The British fleet is their one shield.

It if be broken Ireland will go down.

They may well throw themselves heartily into the common defence, for no sword can transfix England without the point reaching behind her." (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in the _Fortnightly Review_, Feb., 1913, "Great Britain and the Next War.") The voice is a very old one, and the bogey has done duty for a long time in Ireland.

When, to-day, it is from Germany that freedom may be feared, Ireland is warned against the German.

When, three hundred years ago the beacon of hope shone on the coast of Spain, it was the Spaniards who were the bad people of history.
Fray Mattheo de Oviedo, who had been sent to Ireland as Archbishop, wrote to King Philip III from O'Neill's stronghold, Dungannon, on June 24, 1600.