I feel sure that any of you who have read the papers are aware that when this Bill was introduced into the Lower House some discontentment and surprise were expressed by several speakers at the fact that no member of the Government made any references to the career or the services of the late President Griffith. I feel quite sure that all of us are satisfied that the cause of that omission, whatever it may have been, had nothing whatever to do with any lack of sympathy with President Griffith's widow or with the great services which he rendered to his country. Of course, what happened in the Lower House is no concern of ours, but be that as it may, I hope it will not be thought that it is in any strain of criticism that I suggest that we, at any rate, should take up a somewhat different attitude, and that we should avail of this opportunity to place on record our sincere recognition of the, I would say, almost unparalleled services which President Griffith rendered to Ireland, and our deep sense of the overwhelming loss which the country has sustained by his death. Whatever differences of opinion individual members of this Seanad may have held up to a few years ago with regard to the wisdom, or possibly unwisdom, of entrusting Ireland with a full and complete measure of self government, I think and I hope that we shall all agree on one point, and that is that certainly no man of this generation, and indeed for that matter, no man since the time of the Union has done so much as Arthur Griffith did to materialise the dreams, the passionate aspirations and the longings for self government for which so many generations of our fellowcountrymen have made great, and sometimes terrible, sacrifices. Even important as the services rendered by President Griffith in that direction were, I think it is infinitely more to his credit that, though he possibly did not altogether succeed in attaining the full measure of his ambition for Ireland, he was still bold enough and patriotic enough to realise that once England had made it clear that, under no circumstances would she agree to an Irish Republican form of Government set up within a few miles of her shores, it would be criminal folly to throw away the substance for the shadow, or to sacrifice another Irishman's life in the pursuit of an utterly worthless and impossible ideal. Further than that, President Griffith was absolutely loyal and honest to his word and to his bond, and having once set his signature to the Treaty, which he and his colleagues were empowered to accept by his fellow-countrymen, he never swerved one jot from his project, and during that all too short tenure of his office he strove as no other man did to carry out the provisions of the Treaty, and to impress upon all with whom he came in contact that it was the bounden duty of every Irishman worthy of the name to defend and support the Treaty to the best of his power. In these circumstances, although it is, unfortunately, not in our power to be able to do much to soften or alleviate the blow which fell with such tragic swiftness on President Griffith's widow and his children, we can at least show our sympathy with and our hearty goodwill towards them by endorsing the modest provision which the Government has thought fit to make for them by our whole-hearted and warmest approval. It is in that sense that I ask you to express that approval, and to adopt this Bill by no uncertain voice.
THE GRIFFITH SETTLEMENT BILL. - SECOND STAGE.
I wish to add my voice to that of Senator Colonel Sir Hutcheson Poe. I was on many points deeply opposed to Mr. Arthur Griffith during his lifetime on matters connected with the Arts, but time has justified him on the great issue that most concerns us all. He was a man with the most enduring courage and the most steadfast will. I have good reason for knowing how enduring his courage was. I first met him a great many years ago, when he and his friend Rooney were editing a little paper which they set up with their own hand as well as writing it. They also paid for the weekly expenditure on that paper. I know how hard a struggle it was for him to edit and print that paper, and I remember in those days, on hearing how hard that struggle was, I offered to get some of his articles placed in, I think, "The Speaker," which was an English Liberal paper. I remember his reply, that he had taken a vow to himself never to write for any paper outside Ireland. That was for him a vow of poverty, and he kept it. For many years, at least two or three years, before the end, it must have seemed to him that he was carrying on an almost hopeless struggle and when the final crisis came he showed himself a man of particular value to this country, if it were only in this, that when the final test came he gave his faith, not to an abstract theory, but to a conception of this historical nation — and we are all theory mad. On that point he kept himself thoroughly sane, and we owe, therefore, to his memory great honour— honour that will always be paid by this country.
I should also like to be associated with this expression. I do not think that but for the life-work and the very great personal sacrifices made by the late Arthur Griffith that "Easter Week" would have been possible or that the Treaty would have been at all favourable, and that we would now be here legislating as a free state. The Irish nation had become apathetic; the nation had lost its title deeds to its nationality; that is practically what it amounted to, and Arthur Griffith discovered them afresh and restored them to his people. We are to-day on the road he marked out, which must lead us to ultimate and absolute freedom. We have passed these two great milestones on that road, "Easter Week" and the signing of the Treaty, which is a practical mile-stone, substantially at any rate, to absolute freedom. These other little ties that are a source of friction to-day, which bind us to another country—a very slim bond indeed—I have no doubt, through the medium of the Imperial Conference, at which we are entitled to sit and have an equal voice with England and all the Dominions, will be ultimately disposed of. From what I know of the temperament of members of that Conference from overseas, when these sources of friction—the retention of a few marines or bluejackets on our coast, and even the little thing of the Veto—when better relations are engendered between the two countries and these matters are brought forward at the Imperial Conference, the large-minded men of the Dominions who are not hide-bound by Imperialism, who have a democratic strain in them, will say to England, "What is the meaning of this. It is of no practical advantage to you to have these little ties sources of friction. Remove them."
