I cannot help feeling that the citizens of Cork who are against violence would be greatly strengthened if the findings in the official inquiry on the Cork burnings could be published and adequate punishment administered to the evildoers. This has not been done. British justice in Ireland is not evenhanded. Somebody is being sheltered. The Black and Tans would mutiny. The authorities themselves organized the looting. All sorts of things are being said, all sorts of things believed. The belief in British fair play is gone. Can it really be after all that we are living on our tradition in this matter as are the French on their reputation for good manners?
Back to Dublin from Cork and a final meeting with my good friends there. It was a splendid company, representative of the brilliant wit and intellect for which Ireland is so justly famed. I was going home, so it was entirely proper that these last hours should be devoted to question and answer on both sides.
I spoke again of the difficulty of winning and maintaining sympathy for Ireland in England so long as the killing of British soldiers continued. All deplored the necessity, but those who believed that the method could now be changed were in a small minority.
“Ask Englishmen who complain two questions,” said a distinguished professor, whose name is known wherever scholarship is respected. “Who began it, and how they would behave in the same circumstances.”
“Forgive the question,” I said, “but who do you really think did begin it?”
“The Republicans certainly did not,” said a young lawyer rather hotly. “I am not a Republican, but one must face facts. For two years after the killing of Irish civilians by British Crown forces no member of the forces lost his life. In the meantime unspeakable humiliations were put upon the Irish people. The miscreants who killed two Irish civilians in 1917 and five in 1918 were never brought to trial. No steps were taken to bring them to trial. In the meantime innocent men on the Irish side were arrested and imprisoned without trial; private houses were raided and their contents stolen, meetings and newspapers were violently suppressed, and deportations were very frequent. In 1918 alone 1,117 Irish men and women were arrested for political reasons; 77 Sinn Feiners were deported in one month; 260 private houses were raided by night, and 81 meetings were broken up with bayonets.
“The bottom fact of the whole trouble lies in this: The British Government is uneven in its administration of justice, and it breaks its pledges. It hangs the Casements and puts the Carsons in the Cabinet. What essential difference was there in their offences? The death of a British soldier or policeman is bitterly avenged even upon the innocent and out of all proportion to the crime. The death of a Republican is applauded, and that of a non-partisan is rarely even inquired into. Have you seen the kind of thing which is published and circulated broadcast with the approval of the authorities?” Here he handed to me a paper, an extract from which I quote. It was delivered to the Cork newspaper offices:—
Anti-Sinn Fein Society,
Cork Headquarters,
Grand Parade, Cork.
“In the event of a member of His Majesty’s Forces being wounded or an attempt made to wound him, one member of the Sinn Fein Party will be killed; or if a member of the Sinn Fein Party is not available two sympathisers will be killed.
“(Signed) The Assistant Secretary.”