The Irish republic. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1867-18??, 1867-05-25
The Friendless Exile.

He alluded to what were then, and to what are
now, notorious facts-that whenever Irishmen be-
come lllustrious they are at once represented to
the world, by the adherents of Eng land, as Eng
llshmen: while, up to very late period, exceed
lngy little trouble taken by our countrymen to
dispel the falsehood claim the credit to which
they were nationally entitled.
1t is when our copatriot is poor, and especially
when he happens to commit an offence, that his
nationality is carefully remembered, and publicly
proclaimed When hunger compels him to ask for
bread, or when folly, more frequently than crime,
places him in the dock of some police-court, then
he is Enthusiastically " an Irishman."
But let him become great, and things are miracu-
lousy changed He is then English without scru-
ple Or if the lie is too transparent the place of his
birth is carefully concealed. Some eight or ten
years ago, we remember readng-or, to speak
more correctly, making futile effort to read-",a
Life'' of the late Duke of Wellington, written by
an obscure scribbler called Mcfarland in which no
place of birth aohotever assigned to the con-
queror of Waterloo. In fact so far as this valua-
BILE contribution to historical literature was con-
cerned, the old warrior never appears to have been
born at all. Perhaps he" growed,' like Topsy; or,
patent process, out of English pig iron.
We have said that up to recent PERIOD the
mass of countrymen gave themselves very little
trouble to rectfy these willful misrepresentation
This was wrong; but it may be questioned wheth-
not it greater evil than the absurd ex-
IRENE to which not few jealous idiots have lately
gone in the opposite direction. Indian rajahs, Tur-
kish pashas, Bedouin chiefs, French marshals-
every person or thing earth that is, or is sup
posed to be- great or renowned-from Garibaldi at
the head of his gallant red-shrts to the Koh-noor
diamond in it's precious settings-all declared
to be Irish. We expect shortly to hear that the
British lion himself was whelped in Connemara,
and that the French eagles grandfather built his
nest in the cliffs of Kenmare.
This is worse than childish. It is positively mis-
chievous. It tends to bring noble country into
contempt. She has enough, and more than enough,
of her own undoubted, and unquestioned, worth to
rest her claims upon, without having recourse to
the rotten props of folly and falsehood.
Let us have done with this. Let us as people
look for something excellent IN ourselves and, if we
cannot find it, let us create it. Let us try and do
something useful for ourselves and for our fellow
men, instead of fawnng forever, like many hungry
hounds, on the so-called great Of the EARTH
who neither know us, care for us. Let us, for
God and mans sake, for race and country's
sake, endeavor to make the present illustrious,
instead of forever grubbing like the Shiny things of
the sepulchre through the dust and darkness of a
dead and buried past.
The descendants of that renowned "chief'-the
great O'Shark of Ballymaceviction Castle-are
doubtless very magnificent people Not one of
them was ever known to disgrace himself by doing
an honest days work. For fifty generations they
have lived, like gentlemen, on the labor of Others
And if they did, and d. sell themselves, and their
country, to the English for places and pensions,