Irish Divorces

Senator William Butler Yeats, famed poet, stood up in the Irish Free State Senate, objected to Ireland "taking her marriage law from Spain."

The poet referred to the fact that there is no divorce law in Ireland, said separation without the possibility of remarriage lowered morality. He called attention to three great Irishmen--O'Connell, Nelson, Parnell--all of whom had conducted "affairs." Here, however, Lord Glenavy, President of the Senate, asked him to leave the dead alone. Mr. Yeats, deprived of spicy arguments, abruptly said that Protestantism stood for personal liberty. Presumably, he referred to the matter of marriage.

Colonel Maurice Moore, Protestant, reminded him that Irish Protestants had decided for no divorce. The only question was whether the Senate should pass special acts of Parliament in individual cases.