Book Description

From the PREFACE. A BOOK of this nature, dealing with existent organisations, inevitably labours under certain handicaps. The worst of these is, perhaps, the fact that all the counter-measures of the Intelligence Departments and Police who deal with the problems raised by these societies may not be even suggested. All that can be said is that the authorities are well informed. They will probably continue to be so, unless, at some future date, the cost of vigilance is foolishly economised. This has been done' in the past by doctrinaires in office, and to a large extent the expense and political difficulties attendant on the recent Irish Rebellion could have been obviated, had an Intelligence Department, dealing with Irish affairs, been properly maintained in the years preceding and during the Great War. Sound political intelligence, properly appreciated, would have obviated the tragic years. The problem of the Irish secret societies raises a vital question for solution by statesmen rather than by politicians. So long as there exists a powerful criminal organisation rooted in the United States, as well as in Ireland, and with ramifications all over the globe, whose avowed object is the establishment of an independent Irish Republic by methods of poUtical assassination and secret murder, then how long will any settlement of "The Irish Question" endure? The following pages will show that for centuries the peace and prosperity of Ireland have been broken by malignant and terrible secret associations of Irish people who have brought ruin and suffering on their country.