Irish Unity Movement Quotes
The 69th Regiment, the first and original division of the Irish Brigade, has been one of the most decorated and successful American battle units since the Civil War. It was originally formed with Irish Immigrant Volunteers by the authority of the Secretary of War. The Irishmen designed their own regimental battle flag which not only was composed of Irish motifs such as the Harp of Erin, but this was the only text in the red banner but it was in Gaelic. The battle flag could be an Irish Army regimental flag as there is nothing on the flag to identify it with America. Although the flag did not, the brigade did with their blood left on the battlefield of every American war up to today. Ironically, this may be the only national military unit in history who operated with a slogan extolling another country.
A delegation from Sinn Fein, headed by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, had negotiated a treaty of Irish Independence except that it did not cover Northern Ireland where the majority of the people wanted to stay a part of Britain. For 700 years, the Irish had fought for independence, and finally they got it for the vast majority of Ireland and the overwhelming majority of the Catholics of Ireland. The alternative to agreeing to the treaty was to continue the war between the IRA and the British Troops. At the time, the IRA was just about totally beaten and probably could not hold out another month. De Valera, a very shrewd politician, as the leader of Sinn Fein (and the IRA) would normally have headed the Irish Delegation. But he chose not to because he realized that they would never get independence for all 32 counties of Ireland as the British would not leave the Northern Ireland Protestants to their fates against their will. The best Ireland could get was Independence for all of Catholic majority Ireland. And he knew that public opinion would oppose giving up even one county becuse that was what the leaders had told the people for years. So De Valera let his two associates take the popular blame after he denounced the treaty with his famous quotation {639690}. Shortly after that, Michael Collins, the brilliant military Commander of the IRA who signed the treaty was assassinated. To many, it was as if De Valera had pulled the trigger. The treaty was ratified by a 7 vote margin by the Dail as there was no army left to fight, and the angry Irish electorate voted for De Valera as Ireland’s first President. The politician had won; the patriot had died.
