On this ground the Gael and Gall stand on footing of equality.  That is the point many on both sides miss and we need to emphasise it.  Some Irishmen not of Gaelic stock speak of Irish as foreign to them, and would maintain English in the principal place now and in the future.  We do well then to make clear to such a one that he is asked to adopt the language for Ireland’s sake as a nation and for his own sake as a citizen.  If he wishes to serve her he must stand for the language; if he prefers English civilisation he should go back to England.  There only can he develop on English lines.  An Irishman in Ireland with an English mind is a queer contradiction, who can serve neither Ireland nor England in any good sense, and both Ireland and England disown him.  So the Irishman of other than Gaelic ancestors should stand in with us, not accepting something disagreeable as inevitable, but claiming a right by birth and citizenship, joining the fine army of the nation for a brave adventurous future, full of fine possibility and guaranteed by a fine comradeship—­owning a land not of flattery and favouritism, but of freedom and manhood.  This saving ideal has been often obscured by our sundering class names.  This is why we would substitute as common for all the fine name of Irishman.

IV

But in asking all parties to accept the common name of Irishman, we find a fear rather suggested than declared—­that men may be asked in this name to put by something they hold as a great principle of Life; that Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter will all be asked to find agreement in a fourth alternative, in which they will not submit to one another but will all equally belie themselves.  There is such a hidden fear, and we should have it out and dispose of it.  The best men of all parties will have no truck with this and they are right.  But on what ground, then, shall we find agreement, the recognition of which Irish Citizenship implies?  On this, that the man of whatever sincere principles, religious or civic, counts among his great duties his duty as citizen; and he defends his creed because he believes it to be a safe guide to the fulfilling of all duties, this including.  When, therefore, we ask him to stand in as Irish Citizen, it is not that he is to abandon in one iota his sincere principles, but that he is to give us proof of his sincerity.  He tells us his creed requires him to be a good citizen:  we give him a fine field in which he can be to us a fine example.

V