Irish King?

From the Battle of the Boyne to the year of grace is 235 years. During this period, many wise political leaders in Britain have sought to find a solution of the ever-changing Irish problem. To the eternal discredit of Britain, not until the year 1921 was a so-called solution found: the Irish Free State came into being. But this expedient--for it was no more than that--was not the beginning of the end but seemingly the end of the beginning. Ireland is still a most distressful country. Arrived in the U. S. for a lecture tour James Stephens, famed Irish poet and author.* He was once an ardent Sinn Feiner but, in the advent of the Free State, he supported the act which conferred upon his native land "dominion status" in the British Commonwealth of Nations. Now, like many other Free State enthusiasts, his ardor has cooled; lie believes that the Irish question has not yet been answered. He therefore observed and suggested: "You know the oldest monarchy of all is Irish. Once there were four kingdoms./- These are all gone with the exception of Ireland, and it is a pity that the oldest monarchy should die. "If Ireland does decide upon a monarchy, she might elect to have an English King and be part of a dual mon- archy. Or she might ask one of the English princes to renounce his allegiance and be her King. Or even some lad of the name of O'Brien or O'Neill might wear the Irish crown. "The Irish King might even be a Spaniard. There is the Duke of Tetuan, for instance. He is The O'Neill, a descendant of the great O'Neill who fled to the Continent with the flight of the Wild Geese,* if you will recall your history. Irishmen then settled in Spain and France and Austria, and some of them became great soldiers, and their descendants, genealogically at least, we consider Irish. "It might be one of these whom we would invite to be King; but the simplest way would be a dual monarchy rather than have some one whom we don't know and who doesn't know anything about us and who would in reality be an expatriate." Then, said he of: Republicans. "Nearly half the elected membership of the Dail is Republican. Of about 100 members, perhaps 48 are Republican. But they will not take the oath, and so they do not sit. This is very unfortunate, for there is no opposition and (perhaps in Ireland, particularly) where there is no opposition there is no Government." Irish Women. "They all have the vote, but they are dividing pretty much as the men. In all that Ireland has gone through, they have been as important as the men and on many occasions more important. They have kept the men going."

Irish Literature. "In no country where there is action is thought found. When a Nation is fighting, it is doing nothing else. And, after they have put their backs into it, they want to sit down and lick their wounds. "Great Art cannot spring out of war, at least not then. The children will do it. They are hearing their fathers and their grandfathers speak of the trials and the dangers and the heroics and the horrors of war. They are growing up in an endless story-telling of war, and out of it will come the Art of the future.

* Author of: The Crock of Gold, Here Arc Ladies, The Charwoman's Daughter, Songs from the Clay, The Demi-Gods, Reincarnation Dcirdrc, In the Land of Youth. /-England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the four kingdoms of the British Isles, existed side by side at the time of the Norman Conquest (1066). In 1169, Henry II forced Wales to acknowledge his suzerainty and Kdward I (1272-1307) completed the conquest of that kingdom. When Eleanor, his Queen, gave birth to a son in Carnarvon, a Welsh town, he was presented to the Welsh as a native prince "who could speak no English." Later he was styled "Prince of Wales," and the title has persisted. *The well-known "flight of the Earls," which took place in 1607, while James V was of Tyrone (Hugh O'Neill) and Tyrconnel the two most powerful men in Ireland, leaders of the resistance, fled Ireland with their wives, children and retainers, thus marking the doom of the Celtic cause.