rk. In my own case, except for the splendid and most generous
assistance given me by Mr Jeremiah O'Leary, the leading citizen of
Macroom, who shared all the labours and all the anxieties of my
campaign, I was left to fight my battle almost single-handed, having
arrayed against me two canons of my Church and every Catholic
clergyman in the constituency, with two or three notable exceptions.
The odds seemed hopeless, but the result provides the all-sufficient
answer to those who say that the Irish Catholic vote can be controlled
under all circumstances by the priests, for I scored a surprising
majority of 825 in a total poll of about 4500, and I have good reason
for stating that 95 per cent. of the illiterate votes were cast in my
favour, although a most powerful personal canvass was made of every
vote in the constituency by the clergy.

I consider this incident worthy of special emphasis in view of the
ignorant and malicious statements of English and Unionist publicists,
who make it a stock argument against the grant of independence to
Ireland that the Catholics will vote as they are bidden by their
priests. I have sufficient experience and knowledge of my countrymen
to say that whilst in troublous times the Irish soggarths were the
natural leaders and protectors of their flocks, even to the peril of
their lives, yet in these times, when other conditions prevail, whilst
in religion remaining staunchly loyal to their faith and its teachers,
when it comes to a question of political principle there is no man in
all the world who can be so independently self-assertive as the Irish
Catholic. There is nothing to fear for Ireland, either now or in the
future, from what I may term clericalism in politics, whilst on the
other hand it is earnestly to be hoped that nothing will ever happen
to intrude unnecessarily the question or authority of religion in the
domain of more mundane affairs.

Mr O'Brien sums up the result of the General Election briefly thus:

"When the smoke of battle cleared away, nevertheless, every friend of
mine, against whom this pitiless cannonade of vengeance had been
directed, stood victorious on the field, and it was the conspirators
who a few weeks before deemed themselves unshakable in the mastery of
Ireland who, to their almost comic bewilderment and dismay, found
themselves and their boasts rolled in the dust. Not only did every man
for whose destruction they had thrown all prudence to the winds find