And I will say to any man who accuses me of being a Free Stater, I want no better Ireland than Arthur Griffith wanted. Why should any man or woman here place their record up against that of a man like Arthur Griffith? From a National point of view we are all but pigmies beside him. He devoted his whole life to Ireland, and sacrificed his personal aims and ambitions to serve his country. He refused a position of £2,000 a year because it would take him away from Ireland. We know what that man sacrificed in yielding to his ideal. His one aim and object was to reach a certain goal. His whole life was devoted to that and everything else was a minor consideration. I say he succeeded fully, and there is no tribute that this nation could pay to the memory of Arthur Griffith that would be adequate to the service he rendered to his country.
I feel I could not allow this matter to go by without saying a word or two. I happened to be associated, in a small way, with the late President Arthur Griffith in this city during the last 20 years when Arthur Griffith was starting on his work, which has now been practically accomplished. Very few people know the struggles he went through during those days. He was not the popular hero that he was in the latter days of his life. He was almost despised among some people. Very few people realised fully the sacrifices he made, and all he suffered on behalf of his ideal. This is a matter and an occasion on which one would not like to enter into any controversy. We are all anxious to pay tribute to the memory of this great man, for he was truly great. But, I must say in passing that I cannot agree with some of the remarks of the first speaker. Probably it was a slip on his part when he spoke of the foolish ideal of a Republic. Some of us will not subscribe to that. But parting from that, we are all sincerely anxious to pay tribute to this great man. He suffered, as I said, a great deal on behalf of his principles. One little incident comes to my mind just now. It occured on the first day on which the "Daily Sinn Fein" was to be published. I saw him then and he was not only editor of the paper, but he was porter and everything else; I saw him with his coat off wheeling in trucks of paper before they went to the machine room. His heart and soul was in whatever he was doing. He never worked for financial reward, and he never got it. It is not necessary to go into matters of detail now, but those of us who were associated with him in the old days know some of the things he suffered, and the sacrifices he made. I have not much more to say, and I will only add this, that I feel the greatest possible pleasure to see the wholehearted support which this Bill, brought forward by the Government, in memory of the late Arthur Griffith, receives in the Seanad.
May I very respectfully pay my small tribute to the memory of one whom Senator Farren truly terms "a very great man." I knew Arthur Griffith in the days gone by. He did me the honour of visiting me in my own house. He was a great constitutionalist, although some people imagined that he was a revolutionary. Arthur Griffith was a great constitutionalist, and with his ideas and principles I found very much to sympathise. We are all united, I am glad to think— all sections and classes of citizens in Southern Ireland—in their reverence to the memory of Arthur Griffith. We are grateful to Arthur Griffith for his services to Ireland, and I am glad that we are not forgetting that his family and those who are near and dear to him are the wards of the nation's gratitude. The Dáil has made a modest provision for their maintenance; it is well that such provision should be made, for it would be a sad thing indeed if it could be said that services such as he rendered could ever be forgotten. He will hold a high place, a very high place, in Irish history. He succeeded in doing what other men of similar spirit and character were unable to accomplish. May he rest in peace. We can say to-day that his work is done. Our only regret is that he did not live to witness its fuller fruition.
There is one thing that I think ought to be emphasised in any references to the memory of the late Arthur Griffith, and that is that he set his face sternly against any distinction or differences being made in Ireland between any class or creed. He hated these differences; he never believed in them and never felt them. I think it is very fitting that a Parliament with two Houses in a virtually independent Ireland should, with absolute unanimity, make provision for his family. It would be what he would, if I may say so, have desired. It is particulary appropriate and satisfactory that with absolute unanimity the Seanad is in a position to endorse the provision made by the Dáil. In this matter he was particularly anxious, not only that the people here who knew what he felt, but the world at large should see that the representation provided in the first Seanad of the Irish Free State would be a proof that there was no feeling of intolerance and no feeling of bitterness, and that the calumny as to the tyranny because of class or creed which had been spread abroad would be given the lie to, and that from now on we should forget these things ever existed. I make this reference as one who may regard himself as belonging to the minority, and as one who for many years knew how keenly Arthur Griffith felt with regard to the rights of minorities. In this connection I knew him best, not politically, but as a Trustee of the White Cross and at a time when it was extremely difficult to get into communication with him. May I say that he determined, from the very beginning, and at a time of keen bitterness, that not one suggestion of a difference of creed as regards a recipient should ever be allowed to have anything to do with the working of the organisation. I often wanted to say that in public, and I now avail of this opportunity to do it. I also think it would be fitting that we should suspend our Standing Orders and pass this Bill through all its stages immediately.
