his deeds. That some
among the Irish Nationalist leaders have recently professed their
devotion to the British Empire cannot be regarded by serious persons as
a relevant consideration. The demand for Home Rule is in fact a demand
for separation from the United Kingdom or it is nothing. Naval officers
are accustomed to deal with facts rather than with words.

In the great sea-wars of the past, Ireland has always been regarded by
the enemy as providing the base for a flank attack upon England. Had
King Louis XIV. rightly used his opportunities, the army of King William
would have been cut off from its base in England, and would have been
destroyed by reinforcements arriving from France to assist King James
II. There is no more concise presentment of the case than the account of
it given by Admiral Mahan in "The Influence of Sea Power upon History,
1660-1783."

"The Irish Sea, separating the British Islands, rather resembles an
estuary than an actual division; but history has shown the danger
from it to the United Kingdom. In the days of Louis XIV., when the
French navy nearly equalled the combined English and Dutch, the
gravest complications existed in Ireland, which passed almost
wholly under the control of the natives and the French.
Nevertheless, the Irish Sea was rather a danger to the English--a
weak point in their communications--than an advantage to the
French. The latter did not venture their ships-of-the-line in its
narrow waters, and expeditions intending to land were directed upon
the ocean ports in the south and west. At the supreme moment the
great French fleet was sent upon the south coast of England, where
it decisively defeated the allies, and at the same time twenty-five
frigates were sent to St. George's Channel, against the English
communications. In the midst of a hostile people the English army
in Ireland was seriously imperilled, but was saved by the battle of
the Boyne and the flight of James II. _This movement against the
enemy's communications was strictly strategic, and would be just as
dangerous to England now as in 1690_[67]....

"There can be little doubt that an effective co-operation of the
French fleet in the summer of 1689 would have broken down all
opposition to James in Ireland, by isolating that country from
England, with corresponding injury to William's power....