gedy of all this period that a certain section
of Nationalist opinion should have seen in every advance towards a
policy of conciliation, good will and understanding between brother
Irishmen, some deep and sinister conspiracy against the National
Cause, and in this unaccountable belief should have allowed themselves
to become the dupes and to play the game of the bitterest enemies of
Irish freedom. But so it was, to the bitter sorrow of Ireland; and
many a blood-stained chapter has been written because of it. Whether a
fatal blindness or an insatiate personal rancour dictated this
incomprehensible policy Providence alone knows, but oceans of woe, and
misery and malediction have flowed from it as surely as that the sun
is in the heavens.

After Mr O'Brien's retirement, as I have already remarked, the country
was left without a policy or active national guidance. The leaders of
the revolt against the authorised policy of the nation went abroad
"for the benefit of their health." (What a lot of humbug this
particular phrase covers in political affairs only the initiated are
aware of!) No sooner was the Cork election announced than Mr Dillon
returned from his holiday, ready "to take the field" against the Irish
Reform Association and anyone who dared to show it toleration or
regard. He declared in a speech at Sligo that its one object was "to
break national unity in Ireland and to block the advance of the
Nationalist Cause," and he went on to deliver this definite threat:
"Now I say that any attempt such as was made the other day in the city
of Cork to force on the branches of the national organisation, or on
the National Directory itself, any vote of confidence in Lord Dunraven
or any declaration of satisfaction at the foundation of this
Association would tear the ranks of the Nationalists of Ireland to
pieces."

Note Mr Dillon's extreme zeal for national unity--the man who, less
than twelve months before, had set himself at the head of "a
determined campaign to defy the decisions of the Irish Party, the
National Directory and the United Irish League," and who did not in
the least scruple whether or not he "would tear the ranks of the
Nationalists of Ireland to pieces" in the gratification of his
purpose! The "attempt made in the city of Cork" which called forth Mr
Dillon's thunders was a resolution of the Cork branch of the United
Irish League which hailed with sympathy the establishment of the Irish
Reform Association