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must perforce remain a dues-paying, organic part of the British socialist movement. ... The Socialist Party of Ireland considers itself the only international party in Ireland, since its conception of internationalism is that of a free federation of free peoples, whereas that of the Belfast branches of the ILP seems scarcely distinguishable from imperialism, the merging of subjugated peoples in the political system of their conquerors. ... This is a unique conception of international- ism, unique and peculiar to Belfast. There is no 'most favoured nation clause' in socialist diplom- acy, and we, as socialists in Ireland, can not afford to establish such a precedent. (May 27 1911) I have written in vain if I have not helped the reader to realise that the historical backgrounds of the movement in England and Ireland are so essentially different that the Irish socialist movement can only be truly served by a party indigenous to the soil, and explained by a litera- ture having the same source; that the phrases and watchwords which might serve to express the soul of the movement in one country may possibly stifle its soul and suffocate its expression in the other. (Aug 2 1913) On these lines of argument I have fought for the establishment of a Labour Party in Ireland, for the separate political organisation of the Irish workers and for the separate economic and industrial organisation of the Irish workers on a more revolutionary basis than was usual in England and Scotland. ... In doing this, in carrying on such a propaganda, I have been contin- ually subject to misrepresentation and even abuse. I have been told that I was no internationalist, 38
