I am far from saying that subsequent British cabinets have always
understood the Irish questions, but they are at least only reaping the
whirlwind where Mr. Gladstone sowed the wind.

I would broadly characterise as Fenian every Irish outbreak or
ebullition in the nineteenth century up to the time of the baneful
influence of the man who conducted the Midlothian campaign.

Half the tumultuous efforts of the earlier movements would have been
rendered ridiculous had it been possible to have them contemporaneously
examined by a few special correspondents. I can imagine the
representative of the _Daily Mail_ finding material for very few
sensational headlines in the Whiteboys Insurrection.

As for the tales of single-handed terrorism, these in Ireland did
nursery duty to alarm imaginative children, just as the adventures of
Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard or the kidnapping of heirs by gipsies
serve as stories to thrill English little ones.

Of course in 1789 to have killed three Protestants was counted a
passport into heaven in the vicinity of Vinegar Hill. But Father
Matthew's temperance crusade was worth more salvation to the nation, and
mere threatening letters count for nothing. I have had over one hundred
in my time, yet I'll die in my bed for all that.

My father-in-law had a pretty solid contempt for the Whiteboys--not the
original breed, but those who assumed the title in Kerry early in the
nineteenth century.