It was not pleasant for him to feel that whenever he took up a book or paper dealing with Ireland he was liable to come upon some outburst such as the one which I have quoted.

These things were pin-pricks, yet pin-pricks administered in public; and the mere effort to endure such things without wincing saps a man's vitality.

Behind them lay the definite repudiation of his policy in election after election--for Kilkenny City followed the example of Clare and replaced Pat O'Brien by a Sinn Feiner.

He was repudiated in the eye of the world, and repudiated with every circumstance of contumely.

Plainly in the Convention he could no longer claim to speak for Ireland; that limited gravely his power to serve.
I think, however, that deep in his heart a resentment, all the more rankling because he gave it no voice, prompted him to be on his guard against lending the least colour of justification to any plea that in the Convention he had sought to pledge Ireland without due mandate or had committed anyone but himself.