National Being

National Being (Some Thoughts
on an Irish Polity)

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Title: National Being Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity
Author: (A.E.)George William Russell
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8104] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 15, 2003]

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BEING ***

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THE NATIONAL BEING Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity--A.E.
[George William Russell]

To The Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett
A good many years ago you grafted a slip of poetry on your economic
tree. I do not know if you expected a hybrid. This essay may not be
economics in your sense of the word. It certainly is not poetry in my
sense. The Marriage of Heaven and Earth was foretold by the ancient
prophets. I have seen no signs of that union taking place, but I have
been led to speculate how they might be brought within hailing
distance of each other. In my philosophy of life, we are all responsible
for the results of our actions and their effects on others. This book is a
consequence of your grafting operation, and so I dedicate it to you.--
A.E.

I.

In the year nineteen hundred and fourteen Anno Domini, amid a world
conflict, the birth of the infant State of Ireland was announced. Almost
unnoticed this birth, which in other times had been cried over the earth
with rejoicings or anger. Mars, the red planet of war, was in the
ascendant when it was born. Like other births famous in history, the
child had to be hidden away for a time, and could not with pride be
shown to the people as royal children were wont to be shown. Its
enemies were unforgiving, and its friends were distracted with mighty

happenings in the world. Hardly did they know whether it would not be
deformed if it survived: whether this was the Promised, or another child
yet to be conceived in the womb of the Mother of Parliaments. Battles
were threatened between two hosts, secular champions of two spiritual
traditions, to decide its fate. That such a conflict threatened showed
indeed that there was something of iron fibre in the infant, without
which in their make-up individuals or nations do nothing worthy of
remembrance. Hercules wrestled with twin serpents in his cradle, and
there were twin serpents of sectarianism ready to strangle this infant
State of ours if its guardians were not watchful, or if the infant was not
itself strong enough to destroy them.
It is about the State of Ireland, its character and future, I have here
written some kind of imaginative meditation. The State is a physical
body prepared for the incarnation of the soul of a race. The body of the
national soul may be spiritual or secular, aristocratic or democratic,
civil or militarist predominantly. One or other will be most powerful,
and the body of the race will by reflex action affect its soul, even as
through heredity the inherited tendencies and passions of the flesh
affect the indwelling spirit. Our brooding over the infant State must be
dual, concerned not only with the body but the soul. When we essay
self-government in Ireland our first ideas will, in all probability, be
borrowed from the Mother of Parliaments, just as children before they
grow to have a character of their own repeat the sentiments of their
parents. After a time, if there is anything in the theory of Irish
nationality, we will apply original principles as they are from time to
time discovered to be fundamental in Irish character. A child in the
same way makes discoveries about itself. The mood evoked by picture
or poem reveals a love of beauty; the harsh treatment