|
Life
1872-1943; son of Hugh Law [q.v.] nationalist M.P.; issued Why is Ireland at War? ( 1915), pamphlet arguing for Irish participation in the World War I; also Anglo-Irish Literature (1926) and sundry papers on Irish and Anglo-Irish politics; also a study of Ireland, with R. H. Murray (1924); spoke against the Censorship Bill in 1928.
[ top
Works
Criticism, Anglo-Irish Literature, pref. by AE [George Russell] (Dublin: Talbot; London: Longmans Dublin 1926), xviii, 301pp.; rep. Folcroft 1974).
Politics, Why is Ireland at War? (London & Dublin: Maunsel & Co. 1915), vi. 42pp.; with [Rev.] Robert Henry Murray, Ireland [The Nations of To-day] (London: Hodder 1924), xvi, 286pp., and Do. (Boston & NY: Houghton Mifflin 1924), xvi, 286pp., 4 maps [1 fold], Bibl. pp.279-81 [iss. supervised by Maj.-Gen. Lord Edward Gleichen].
Contribs., ‘The Anglo-Irish’, in Irish Statesman (17 Aug. 1924), p.497; ‘Ireland and the Commonwealth’ in The Fortnightly Review (2, May 1932), pp.[545]-54; ‘Ireland's Choice’, in The Contemporary Review (q.d.; 1932) pp.273-80.
[ top ]
Quotations
Anglo-Irishman: ‘Endless exceptions must be made; but for our present purposes it may be assumed that the typical Anglo-Irishman is Protestant in faith, has some connection with the landowning class as it existed here from the end of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century, and cherishes family traditions of service to the Crown of these islands.’ (‘The Anglo-Irish’, in Irish Statesman, 17 Aug. 1924; quoted in Donald Torchiana, Yeats and Georgian Dublin, 1966, pp.83-84.)
[ top ]
Why is Ireland at War? (1915), Preface: ‘[…] I want to suggest that this is indeed Ireland’s war quite as much as England’s. It is hers by every consideration of honour and policy. On the material side, indeed, Ireland may not stand to gain much; but the cause for which the allies are fighting is that of which Ireland has long been in Western Europe., the protagonist, the cause of Nationalism, the right, that is, of each nation, big or small, to live its own life.’ (Quoted in Maunsel catalogue list appended to St. John Ervine, Mrs. Martin’s Man (1915 edn.)
[ top ]
Irish Censorship: see brief remarks on Law’s alliance with George Russell in regard to the Censorship Bill, in Nicholas Allen, ‘Free Statement: Censorship and the Irish Statesman’, in Last Before America - Irish and American Writing, ed. Fran Brearton & Eamonn Hughes (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 2001), p.95.
[ top ]