PREFACE


It was my intention to publish these articles in book form as soon as
possible. I had them typed for the purpose. I had no time for revision
save to insert in the typed copy words or lines omitted from the
original printed matter. I also made an occasional verbal alteration in
the original. One article, however, that on "Intellectual Freedom,"
though written in the series in the place in which it now stands, was
not printed with them. It is now published for the first time.


RELIGION


I wish to make a note on the article under this heading to avoid a
possible misconception amongst people outside Ireland. In Ireland there
is no religious dissension, but there is religious sincerity. English
politicians, to serve the end of dividing Ireland, have worked on the
religious feelings of the North, suggesting the danger of Catholic
ascendancy. There is not now, and there never was, any such danger, but
our enemies, by raising the cry, sowed discord in the North, with the
aim of destroying Irish unity. It should be borne in mind that when the
Republican Standard was first raised in the field in Ireland, in the
Rising of 1798, Catholics and Protestants in the North were united in
the cause. Belfast was the first home of Republicanism in Ireland. This
is the truth of the matter. The present-day cleavage is an unnatural
thing created by Ireland's enemies to hold her in subjection and will
disappear entirely with political Freedom.