IV


At the heart of the question we will be met by the religious objection
to revolt. Here all scruples, timidity, wavering, will concentrate; and
here is our chief difficulty to face. The right to war is invariably
allowed to independent states. The right to rebel, even with just cause,
is not by any means invariably allowed to subject nations. It has been
and is denied to us in Ireland. We must answer objectors line by line,
leading them, where it serves, step by step to our conclusions; but this
is not to make freedom a mere matter of logic--it is something more.
When it comes to war we shall frequently give, not our promises, but our
conclusions. This much must be allowed, however, that, as far as logic
will carry, our position must be perfectly sound; yet, be it borne in
mind, our cause reaches above mere reasoning--mere logic does not
enshrine the mysterious touch of fire that is our life. So, when we
argue with opponents we undertake to give them as good as or better than
they can give, but we stake our cause on the something that is more. On
this ground I argue not in general on the right of war, but in
particular on the right of revolt; not how it may touch other people
elsewhere ignoring how it touches us here in Ireland. A large treatise
could be written on the general question, but to avoid seeming academic
I will confine myself as far as possible to the side that is our
concern. For obvious reasons I propose to speak as to how it affects
Catholics, and let them and others know what some Catholic writers of
authority have said on the matter. One thing has to be carefully made
clear. It is seen in the following quotation from an eminent Catholic
authority writing in Ireland in the middle of the last century, Dr.
Murray, of Maynooth: "The Church has issued no definition whatever on
the question--has left it open. Many theologians have written on it; the