laims the sacred
right of freedom. It was the endeavour of Mr O'Brien and his friends
finally to close this bitter chapter of Irish history by reconciling
the ancient differences of the sects and inducing all Irishmen of good
intent to meet upon a common platform in which there should be no
rivalries except the noble emulations of men seeking the weal of the
whole by the combined effort of all.

Whatever unfortunate circumstance or combination of circumstances gave
impulse to "the Board of Erin," I know not-whether it arose out of a
vainglorious purpose to meet the Orangemen with a weapon of import
similar to their own, or whether it was merely the love of young
people to have association with the occult, I can merely
conjecture--but it was only when Mr Joseph Devlin assumed the
leadership of it that it began to acquire an influence in politics
which could have no other ending than a disastrous one.

Never before was the cause of Irish liberty associated with
sectarianism. Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet and Thomas Davis are regarded
as the most inspired apostles and confessors of Irish nationality. It
was a profanation of their memory and an insult to their creed that in
the first decade of the twentieth century any man or band of men
should have been audacious enough to superimpose upon the structure of
the national movement an organisation which in addition to being
secret and sectarian was grossly sordid and selfish in its aims.

Stealthily and insidiously "the Board of Erin" got its grip in the
United Irish League. It "bossed," by establishing a superiority of
numbers, the Standing Committee. Then by "getting hold" of the
officers of Divisional Executives and branches it acquired control
over the entire machinery of the movement, and thus, in an amazingly
short space of time, it secured an ascendancy of a most deadly and
menacing character. Its first overt act of authority was to strangle
freedom of speech and to kill land purchase. What Mr John Dillon had
been unable to do through his control of the Party and his collusion
with _The Freeman's Journal_ the Board of Erin most effectively
accomplished by an energetic use of boxwood batons and, at a later
time, weapons of a more lethal character.

A National Convention had been summoned to pronounce on the Birrell
Land Bill of 1909--a measure which, with incomparable meanness, was
designed "to save the Treasury" by ridding it of the honourable
obligations imposed by the