Bishops Oppose Partition

Three Protestant Bishops Present

The Archbishop, however professes to have other information, when he says the Irish Party is about to be sold again

This week an important manifesto was issued signed by a number of the Irish Bishops, three of them being Protestant Bishops, making an emphatic protest against partition.  It seems to be considered that the Government is working at their next settlement on the lines of partition, and hence the protest.

In addition to the protest Archbishop Walsh has added a footnote that implies that the Irish Party are acceding to it.  Most people thought that the Irish Party had cleared out of a settlement altogether.  They have distinctly stated so at all events.  The Archbishop, however professes to have other information, when he says the Irish Party is about to be sold again.

It is to be hoped, of course, that the manifesto will stiffen the back of the Government against partition, for no one hardly wants it except those in a corner of Ulster, but how is the union to be enforced on them?  The Bishops don’t say how; we have to fall back on the Government after, and before we can get a settlement that will satisfy Ireland we must first get some members of the Government, such as Bonar Law and Carson to go back on the doctrine they have been preaching to Ulster for the last half dozen years.  We expect they will all come round yet, but they have not seen their way to do it all at once, which we take to be the sole stumbling block to the settlement.

Galway Observer, 5 May 1917

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