The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1865-11-11
ireland and the Fenians.

=
1.-THE Mediterranean first beheld the green hin
IofIFeland rising out of the sea, Remembering
theprediction of a venerable Druid ages be
: fore, they exclaimed "Innisfail, Innisfail, y
! the land of Destiny.
No one can read the story of its histor.
r since that period. and not be impressed will
8 the conviction that this island has more thar
t justifed all the meaning which the instinct
. of its ancient people prophesied in the nam,
: they bestowed upon -Primogenial of tht
2 great Celtic family which from century tt
3 century poured its populations in immense
and successive waves from the Orient upon
the then mysterious plains of Europe, these
Milesians from the beginning maintained the
identity of their characteristics with per.
sistency equalled only by the Hebrews, and
of their nationality surprising that of any
Ipeople on earth. Unlike all other nations Of
Its own race or of any other, antecedent,
coeVal or subseqent amid the changes of
nearly two thousand years, varying the map
of Europe hundred times-the people of
Ireland have preserved their peculiarities,
sympathies and existence with tenacity
truly wonderful.
All the world knows something of the strug-
giles Ireland made to preserve its nationality.
From the days of Brien Borombe in the 18th
century, scattering the Danish invaders by
prowess that made his name immortal, to the
year 1865, the history of Ireland has been
the story of an oppressed and gallant people
constantly seeking relief through the instru-
mentality ofrevolution and of arms. Failing
as often as they have in these protracted and
successive efforts, it is remarkable that ever,
Vestige of its ancients being has not been
'obliterated.
Poland and Hungary, similarly situated in
modern times, were powerful and indepen-
dent states while the colors of the Plantaga-
nets insulted a conquered people from castle
walls and hostile fleets. But these children
of Destiny, whether fortunately orthe reverse,
time can only determine, inherit the san
guine blood brought by their ancestors from
Spain, Carthage and Phenecia, and seem to
yet have faith in the prophecy of the Druid |
that the land their fathers should discover
and inherit would be prosperous aud mighty. |
Hope was often represented on the Grecian /
peninsula, as a beautiful maiden holding in 1
her hand tri-foil or three-colored glass
The tri-pointed Shamrock is a suggestive, ap-
propriate emblem of this mental trait. AS
long as. this sauguine hope exists the strug-
gle will continue.
And who shall say that this contest for in
dependence will not eventually succeed - /
The individual is the archetype ofthe nation:
md as no object is unattanable to the indi-
Vidual if be combines all his strength and
determination to one irresistible purpose to
accomplish it, no more is it impossible that
Ireland may yet find the means to cut the !,
Jordan knsS which binds the hated union.
'Tis written on the gates of Heaven" said {
he Persian Hafez, "Woe unto him who suf- 8
ers himself to be betrayed by Fate Il has .
seemed to be the fate of Ireland :
o DE the dependency of England, notwith- r
standing her own struggles and the sympa- .
HES of the civilized world. Woe unto her
she suffers herself to be betrayed into in S
lction and self-exie by this seeming fate. t
The man who stands by himself" wrote
Emerson, "the universe stands by him also" b
md it is as true of nations. Y
Some of Irelands ancient bards have pre- a
erved the poetic fiction of Fiounuala, who :
vas transformed from lovely girl into a i
wan and condemned to wander for many
centuries along the river banks till the com
ng of Christianity. When the first mass !,
'ell sounded, it was to be a sign that her a
leliverauce had come The spirit of Irish t
reedom, like the ghost of the daughter of
4ir. for seven hundred years has traversed
Ireland from the cliffs of Cape Clear to the
lopes of-Londonderry with unresting, unap-
easable aspirations tor the Great Day to S
ONE, when the "Sun Burst" should uplift s.
be old national memories, and shadow a a
rec people. 7
The present Fenian movement is organized s.
n different ground, and on different princi-
les from those which inaugurated any pre- b
ious revolution. The Southern rebellion n
as taugh the necessity of organization, and s.
ne war has taughs them how to use it. 1t c
nav fAii q others bo NO dooo -