We all took it for granted that if Home Rule was achieved, we would be among the politicians of the new Ireland. A Home Rule Parliament in College Green in those days would, no doubt, have been dominated by the Irish Party, which would have earned the credit for its establishment. We, in the College, had many connections with the Irish Party…We all confidently expected that in a short time we would be exercising our oratory, not in the dingy precincts of the old Physics Theatre in 86 [Earlsfort Terrace], but in the ‘Old House in College Green’. It was because of this hope that we took our debates so seriously. We had heard that future prime ministers were picked out because of their performances at the Oxford Union, and we believed that, when the chair at the ‘L. & H.’ was taken by distinguished visitors, such as John Dillon, some future Irish Prime Minster might attract influential attention if his oratory aroused sufficient admiration. Debating took such a large part of our energies that I remember Arthur Cox saying to me that there were only three positions for which we were being fitted by our education – prime minister, leader of the opposition and Speaker of the House of Commons.1