I think the mere fact that the Dáil agreed to introduce such a Bill is a greater tribute to Arthur Griffith than anything we could possibly say. Arthur Griffith was a man of great capacity, of enormous intelligence and wonderful sincerity, and I think it is possible that in whatever capacity he tried to serve his family he would certainly have made for them a colossal fortune. Instead of leaving them a colossal fortune, he left them penniless. Ireland was to him Father, Mother, Brother, and Sister, and he knew and realised that in a freer Ireland there would be no great fear for them. He left Ireland to be a Father to them, and the Dáil has shown it means to be a Father to them. Any words that we might utter here could not constitute such a tribute to his ideals and to his life's work as the action taken by the Dáil.
I cannot allow this occasion to pass without adding a word of tribute to the memory of the late Arthur Griffith. I had not the pleasure of knowing him personally, but I knew him, perhaps, in the best of ways— through the medium of his writings; and I consider that these writings have done more for present-day Irishmen than anything else. They taught us to see Ireland as she really ought to be—a nation, proud and staunch and self-reliant. They taught us exactly what it was the Act of Union did for us, and made us understand what we might do if we only followed his advice. The country came behind him steadily and surely, and there could be no greater evidence of that than the eloquent tribute paid to his memory by the first speaker, Senator Sir Hutcheson Poe. Everyone in this country has come to love it through the teachings of Arthur Griffith, and has begun to see that all that was accomplished under Grattan's Parliament may still be won if only the people unite and develop the vast and splendid resources of their country.
In introducing this Bill no speeches were made in support of it by members of the Government. It was thought and believed that the work that the late President had accomplished was sufficiently known to every member of that Assembly not to warrant any eulogy on the part of those responsible for the introduction of the Bill. The circumstances of the time scarcely permitted of paying those tributes to this great man's memory which in other circumstances, it would have been a possible and an easy task to do. Here to-day in this Assembly we have witnessed the result of the late President's creed for the whole of his life. He believed there was a common platform upon which Irishmen and Irish women of all shades of opinion could meet to work for the best interests of the country—meet in a place where little petty differences, that sometimes work great havoc amongst people, can be buried and where the best and most patriotic instincts and motives of the people can be directed towards the benefit of the nation. It is certainly a pleasure to anyone who had association with the late President to have been here and to have heard tributes here from people so long divided from the counsels, if I might say so, of this great man, whose only limitation was that which was imposed by the extraordinary honesty of purpose which animated every act of his life. There are occasions—as everyone knows who has any experience of public life—when one realises that pure honesty imposes considerable limitations on what one can do. That was certainly a limitation which this man was able to conquer, and it is certainly a great thing for this nation that in this generation a man of his type could be born, who proved that it can be said that a man can be honest and can be a great man.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
Perhaps before I put this motion to the Seanad, they would permit me to say that it is a good many years ago since I had the fortune of forming the acquaintance of the late Arthur Griffith; not, perhaps, in any of the spheres of which mention has already been made by those who have spoken, but in a wholly different arena—the arena of the Four Courts. The late Arthur Griffith was frequently a juror in cases where I was a pleader on one side or the other, and we came to know each other, and I have good reason to know that from that time on his feelings towards me were of a very friendly character. Consquently, I feel privileged to be able to add my testimony very briefly to the eulogium that has been passed upon his character. The peculiar feature about him was the dogged and quiet persistency with which he followed out his own ideals and he allowed no question of self-interest, no question of advantage or gain to divert him from that persistent path which he pursued. In his way towards the realisation of those ideals he stopped at no self-sacrifice. He was capable of the utmost unselfishness, and in the final closing acts of the great drama of his life he showed remarkable courage and a high standard of honour that won the admiration of those who were united with him in attempting to close by an honourable Treaty the long outstanding contest between this country and Great Britain. We have paid him the compliment to-day of tributes from all parts of this Seanad —tributes from men who differed from him essentially in many of his views and in many of his ideals. But we are all united by the common belief that in him we have lost a great Irishman, perhaps the greatest Irishman from the point of view of a patriot, of his day or generation. I am sure the country will recognise that we are doing the right thing if we now proceed and dispose of this Bill and pass it through all its stages without further discussion or debate.