How Does Ireland Stand?
Walsh, James J.
528 THE COMMONWEAL October 7, 1925 HOW DOES IRELAND STAND ? By JAMES J. WALSH IT IS considerably more than a hundred years since these words of the old song were first heard— "I met with...
...Our jaunting-car jarvey made it a point to tell us that there is only a handful, and a diminishing one at that, going to the Protestant churches now that officials are no longer recruited almost exclusively from Protestants...
...The name of the questioner is such a curious one that most people are inclined to think of it as fictitious, but Napper Tandy was a very real personage...
...Above all, they wondered whether it would be entirely prudent to go down to Killarney and Kerry and Clare, and through Tipperary and Cork...
...I may say, too, that I saw fewer drunken men in Ireland this time (and no drunken women) and encountered fewer beggars than ever before...
...but in spite of poverty and unemployment there is still a large number of people who derive most of their support from the sale of strong drink...
...After having been through Ireland, one almost has the feeling that there is much more bitterness of partisanship now ready to show itself in America, than there is in Ireland...
...Alas, the only response that could be given to him was—"She's the most distressful country that ever I have seen...
...But there is still too much of it consumed...
...Ireland is entirely peaceful, and the general sentiment of the people seems to be very strong against any further trouble...
...Unemployment is one of the most serious elements in the Irish situation, but it seems to be not nearly so...
...I learned, however, that there are still in Ireland an immense number of houses licensed to sell intoxicating liquors—indeed more than anywhere else in the world...
...Some anodyne was demanded by human nature to make life seem bearable...
...Strong liquor has always been Ireland's bane, and there was perhaps some excuse for it in the days when there was so little chance for an Irishman to get on through his own efforts...
...Room can scarcely be found for all those who want to get into the Catholic churches...
...At Killarney, they were advertising the Presbyterian church for sale, and I believe that the leasehold was disposed of before we left town...
...Just why these uneasy feelings with regard to conditions in Ireland should exist, seems very hard to understand—particularly to one who has just finished a tour through those parts of Ireland that are thought to have the last remnant of trouble in them...
...I never saw so many men in the congregation of a church in my life as at one of the Masses in the Jesuit church in Gardner Street, Dublin...
...The tax on liquor has made it extremely expensive, and a quart of it in Ireland will cost at least one pound sterling...
...One misses certain of the old hotels in Dublin that were unfortunately burned, and here and there one comes upon ruins that are the result of the trouble, but most of these are being rapidly replaced by handsomer buildings...
...One thing is perfectly sure...
...There are but few signs of troublous times left, and they are vanishing rapidly...
...I recall that when I told some friends that I was planning to visit Ireland, not a few of them asked me whether I thought it was quite safe to take wife and children into the country...
...528 THE COMMONWEAL October 7, 1925 HOW DOES IRELAND STAND ? By JAMES J. WALSH IT IS considerably more than a hundred years since these words of the old song were first heard— "I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand, and he said how is ould Ireland, and how does she stand...
...These were less in evidence than in any country of Europe except Switzerland...
...There are a good many people today who seem to think that these words are, unfortunately, still true to a great extent—though now they are not "hanging people for the wearing of the green," but are supposed to be doing things almost as bad to them for other reasons...
...I have been in Ireland some half a dozen times in the past thirty years, and I never got about with less difficulty or felt more comfortable in traveling than during the recent trip...
...Indeed, I have been very much surprised to find how many there are in America who believe that there are such disturbances in Ireland as must make it very uncomfortable for any but the most ardent patriot to visit the old sod...
...I may say at once that there is not the slightest reason for any feeling of uneasiness regarding them...
...There is every reason to think that this peaceful state of affairs will continue for an indefinite period...
...The people are thoroughly tired of bickerings, and want a chance to develop their business and civil life without further disturbance...
...The Catholic cathedral there is a very handsome one—so large that many people are inclined to wonder why so spacious a building should be needed in so small a town, though I understand that on special occasions it is often crowded to the doors...
...There is probably nothing which so seriously hampers Ireland's efforts to retrieve what she lost during her trying period, as the liquor traffic...
...Even on week-days there were hundreds of men to be seen in the churches— those of the religious orders particularly...
...There is one licensed place for every 235 people, though in Scotland and England it is but one to every 400—revealing, at that, a terrible social abuse...
...Like the earthquakes and fires that have devastated cities in this country, it would seem as though the destruction wrought in Ireland might well prove a blessing in disguise...
...Rumors which are occasionally heard regarding the impairment of faith on the part of the Irish as the result of the troublous times through which they have gone, have very little foundation and must be greatly exaggerated...
Vol. 2 • October 1925 • No. 22
