If proof is wanted, here is full proof of what
we have so often said about the spirit of Ulster. The loyal part of Ulster has never directly or indirectly claimed the right to prevent the South and West of Ireland receiving the grant of Home Rule in a greater or lesser degree. All she has claimed is the right of the people of the Six County area—the area in which the local majority is Unionist and Protestant, anti-German and pro-British, loyal and anti-Revolutionary—to govern themselves if self-government is given to the rest of Ireland. " You may have a right to turn us out of the United Kingdom. You have no right, when you have turned us out, to use force to place us, against our will, under the despotism of those who differ from us in race, in religion, in feeling towards England and Scotland, and in all our social and political ideals. We would much rather be, as we have been, governed by the Parliament at Westminster. If, however, you tell us that the needs of the Empire demand separation from you, we acquiesce, though with the deepest regret, and receive at your hands the sad gift of self-determination. We make no claim on you, and none on the rest of Ireland. We do ask you, however, that while we take a course so loyal, and so reasonable, you should not listen to the calumnies of the men who have made the name of Irishmen a disgrace throughout the English-speaking world, and who dare, though their hands are dripping with blood and their lips with lies, to represent us as oppressors and traitors to Ireland. The traitors to Ireland are the men of murder, perjury, and sedition."
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