FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 66: See Mr. Wyndham's article, p. 249.]
IX
THE SOUTHERN MINORITIES
BY RICHARD BAGWELL, M.A.
At the present moment no county or borough in the three southern
provinces of Ireland returns a Unionist member. There are substantial
minorities in many places, but very few in which there would be any
chance of a successful contest. The University of Dublin sends two
conspicuous Unionists to Parliament, who represent not only a
constituency of graduates, but the vast majority of educated and
thinking people. The bearing of the question on religious interests will
be dealt with by others, but it may be said here that the Protestant
community is Unionist. The exceptions are few, and are much more than
counter-balanced by the Roman Catholic opponents of Home Rule, who for
obvious reasons are less outspoken, but are quite as anxious to avert
the threatened revolution.
The great bone of contention has always been the land, the cause of
various wars and of ceaseless civil disputes. Parnell saw and said that
purely political Nationalism was weak by itself, and he took up the land
question to get leverage.
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