God Bless the Work

Abstract

The war, as it affects England, presents entirely a national character, and in that country every other interest is subservient to it. This does not mean that political quarrels have ceased, but they have been driven underground, and however the inveterate politicians may mine and countermine in the depths, they dare not come to the surface without the gravest danger to themselves and their hopes. Their aims are in general confined to ‘after the war’, and one of the signs of the drawing nigh of peace will be the ascent of the politician. But although English politics may, as the novelists say, cause the Chancelleries of Europe to shake, they have almost no importance to Irish people, outside, that is, of the interest which binds a mind anywhere to an event anywhere else. When they sow good seed we seldom are permitted to wield a sickle in the harvest, and if they sow thorns it does not affect us very much. We are, by geography and by English desire, outside of their government, and we are, by national will, incapable of being drawn into it. Whatever of good or evil England had to give this country she has already given, and as a sponge that is full of water cannot hold any more, so this country cannot absorb anything further of ideas or ideals or manners or literature from her powerful neighbour.