On This Day / February 19, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210219
Reference Date
19210219
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 19th February 1921, former Belfast shipyard boss Alex Carlisle denounced British repression in Ireland, while Presbyterian minister Rev Dr James Irwin was arrested in Antrim over his Republican activism. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Ex-Belfast Shipyard Boss Lashes Government | On This Day – 19th February 1921
THE following letter appeared in yesterday’s [London] Times:
Sir, – Is it too much to hope that your article on Ireland this morning will at length rouse the moral conscience of the British people? The issue now raised transcends the question of Irish peace.
The question for the British public to decide is whether the old traditions of honesty in public life are to be maintained or discarded. …
Thirty years ago statesmen guilty of the evasions in which the Prime Minister and Sir Hamar Greenwood [Chief Secretary for Ireland] have so frequently indulged would have been hounded out of office by the rising tide of public indignation.
No wonder the leaders of Ireland place no confidence in the word of this Government.
Meanwhile the futile measures of repression continue in Ireland. Long ago I prophesied that they would fail. They have failed. They will always fail.
For every Sinn Féiner you shoot, a hundred more will rise to take his place.
You are merely teaching Irishmen to hate you, you are teaching them to despise you as men without honour or sense or shame.
And this lesson is being learned, not merely in Ireland but throughout the civilised world which looks on in horror at this ghastly and awful tragedy.
There will be a better England as well as a better Ireland when the English people dismiss the unworthy stewards who have betrayed alike the interests and honour of England.
– Yours faithfully A M Carlisle.
Antrim Sensation – Sinn Féin Clergyman Arrested
EARLY on Saturday morning the military and police visited the house occupied by the Rev Dr Irwin, Presbyterian minister of Killead, near Antrim.
The house was thoroughly searched and Dr Irwin was then taken away in a motor and lodged in Antrim police barracks.
It will be remembered that the Rev Dr Irwin visited the United States last year and addressed many meetings on the Irish Question.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Ballymena-born Alex Carlisle (1854-1926) was the former manager of Harland and Wolff’s and a brother-in-law of Lord Pirrie.
He was a nephew of the liberal Presbyterian leader, Rev Henry Montgomery.
In 1906 his intervention as an Independent candidate in West Belfast allowed Joe Devlin to win the seat.
By 1921 Carlisle, a member of the British Privy Council, was a vocal critic of British policy in Ireland as this letter reveals.
Rev James Irwin (1876-1954) of Killead was a Protestant Republican who had toured North America in 1920 with President de Valera in support of an Irish Republic.
He was court-martialled and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment but was unexpectedly released after a few months.)
On This Day – 19th February 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
James Alexander Hamilton Irwin
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210219
Reference Date
19210219
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 19th February 1921, former Belfast shipyard boss Alex Carlisle denounced British repression in Ireland, while Presbyterian minister Rev Dr James Irwin was arrested in Antrim over his Republican activism. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Ex-Belfast Shipyard Boss Lashes Government | On This Day – 19th February 1921
THE following letter appeared in yesterday’s [London] Times:
Sir, – Is it too much to hope that your article on Ireland this morning will at length rouse the moral conscience of the British people? The issue now raised transcends the question of Irish peace.
The question for the British public to decide is whether the old traditions of honesty in public life are to be maintained or discarded. …
Thirty years ago statesmen guilty of the evasions in which the Prime Minister and Sir Hamar Greenwood [Chief Secretary for Ireland] have so frequently indulged would have been hounded out of office by the rising tide of public indignation.
No wonder the leaders of Ireland place no confidence in the word of this Government.
Meanwhile the futile measures of repression continue in Ireland. Long ago I prophesied that they would fail. They have failed. They will always fail.
For every Sinn Féiner you shoot, a hundred more will rise to take his place.
You are merely teaching Irishmen to hate you, you are teaching them to despise you as men without honour or sense or shame.
And this lesson is being learned, not merely in Ireland but throughout the civilised world which looks on in horror at this ghastly and awful tragedy.
