THE EVENING HERALD 8 APRIL 1926
President Cosgrave has sent the following message of sympathy –
“To his Excellency Benito Mussolini, President of the Council, Rome.
“On behalf of the Government of the Irish Free State I have the honour to congratulate your Excellency and the Italian people on the Providential escape of your Excellency from the odious attack on your person. Sincerely hoping that the wound is not serious, I send you earnest wishes for your speedy recovery. The infamous attempt has caused much indignation here.
(Signed)
LIAM COSGRAVE
President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.
EDITORIAL
FASCISMO AND ITS LEADER
“Signor Mussolini is to be congratulated on his escape with trifling injuries from an attempt made in Rome yesterday on his life. Before the details of the deplorable occurrence became generally known it was feared that the crime might bear a political complexion. Fortunately, however that is not so, for the shot at the Capitol was fired by a lady who is not of Italian nationality, and whose antecedents show that her mind is unbalanced.
As the originator and driving force of the movement styled Fascismo, Signor Mussolini stands out as the most picturesque and dominating personality of our time. It is no exaggeration to say that he has transformed Italy and made his country a force to be reckoned with by all other great nations to an extent never before recognised since the days of ancient Rome………But whatever our Parliamentary theorists may think of the Dictator’s methods, it is impossible to deny that they were well adapted to the particular national emergency, and that by their application the situation was saved…….”
I’m obliged to Pat Maloney of Cork, Editor of “LABOUR COMMENT” incorporated with THE IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW DECEMBER 2021 Issue for the above excerpts from the (Dublin) Evening Herald..
Pat also quotes a British Statesman: “What a man! I have lost my heart! …Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world….If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely.“
- Winston S Churchill.
In the same issue Pat gives an account of the Blueshirts, which though a mere nine paragraphs long is more informative than the alleged definitive
history penned by Maurice Manning in 1970, which I read soon after its first appearance. One could be forgiven for thinking that Bernard Manning had
written it. For the Blueshirts were fascists in style and substance with anti-Parliamentary theorists holding Chairs in UCD, other weapons in the streets and recruited their less academic stars to fight for Franco.
I owe the quotation below to the historian Dr Pat Walsh of the Aubane Historical Society , publishers of the Irish Political Review and other worthy publications- it comes from the IRISH TIMES of 3rd NOVEMBER 1922 and it appears to be a quotation from one of that paper’s friends from “the Mainland.”
First though, I, Donal Kennedy, must speak for myself – I understand that when the Provisional Government headed by Michael Collins, on Churchill’s orders and with artillery supplied by the British Government in July 1922 opened fire on the republicans in the Four Courts, that Lord Birkenhead said that his own compatriots should say nothing to embarrass Messrs Griffith and Collins from their difficult task, one which would have gladdened the heart of Queen Elizabeth – “holding Ireland for the Empire with an economy of English lives”.
By August 22 Griffith and Collins were dead and the internecine slaughter went on, to the delight, if not of THE IRISH TIMES, to one of its soulmates
November 3rd 1922-
“It perplexed the sagacity of Queen Elizabeth and the genius of Cromwell. Pitt failed and nearly every great statesman in English history has applied his mind to it and has not yet succeeded in finding a remedy. Why should we lavish treasure on that campaign when there are men in Ireland who have undertaken that task in alliance with us and who, given time, will successfully carry out that task, and who have behind them the overwhelming body of opinion among the Irish people themselves”.
Sounds like an Irish-free State, the apotheosis of an Imperialist jingo’s wet-dream.
Comments are closed.