http://www.archive.org/details/irish_impressions_0906_rc_librivox1
LibriVox recording of Irish Impressions by G. K. Chesterton, read by Ray Clare.
For the Irish Question has never been discussed in England.
Men have discussed Home Rule; but those who advocated it
most warmly, and as I think wisely, did not even know what
the Irish meant by Home. Men have talked about Unionism; but
they have never even dared to propose Union. A Unionist
ought to mean a man who is not even conscious of the
boundary of the two countries; who can walk across the
frontier of fairyland, and not even notice the walking
haystack. As a fact, the Unionist always shoots at the
haystack; though he never hits it. But the limitation is not
limited to Unionists; as I have already said, the English
Radicals have been quite as incapable of going to the root
of the matter. Half the case for Home Rule was that Ireland
could not be trusted to the English Home Rulers. They also,
to recur to the parable, have been unable to take the
talking cow by the horns; for I need hardly say that the
talking cow is an Irish bull. What has been the matter with
their Irish politics was simply that they were English
politics. They discussed the Irish Question; but they never
seriously contemplated the Irish Answer.” (Quotation from
Gilbert Keith Chesterton)
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This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio
Artist/Composer: G. K. Chesterton
Date: 2009-06-08
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: LibriVox; audio books; essays; Ireland
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Chapter 1 - Two Stones in a Square 15:15 Chapter 2 - The Root of Reality 30:13 Chapter 3 - The Family and the Feud 22:19 Chapter 4 - The Paradox of Labor 26:58 Chapter 5 - The Englishman in Ireland 23:03 Chapter 6 - The Mistake of England 28:24 Chapter 7 - The Mistake of Ireland 32:46 Chapter 8 - An Example and a Question 37:09 Chapter 9 - Belfast and the Religious Problem 41:41