Rallying For Europe
O'Brien saw the outbreak of World War I in August as an opportunity to undertake a last crusade to preserve at any price the unity of Ireland, by uniting the Green and Orange in a common cause, declaring himself on the side of the Allied and Britain's European war effort. O'Brien was the first Nationalist leader to call on Irish Volunteers for the front. Towards the end of August he had an interview with Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, and laid before him a scheme for raising an Irish Army Corps embracing all classes and creeds, South and North. Kitchener favoured the idea. O’Brien immediately summoned a meeting held in the Cork Town Hall under the auspices of the All-for-Ireland League on 2 September, the hall packed with an enthusiastic audience of men and women. In a speech that far exceeded Redmond’s in favour of its adherence to England cause, he said:- :
| “ | We are taking to-night – I don’t conceal it from myself – one of the most momentous decisions in our history. If we make up our minds, for heaven’s sake let there be no half-heartedness, let there be no qualifications or reservations. We have got to be honest friends or honest enemies of England. It won’t do merely to say that we are willing to fight for Belgium, or to fight for Ireland, or to fight for France, much though we love those gallant nations (cheers). We have got to go further and to say, without putting a tooth in it, that we are ready to fight for England as well, in England’s way (cheers). And in fighting England’s battle in the particular circumstance of this war, I am convinced to the heart’s core that we are fighting the most effective battle in all the ages for Ireland’s liberty (cheers) as well as to save our towns and our homes and our women and children from the grip of the most appalling horde of brutes in human shape that ever cursed this earth since Atilla met his doom at the hands of eternal justice (cheers). | ” |
O'Brien later wrote: "Whether Home Rule is to have a future will depend upon the extent to which the Nationalists in combination with Ulster Covenanters, do their part in the firing line on the fields of France". He stood on recruiting platforms with the other National leaders and spoke out encouragingly in favour of voluntary enlistment in the Royal Munster Fusiliers and other Irish regiments.
Read more about this topic: William O'Brien
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“riding flatcars to Fresno,
Across the whole country
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And oceans and Europe & libraries & galleries
And the factories they make rubbers in”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)