the only hope of ireland

8/11/2019 The Only Hope of Ireland

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Alexander Berkman

Te Only Hope of Ireland

1916


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Most Irishmen , in and ou t of Ireland , seem unan imous in condemn ing thebrutality of the British government toward the leaders of the unsuccessful revolt.

Tere is no need to recite here the atrocious measures of repression practicedby England toward her subject races. e arrogant and irresponsible tyranny of

the British government in this relation is a ma er of history. Te point of interest just now is, what did the Irish people, or at least the Sinn Feiners, expect Englandto do in the given circumstances?

I am not interested in the weak-kneed editors of Irish-American papers whobemoan , with all due decorum , Great Britains lack of generosity in dea lingwith the captured Sinn Feiners, or who hide their cowardice by arguments aboutthe mistake the British government has commi ed by its harsh methods.

It is disgus ting to hear such rot. As a ma er of f act, it is entirely in keep ingwith the character and traditions of the British government to show no quarterto rebels. ose f amiliar with the colon ial history of Great Britain know tha tthe English governmen t and its representatives have systematically practised the

mos t heinous b rutality and repression to stie the least sign of discon ten t, inIreland, in India, Egypt, South Africa wherever British rapacity found a sourceof aggrandizement. Burning villages, destroying whole districts, shooting rebelsby the wholesale, aye, even resorting to the most inhuman torture of suspects, asin the Southwes tern Pun jab and o ther parts of Ind ia these ha ve always beenthe methods of the British government.

Temeasures taken by us, said SirMichael ODwyer, Governor of theprovinceof Punjab, in his Budget speech in the Punjab Legislative Council, April 22, 1915,have proven that the arm of the Sirkar (British governmen t) is long enough toreach and s trong enough to strike those who de fy the law. e nature of thislong and strong arm is clearly characterized by Lord James Bryce: Te Englishgovern India on absolute principles. T ere is in British India no room f or popularinitiative or popu lar interf erence w ith the acts of the rulers, from the Viceroydown to the district official. Society in India is not an ordinary civil society. It isa military society, military rst and f oremost. e traveler f eels himself, exceptperhaps in Bombay, surrounded by an atmosphere of gunpowder all the time hestays in India.

e Irish rebels and their sympa thizers know a ll this. But wha t they dontknow, or ref use to admit, is that these methods of suppressing discontent are notmerely colonial policy. Tey have also been practiced by the English governmentat home, aga ins t its native sons , the English workers. J ust now the iron handof conscription is driving thousands o f Great Britains toilers into involun tarymilitary servitude. Long terms of imprisonmen t are meted out to everyone havingconsc ientious scrup les aga inst mu rder, to every an ti-militarist protestan t, andmany have been driven to suicide rather than turn murderers of their fellowmen.


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Te Irish people, like everyone else, ought to know that the claim of the Englishgovernmen t of protecting weake r na tions and ghting f or democracy is themos t disgus ting hypocrisy ever dished up to a mu onhead pub lic. Nor is theBritish government in this respect any be er or worse than the governments of

Kaiser, Czar or Presiden t. Governmen t is but the shadow the ruling class of acountry casts upon the political life of a given nation. And the priests of Mammonare always the ruling class, whatever the temporary label of the exploiters of thepeople.

We don t f ool anyone by paroting tha t it was a mistake on the part of theBritish governmen t to use the sternes t methods aga ins t the Sinn Fein leade rs.It was not a mistake. To the English governmen t, to any governmen t, the on lysafe rebel is a dead rebel. Te ruthless shooting down of the insurrection leaders,the barbourous execution of James Connolly, who was severely wounded in theDublin ghting and had to be propped with pillows that the soldiers could takegood aim at him all this may serve to embi er the Irish people. But unless that

bi erness express itself in action, in reprisals individual or collective againstthe British governmen t, the la er will have no cause to regret its severity. It i sdangerous to let rebels live, If the Irish at home have no more spirit than the Irishin America, the English government has nothing to fear. Te Irish- Americans areeasily the mos t powerf ul inuence in American po litical lif e. Wha t have theseIrish-Americans done to stop the atrocities of Great Britain? Tey have held massmee tings he re and there to protest agains t the con tinu ing executions of SinnFeiners. ey have sufficient political power in the coun try t o cause Presiden tWilson to call a halt to British atrocities, to force the English government to treatthe Sinn Feiners as prisone rs of wa r, which they are. But the Irish-Americanpriests of Church and State would not dream of such drastic measures: politiciansdont do that.

More eff ective yet it would have been if some membe r or membe rs of thenumerous Irish societies had captured a few representatives of the British govern-ment in this country as hostages for the Irish rebels awaiting execution. A BritishConsu l ornamen ting a lamppos t in San Franc isco or New York wou ld quicklysecure the respectful a ention of the British lion. Te British Ambassador, in thehands of Washington Irishmen, would more effectively petition his Majesty, KingEdward, f or the lives of the Irish rebel leade rs than a ll the resolutions passed a tmass meetings.

A er all, it is the Redmonds and the Carsons who are chiey responsible for thefailure of the rebellion in Ireland. Tey were the rst to condemn the rash stepof a people f or cen turies ens laved and opp ressed to the verge of u er povertyand degradation. Tus they in the very beginning alienated the support that theuprising m ight have received in and ou t of Ireland . It was this treache rous and


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cowardly a itude of the Irish home rule politicians that encouraged the Englishgovernment to use the most drastic measures in suppressing the revolt.

May outraged Ireland soon learn that its official leaders are like unto all laborpoliticians: the lackeys of the rulers, and the very rst to cry Crucify!

Te hope of Ireland lies not in home rule, nor its leaders. It is not circumscribedby the boundaries of the Emerald Isle. Te precious blood shed in the unsuccessfulrevolution will not have been in vain if the tears of their great tragedy will clarifythe vision o he sons ad daughters of Erin and make them see beyond the emptyshell of national aspirations toward the risingsunof the international brotherhoodof the exploited in a ll coun tries and climes comb ined in a solidaric strugg le f oremancipation from every form of slavery, political and economic.

Alexander Berkman


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e Anarchist LibraryAnti-Copyright

May 21, 2012

Alexander Berkmane Only Hope of Ireland

1916

Originally published in e Blast! vol.1, no.13, page 2; May 15, 1916Retrieved on March 14 th, 2009 from www .spunk .org
http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txthttp://www.spunk.org/library/writers/berkman/sp001342.txt

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