IRELAND AND THE BRITISH MONARCHY

'The following are extracts taken from a large number of letters received in reply to an Irishman, " H.)." who, in a letter to the editor, last week, deplored the fact that Ireland will not recognise the British monarchy.]
SIR, —" Most arguments are useless, because men do not agree about the premises," The author of that way of putting it, applied it to his innocent blinkered protégé, Fr. Gerard Hopkins, received into the Church by Fr. Newman. Hopkins left Dublin room where was sung " God Save Ireland," (And even under partition, Dublin is in Ireland). " I should not have minded, if it had not been so wicked," he wrote to the not less English Newman;
who, however, answered : The Irish Patriots hold that they never have yielded themselves to the sway of England, and therefore never have been rebels." -RI." may recall Cardinal Newman's last word on Ireland : " If I were an Irishman, I should be in heart a rebel."
He had some principles, had Newman, not mere prejudices. And he, a loyalist tc England, in London, sang his "God Save the Queen "; and a loyalist to Ireland, in Dublin might sing his "God Save Ireland." Of course, this may be " appalling "Newman accepts a Hopkins' word. But Newman knew, and said, with Lord John Russell, his countryman, that " Your oppressions have taught the Irish to hate
your concessions." No doubt, so-called loyal " Protestant Ireland knelt to England on the necks of her countrymen "; as said Grattan, in his contempt for that brand of unprincipled " loyalty ": a thing ever at a discount in Ireland, where, as wrote another, and an English Protestant, with principles to apply—Sit Wm. Watson— after the last performance of English soldiering in Ireland : " All those boys— its victims—when they grow up to be men, will carry within them to the grave a blazing hatred of the name of England. For my part I should despise them if they did not.' (Ireland Arisen, p. 19). Why? Because, " May my country be defeated, it it is in the wrong ; is the only patriotic
prayer for an Englishman " Francis Newman and Rebellion against wrong may spell loyalty to right.
W. Stexeceev,
Rarity of Outrages
Sts,—One wonders, when considering the intolerant position in Ulster today, that such outrages (as those during the Royal visit) are not of a far more serious nature, and the Catholic population, in the face of endless intimidation, are to be congratulated on their exercise of so much restraint.
Housed with the present writer are four young Irishmen who have been compelled by force of circumstances to come to England for employment. And the fact that prospective employers ask no question as to their religion is one reason why Catholics in this country are Loyalists.
K. S. CHRISTIE.
The Jungle, London Road, West Mailing, Kent.
It's Easy for the English
SIR,—Whilst in England it is quite easy and natural for Catholics in common with the rest, to be loyal, in Ireland the case is very different, because there the policy through the centuries has been to enforce loyalty, whilst little attempt was ever made by the ruling authorities to merit or win it. " Hi." speaks of the murders of hundreds of Protestant and Catholic " loyalists" in the Free State. Has he ever heard of the pogroms carried out in " loyal Ulster "?
To Irishmen and Irishwomen with the genuine National and Catholic outlook the term " loyalist " stinks in their nostrils. "Rebels" they were—and rightly so—and " rebels" they remain, just as every true Spaniard behind General Franco today is a " rebel." Catholics ought to be thankful that there are such rebels. .
Because a gang of hooligans commit outrages in Ireland on the occasion of a Kingly visit to the " loyalists " of the North, he would have you indict a whole nation, the bulk of whose people have no desire either to injure or affront any member of Royalty even though they feel impelled to refrain from the slavish adula
tion of their " loyalist" brethren who are mainly loyal for their own ends. . . .
T. Howes.
8, Pike Road, Bolton.
Ireland's "Right"
SIR,—If the Monarchy was a blessing why did so many of our brave men give their lives so that Ireland should be free from this very thing " Hi." calls a blessing? Has not Ireland the right to try and free herself from the British Throne'? Is she wrong to seek independence? Were James Connolly, Pardraic Pearse, Kevin Barrie, Thomas Clarke and the other Irish leaders of 1916-21 all criminals then? According to "HI" Ireland has no right to resist a foreign ruler. Would any Irishman like to see the Irish once mose Britons? . . . Certainly it is the duty of 'British Catholics to be loyal to the King, but the King is not Ireland's.
HERBERT D'Atecy.
3, High Street, 'Veiling, Kent.