Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/49

 between sectional and national interests? The history of mankind proves that in a broken State it is a simple task to create discord, and a giant's task to create unity. The invaders acted at first from a common centre; and the nature of the case robbed the Irish Nation of any common centre from which to act. That was the first difficulty. Secondly, there are always men in every Nation who r <are willing to sell their honour. So long as Nations can repel invasion that fact does not become an active danger within the security of its State; but directly an invader enters a country, with gold a.nd honours in his gift, it becomes almost impossible to overtake the poison that runs in every direction. Men grow suspicious of the most honest purpose if that purpose is not at once apparent; and if it is at once apparent it is thereby at once revealed to the enemy. Finally, most men are near-sighted; they judge of large issues by their immediate effects, and so mistake those immediate effects for the large issues, making it easy for an enemy to drive divisions in between sectional interests. These things are so, not necessarily because men are corrupt, but by the nature of things; and their combined result was the broken State of Ireland.

A further difficulty was the fact that the Nation had new elements cast into it that it had to digest; and in some places it had those new elements cast into it in large numbers. The Normans were mostly driven out of the north; but others had settled and made their positions secure in other