FROM THE ARCHIVES:The late 1940s saw a surge in anti-partition campaigns by all Southern parties and Northern nationalists. They did not make much progress, partly for the reasons set out in this London Letter by one of the newspaper's journalists there. –
JOE JOYCE
THE SPLIT in the Anti-partition League, which has become publicly known during the last few days, is a matter of no great surprise. The immediate cause of the split is the resignation of Mr. J. Tully, who came from Ireland early this year to be the first permanent secretary of the League.
Mr. Tully alleged that there was undue interference in the affairs of the League by an Irish political party. His view has, apparently, been supported by the London No. 1 Area Council of the League, which has, therefore, been formally dissolved by the Central Executive, and two of its leading members expelled from the League.
The affair will have some value if it brings home to the Irish public the fact that this is not the sort of organisation to be in charge of the anti-partition campaign. The Anti-partition League has had some success in building up a membership and in drawing attendances to mass meetings. But to a great extent the people who join the league, and, even the people who attend the meetings, are Irishmen working in Britain.
What is more, they are not always those Irishmen who are in the best position to influence British opinion. It is easy to arouse enthusiasm by preaching to the converted; but it is not the most effective way of spreading one’s doctrines. Some of the league’s propaganda, moreover, has been of such a belligerent nature that it is calculated to make more enemies than friends among the people to whom it is supposedly directed.
This confusion about means and objectives has shown itself also in the League’s attitude to British politics. There was a period in which the League was officially opposing any candidate for Parliament who would not give a pledge of support to the anti-partition campaign.
That manoeuvre failed, for the simple reason that candidates for Parliament would not play. All parties united in disregarding the demand, and so it was impossible to bid one against the other. The plan was not dropped, however, until it had detached from the League a number of useful supporters, who could not reconcile this policy with their allegiance to the Labour Party. Captain Hugh Delargy resigned the position of chairman on this issue.
The effort to use the Irish vote as it was used in the Home Rule campaign became absurd when anti-partition candidates were put forward at the last election, and all lost their deposits.
There is quite a lot of Irish influence in this country still but it does not rest upon the mass power of the Irish vote. The real influence of Ireland in Britain is more subtle. It is exerted through the thousands of Irishmen and Irishwomen, who have attained respected positions in scores of communities throughout Britain.
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