Recently—­to illustrate that the Irish still retain their instinct for common ownership—­there had been, as the bishop mentioned, a successful socialistic experiment in Clare.  On looking up this fact at a later time, I discovered that the experiment had points of resemblance to the ancient state.[2] In 1823 the English socialist, Robert Owen, visited Ireland.  His outline of the possibilities of co-operation on socialistic lines inspired the foundation of the Hibernian Philanthropic Society.  It was in 1831 that Arthur Vandeleur, one of the members of the society, decided he would establish a socialist colony on his estate in Ralahine, Clare county.  A large tract of land was to be possessed and developed by a group of tenants.  This property was not, incidentally, a gift, but was to be held by Mr. Vandeleur until the tenants were able to pay for it.  An elected committee of nine, and a general assembly of all men and women members of the society, were the government.  The committee’s decision against an offending member of society could be enforced or not by the members.  The success of the society is acknowledged.  Through it was introduced the first reaping machine into Ireland.  By it the condition of the toiler was much raised, and might have been more greatly elevated but for the fact that the community had to pay a very heavy annual rental in kind to Mr. Vandeleur.  The experiment came to a premature end, however, because of the passing of the estate out of the hands of Mr. Vandeleur, and the non-recognition of the right of such a community to hold a lease or to act as tenants under the land laws of Great Britain.

“Why should there not be a modernized form of the ancient Gaelic state?” asked the bishop.

When I spoke of the Russian soviet, and stated that I heard that the Roman Catholic church had spread in eight dioceses under the new government, the bishop nodded his head.  The Church, he said, had nothing to fear from the soviet.

“Certainly not from the Limerick soviet,” I suggested.  “It was there that I saw a red-badged guard rise to say the Angelus.”

“Isn’t it well,” smiled the bishop, “that communism is to be Christianized?”

[Footnote 1:  Notice was given by the General Prison Board of Ireland on November 24, 1919, that no prisoner on hunger strike would obtain release.  It was stated that the hunger-striker alone would be responsible for the consequences of his refusal to take food.]

[Footnote 2:  “Labour in Irish History.”  By James Connolly.  Maunsel and Company. 1917.  P. 122.]

VI

What about Belfast?

SICKNESS AND DEATH OF CARSONISM

The H.C. of L. has done an extraordinary thing.  It is the high cost of living that has caused the sickness and death of Carsonism.  Carsonism is a synonym for the division of the Ulsterites by political and religious cries—­there are 690,000 Catholics and 888,000 non-Catholics.[1]