nd that not less than
sixpence be accepted from any person. _Anyone not subscribing will be
considered not in sympathy with the Branch._" Those only who know
Ireland well will be able to appreciate the terrible significance of
the last sentence of this resolution, which for the information of the
peasantry was made public in the Nationalist _Sligo Champion_. A
similar incentive to patriotism seems to have been required by the
Kilshelan Branch, for at another Sunday Meeting, the Reverend Father
Dunphy in the chair, it was unanimously resolved, "That all members
who do not pay in subscriptions on or before the next meeting, which
will be held on the last Sunday of this month, shall have their names
published and posted on the chapel gate for two consecutive Sundays."
This quotation is from the _Munster Express_, published in Limerick.
At a meeting reported by the _Kerry Sentinel_ "the conduct of several
members, who had not renewed their subscriptions, was strongly
condemned, the reverend president, Father T. Enright, giving orders to
have a list, with their names, sent to him before the next meeting."
The chapel doors are used as instruments of boycotting. The priest
sits in judgment on all who are not sufficiently patriotic. The people
are compelled to subscribe to the cause, whether they like it or not.
These cases could be multiplied to infinity. They not only give an
excellent illustration of the conduct of the Irish clergy in political
affairs, but they also furnish a curious commentary on the enthusiasm
which is supposed to mark the Aspirations of a People, who, as Mr.
Gladstone might say are "rightly struggling to be free." I have
conversed with hundreds of Irish farmers and I never yet met one who
was willing to sacrifice a sixpence on "the altar of his country," or
to trust an Irish Parliament with his own property, or to invest a
penny on purely Irish security. He loves his ease, no man likes it
better, and No Rent means less exertion. Mr. O'Doherty, of County
Donegal, a Catholic Home Ruler, said the landlords were all right now
under compulsion, but what the tenantry demanded was to be released
entirely from the landlords' yoke. The farmers, he said, cared nothing
for Home Rule, but the Nationalists had preached prairie value, and
the people expected to drive out the landowners and Protestants. Mr.
John Cook, of Londonderry, a Protestant Home Ruler and a man of
culture, did not claim patriotism for the National