THE IRISH CONVENTION AND THE CONSCRIPTION OF
IRELAND
The time had now come when the Irish Party had to taste all the
bitterness of actual and anticipated defeat. Several Irish newspapers
had gone over to Sinn Fein. _The Irish Independent_ had been
previously a fearless critic of the Party, and the defeat of the
Partition proposals was largely due to the manner in which they had
denounced them and exposed their real character.
A bye-election took place in North Roscommon. There was a straight
fight between the Parliamentary Party and Sinn Fein and the former
were defeated by an overwhelming majority. Another trial of strength
came soon afterwards, and the Party again bit the dust. The
Coalitionists had now turned a cold shoulder to the Party. They could
get along very well without them. They had got all they could out of
them for war purposes. They foresaw their approaching defeat, and they
did not, therefore, count on their scheme of things as a force to be
conciliated or to be afraid of. And as if to ensure the complete
downfall and overthrow of the Party the Government continued their
arrests and deportations.
The Party had to "demonstrate" in some way and they hit upon the device
of withdrawing from Parliament and sending a Manifesto to the United
States and the self-governing dominions. But whilst they paid _Sinn
Fein_ the compliment of adopting their policy of Parliamentary
abstention, they neither honestly kept away nor openly remained--asking
questions and sending ambassadors from time to time. _Sinn Fein_ was not
inactive either. It summoned a Convention to meet in Dublin to assert
the independence of Ireland, its status as a nation and its right to
representation at the Peace Conference.
The Government was still faced with a reluctant and undecided America,
and it became essential for "propaganda purposes" to do something of
fair seeming on the Irish Question. The Prime Minister accordingly
revived the old Partition proposals, but these were now dead and
damned by all parties, the Roscommon, Longford and East Clare
victories of Sinn Fein having brought the Irish Party to disown their
twice-repeated bargain for Partition. He then proposed as an
alternative that an Irish Convention, composed of representative
Irishmen, should assemble to deliberate upon the best means of
governing their own country.
The All-for-Ireland Party were asked to nominate representatives to
this Convention, as were also Sinn Fein. In reply Mr O'Brien stated
four essential conditions of success: (1) a Conference of ten or a
dozen persons known to intend peace; (2) a prompt agreement, making
every conceivable concession to Ulster, with the one reservation that
partition in any shape or form was inadmissible and unthinkable; (3)
the immediate submission of the agreement to a Referendum of the Irish
people (never before consulted upon a definite proposal); (4) if any
considerable minority of irreconcilables still uttered threats of an
Ulster rebellion a bold appeal of the Government to the British
electorate at a General Election to declare once and for all between
the claims of reason and justice and the incorrigibility of Ulster.
One panel of names which Mr O'Brien submitted to the Cabinet at their
request was: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Protestant Primate, the
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, the Marquess of Londonderry, the
Marquess of Ormonde, General Sir Hubert Gough, Major "Willie" Redmond,
M.P., the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Dunraven, Viscount
Northcliffe, Mr William Martin Murphy, Mr Hugh Barrie, M.P., and two
representatives of Sinn Fein. Mr O'Brien was in a position to
guarantee that at a Conference thus constituted Sinn Fein would not be
unrepresented. Instead of setting up a Conference of this character,
which it is now clear would not have separated without coming to an
agreement, the proposal was set aside--whether by Mr Lloyd George or
by Mr Redmond's advisers has yet to be revealed--and an Irish
Convention composed of nominated representatives was constituted,
which had no possibility of agreement except an agreement on the lines
of Partition and which was doubtless planned and conceived for the
purpose of fooling Ireland and America and keeping the Convention
"talking" for nine months until America was wiled into the war.
The Convention could by no possibility succeed, and my belief is it
was never intended to succeed. It was numerically unwieldy.
Nine-tenths of its representation was drawn from the Ulster Party's
and the Irish Party's supporters, both of whom were pledged in advance
to the Partition settlement, and as far as the Irish Party
representation was concerned the last thing that could be said of it
was that it was representative. Of the seventy-five Redmondites who
composed three-fourths of the Convention only one escaped rejection by
his constituents as soon as the electors had their say! The Convention
laboured under the still further disadvantage of being at the mercy of
an Orange veto, which makes one wonder how it was that Mr Redmond or
his party ever submitted to it. The Ulster delegates to the Convention
were under the control of an outside body--the Ulster Orange Council.
They could decide nothing without reference to this body, and hence
the Convention was in the perfectly humiliating position of carrying
on its proceedings subject to an outside Orange veto.
Neither the All-for-Ireland Party nor Sinn Fein was represented at the
Convention, although Mr Lloyd George made a second appeal to Mr
O'Brien to assist in its deliberations. It says something for the
wisdom of Mr O'Brien's proposal for a small Conference that after
debating the matter for months the Convention decided to transmit
their powers to a Committee of Nine to draw up terms of agreement.
This Committee did actually reach agreement, only to have it squelched
instantly by the veto of the Ulster Council when the Ulster nominees
reported the terms of it to them. Lord MacDonnell, in a letter to
_The Times_, dated 2nd November 1919, makes the following
disclosure regarding Mr Redmond's view of this matter:--
"In regard to this episode I well remember the late Mr Redmond saying
in conversation that if he had foreseen the possibility of a proposal
made there being submitted for judgment to men who had not
participated in the Convention's proceedings, and were removed from
its pervading atmosphere of good will, he would never have consented
to enter it."
