MR. JOHN DEVOY AND IRISH AFFAIRS

KILDARE OBSERVER 1 NOVEMBER 1924

Mr. John Devoy and Irish Affairs

    MAKING HIS POSITION CLEAR     

Mr. John  Devoy,  in  an  article in “The  Gaelic  American,” deals cogently  with  rumours current in Ireland,  during  his  recent  visit, of troubles and dissensions in the Government, and his alleged intervention.

“I may say, once for all,” says Mr. Devoy, “that while in Ireland I did not make any suggestion to anybody, either in public or in private, of a change in the Free State Cabinet,  its reconstruction, the dropping of any Minister at present in office, or the addition of a new member or members.

“I did not discuss politics or policies with President Cosgrave or try in the slightest degree to influence his action.  All that has been published in the Irish Press in that regard, including what has been  copied  in the news columns of the “Gaelic American,”  was pure guess-work.

 “My  efforts  in  Ireland,  both  in public and private, were to effect a union (or reconciliation) between men of the same views and opinions who  were  separated  by  personal  differences only.   My position was  stated exactly in my appeal at the banquet given me in Dublin on September 3  for unity and  support  of President Cosgrave.

“A s to the I.R.B., I insisted, as I have done for four years, that the wrong done in cutting off the Clan-na-Gael and the publication by Harry Boland of the impudent falsehood that the organisation had failed to support President de Valera either in his mission in  general  or in the Bond Drive must be redressed as a matter of simple justice.

“I was informed that the failure of the Supreme Council to refute the falsehood was due to fear of presenting a spectacle of disunion in Ireland which would help England;  that Boland was never chairman of the S.C.  (as he told us he was), and was never authorised by that body to issue the statement.  I told my informants that if they had contradicted that falsehood publicly at the time there would have been no split in America and no civil war in Ireland—that both were brought about by the widespread circulation of gross falsehoods.

“But all this concerns the past.  As to the present,  I did not favour any attempt  by  a  secret  society  to control  the Government,  any  more  than  a  similar attempt by a section of the army, or by the whole army. That would be Mexicanising Ireland.  I  fully  recognise  that  any  Government  in  Ireland, to  be  successful, must contain  representatives of all  the elements of the population which support  it, as  the  only  means of securing majority rule.

“I am responsible only for my statements I make myself, and these, I think, are plain enough for any intelligent person to understand.  I have no responsibility for rumours or guesses, whether they are put forth by friends or enemies.  My one hope is to see all the people in Ireland who believe in Irish nationality united in a reasonable effort to achieve it in full measure.

“I  may add here that, while I had a full and frank talk with Mr. John Dillion,  who remained  my  personal friend,  in  spite  of  political  differences,  I did not put any proposition before him;  and that I did not meet Mr. Joseph Devlin at all.

“I may also add that I regret very much that, owing to a day’s illness during my last week in Ireland, and the fact that I was obliged to sail on Sept. 4, I was prevented from calling on Mr.  William O’Brien, for whom I have great respect.”

Re-typed by Hannah Mustapha