If we are to
unite Ireland we can only do so by recognizing what truly are the
principles each party stands for, and will not forsake, and for which,
if necessary they will risk life. True understanding is to see ideas
as they are held by men between themselves and Heaven; and in this
mood I will try, first of all, to understand the position of Unionists,
Sinn Feiners and Constitutional Nationalists as they have been
explained to me by the best minds among them, those who have induced
others of their countrymen to accept those ideals. When this is done
we will see if compromise, a balancing of diversities be not possible
in an Irish State where all that is essential in these varied ideals
may be harmonized and retained.
3. I will take first of all the position of Unionists. They are,
many of them, the descendants of settlers who by their entrance
into Ireland broke up the Gaelic uniformity and introduced the speech,
the thoughts, characteristic of another race. While they have grown
to love their country as much as any of Gaelic origin, and their
peculiarities have been modified by centuries of life in Ireland
and by intermarriage, so that they are much more akin to their
fellow-countrymen in mind and manner than they are to any other
people, they still retain habits, beliefs and traditions from which
they will not part.
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