The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-08-07
o'CONNELL CENTENNIAL.
Exercises af the Cathedrnl-City Hall in
the Evening-Oration of Father NC.
Kennn of Marlboro, Mass, etc., etc.

Il ne eAerciSeS III tulS City yesterday IN COM
memoration of the hundredth anniversary of
the birth of the Great Agitator, commenced
with pontfical mass at the Cathedral of the
Immaculate Conception at 8 a. m. Bishop
Healy officiated, assisted by Father Wallace,
Father Ryan, Deacon; Father McKenna, SUBJ
Deacon; and Father Bradley, Master of Cere-
monies. Father Lunney of st. Dominic's was
also present
The exercises in the evening were held in the
City Hall, which was we'll filed At p. m.
the Catholic Union, in their regalas and es-
corted by Chambers Band, marched in body
from their hall to the City Hall. The stage
was decora ted with American flags, and upon
the wall behind the stage was hung the picture
Of the Liberator, above which was suspended
the flags Of America and Ireland.
The exercises at the hall commenced with
the following programme:
Song. ;. Bells Of S6andon
Mr.. Thomas Mccain.
Reading. ."Betsey and are out"
Miss Twombly.
Song. ....,"....... "......... Land of My Birth
Mr.. Bernard G. Donahue.
Reading. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Mother and Poet
Miss Twomby.A
Selections. $3.50. By Band
Nea0''s Miss Iwomby. 00H''i '''a'Oe
The parts were well performed, the reading
of Miss Twomby being especially commend.
able. After these exercises Bishop Healy,
Rev. Father McKenna. the clergy and num-
Der of distinguished gentlemen assembled the
platform. Bishop Healy introduced the speak
er of the evening in few appropriate re-
marks.
Rev. Father McKenna is a man of large
frame and commanding presence. He spoke
with great force and eloquence, riveting the
attention of his audience, who frequently in
terrupted him with applause. The following
is an abstract of his production:
The speaker said in beginning that he had a
feeling of great distrust in attempting to
speak on the subject chosen-"The Mission of
four greatest pulpit orators of the church,
had wove wreaths of immortelles in language
to place upon his grave and snatch his memory
from the corruption of the tomb. The theme
is SO grand, so diverse, his life was crowded
with deeds SO great and words so eloquent that
he was puzzled in choosing the part to en-
brace within single lecture. There are themes
in history like the one we have chosen" said
the speaker, (which can move to sympathetic
Joy or sorrow. grief or gladness." In that
cuiaA iciC OOyOuu 1uO SOD WuCIc Guo grass 10
ever green, "have lived and died those whose
lives are written in glory that is imperishable
and whose names shall be immortal when we
die" The difficulty, however, of speaking of
Daniel O'Connell vanishes when it is consid
cred how grandly the figure of the man looms
up above all others, nationally speaking. He
forms an epoch in the history Of Ireland when
one period of her national life closes and an
other begins. He closed grandly history of
centuries Of British wrong. and oppression, and
with his mighty powers Of genius, struck the
manacles which bound the limbs of his beloved
Erin, and rightly have his countrymen be-
slowed upon him the title of the Immortal
Liberator.''
All nations have their festive days. Ameri-
ca has its Independence day, England and
France and Austria-all nations have their
days and the men whose memories they vene.
rate. 1t is different with Ireland s-emancipa-
ted Ireland's hstory-for it is interviewer with
the name of one to celebrate whose praises not
one naton or one continent, can take to itself,
for OConnell fought for the principles of uni
versal liberty. So on this occasion, we of
America celebrate the centennial of OConnell
because his glory arises from his triumphs in
the cause OF freedom for every man in every
cline. He who fights for constitutional free
dom fights for all the world, be he Bozzaris,
Kosciusko, a Lafayette, or an O'Connell. 1t
is particularly fitting that America should
commemorate the centennial of O'Connell.
