Dorothy Thompson

Wilmington Morning News/September 17, 1920

LONDON, Sept. 16—I went to Ireland on the day that the King signed the Hamar-Greenwood bill “for the restoration of order in Ireland,” and I was there during the first ten days of the application of martial law and increased “coercion.” I am not a political expert, and in the foregoing articles I have refrained from an expression of political opinion, but no one could live in Ireland just now without seeing certain facts standing out so boldly that he who runs may read.

One of these facts is that under the cumulative coercive policy of the British Government there has been throughout Ireland a distinct swing to the left. Men who yesterday advocated some form of home rule as a solution of the Irish question have now joined the republicans. Men who yesterday were unionists are now favoring complete dominion status for Ireland.

This is even observable in Ulster. The unionist solidarity in Ulster is certainly being undermined. Only six of the nine counties of the Ulster province are now in the unionist complex and of these two would almost certainly go nationalist under county option. In the centre of unionism, Belfast, the socialist vote has been growing with amazing rapidity and since the unionist forces in Ulster have in many ways shown themselves to be allied with anti-labor forces, the rising influence of labor is a rising toward nationalism as well. Moreover, the pogroms against the Catholics have gone so far that unionist business men are beginning to see how suicidal the civil war is. The damage to property in Ulster now totals a million pounds, and will mean an enormous increase on the tax rates under the present compensation laws. The boycotts instituted first by the trade unions and then by Sinn Fein against Belfast industries have had their effect in driving home to certain business men at least the fact that Ireland is economically one country.

Bitter opposition to the policy of the British Government is by no means confined to republicans. In fact, they are perhaps the only group which profits by it at all, since it confirms their propaganda that there is no hope to be had in looking toward England. The attitude of George Russell (“A. E.”) is significant. One of Ireland’s greatest artists; a poet, a painter and essayist, out of an amazing vitality he has found time to ally himself with the agricultural cooperative movement and has become its centre and spirit.

He is not a politician. To him politics is so much play on the surface of things. From him one could look for a sane and dispassionate point of view. But from no one whom I met in Ireland did I hear a more scathing indictment of the present British policy.

Against Irish People

“The war of Great Britain is not against Sinn Fein,” he said. “It is a war against the Irish people, and against those very forces in Ireland which offer the only hope for moderation and peace.

“For a quarter of a century the Agricultural Organization Society has been the centre of the only non-political movement in Ireland. The cooperative societies have brought together unionists, Catholics, Protestants and adherents of Sinn Fein. Politics have never been discussed in these societies. But can they remain aloof from the passions of these days when armed British soldiers are ruining the industry which they have built at such great cost? Can they continue to be a force making for peace when fifteen of their creameries have been ruined or partially destroyed within the last few months?

“How can I discuss with you ‘home rule’ or any other measure when I see nowhere any sign of an intelligent, statesmanlike attitude on the part of the English Government?”

The very men who are making a last heroic effort to save Ireland from a war of conquest—something too horrible to contemplate—look toward Westminster with eyes in which hope is darkened with an inevitable cynicism. These men—Sir Horace Plunkett, Sir Stanley Harrington, Lord McConnell (a former under secretary) and Lord Shaftesbury (an Ulsterman) believe that even in this dark moment dominion home rule offered to Ireland might bring North and South together in peace.

British Attitude Hopeless

But they know that it can be no tentative offer. The present attitude of the British Government, which is to apply coercion, and at the same time refuse to take any conciliatory step until the moderate group can prove that it has a united public opinion behind them in Ireland, is hopeless for peace. Because the present attitude of Irishmen grows out of the policy of England, and nothing can change that attitude except a change of that policy. No one in Ireland, I think, believes that an “offer” from England would make a particle of difference in Ireland. An offer accompanied by the withdrawal of troops, the calling of a constituent assembly, a cessation of the old policy of molly-coddling Ulster and a recognition of Ireland as a nation might keep the country within the empire without war. It is certain that Sinn Fein has adherents whose support is more a protest against the present state of affairs than an evidence of fundamental republicanism. And no one doubts the patriotism of Sinn Fein, and even among its warmest supporters there must be those who would hesitate to plunge the country into war for an end more or less chimerical. At present they have an irrefutable case.

During the time that I was in Ireland the movement for peace under dominion home rule got under way. It was rumored that there would be a statement from Bonar Law or Lloyd George before the adjournment of Parliament. I remember how breathlessly we waited for a statement, feeling sure that it would embody some hope for the cessation of war and the return of reason. Only Sinn Fein expressed no hope, its adherents smiling at what they chose to call our gullibility.

The statement was only a reiteration of the policy which is driving Ireland to destruction. Only Sinn Fein, being completely cynical, was not disappointed.

The following week was the bloodiest and the most destructive of property in the history of many awful months.