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IRISH IMPRESSIONS
by G. K. CHESTERTON
NEW YORK
JOHN LANE COMPANY
MCMXX
Copyright 1919,
BY JOHN LANE COMPANY
CONTENTS
I. TWO STONES IN A SQUARE
II. THE ROOT OF REALITY
III. THE FAMILY AND THE FEUD
IV. THE PARADOX OF LABOUR
V. THE ENGLISHMAN IN IRELAND
VI. THE MISTAKE OF ENGLAND
VII. THE MISTAKE OF IRELAND
VIII. AN EXAMPLE AND A QUESTION
IX. BELFAST AND THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM
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I--Two Stones in a Square
WHEN I had for the first time crossed St. George's Channel, and for the first time stepped out of a Dublin hotel on to St. Stephen's Green, the first of all my impressions was that of a particular statue, or rather portion of a statue. I left many traditional mysteries already in my track, but they did not trouble me as did this random glimpse or vision. I have never understood why the Channel is called St. George's Channel; it would seem more natural to call it St. Patrick's Channel since the great missionary did almost certainly cross that unquiet sea and look up at those mysterious mountains. And though I should be enchanted, in an abstract artistic sense, to imagine St. George sailing towards the sunset, flying the silver and scarlet colours of his cross, I cannot in fact regard that journey as the most fortunate of the adventures of that flag. Nor, for that matter, do I know why the Green should be called St. Stephen's Green, nor why the parliamentary enclosure at Westminster is also connected with the first of the martyrs; unless it be because St. Stephen was killed with stones. The stones piled together to make modern