Mr O'Brien, however, saw this danger in advance and drew public
attention to it. In a speech in the House of Commons he also foretold
what the failure of the Convention meant: the destruction of the
constitutional movement and the setting up of "the right of rebellion,
whether from the Covenanters or Sinn Feiners as the only arbiter left
in Irish affairs. You will justly make Parliamentary methods more
despised and detested than they are at the present moment by the young
men of Ireland."
The Convention failed to reach unanimity. It presented various
reports, and the Government, glad of so easy a way out, simply did
nothing. The Convention served the Ministerial purpose, and there was
an end of it. The proceedings were, however, notable for one tragic
incident. Mr Redmond sought to rally the majority of the Convention in
support of a compromise which, whilst falling short of Dominion Home
Rule, avoided partition and would have been acceptable to Southern
Unionist opinion. Mr Devlin and the Catholic Bishops opposed Mr
Redmond's motion and the Irish leader, feeling himself deserted at the
most critical moment, did not move, and withdrew from the Convention
to his death, adding another to the long list of tragic figures in
Irish history.
The only practical outcome of the Convention was the acceptance of
Dominion Home Rule by a minority, which included Mr Devlin. As if to
make matters as impracticable as possible for the Parliamentarians, Mr
Lloyd George introduced a Bill to conscript Ireland at the very time
the Convention proposals were before Parliament. A more callous
indifference to Irish psychology could scarcely be imagined. A series
of Sinn Fein victories at the polls had decided the fate of Partition
once and for all. But the war exigencies of the Government were so
great, the military situation on the Continent was so hazardous, they
seemed determined to risk even civil war in their resolve to get
Irishmen to serve. They must have fighting men at any cost. The menace
was very real, and the whole of Nationalist Ireland came together as
one man to resist it. The representatives of the Irish Party, of
Labour, of Sinn Fein and of the All-for-Irelanders met in Conference
at the Mansion House, Dublin, to concert measures of Irish defence.
The Mansion House Conference, at its first meeting, on 18th April,
issued the following declaration:--
"Taking our stand on Ireland's separate and distinct nationhood, and
affirming the principle of liberty, that the Governments of nations
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, we deny the
right of the British Government or any external authority to impose
compulsory military service in Ireland against the clearly expressed
will of the Irish people. The passing of the Conscription Bill by the
British House of Commons must be regarded as a declaration of war on
the Irish nation. The alternative to accepting it as such is to
surrender our liberties and to acknowledge ourselves slaves. It is in
direct violation of the rights of small nationalities to
self-determination, which even the Prime Minister of England--now
preparing to employ naked militarism and force his Act upon
Ireland--himself announced as an essential condition for peace at the
Peace Congress. The attempt to enforce it is an unwarrantable
aggression, which we call upon all Irishmen to resist by the most
effective means at their disposal."
The Irish Catholic Bishops on the same day received a deputation from
the Mansion House Conference, and, having heard them, issued a
manifesto, in the course of which they said:
"In view especially of the historic relations between the two
countries from the very beginning up to this moment, we consider that
Conscription forced in this way upon Ireland is an oppressive and
inhuman law, which the Irish people have a right to resist by every
means that are consonant with the law of God."
The Irish Labour Party called a one-day strike on 23rd April as "a
demonstration of fealty to the cause of labour and Ireland."
The Government went on with its preparations for enforcing
Conscription. The Lord-Lieutenant, who was known to be opposed to the
policy of the Ministry, was recalled, and Field-Marshal Lord French
was put in his place. A "German plot," which the late Viceroy declared
had no existence in fact, was supposed to be discovered, and in
connection with it Messrs de Valera and A. Griffith, the two Sinn Fein
members of the Mansion House Conference, were arrested and deported.
The Sinn Fein, the Gaelic League and allied organisations were
declared to be "dangerous associations." Concerts, hurling matches,
etc., were prohibited, and Ireland was frankly treated as an occupied
territory. A bye-election occurred in East Cavan and Mr
Griffith--England's prisoner--was returned, defeating a nominee of the
Irish Party. This gave the death-blow to Conscription, though Ireland
still stood sternly on guard.
The Mansion House Conference during its existence held a position of
unique authority in the country. During its sittings a proposal was
made to initiate negotiations with a view to combined action between
Sinn Fein, the two sections of Parliamentary Nationalists and the
Irish Labour bodies, on the basis of the concession of Dominion Home
Rule, while the war was still proceeding with the alternative, if the
concession were refused, of combined action to enforce the claims of
Ireland at the Peace Conference. There was reason to believe Sinn Fein
would agree to this proposal, and that the Cabinet would have invited
the Dominion Premiers' Conference to intervene in favour of an Irish
settlement, limited only by the formula: "within the Empire."
Mr Dillon blocked the way with the technical objection that the
Conference was called to discuss Conscription alone and that no other
topic must be permitted to go further. Could stupid malignancy or
blind perversity go further?
This fair chance was lost, with so many others. The war came to an end
and a few weeks afterwards the Irish Parliamentary Party, which had so
long played shuttlecock with the national destinies of Ireland, went
to crashing doom and disaster at the polls. The country had found them
out for what they were, and it cast them into that outer darkness from
which, for them, there is no returning.