Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition

LOYALTY AND THE CROWN 183
imperial defence, but was not willing to allow millions of pounds
to be raised in Ireland and spent outside Ireland for the benefit of
Britain. The committee argued:
There are two forms of government: a people may be
governed by force: or they may govern themselves on their
own responsibility…. England must trust Ireland, and must
give Ireland proof that she herself is to be trusted, or she will
never gain Irish friendship…. A constitution somewhat similar
to that of South Africa or Canada would give peace, happiness
and we believe prosperity to Ireland. Ireland is a nation but
Irishmen will welcome a Commonwealth of the Empire,
governed by a Council representing the Dominions as well as
the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland; they would enter
and give their loyalty to such a scheme, and contribute to the
best of their power to the defence of such a commonwealth
of free nations. 70
As many Unionists admitted, not all that Sinn Fein represented was
anathema to them. Its doctrine of self-reliance appeared attractive
to many Unionists. The Bishop of Meath was careful to explain that
Sinn Fein’s motto ‘Ourselves Alone’ [sic] admitted of an
interpretation which doubtless attracted the higher type of patriot:
the name stood for the cultivation of the spirit of self-reliance,
which gave expression to a larger and more inclusive sense of
brotherhood, and to a determination to make the best of
themselves by developing the industrial, intellectual and spiritual
resources of Ireland to the highest point. ‘Are not these’, the
Bishop asked, ‘the ideals for which every true hearted Irishman, of
whatever creed or class, should strive and pray?’ 71 But, what he
and other Unionists could not accept was Sinn Fein’s claim for an
Irish republic. One Southern Unionist, and regular Irish Times
correspondent, Dudley Fletcher of Portarlington, believed that if
Sinn Feiners would give up their ‘irritating and impracticable’ talk
about an Irish republic there was much in their principles which
would win Irish Protestant sympathy. Protestantism was, he stated,
essentially a Sinn Fein movement, a protest against an undue and
oppressive imperialism, a struggle for the rights of the individual,
as well as the rights of small nations. Fletcher acknowledged that
the great problem for the post-war peace conference would be to
reconcile imperial unity with the rights, freedoms and local
patriotism of small nationalities, and that, to a large extent, British
imperialism had tried for centuries to suppress Irish nationality
and to Anglicise Ireland. As a ‘Protestant Sinn Feiner in the