COMMEMORATION SERVICE IN ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH. (Hansard, 17 June 1897)

§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.)
said that he did not intend to oppose this Motion, because he felt that he should have no right to endeavour to prevent hon. Members who agreed with it from acting upon it, but he was bound to say that many Irish Members could not accept the proposal. He confessed it was not a pleasant task that he had undertaken, and he might say that, whatever faults Irishmen might have, they were as a rule both sympathetic and generous, and it would have been very much more satisfactory for them to have joined with those who were taking part in these celebrations than to stand aloof; but after having had 15 years' experience in that House he felt in his own heart and conscience that when a Motion of this kind was brought forward he should be simply a coward and unworthy of respect if he did not say what he thought and what he was certain was thought by the vast majority of the Irish people in regard to this subject. He had no intention of saying anything against the position taken by British Members on this matter—indeed, he might go further and 290 say that from the British point of view the people of Great Britain had every right and reason to celebrate the 60th year of Her Majesty's reign. From the English or British point of view the people had every right and reason to celebrate and honour as much as they could the reign of Her Majesty. For England Her Majesty's reign had been a record of success unparalleled, perhaps, in the history of the world. They had had an increase in prosperity, in population, and in everything that went to make their country great and popular. From the Irish point of view it was quite the opposite. He did not for a single moment say that it was the fault of the Sovereign that things had been in Ireland as they had been, but he did say that, with the record of these 60 years before them, it would be the merest mockery for any Irishman to participate in this celebration. They Would be really hypocrites if they did so. The representatives of the British dependencies from every portion of the world were now on a visit to this country, and they came here joyfully, gladly, contentedly, and loyally, because they had given to every one of those dependencies everything they had denied to Ireland. They hail given to those dependencies the right to make their own laws as they thought best. They had denied to them in Ireland the right to make their own laws. They had made the laws for them and sent an English Minister to administer them. On the occasion to which this Motion referred the vast majority of the representatives of the Irish people would be absent, and that certainly should be food for reflection. He knew it was hard for hon. Gentlemen opposite to understand the action of himself and of men like him in saying one discordant note on that occasion. But he did not apologise for doing so; and in doing so he knew he was acting as the people who sent him there would wish him to act. In England they had been brought up to honour their Government, and their flag as giving them freedom and prosperity. They in Ireland had been brought up to regard the Government and the flag of this country as the source of a very good deal of the misery and decay that had come upon their country. In this country 291 they were celebrating 60 years of prosperity almost unrivalled. They in Ireland would be celebrating next year another occasion. They would be celebrating the centenary of a rebellion which destroyed and ruined their country. The First Lord of the Treasury might think what he was saying was a matter for laughter, but he could assure him that he was voicing the view of the people he was sent to that House to represent. As he had said, they would be celebrating next year the rebellion of 100 years ago, when their people, by outrage and torture, were driven to take up arms in self-defence. It was impossible for an Irishman to look around and see in the streets of that great city all the signs of power and rejoicing and gladness without having his mind cast back to the almost lifeless and decaying condition of the streets of the towns and cities of his own country. They in Ireland had nothing to rejoice at. They could not rejoice with them upon that occasion, because they had denied to them what they had given to the poorest and weakest of their dependencies. When they gave them the same right to participate in their rejoicings as they had given to every one of their dependencies, then, and not till then, would they rejoice with them. They were not great, powerful, and rich like this country, but still they in Ireland had something to be proud of, weak and poor as they were. They were proud of the fact that the passage of no number of years, the use of no amount of force, had ever been able, or would ever be able to make them relinquish the demand which they made at the commencement of the Queen's reign, which they had made yearly for every one of these 60 years, and which they made again to-day—the demand for the right to govern themselves in their own country and according to their own ideas. When the rest of their Empire was assembling, the world, far and near, would see the strange spectacle presented of the vast majority of the Irish people—a country at their own doors—unrepresented and standing aloof, because, in spite of everything they had done, they were still discontented, and would remain so until they gave them their liberty. Was there a single representative of their Colonies who would 292 be here to-day if they attempted to impose upon them the same government that they imposed upon Ireland? If they put in force, in the poorest of their Colonies, the same government that was enforced in Ireland through Dublin Castle and the Viceroy, they would not stand it for 24 hours. [Cheers.] It ought certainly to be a good reason for listening to their demands that, in every portion of the Empire where they had given freely what they in Ireland asked for, the results had been good. Therefore he would say let the absence of the Irish Members upon this occasion be the means of making the British people think whether it would not be better after all to conciliate and to content the Irish people, and whether, after all, it would not be a greater glory to have a contented and satisfied nation at their own doors than to satisfy and conciliate peoples in other portions of the world.

§ SIR ARTHUR FORWOOD (Lancashire, Ormskirk)
asked the First Lord of the Treasury where it was proposed that Members should assemble on Sunday?

§ MR. SPEAKER
said that question might be put after the Motion was carried.
Motion agreed to.

§ SIR ARTHUR FORWOOD
addressed his question to Mr. Speaker.

§ MR. SPEAKER
So far as the matter lies with me, I propose that the same course should be followed that was followed on the last occasion. That is, that I should enter the House from behind the Chair a quarter of an hour before the time fixed for service, which, in this case, is half-past 11, and that I should take my seat in the Clerk's chair for a few minutes. Then, that I should go into the Lobby, and, with the small procession which is usually formed on such an occasion, proceed through St. Stephen's Hall into Westminster Hall, where we should be joined by others who are not Members of this House. We should go through Westminster Hall into Palace Yard and so to the west door of St. Margaret's Church. The usual course, I believe, is for the Speaker to be followed immediately by the Privy Councillors, and the other Members of the House will follow them.