The Days of a Man 1:1914 



cause of Irish independence and was sent to the 

 Tower and executed, while some of his associates — 

 poets, teachers, and dreamers — were hastily shot 

 under martial law. "One law for Dublin, another 

 for Belfast." This may not be a fair way of stating 

 the case, but so it looked to Dublin, which city, 

 however, had countered in July, 19 14, with its own 

 gun-running episode.^ 

 The Both factions had in turn hoped for help from the 



Kaiser Kaiscr. In Belfast it was frequently said that as 

 tniroT^ head of the great Protestant Church he would never 

 '«g allow Ulster to fall under Catholic control. Later 



Dublin extremists argued that Ireland and Germany, 

 facing a common enemy, should unite in a common 

 cause. Meanwhile Wilhelm and his agents had not 

 the slightest interest in the Irish beyond their pos- 

 sible service in harassing Great Britain. 



From Belfast we went on to the pleasant city of 

 Londonderry, which rises picturesquely above Loch 

 Foyle, a lake-like glaciated arm of the sea. Here we 

 found feeling less bitter and the parties about evenly 

 divided, though memories were very long. Presby- 

 terian and Methodist elders talked as if they them- 

 Siege of selves remembered the cruel siege of their city by the 

 ^'''^ Catholic Lord Antrim in 1689, when the people were 

 forced to eat rats and nettles until at last a ship from 

 London broke the chain drawn across the narrow 

 entrance of the Loch. From Dr. Thomas Witherow, 

 professor in Magus College, we received valuable 

 help, and his ''Siege of Derry and Enniskillen," 

 although written by a Protestant, was commended 

 to us by Catholics as both just and accurate. 



1 So far as I have heard no official notice was taken of this incident, the 

 onset of war pushing Irish matters into the background. 



: 626 3 



