Irish emotions and the English

TI-IE recent firm actions of Mr. Jack Lynch, the Prime Minister of Ireland, have been referred to as a "sudden toughening" of attitudes. But they come as no surprise to those who have been keen students of Irish policy in general, and Mr. Lynch's strategy in particular, over a long period of time.
With only a very small majority in the Dail, Mr. Lynch dismissed two senior ministers whose activities with regard to the North seemed to put them in a compromising position. The Irish Prime Minister, moreover, has not merely watched the movement of opinion in his own country, but has substantially moulded it, even if in an unobtrusive and subtle way. If the Irish are now perverse though to desert Mr. Lynch at a critical moment they will make themselves look very foolish, as well as acting dangerously.
For in reacting as he did over the case of Sean Mac Stiofain, Mr. Lynch had carried not only the bulk of Irish opinion with him, but the bulk of civilised opinion elsewhere as well. The bigots remain, and will always be with us, discredited and desperate though some of them are. It is just as well that, where possible, their views should be made public, so those with supposedly Catholic notions should be exposed for all to condemn.
The attempt to cloak murder under the banner of patriotism is bad enough; but the attempt to link it with love and religion is blasphemous nonsense. The reductio ad absurdum was reached when the wife of Mac Stiofain was reported to have said that her husband had received "apostolic absolution" from the former Archbishop of Dublin.
If she had not been quite so ignorant, in using a completely 'meaningless and ludicrous expression, she might have succeeded in fooling some of the people. Evil continues to do its worst from North of the border as well. The Vanguardites, to conceal their disappointment that Mr. Lynch is cutting the extremist ground from under their bullying and "disloyalist" feet, seek to belittle his courageous stand. (Of course, if Mr. Lynch loses the support of his own people it will be a notable victory for everything the Vanguardites stand for.) But if the Irish Prime Minister can continue to carry his compatriots with him, the voice of reason and of the moderate majority will not only be heard at last but will 'be given authority and force by official action in both North and South.
Meanwhile, in the counsels that matter and if no nerves are lost, a real turning point is in sight for Ireland. But, in the last analysis, it is up to both English and Irish, to act with true enlightenment. Ireland has suffered from a corroding conflict of races not just for fifty years, but for nearly five hundred. The "planting" of foreign stock has been working its havoc for centuries; no resultant crisis has ever been settled with a final solution. A proper reckoning has always been put off to another day.
It is hardly surprising that emotional currents are sinister and deep. One has only to compare The clash of emotional feelings among Englishmen about the problem of Rhodesia: kith and kin or racial justice? The debate rages on. But suppose Rhodesia were separated by only a few miles of sea from say, Scotland, and British troops were involved in trying to keep a precarious peace. The chances are we would make a deeper study of the situation's implications, and a more concerted effort to reach a just solution, than has been the case over an Ireland which suffers more and more horrors every day.