Home Rule | Page 4

of the Scotch race, men
filled with the new fire of the Reformation, men stalwart for their race
and creed. They went as conquerors and as confiscators, and for
centuries they worked with arms in their hands. They slew and were
slain, and were divided from the native Irish by an overflowing river of
blood. That river is not yet bridged.
It has been said that there is no human hatred so great as that felt
towards men whom one has wronged. The planters of Ulster inflicted
upon Ireland many grievous wrongs and endured some fierce revenges.
The result is that even to-day there is a section of them that still stands
apart from the other colonisers of Ireland--a race still distinct and apart.
Is it impossible that even there the binding and unifying principle of
Irish life may begin to work? That is the question of the future.
But though Ireland thus contains at least one instance of a mixture of
races not altogether dissimilar from that of England, it still remains true
that, taken as a whole, Ireland is a country marked with the Celtic
stamp. There, too, the power of the sea comes in. If there had been only
a land frontier, it is possible that the Teutonic influence would have
overpowered the Celtic. But the sea forms a sufficient barrier to cut off
every new band of immigrants from the country of their origin. This
isolation drives them into insular communion with the country of their
invasion. Thus, however often invaded and "planted," Ireland has
continued detached.
This detachment has been apparent ever since the earliest dawn of
Western civilisation. Right up to the Norman Conquest Ireland
remained apart and aloof from Central European influences. For long
ages she had been the rallying-place of the Celt as he was driven
westward by the Teuton and the Roman. Even after Great Britain had
been absorbed by the Roman Empire, Ireland still remained
unconquered, the one home of freedom in Western Europe. This
independence of Rome continued far into the Christian era. Ireland
developed a separate Christianity of a peculiarly elevated and noble
type, full of missionary zeal and inspired by high culture. That

Christianity even swept eastward, and for a time dominated Scotland
and England from its homes in Iona and Lindisfarne. This Irish
Christianity brought upon itself the enmity of Rome by continuing the
Eastern tonsure and the Eastern ritual, and finally, at the great Synod at
Whitby in the year 664[7], Rome conquered in the struggle for Britain,
and the Irish religion was driven back across the sea.
But Rome and European Christianity, as it was represented in the
Roman spirit, achieved a very slow victory over Ireland herself. The
English Pope Adrian gave to Henry II. a full permission to conquer
Ireland for the faith. But it was fated that Irish Catholicism should be
built up not by submission to the Catholic Kings of England, but by
resistance to the Protestant Kings from Henry VIII. onward. Thus it is
that, even in religion, in spite of the passionate loyalty of the modern
Irishman to the Roman See, Ireland still stands somewhat distinct and
aloof from the rest of Europe.
But if that be so in religion, still more is it so in customs and manners.
Take the analogy of a mould. The Celtic civilisation of Ireland is like a
mould, into which fresh metal has been always pouring; white-hot,
glowing metal from all over the world, from England and Scotland,
from France, from Rome, and even from far-off Spain. But though the
metal has always been changing, the mould still remains unbroken, and
as the metal has emerged in its fixed form it has always taken the Celtic
shape. So that to-day, in face of the Imperialistic tendencies of the
British Empire, Ireland remains more than ever passionately attached to
her nationalism, and more than ever potent to influence all newcomers
with her national ideas.
It is in that sense that the question of race still remains a permanent
feature in the Irish problem. It is precisely because the Irish nationality
is so persistent that it is hopeless to expect a permanent settlement of
her government problem within the scope of such an iron uniformity as
the Act of Union. It is because Ireland nurses this "unconquerable
hope" that the only golden key to these difficulties lies in some form of
self-government.
THE CREED

But besides the sea and the race, there is yet one more feature of the
Irish problem which remains practically unchanged. Ireland still
remains predominantly Catholic, while Great Britain is still
predominantly Protestant. The great movement of the sixteenth century,
known as the Reformation, passed from Germany through Holland and
France into Great Britain. It won Scotland completely. In England,
after a