Internationalism: the New Danger by Máire de Buitléir

This article has been syndicated with the permission of ‘An Claíomh Solais’


"I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of Chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever." These words of a great Irishman referring  to the murder of a French Queen keep running in my mind of late, only they transpose themselves thus—

"I thought ten thousand Irishmen would have hurled themselves forward to protest against those who dared to preach Internationalism from an Irish platform." Must one add? "But the age of Nationality is past. The age of Socialists, Materialists and Internationalists has succeeded, and the glory of Ireland is extinguished for ever."

Day after day strangers, emissaries from the land of our hereditary enemy, have preached this doctrine of Internationalism to our fellow-countrymen and fellow-citizens, urging them to tear down the barriers of racial prejudice, in other words, to forswear their country and change the name of Irishman for citizen of the world: and, judging from the newspaper reports, no voice in the listening crowd has been raised to protest. When this doctrine, now preached daily and hourly in our midst by word of mouth, was committed to writing, and the message thus transmitted . . . . " it is essential in our opinion that neither provincialism, sectionalism, nor mere race prejudice must stand in the way of the greater and real unity of the working classes," still our people remained dumb.

When an Englishman declared to a mass meeting of Dubliners: "There is nothing between Ireland and England but a drop of water," one would have thought a great shout would have gone forth from the multitude, "There are rivers of blood between us, there are centuries of wrong, and if all the blood could be washed away, if all the wrong could be undone, there would still be between us, and must always be till the end of time, the chasm created by two irreconcilable ideals, two conflicting types of civilisation, Gaelicism and Anglo-Saxonism." But this outrageous declaration : "There is nothing to divide Ireland and England but a drop of water," was let go unchallenged, and since then similar statements have over and over again been listened to in a silence which must be taken for acquiescence.

Stunned and amazed one hears of these things and asks, Is this Ireland or an English shire ? Has the last conquest of Ireland indeed been completed, the conquest of the Nation's soul ? The flag of Irish Nationality has been kept flying for seven centuries at the cost of indescribable suffering and sacrifice, and unsurpassed heroism. Is it to be lowered now by our own people and the banner of Internationalism raised in its place?

On the Industrial questions at present in dispute I offer no opinion. The organ of the Gaelic League is not the place to discuss them. It is the place to protest against a new and serious menace to the structure of Gaelic civilisation which for years past we have been laboriously striving to recreate. Why two sets of Irishmen cannot settle their differences without calling in outsiders; why men who have been clamouring for self-government should call in Englishmen and Scotchmen to arrange their affairs is an insoluble puzzle. However, it only concerns the two parties to the dispute. But when these aliens, now hailed as comrades and "brethren" propagate their anti-national doctrines broadcast among us, it becomes a matter of public concern.

It is not only Dublin workmen who are then concerned. The future of the race is at stake. Our National integrity is being undermined. For fifteen years the Gaelic League has been building up National character. We now see it crumbling away before our eyes as we walk through the streets of Ireland's Capital. It is a heartbreaking sight, sufficient to discourage the most untiring and optimistic worker in the movement. Yet we must not despair—"We must not weep for you, dear land, we must not weep for you."

No, we must work for her, fight for her still, in order to save her from this new danger. Those of us who wish for political independence think of the dead who died for Ireland, and those of us who long for intellectual independence think too of our vanished comrades who gave their life's work to the cause; men and women of noble souls and exquisitely gifted natures, and we ask, can such lives have been lived in vain? As Parnell said he would never have taken off his coat for the land war if he had not the National Idea in the background so the Craoibhin and his followers might say they would not have taken off their coats for the language revival if they had not the resurgence of the Gaelic nation as their ultimate ideal. The attainment of this end is threatened now with a serious set back by the menace of Internationalism. If Ireland had been thoroughly re-Gaelicised from the centre to the sea there would have been nothing to fear from this new enemy.

But, unhappily, Ireland is only Gaelic in patches. It is the duty of Gaels in this new emergency to try harder than ever to spread their gospel. They must infuse new vigour and earnestness into their propaganda. Perhaps some of us have grown slack of late. Henceforth we cannot afford to grow slack if the Ireland of our forefathers is not to be engulfed in the Dismal Swamp of Internationalism.

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