de and wealth of Ireland that
England has laid hands on for her own aggrandizement, but she has
also appropriated to her own ends the physical manhood of the island.
Just as the commerce has been forcibly annexed and diverted from
its natural trend, so the youth of Ireland has been fraudulently
appropriated and diverted from the defence of their own land to the
extension of the power and wealth of the realm that impoverished it
at home. The physical qualities of the Irish were no less valuable
than "Irish wool" to Empire building, provided always they were not
displayed in Ireland.

So long ago as 1613 we find a candid admission in the State papers
that the Irish were the better men in the field. "The next rebellion
whenever it shall happen, doth threaten more danger to the State than
any heretofore, when the cities and walled towns were always faithful;
(1) because they have the same bodies they ever had and therein they
had and have advantage of us; (2) from infancy they have been and
are exercised in the use of arms; (3) the realm by reason of the long
peace was never so full of youths; (4) that they are better soldiers
than heretofore, their continental employment in wars abroad assures
us, and they do conceive that their men are better than ours."

This testimony to Irish superiority, coming as it does from English
official sources just three hundred years ago, would be convincing
enough did it stand alone. But it is again and again reaffirmed by
English commanders themselves as the reason for their failure in some
particular enterprise. In all else they were superior to the Irish; in
arms, armaments, munitions, supplies of food and money, here the long
purse, settled organization and greater commerce of England, gave
her an overwhelming advantage. Moreover the English lacked the moral
restraints that imposed so severe a handicap on the Irish in their
resistance. They owned no scruple of conscience in committing any
crime that served their purpose. Beaten often in open fight by the
hardier bodies, stouter arms and greater courage of the Irishmen,
they nevertheless won the game by recourse to means that no Irishman,
save he who had joined them for purposes of revenge or in pursuit of
selfish personal aims, could possibly have adopted. The fight from
the first was an unequal one. Irish valour, chivalry, and personal
strength were matched against wealth, treachery and cunning. The Irish
better bodies were overcome b