There will be a better England as well as a better Ireland when the English people dismiss the unworthy stewards who have betrayed alike the interests and honour of England.
– Yours faithfully A M Carlisle.
Antrim Sensation – Sinn Féin Clergyman Arrested
EARLY on Saturday morning the military and police visited the house occupied by the Rev Dr Irwin, Presbyterian minister of Killead, near Antrim.
The house was thoroughly searched and Dr Irwin was then taken away in a motor and lodged in Antrim police barracks.
It will be remembered that the Rev Dr Irwin visited the United States last year and addressed many meetings on the Irish Question.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Ballymena-born Alex Carlisle (1854-1926) was the former manager of Harland and Wolff’s and a brother-in-law of Lord Pirrie.
He was a nephew of the liberal Presbyterian leader, Rev Henry Montgomery.
In 1906 his intervention as an Independent candidate in West Belfast allowed Joe Devlin to win the seat.
By 1921 Carlisle, a member of the British Privy Council, was a vocal critic of British policy in Ireland as this letter reveals.
Rev James Irwin (1876-1954) of Killead was a Protestant Republican who had toured North America in 1920 with President de Valera in support of an Irish Republic.
He was court-martialled and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment but was unexpectedly released after a few months.)
On This Day – 19th February 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
James Alexander Hamilton Irwin
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210219
Reference Date
February 19, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 19th February 1921, former Belfast shipyard boss Alex Carlisle denounced British repression in Ireland, while Presbyterian minister Rev Dr James Irwin was arrested in Antrim over his Republican activism. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Ex-Belfast Shipyard Boss Lashes Government | On This Day – 19th February 1921
THE following letter appeared in yesterday’s [London] Times:
Sir, – Is it too much to hope that your article on Ireland this morning will at length rouse the moral conscience of the British people? The issue now raised transcends the question of Irish peace.
The question for the British public to decide is whether the old traditions of honesty in public life are to be maintained or discarded. …
Thirty years ago statesmen guilty of the evasions in which the Prime Minister and Sir Hamar Greenwood [Chief Secretary for Ireland] have so frequently indulged would have been hounded out of office by the rising tide of public indignation.
No wonder the leaders of Ireland place no confidence in the word of this Government.
Meanwhile the futile measures of repression continue in Ireland. Long ago I prophesied that they would fail. They have failed. They will always fail.
For every Sinn Féiner you shoot, a hundred more will rise to take his place.
You are merely teaching Irishmen to hate you, you are teaching them to despise you as men without honour or sense or shame.
And this lesson is being learned, not merely in Ireland but throughout the civilised world which looks on in horror at this ghastly and awful tragedy.
There will be a better England as well as a better Ireland when the English people dismiss the unworthy stewards who have betrayed alike the interests and honour of England.
– Yours faithfully A M Carlisle.
Antrim Sensation – Sinn Féin Clergyman Arrested
EARLY on Saturday morning the military and police visited the house occupied by the Rev Dr Irwin, Presbyterian minister of Killead, near Antrim.
The house was thoroughly searched and Dr Irwin was then taken away in a motor and lodged in Antrim police barracks.
It will be remembered that the Rev Dr Irwin visited the United States last year and addressed many meetings on the Irish Question.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Ballymena-born Alex Carlisle (1854-1926) was the former manager of Harland and Wolff’s and a brother-in-law of Lord Pirrie.
He was a nephew of the liberal Presbyterian leader, Rev Henry Montgomery.
In 1906 his intervention as an Independent candidate in West Belfast allowed Joe Devlin to win the seat.
By 1921 Carlisle, a member of the British Privy Council, was a vocal critic of British policy in Ireland as this letter reveals.
Rev James Irwin (1876-1954) of Killead was a Protestant Republican who had toured North America in 1920 with President de Valera in support of an Irish Republic.
He was court-martialled and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment but was unexpectedly released after a few months.)
On This Day – 19th February 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
James Alexander Hamilton Irwin
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.