Panegyric commonly begins its picture by call
ing up revered ancestral shades from long for
gotten graves to fill the back ground. But
there areuhgures so grand as to exclude all 9TH
ers from the canvas. Such are those men
whom Providence has called to become the
representatives of race, of people or of many
peoples and nations. Thus it is with O'Con-
nell. He stands alone in the history of this
people. NO name has SO interviewer itself with
sorrows Of Ireland, her people still love and
cherish the memory of "brave Dan"
The subject is an old one; the poets of his
and other lands have sang his praises, the pull
pit irrespective of creed, country or race, has
saluted him as the man chosen by God to lead
people from worse than Egyptian slavery.
He was the man chosen by God to smte tle
rock of British persecution that the sweet wa
tiers of liberty might flow to millions of his
countrymen yet unborn. He is not conquer
or, ne is not legislator who alone has founded
a nation laws upon the basis of Divine truth
and justice, he is more. He is a prince, not by
birth. but genius, captain, a legislator, the
founder of a NATHAN. O'Connell found Ireland
swathed in the bonds Of a fatal English tyran-
ny. He sounded the trumpet of resurrection
and recognizing the voice Of the God-sent Lib
orator, she burst the bonds of oppression and
stepped forth into the glorious sunlight of Cath
olic Emancipation.
The speaker after speaking of the influen ce
OF great men as stamped upon the ages which
follow, proceeded to notice the condition of
Ireland at the time when O'Connell appeared
as public man. From I'LL to 1912 the Irish
people were known as aliens or enemies, or in
the English vernacular of to-day as the wild
"Hirish." From that time to 1900 the specta.
Gle was but little changed. 1t was then that
O'Connell entered the arena to combat for his
country. The land was filled with English
land proprietors. He then noted the condition
OF Ireland in its days of glory, when it had
court IN which learning was honored next to
royalty; church that sent missionaries to all
md inst 20,
all. But how changed at O'Connelps time.
English lust and power had done its worst I'M
til 1t had become dogmo, that it was no sin to
kill an lrishman! He then proceeded to draw
a vivid picture of the wrongs that ireland suf-
fered he gave an abstract of the celebrated
penal code which weighed so heavily upon
Irish Catholics. 1t was crime to be
Catholic. The Catholic who held property
was obliged to look about him with care, for
MS son could inform against him and become
educated in religion which he abhorred at his
expense. 10 shelter priest was to run the
risk of the confiscation of his estate. A priest
found second time in the kingdom was put to
death by the laws. Catholics were debarred
from f all Office could not be magistrates or vote
not purchase land or inherit it, or hold life
anruities or a lie use for more than thirty-one
years. If any Catholic landholder by his in
dustry so increased his profits that they ex-
ceeded a fixed proportion, and did not imme-
diately make corresponding increase in his
payments, any Protestant who gave the in
formation could enter into the possession of
the land. If any Catholic had secretly pur-
chased his old forfeited estate or any other
land, any Protestant who informed against lin
might become the proprietor. In every walk of
life the Catholic as such was pursued by perse-
cutOn or restriction.
Such were some of the articles of the in.
famous code framed by small minority of tae
nation for the oppression of the majority who
remained faithful to the religion of their
fathers. "a CODE" says Burke, "well di.
gested and we'll disposed in all its parts-a
machine of wise aud elaborate continuance,
and as we'll fitted for the oppression, degrada-
ton and the debasement in them Of human
nature as ever proceeded from the perverted
ingenuity of maE."
Schools were established, it is true, but to
bring up the children of Catholics as Protest.
ants, and if they refused to avail themselves of
these on such conditions, they were deliberately
consigned to hopeless ignorance, being excluded
from the university and debarred under crush
ing penalties from acting as schoolmasters, as
ushers or as private tutors, or from even
sending their children abroad to obtain the
instruction denied to them at home Add to
this the paralyzing of Irish Catholic Industry
In all its branches. But the mission of the
prosecutor was fulfilled. The chalice Of bitter
ness had too long been held to Ireland's lips.
1t remained for the deliverer to fulfill his
mission.
This was the condition of rTraIan5 :, 177s