The Irish republic. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1867-18??, 1868-03-14

past is to be enved which does not throb and ven the
present. and anticipate the future We have no present.
nationally speaking, and future IS blank until we
have national present. We CLEAN from the history of
our country that
"Tbe Fenan warriors famous military force form
ng the standing national militia and instituted in Ireland
IN the early ages long before the Christian but brought
to the greatest perfection in the reign of the celebrated Cor
mac monarch of Ireland in the third century None were
admitted into this military body but select men of the great
st activity strength stature perfect form, and vaor and
when the force complete, it consisted of Caa
that battaons or legon each battalion containing three
thousand men, according to OHalloran and various other
historians making 900 for each of the five provinces or
about hundred thousand fighting men in time of for
the entire kingdom The Ardigh head king of Ireland
had for the time being chief control these orce but
they often resisted his authority commander ap
pointed every thousand of these troops and the entire
force was completely armed and admirably disciplined and
each battalion had their bands of musicians to animate
them in battle and celebrate their feas of In the
reign of the monarch Cormac the celebrated Fionn Mac
Cumha, who descended from the Heremonian kings
of Ienste the chief commander of the Fenan
rors and his great actions strength and vao ceebra
ted in the Oanc poems and various other productions OF
the ancient bards he is called Fngal in Mac Phersons
Poems of Osian but it is to be observed that these
not the real poems of Ossan but mostly ctions fabricated
by MACPHERSON himself and containing passages from
the ancient poems. Fonn had his chief residence and
fortress Amhuinn either the hill of Allen, near
Kildare Ailnn Old Kilcullen where great rath
still remains which residence of the ancient kings of
Leinser The Fenians the chief troops of Lenste
and were Mlesans of the of Heremon and their re-
nowned commander Fionn according to the -Four Masters
was slain by the cast of avelin according to others
by the shot of arrow place called Ah Bea the
river Bovine A. D. 23 by the Lugnans of Tara tribe who
possessed the territory called the barony of Lune near
Tara in Meath and the place mentioned as Ath Brea or
the Ford of Bea, situated somewhere the Boyne
between Trim and Nayan.
The ancient Fenians, then, the militia of Ire
land They were nominally under the Chief King of
ireland; but they preserved sort of independent
organization They were the protectors and defenders
of their country and woe unto the king who trihed
with the rights of the people.
For years and years the kings of Ireland plotted the
destruction of this great national guard During the
pamy days of the Fenians, while led by Finn McCum
hail Anglice McCool) the Organization kept the kings
in check and ireland able to resist invasion and
prosper as she has never prospered since then.
In the reign of King Cairbre, the Fenian forces
duced twenty thousand men, revolted from that
arch and joined the King of Munster At the battle
of Gaura the forces of Cabre and the King of Munster
met and fought that battle so famous in Irish history
Both armies enumerated at from fifty hundred thou
sand fought so determinedy that the most of them all
were slain Of the twenty thousand Fenians engaged
on the side of the King of Munster eighteen thousand
died on the field
We come to the most pregnant part of our ma
tons history Nothing more nor less than with the
fall of the ancient Fenans fell Ireland also The Annals
of the Four Masters say:
The tremendous battle of Gaura is considered to have led
to the subsequent fall of the Irish monarchy for after the
destruction of the Fenan forces the Irish kings never were
able muster national army equal in vaor and discipline
those heroes either cope with foreign foes or to reduce
to subsection the rebeious provincial kings ana princes
Hence monarchy became weak and dsoranized and
ruling powers unable to maintain their authority or
make sufficient stand against the Danish and Anglo
Norman invaders of aftertimes
So much for the ancient Fenians.
1t is after those giants of old that our present Or
ganization is named The Fenian Brotherhood, though
named after the national militia of two thousand years
ago, is modern in spirit 1t sought to ingraft In its