is, that if rowdyism likethis be an indication of the patriotism of the p