In other parts of
southern Ireland the Eighty Club found Protestants as masters in the
county schools, surveyors of taxes, local registrars, clerks of the
works, rate collectors, and public librarians. The Catholics on the
local bodies recognise that the Protestants in the south possess, owing
to their superior advantages in education, a great proportion of the
brains, and they are not slow to do justice to this fact in filling
public posts.
In regard to elections, let us be quite candid. It is not to be
expected that an Irish elector will return at the head of the poll men
who hurl abuse and calumny at the Irish race and at the religion held
by the great majority of the Irish race. Treachery to one's cause and
one's faith is not required by any proper doctrine of tolerance.
Surrender is not the same thing as compromise. We do not, for instance,
expect in England that a Unionist constituency should return a Liberal,
or a Liberal constituency should return a Tory. We expect men to live
up to their faith, and even admire them for doing so. In Ireland,
similarly, Nationalist voters, as a whole, prefer Nationalist members,
and will continue to do so until this great issue of Home Rule is
settled.
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