Long-necked Eamon de Yalera. President of the Irish Free State’s Executive Council, wants an Irish Republic without bloodshed.* Until he can get it he rankles under “symbols” of British sovereignty. Such was the British flag which no longer flaps over Dublin’s Government buildings. Such was the resounding oath of “allegiance” to His Majesty George V, his heirs and successors by law, required of all Irish Free State members of Parliament. Last week Eamon de Valera got rid of that too, despite a stone around his neck and a yapping pack at his heels. The stone is the Irish Seanad (Senate). Its 60 members are elected for nine-year terms by the Dail and Seanad conjointly, in batches of 20 every three years. Once an honorable company, they are now chiefly pious place-hunters. A majority are men of onetime President William T. Cosgrave’s Opposition which holds that Ireland cannot support itself free of Britain. Satisfied with the Free State where it stands, they say, “No further.” When the oath abolition bill reached them a twelve-month ago they sank it with an amendment requiring British approval. Eamon de Yalera went to the people and asked them to jam the lower house (Dail) with his men. They did, last January. The new Dail repassed the bill in its original form in March. By the Irish Constitution it then became law after 60 days and a nominal motion in the Dail that “it will be deemed to have passed both Houses of the Oireachtas [Parliament].” Last week Eamon de Yalera threw the stone from his neck. Speaking in Gaelic before the Dail. he made the “deeming” motion himself. The pack yapping at President de Valera’s heels are the irreconcilables of the Irish Republican Army. They refuse to vote for deputies to the Dail: they call the 1921 treaty with Britain “the treaty of surrender.” Their young men. of whom Eamon de Valera was once one. drill and plot the new day of Revolution, cursing de Valera for his caution. Last week he told them that with the abolition of the oath “a new situation has been created,” opening the Oireachtas “to all sections of the population, without their having to forswear any opinions they might hold legitimately. . . . There is no longer any excuse for preparation for the use of arms by anyone outside the government’s forces, ‘and these forces alone can be effective in defending the country against an outside enemy.” He encouraged them to send their own men to Parliament “to advance their claims.” To assure them he was on their side, he said. “The civil war was caused by our opponents [the Cosgrave Party], who tried to insist that a certain section of the people take the oath.” Up from his seat rose peppery Opposition Leader Cosgrave. He cried bitterly. “You began the civil war—we ended it!” Through the mind of every Dail member echoed the civil war’s whole story of murder and treachery, still potent to shake Irishmen with dismay. Loudly, tossing his scraggly forelock, de Valera shouted above the murmuring. “We are ending it here today, thank God!” And a storm of applause and relief swept the Irishmen of the Dail. —He can declare it any time he likes without fear of British reprisals but he cannot afford to without the Northern. Protestant six of Ireland’s :—,? counties. The anti-Catholic Ulstcrmen hold most of Ireland’s industries, refuse to consider joining a Free State Republic.
* He can declare it any time he likes without fear of British reprisals but he cannot afford to without the Northern, Protestant six of Ireland’s 32 countries. The anti-Catholic Ulstermen hold most of Ireland’s industries,refus to consider joining a Free State Republic
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