I'm confused as to Kipling's intended meaning with those last lines,
[What answer from the North?
One Law, One Land, One Throne!
If England drive us forth
We shall not fall alone.]
in the context of Westminster's "betrayal" in giving Home Rule in 1912 to Ireland.
It struck me as confusing too at first sight; but they must be related to the bizarre and lurid lines which precede them in the poem. These are important to an understanding of the Imperialist Unionist psyche.
We know the war prepared
On every peaceful home,
We know the hells declared
For such as serve not Rome --
The terror, threats, and dread
In market, hearth, and field --
We know, when all is said,
We perish if we yield.
Believe, we dare not boast,
Believe, we do not fear --
We stand to pay the cost
In all that men hold dear ...
After that declaration, the meaning of "we shall not fall alone" is clear. It means: if loyal Protestants are tortured and then slaughtered, as we expect to be in an independent Ireland, by the Holy Inquisition, or by Fenian terrorists, we will take many of our enemies with us when we die. Like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae or the 44th Regiment of Foot at Gandamack.
This interpretation is reinforced by historical record of the behaviour of the Unionists at that time.
In January 1913, the Ulster Unionist Council instituted the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), consisting of men who had signed the Ulster Covenant. They wanted to co-ordinate the paramilitary activities of Ulster’s unionists, as well as to give military backing to the threats of the Ulster Covenant to resist implementation of the Third Home Rule Bill, which had been introduced on 11 April 1912 by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. These threats had been regarded as a "gigantic game of bluff and blackmail" by Irish nationalist leader John Redmond
WP as well as most Liberal MPs, including Winston Churchill.
KIpling's poem is intended to convince the British establishment and Irish constitutional nationalists that the loyal Ulstermen meant exactly what they said. "We perish if we yield." So leave them alone.
A couple of years later, in fact, the Loyalists smuggled
25,000 rifles and between 3 and 5 million rounds of ammunition from the German Empire, with the shipments landing in Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor in the early hours between Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 1914
That's what "we shall not fall alone" means, I am sure. Others will perish along with us.
I recall these bloodcurdling historical details only to stress that the policies in the Brexit affair affecting the Border, and the political machinations with the DUP in Westminster, are being played for very high stakes. If this goes wrong, the price of error may be exorbitant.
