y considerable majority, and Mr Dillon had further
reason for having his knife in his former friend and comrade, Mr
O'Brien.

The three sectional organisations--the National Federation, the
National League and the People's Rights Association thereafter died a
natural death. There were no ceremonial obsequies and none to sing
their requiem.

The first National Convention of the reunited country was then
summoned by a joint committee consisting of representatives of the
United Irish League and the Party in equal numbers, and it gave the
League a constitution which made it possible for the constituencies to
control the organisation, to select their own Parliamentary
representatives and generally to direct national affairs within their
borders. The conception of the Constitution was sound and democratic.
But in any organisation it is not the constitution that counts, but
the men who control the movement. And the time came all too soon when
this was sadly true of the United Irish League.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: To Dr Robert Ambrose belongs the credit for having first
introduced, as a private member, in 1897, a Bill to confer upon the
Congested Districts compulsory powers for land purchase. This was
subsequently adopted as an Irish Party measure. Dr Ambrose was also
the author of a measure empowering the County Councils to acquire
waste lands for reclamation. He was one of the pioneers of the
Industrial Development Movement and wrote and lectured largely on the
subject. He was, with the late Bishop Clancy, prominent in promoting
"the All-Red Route," which would have given Ireland a great terminal
port on its western coast at Blacksod Bay. He, at considerable
professional sacrifice, entered the Party, at the request of Mr Dillon
and Mr O'Brien, as Member for West Mayo. The reward he received for
all his patriotic services was to find himself opposed in 1910 by the
Dillonite caucus because of his independent action on Irish questions.
Mr Dillon had no toleration for the person of independent mind, and
thus a man who had given distinguished service to public causes was
ruthlessly driven out of public life.]

CHAPTER IX

THE LAND QUESTION AND ITS SETTLEMENT

The General Election of 1900 witnessed a wonderful revival of national
interest in Ireland. Doubtless if the constituencies had been left to
their own devices they would have returned members responsive to