Those who
read the story of 1800 to 1830, and especially the brilliant sketch of
O'Connell's life in Lecky's "Leaders of Irish Public Opinion," will
know that it was in the course of this prolonged struggle for Catholic
emancipation that the forces of religion and politics were first thrown
into close alliance in Ireland. It was not until after 1820 that the
Catholic priest took the place of the Irish landlord, and became what
he was throughout most of the nineteenth century, the political leader
of his district. It was O'Connell who first carried out that great
revolution in political strategy. It was he who first placed the flocks
of the Irish people under the guidance of shepherds who carried the
crook and not the rent-book. If the Home Rule movement has been
assisted by religious fervour, that has been the fault of British
statesmen. If the Irish have stood apart from the rest of Europe by a
steadily deepening loyalty to their faith, the reason is largely to be
found in the British policy of 1800.
ROME AND HOME RULE
What is the moral of all this? Some of the Unionists themselves give a
shrewd though cynical comment on the situation when they suggest, in
the intervals of crying "Home Rule means Rome Rule," that probably the
Roman Catholic priests have no great zeal for Home Rule.
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