How it would have gone had a soldier been put up, no man can say; but it could not have gone worse.

Mr.de Valera won by a majority of five thousand.

He was a stranger, but he stood for an ideal.
The alternative ideal--which was John Redmond's and Willie Redmond's--had never been put before the electors.

The election was, rightly, taken as a repudiation of Redmond's policy; but in it Redmond's policy had gone undefended.
The newly elected Sinn Fein leader was very prominent in these days, and a good deal of his eloquence was spent in ridicule of the Convention.
That body was certainly starting its task under the most unpromising auspices.
II The first meeting was fixed for July 25.

On the evening before, Redmond came up and there was an informal discussion between the Nationalist members of Parliament and the Catholic Bishops.