Transcriptions
1914 U271/A/16 Ireland and the outbreak of World War One (de Roiste diary entry)
1914 101 Dec 31:- to smash the English Government here! Kuno Meyer / stated he saw them himself at a railway station in Germany / which he named. Kuno Meyer is well-known in Irish / circles here. He received the freedom of Dublin and Cork with / An tAthar Peadar O Laoghaire a few years ago. I remember seeing him in / the Council Chamber here in Cork. An old, infirm man: a / most unlikely man one would think to make rash statements: / so, if he is reported correctly – and there seems no reason to doubt / it now – I would attach importance to his words. An alderman Quaid of the Dublin Corporation is moving to have his name struck / off the roll of Freemen of that city on account of his New York / utterance, in order to prove that Dublin and Ireland are loyal to England! I doubt that will be done without trouble. / Wonder will Cork Corporation move too?// Sir Roger Casements seems to be the man who has stirred / Germany on ‘the Irish question’. It is stated that a pamphlet of / his – fairly well-known here – ‘Ireland, Germany, and the next / War’ – has been officially issued by the Government in Germany. The German Government has also issued a proclamation of / goodwill towards Ireland – a ‘Scrap of Paper’! What / all those signs and tokens mean it is difficult at present to / say. Is ’98 to be repeated? The signs are [new page] 1914 102 Dec 31:- remarkably like the signs of those times, except that / the Germans are better prepared to cross the sea than the French / were. The Renunciation Act was passed 1783; the / Irish Parliament was free: Grattan and his supporters were / loyal to England; depended on the goodwill of England. / Home Rule is an act today: Redmond and his supporters / are in the position of Henry Grattan and his supporters. / The Ulster and Redmondite Volunteers are in the position of / the Yoes [yeomen] and the militia of ’98. The ‘Sinn Feiners’ / and ‘Pro-Germans’ occupy the position of the United / Irishmen – excepting in organisation – as the ‘Pro-French’ / of that period. To complete the likeness Lord / Aberdeen has resigned: there are to be ‘meetings all over the / country’ asking him to reconsider his resignation: this resignation is / due, I imagine, to intrigues of the Orange Party – the Earl / Fitzwilliam incident is paralleled. Ireland was / awaiting a French invasion: today we know not the day / or the hour when Germans may land. It is not ’98 in full / yet: only the signs leading up to it. What will be / the outcome? Home Rule thrown over to parallel the / Union, with an Emmet rising and coercion, famine, etc./ Or, ------ what? [Ends]
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