Irish manifesto presented to US Senate
Washington, 4 September 1917 - An ‘Irish manifesto’ signed by 26 released Sinn Féin prisoners, including Mr Éamon de Valera and Prof. Eoin Mac Neill, has been presented to the President and Senate of the United States.
The signatures were gathered while the released prisoners were being shipped back to Ireland from England. The manifesto was then smuggled to the United States by Dr Patrick McCartan, arriving on Capitol Hill via the office of Senator James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois.
The manifesto takes inspiration from President Wilson’s dictum that ‘no people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not want to live’ and urges that Ireland’s case be considered in that light.
Furthermore, the signatories implore the U.S. Government and others ‘to take immediate measures to inform themselves accurately about the extent of liberty or attempted repression we may encounter’.
The Sinn Féin prisoners arriving at Westland Row station after being released from prison in England. They signed the manifesto on the boat back to Ireland. (Image: National Library of Ireland)
Dr McCartan explained to American audiences the reasons for Sinn Féin’s absence from the ongoing Irish Convention and how the five delegates they were offered was entirely unrepresentative of current public opinion.
Were a general election held to determine delegates, McCartan said, he was confident that the Convention would be ‘largely Republican’.
The Tyrone man was presented to, among others, the U.S. Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, ‘Champ’ Clark of Missouri.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
