The Red Hand of Ulster

n. Cahoon, for instance, will not recognize it as the capital of the country in which he lives, and always speaks of Dublin people as impractical, given over to barren political discussion a

here are two first-rat

buy it. We pay for what we use i

oks, old ones, which you cannot buy. Y

o to London, the

o consult some books in the College Library. Marion and I had been brought up short in our labours on my history for want of some quotations from the diary of

, professors and students had fled from the scene of their labours. Halfway across the square, however, I met McNeice. He seemed quite

an eccentricity. It is not on cold ham solely, it is not on stale bread ever, that guests in the Common Room are fed. If, like Prince Hal, they remember amid their feasting "that good creature, small beer," they do not drink it without being offered nobler beverages. Whe

d seen the new paper which was being published to express, I imagine also to exacerbate, the

said. "We're dead sick of the pap the dail

pap. An infant nourished on them would either suffer badly from the form of indigestion called flatulence or would grow up to be an exceedingly ferocious man. I felt, howev

nto the home of every Protestant farmer, and every working-man in Belfast. We

ething like The Spectator, but had none of the pleasant advertisements of school

ou can't expect it t

e plenty of money behind us. Co

ot a subscription out of him aft

e out for business with The Loyalist. Lady Moyne's-wel

he gave an address to the working-women of Belfa

an is acting as one of our agents, distributing the paper f

ld suspect of being interested in frills

which were in the packing-cases which you a

ce la

r and advocate the use of physical force for throwing off the English rule. But he's changed his tune now. Just wait for me one momen

r and still advocated the use of physical force for resisting the will of the King, Lords and Commons of our constitution. It is the merest commonplace to say that Ireland is a country of unblushing self-contradictions; but I do not think that the truth of this ever came home to me quite so forcibly a

ed to puzzle me at first when I got into correspondence with him. We found him in a

be unobtrusive. He had, before he became connected with The Loyalist, been editor of two papers which had been suppressed by the Government for advocating what the Litany calls "sedition and pr

ry small space in the middle of them, and his ink-bottle occupied a kind of cave hollowed out at the base of one of the stacks. It must have been extremely difficult to put a pen into it. The chairs-there

duced his own article. O'Donovan,

history of Irish Rebellions. I suppose you have said

ew of the Home Rule Bill, you know-I should have said tha

van sn

epted a Bill which deprives us of the most elementary rights of freemen. We've licked the boots o

ovan was becoming rheto

s one of the most futile things th

id O'Donovan. "I tell you

til you invent some other name for them I can't wel

said O

fy me. They had to consider not what men like you wanted, but what the Liberal Par

going to be governed by those fel

d, I think most Unionists would welcome any change in our existing system of government if it were not that they have the most pr

"in mere despair of nationality you have

, "to the side of the only peopl

abberly is right. The matter is rather a tangled one. With Babberly is Lady Moyne, working at her ingenious policy of dragging a red herring across the path along which democracy goes towards socialism. On the other hand there is McNeice with fiery intelligence, and O'Donovan, a coldly consistent rebel against English rule in any sh

office door, and a moment later Malcolmson entered. He looked bristlier than ever, and was plainly in a state of

ected to see you here, Kilmore.

I'm going away almost at once. Let me intr

lmson if I can possibly help it, because he always hurts me. I expect he hurt both

alled round here to congratulate the editor of this pap

ss it any sooner," I said, "

s a subscriber for twenty

said, "Conroy is

e sound ideas,"

the paper, the

ght talk," sa

that," said

aking," said Malcolmson. "What I want i

ew," I said, "is almost the

when the time comes, gentlemen, and it won't be long now if things

sting to hear what Ireland wants. Many people have theories

Malcolmson dramatically, "i

one of his favourite heroes. But I had misjudged O'Donovan. His sympathy with rebels of all nations was evidently stronger than his dislike of the typical Englishman. After all, Cromwell, however objectionable his religious views may have been, did kill a king. O'Donovan smiled q

es live in Dublin, has good Belfast blood in his veins. He likes his heroics to be put on a business basis. The imm

hands," he said to Malcolmson, "and w

a good cause, offered to hire a man with a motorcycle to d

een distributing Bibles and selling illuminated texts among the farmers and labourers for years. He's what's cal

a Scripture reader for the distribution of The Loyalist, I should have app

m?" I said. "The society wh

tion. But if there is-I happen to be a member of the committee of the so

e Church of Ireland he said that the distribution of the Bible among the people of Ireland was the surest means of quenching the desire