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PRINCIPLES OF
FREEDOM
BY
TERENCE MACSWINEY
LATE LORD MAYOR OF CORK
1921
TO
THE SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM
IN EVERY LAND
PREFACE
It was my intention to publish these articles in book form as soon aspossible. I had them typed for the purpose. I had no time for revisionsave to insert in the typed copy words or lines omitted from theoriginal printed matter. I also made an occasional verbal alteration inthe original. One article, however, that on "Intellectual Freedom,"though written in the series in the place in which it now stands, wasnot printed with them. It is now published for the first time.
RELIGION
I wish to make a note on the article under this heading to avoid apossible misconception amongst people outside Ireland. In Ireland thereis no religious dissension, but there is religious insincerity. Englishpoliticians, to serve the end of dividing Ireland, have worked on thereligious feelings of the North, suggesting the danger of Catholicascendancy. There is not now, and there never was, any such danger, butour enemies, by raising the cry, sowed discord in the North, with theaim of destroying Irish unity. It should be borne in mind that when theRepublican Standard was first raised in the field in Ireland, in theRising of 1798, Catholics and Protestants in the North were united inthe cause. Belfast was the first home of Republicanism in Ireland. Thisis the truth of the matter. The present-day cleavage is an unnaturalthing created by Ireland's enemies to hold her in subjection and willdisappear entirely with political Freedom.
It has had, however, in our day, one unhappy effect, only for a timefortunately, and this is disappearing. I refer to the rise ofHibernianism. The English ruling faction having, for their own politicaldesigns, corrupted the Orangemen with power and flattery, enabled themto establish an ascendancy not only over Ulster, but indirectly by theirvote over the South. This becoming intolerable, some sincere butmisguided Catholics in the North joined the organisation known as THEANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS. This was, in effect, a sort of CatholicFreemasonry to counter the Orange Freemasonry, but like Orangeism, itwas a political and not a religious weapon.
Further, as a political weapon, it extended all through Ireland duringthe last years of the Irish Parliamentary Movement. In Cork, forexample, it completely controlled the city life for some years, but therapid rise of the Republican Movement brought about the equally rapidfall of Hibernianism. At the present moment it has as little influencein the public life of Cork as Sir Edward Carson himself. The great bulkof its one-time members have joined the Republican Movement. Thisdemonstrates clearly that anything in the nature of a sectarian movementis essentially repugnant to the Irish people. As I have pointed out, theHibernian Order, when created, became at once a political weapon, butIreland has discarded that, and other such weapons, for those with whichshe is carving out the destinies of the Republic. For a time, however,Hibernianism created a