I have spoken as if the claim of the Colonies on foot of the principle of nationality was comparable to that of Ireland.

That of course was not the case.

They were at most nations in the making; she was a nation made.

Home Rule helped on their growth; in its benign warmth Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa have developed not only a political complexion characteristic of each but a literature, an art and even a slang equally characteristic.

Ireland, on the other hand, has manifested throughout her whole history an amazing faculty of assimilating and nationalising everything that came to her from without.
The will to preserve her nationality motived her whole life, especially in the modern period.