It bore fruit where Ulster Unionism had been but a
barren fig-tree. The democracy of Belfast accepted their leader. They
gave him a majority of 16 in West Belfast in 1906 and in four years they
had multiplied it by forty. The Boyne was bridged, and everything that
has since happened has but added a new stay or girder to the strength of
the bridge. And not only labour but capital has passed across that
estranging river to firm ground of patriotism and national unity. Lord
Pirrie, the head of the greatest manufacturing enterprise in Belfast, is
an ardent Home Ruler. Business men, ministers of religion, even lawyers,
are thinking out things quietly beneath the surface. The new "Ulster" is
breaking its shell. Parties are forming on the basis of economic
realities, not on that of "religious" phantasms.
As for the old "Ulster," it remains a problem not for the War Office,
but for the Department of Education.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MECHANICS OF HOME RULE
The inevitableness of Home Rule resides in the fact that it is, as one
might say, a biped among ideas.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151