On the Fence 59 



medium through which the British Treasury 

 finances the death of the Irish nation. National 

 destruction can be prevented by only one thing, 

 work, and the value of work depends on industrial 

 character, which in turn, depends on education ; 

 but the Irish peasant would not for his life dare 

 express any of his deep objections to the dominant 

 dementia so lavishly endowed for the destruction 

 of his children. Until he dares to become articu- 

 late in this, good-bye to industrial character and 

 the last hope of nationhood in agrarian Ireland. 

 It must be plain, even to the politicians, how the 

 factor of nationality has steadily died out of the 

 agrarian character in our own time, but not one 

 of them dares to ask why. 



The reflective foreigner travelling through 

 Connaught, and not meeting one man, could infer 

 the character of the people from the fences. The 

 earth fence without a hedge is an open denial of 

 civilisation. The wasted earth is there to grow it, 

 the plants for practically nothing and the time 

 wasted. Nine-tenths of the work for the fence has 

 been done already, and many times repeated, but 

 there is no effective fence. The work must be 

 repeated again next year, but before autumn is 

 out, the cow will again be through, and the child 

 must turn to herding, in its age of play, to be 

 compensated by adult idleness later on. The 

 finishing touch which would give their value to 

 all other units of the work is missing ; that last 

 factor of mind which gives muscle its normal 

 reward, and without which it must either decay 

 at home or be rescued by emigration. 



