Page:Ireland and England in the past and at present.djvu/483

Rh There had been a lively, even bitter, campaign, with disorder at election meetings and violent speeches. A son of Michael Davitt openly declared that to vote for Captain Redmond would be choosing centuries more of industrial and national slavery. Everywhere the contest was pushed by Sinn Fein, and they tried for 100 out of the 105 seats in the country. And the tide ran strongly with them. The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, voting for the first time in his life, voted for one of their candidates. When the results were announced, it was seen that Ulster Unionist strength was unimpaired, and Sir Edward's followers had been returned by enormous majorities, but that the Nationalist Party had now ceased to exist, and outside the six Ulster counties and Dublin University scarcely an opponent of the aggressive new party had been elected. The Unionists had 25 members, the Nationalists 7, and Sinn Fein 73. South of the Boyne and west of the Shannon Sinn Fein had swept all before it, and its triumph had gone to the very gates of the Ulster stronghold. The work of the Home Rule party had been discredited and cast aside with disdain, and the Irish problem was again fundamentally as before the days of Butt and Parnell.

The success of this radical Irish party had been as rapid as complete. Less than three years before its political strength was negligible; now it had displaced the Nationalists, and assumed responsibility for guiding Ireland through the strange new times