"Just leave your trout and salmon and your trees and wild fruits for one day," said a political friend, "and in view of all this Collins controversy: read this." Well, just for one day. The first passage marked was as follows: "The place of physical force in separatist philosophy, prior to 1916, was a subordinate place. It was a line of action but it was not the only nor the main line of action; it was, rather, a last reserve. Nobody pretended to believe that we could fight England physically, nobody pretended to believe that an insurrection would be anything but suicide for those taking part in it; but the philosophy, of the blood sacrifice, which most people seem to think originated with Pearse, was an essential part of separatist philosophy.
"The use of arms - and the right to insurrect, were maintained as a matter of principle, but rather as a means of arousing the nation's soul than as a policy. I remember discussing it at Supreme Council (of the IRB) meetings long before 1916 . . . and it was agreed that it was our duty to make a forlorn hope insurrection if the time came when some such desperate measures were necessary in order to recall the nation to self respect and decency."
The argument goes on. "1916 gave Ireland the forlorn hope insurrection which had been advocated . . . After 1916 there should not have been a shot fired in Ireland, nor a gun bought." The writer footnotes this with the following. "I should like to say here that this is not being wise after the event. I was out of Ireland from 1914 to 1918 but in the first year I was allowed home I made this statement to my brother (afterwards OC No Cork Brigade), and in the winter of 1918 I made it to Mick Collins after becoming aware in conversation of the direction his plans were taking. Both of these, of course, scoffed at me."
That's the end of the footnote but the writer, P.S. O'Hegarty, in his book The Victory of Sinn Fein (1924) goes on to argue that "without firing a shot we could have forced from England anything that we have forced from her by the gun policy, and more. We would, at the same time, have maintained our solidarity, escaped Partition, and avoided the irreparable moral disaster which has overtaken He meant and referred to it as gun law. "We ourselves, in our own blindness and folly, were responsible for that Frankenstein."
That's P.S.'s view, and he was described by a friend as "hewn from the rock of pure honesty." He was, of course, a complete separatist, and loyally supported the new State, but he always spoke and wrote his mind.