TREATMENT OF PROTESTANT FARMERS IN SOUTHERN IRELAND.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In dealing with the above subject your correspondent, "J. C. T.", states : (a) that "religious animosity is abso- lutely unknown in the West of Ireland " ; (b) " it is not a question of religion at all," and (c) " that such an idea is entirely erroneous." It would much better become the dignity of " J. C. T." if, instead of attempting to throw dust in the eyes of your Protestant readers, he faced the glaring facts of the situation in the very county of his adoption— County Galway. Will he tell your readers how it is that the Protestant Orphans had their grand old home burnt over their heads just a few miles outside Clifden, co. Galway, and why it was that a British gunboat was their only source of refuge from starvation ? Will he tell your readers why it is that these same orphans, instead of being allowed to return, have been compelled to emigrate to Australia, and what became of their farm ? Will he tell us why it is that the poor, innocent Protestant orphan girls were compelled to leave Glen-Owen Orphanage, Clifden, co. Galway, if it was " not a question of religion," and if, as he says, " religious animosity is absolutely unknown in the West of Ireland"? Will he inform us why Moyrus Protestant Church and Rectory in co. Galway are burned to the ground ? Why another Protestant Church in " West " Donegal, with its sacred Communion vessels, was desecrated ? Why the Catholic Club, alongside the Protestant Y.M.C.A. in Sackville Street, Dublin, escaped all damage during the riots there, and the Y.M.C.A. windows next door were smashed to atoms ? Can he tell us of a single Roman Catholic institution, church or orphanage that has met with similar treatment where Pro-
testant rule obtains " J. C. T." must not think we are " as green as we are cabbage looking." If it is " not a question of religion at all," why is it that so many Protestants are " trotting " out of the country as fast as their " trotter " legs can carry them ? Perhaps if " J. C. T." had been as faithful to his own religion and had " let his light shine " a wee bit more brilliantly in the past, the country might not be in the unsafe state it is to-day. If, during his boasted thirty-five years' residence there, he and his co-religionists had preached and lived the Gospel as the Apostles would have done, had they been there as long, the country would have long since been captured for Jesus Christ and we should not to-day be witnessing the tragic removal of our dear old Church of Ireland " candlestick."
That Roman Catholics are raided as well as Protestants under the regime of Roman Catholic rule only goes to show
that Protestant rule is much better for the country, and that Mr. Lloyd George made the biggest mistake of his life when he and his confederates handed over their fellow-loyalists to England's bitterest foes. " J. C. T." may blind the eyes of your English readers, but he certainly will not succeed in blinding those who have bitter reason to know that the whole of Ireland's political troubles are solely due to the religion and priestcraft of the majority of those who rule. If the country were Protestant, the South, East and West would be just as content under British rule as the North.—
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