This is why we would substitute as common for all the fine name of Irishman.
IV But in asking all parties to accept the common name of Irishman, we find a fear rather suggested than declared--that men may be asked in this name to put by something they hold as a great principle of Life; that Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter will all be asked to find agreement in a fourth alternative, in which they will not submit to one another but will all equally belie themselves.

There is such a hidden fear, and we should have it out and dispose of it.

The best men of all parties will have no truck with this and they are right.

But on what ground, then, shall we find agreement, the recognition of which Irish Citizenship implies?
On this, that the man of whatever sincere principles, religious or civic, counts among his great duties his duty as citizen; and he defends his creed because he believes it to be a safe guide to the fulfilling of all duties, this including.

When, therefore, we ask him to stand in as Irish Citizen, it is not that he is to abandon in one iota his sincere principles, but that he is to give us proof of his sincerity.