The following correspondence reveals an important proposal for national unity in Ireland:

Castletown Branch United Irish League, Ballyroan, Mountrath, 11/06/1906.

Dear Sir,

Annexed please find a copy of a resolution passed unanimously by the Castletown Branch U.I.L., at their meeting held yesterday, and fully endorsed by the clergy and all representative men present. I trust you will give it your most ardent consideration, and that happy results will follow.

Faithfully,
K. B. COLLIER,
Hon. Sec.

Resolution Passed by Castletown Branch U.I.L.:

“That whilst the nation mourns the irreparable loss it has sustained by the death of Mr Davitt, it is fitting we should take a retrospect of the men who stood shoulder to shoulder with him in the Coercion days, and of the six most cherished members of that gallant band, namely, Parnell, Davitt, Bigger, Dillon, Sexton, and O’Brien. The first-mentioned have been called from amongst us, and it causes additional pain and sorrow to find that discord prevails amongst the survivors. We earnestly appeal to Messrs. Dillon, O’Brien, and Sexton, in God’s and Ireland’s name, to lay aside and in consultation remove existing differences, so as to keep a united programme before the country.”

Passed unanimously and endorsed by:

• Rev. J. Holohan, P.P., President
• Rev. Father Clohesy, C.C., V.P.
• Messrs. M. Fitzpatrick, J.P. M.C.C., Divisional Representative on the National Directory
• Arthur McMahon, M.C.C., and Members of Divisional Executive
• Martin J. Phelan, D.C., and V.C.P.L.G.
• Edward Travers, D.C., P.L.G.
• James Collier, D.C.
• Kieran Phelan, D.C.
• John Brennan, D.C.
• Joseph Quinlan, D.C.
• E. B. Coller, Hon. Sec.
• Joseph Fitzpatrick, D.C., Chairman of the Camross Land and Labour Association

Response from Mr William O’Brien:

House of Commons, London, June 14th, 1906.

Dear Sir,

I beg to acknowledge receipt of the very remarkable declaration on the subject of National Reunion which you have been good enough to send me. There can be no mistaking the influential and representative character of the signatures. I receive almost daily proofs that the anxious desire for a common National Policy, which you express on the part of some of the most powerful representative men of the Queen’s County, is shared by the overwhelming masses of the people everywhere, and not the least strongly in those districts which show most reluctance to give any public expression to their views.

With the general spirit of your resolution, as, indeed, of the various definite suggestions that have been made from time to time to bring leading Irishmen together in friendly consultation, I am in complete accord. The particular form your proposal takes might be open to the objection that two of the three persons you would invite to consult together are not members of the Irish Party, and that the Chairman of the Irish Party (no doubt quite inadvertently) is excluded. Details of that description, however, would matter little if there was first a genuine agreement on the main point, namely that there ought to be a frank and sensible exchange of views among leading Nationalists of record and influence, with a view to replacing the present aimlessness by a firm and united National Policy during the next eighteen months when the prospects of an Amending Purchase Act, a National University, and a scheme of National Self-Government will be decided for good or ill, so far as the present Parliament is concerned.

I have, I trust, already given sufficient proof that in any honest proposal with that object I shall be a willing co-operator. Within the last few days, in a correspondence which, I dare say, will in due time be published, I accepted without reserve a proposal for a friendly conference, which came from four of Mr Redmond’s most influential supporters in Limerick and Clare, viz: Alderman Stephen Mara, one of the National Trustees of the Parliamentary Fund; Mr Donnelly, the late Mayor of Limerick; Mr Flynn, the late High Sheriff; and Mr P. J. Linnane, M.C.C., Chairman of the Urban District Council. I regret to learn that Mr Redmond’s only reply to their invitation was the somewhat haughty, if it were not still more churlish, intimation that he is not aware of the differences among leading Irishmen they referred to, and, in point of fact, a curt rejection of their invitation.

It would, I fancy, require very few public declarations of the influential, representative feature of the country. Whenever there may be evidence of the slightest relaxation of the irreconcilable spirit, you can always rely upon me as a cordial participator in any and every honest peace negotiation. But until some such evidence presents itself, any further exhibition of a readiness for peace on my part would be liable to misconstruction, and I think events shall prove that we shall all be wiser in trusting to the gradual but irresistible force of public opinion for a remedy.

Faithfully yours,
S. WILLIAM O’BRIEN

E. B. Collier, Esq.,
Hon. Sec., Castletown Branch U.I.L.

Kerry News – Monday 18 June 1906