1922

A nation torn apart

Each side in this decimating Irish strife has now lost two of its most loved and trusted leaders. The nation’s mourning over the grave of Michael Collins was one of the most moving episodes in all Irish history.

And many a mother in a lonely countryside mourns her son slain by the lands of his own countrymen in this unnatural strife. Stressing the tragic note alone cannot serve; we must rid ourselves of this fatalism that has dogged us through seven centuries of bondage and get out into the sunshine of brighter days and better hopes, into the clear road of natural effort for our country’s good.

No man of good will and normal outlook will say that Ireland is being, can be, served by a devastating fratricidal struggle founded upon a difference in political outlook. All will agree that the resultant deaths are a national disgrace.

Mr. Harry Boland, for instance, was a moderate Republican, ever desirous to bring about peace. All through the differences, the old friendship of happy G.A.A. fields between himself and Collins had been preserved.

The Chairman of the Provincial Government is said to have burst into tears when he heard of Harry Boland’s death. He would have attended the funeral were it not that his action might have been misinterpreted because of his position.

A few days later Michael Collins, too, joined Harry Boland beyond the boundaries of Tír na nÓg. Again, in a diary found in possession of a captured engineering officer of the Irregulars, we find the Celtic capacity for love of his own countrymen, even though he may differ from them.

Listen to this kindly human touch from a man “on the run” in this warfare: “On the 13th I hear rumour Arthur Griffith is dead. On the 14th, the news is confirmed, and we all went on our knees to pray for him.”

Is it right that men like these should engage in deadly strife, and that Michael Collins should now be buried with forty of his comrades of the Dublin Guards?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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