“Say-Miss-ye-brat!” replied the lady in charge, in a single sabre-cut of Saxon speech.
* * * * *
Martin had ever been theoretically opposed to Home Rule for Ireland, and was wont to combat argument in its favour with the forebodings which may be read in the following letters. They were written to her friend, Captain Stephen Gwynn, in response to some very interesting letters from him (which, with hers to him, he has most kindly allowed me to print here). Her love of Ireland, combined with her distrust of some of those newer influences in Irish affairs to which her letters refer, made her dread any weakening of the links that bind the United Kingdom into one, but I believe that if she were here now, and saw the changes that the past eighteen months have brought to Ireland, she would be quick to welcome the hope that Irish politics are lifting at last out of the controversial rut of centuries, and that although it has been said of East and West that “never the two shall meet,” North and South will yet prove that in Ireland it is always the impossible that happens.
V. F. M. to Captain Stephen Gwynn, M.P.
“Drishane House,
“Skibbereen.
“Feb. 1, 1912.
“...The day after —— was here I rode on a large horse, of mild and reflective habit, away over a high hill, where farms reached up to the heather. We progressed by a meandering lane from homestead to homestead, and the hill grass was beautifully green and clean, and the sun shone upon it in an easterly haze. There was ploughing going on, and all the good, quiet work that one longs to do, instead of brain-wringing inside four walls. I wondered deeply and sincerely whether Home Rule could increase the peacefulness, or whether it will not be like upsetting a basket of snakes over the country. These people have bought their land. They manage their own local affairs. Must there be yet another upheaval for them—and a damming up of Old Age Pensions, which now flow smoothly and balmily among them, to the enormous comfort and credit of the old people? (And since I saw my mother’s old age and death I have understood the innermost of that tragedy of failing life.)
“My Cousin and I, in our small way, live in the manner that seems advisable for Ireland. We make money in England and we spend it over here. We are sorry for those who have to live in London, but Ireland cannot support us all without help.
“You will understand now how badly I bored your friend, and how long-suffering he was.”
From Captain Stephen Gwynn, M.P., to V. F. M.
“House of Commons.
“Feb. 8th, 1912.