The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-03-10
THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANs
HISTORY OF A POWERFUL BENEFICIAL oEGANI'
zATION,


HISTORY OF A POWERFUL BENEFICIAL oEGANI-
zATIoN,
Boston Pilot
4 lecture was delivered in Hihernian Hall,
on Canal street, Providence. X. L., Feb. . IN, oy
Mr.. John J. H.I bert on the subJe Ihe An
cient Order of Hibernians, it's Or'gin, Purposes
and Progress" When it ID realized tna9 thls
Order ia one of the most powerful mutual bene-
fit socieses in the connt5y EN- oraong Ip%n[as aras
said the faot that there seems to be general
understanding ss to the purposes OF the or
ganizatiop, it must be interesting to have some
Authoritative statement from a prominent rep
resentative of the Order. More especially does
it appear appropriate that there should be some
such explanation, IN view OF the reported CON
nection between the Order and the notorious
Molly Maguires, the terrors of tho coal regions
in Pennsy ylvania. This point the speaker did
not fail to notice, and he gave most clear ard
decided contradiction to suoh reports lie
lecturer was greeted With good audience and
spoke for over an hour. Tho address was in
telligent and Interesting and 1T IS to be regret
ted that So able Il representative of .he A. " ii.
should have opitted 0ue or two OF the most
important questions affecting the Order IN the
United States We must point ont that he, too
easily perhaps, speaks in the nsma OF sus
Catholics" assuming ri Eht OF pr,Vete jodg-
ment which is very qres;ionaele.
Mr.. Herbert made few iutrod rctory
remarks, apd then continuing, ssid: l5 ID
Rllegad that the Ancient Q. der of HilernIans
js connected wItc secret ofganil 1tions III lFe-
land, and is therefore objection able to uo as
Catholics. In order bat we ehnuld rightly
understand the Lature of those sooiettes in Ire
land it it necessary that We should axe ret
respective glance into the history of Ireland as
far back as the reign of Qnsen Anne, which
commenced in the yesr 1902, lasting twelve
years, and ending by her death in Il IA. Coming
into power at q time waen party feelings ran
high, the Protestsnts elated by the late victory
ths Catholics brooding over the broken treaty
at the same time, It was not surprising that
some abuses were indulged il; bat that govern
ment officials should be 30 blinded by their own
passions as in those days they were, in our
time would seem hardly conceivable. In the
year 1908 the Irish Parliament passed Bill
entitled "a Bill TO prevent the further growth
of Popery," some of the clauses CT which are
funny enough, and reminds one Of the motto
under the arms of William, Prince of Orange ::
{" I did not steal. but did receive" to which
generally as bad as the thief" The third
clause Of this act reads that if the son of an
estated Papist should conform, said Papist
could not sell OF mortgage his estate without naSu
clauses in the same Bill are equally worthy of
notice, but would be tedious. One Aot will
suffice to illustrate the disposition of the peo-
pie at the time.
In 1909 another Act was pass ed, the twen-
tieth clause of which offers the following re-
wards: For discovering aPn archbishop, or
bishop, ESQ registered priest, Gao &nd so
down it was graded to the school teacher,
E10. The men who took those rewards we're
known as "priest-hun ters," SCd this system
once started, lasted through the reign of Queen
Anne, of George L., and 1hroug1 a part Of tie
reign of George Ill, which commenced IN the
year 1760, when there seems to have begun q
reaction in the InindG OF the more hbeeal Pro
testants, so much SO that i'll many cases, the
''priest-hunters" were stoned by the people, in
oludipR those of all oreeds. This seems to
have exasperated the more bgoted Psots stants
and incressed tho vigilance of the Church
Party in Parliament. Secret agents were nsed
instead of open 'priest-hunters" whose busi-
ness it was to get mp prosecutions against OBJ
illustration Rev. Father Nicholas Sheeby
was arrested in 1865 on charge of drilling
"white boys" bat vas acquitted: In q short
time after the principal witness in the prose-
cuton was murdered in The DefghborhoSd Of
Father Sheehy's house. 1t appears on good
authority that this same witness had several
claims against his patrons, and they were anx-
ious to dispose of him. So new agent was
employed to bring him to the neigh hborhood of
Father Sheeby's home, and there kill him,
thereby cancelling all their debts to him. and
also secure the conviction of the priest flr his
murder. This accomplished, notw th.
standing that an alibi WAS proven, and Father
Sheehy was beheaoed on the 18th of March,
1765, two days after his co 1viction. Need
ask why such hastei The case explains it.
self The judges who Conducted his trial
knew that the evidence against hin was false.
Fearing that the with esses might falter or re.
lent, they had hin put to death before the pos-
sibility of snch an occurrence. These and
other example, of the cruel and relentless per-
BeCuLlOu u buo RONcIuLucnV WCIC AZ
show that the Irish people were justified in
organic alton for their protection, quote from
q speech of Daniel O'Connell made on Friday,
Dec. 81. 1913, wherein he says "rhe law Of
nature, which, during evaporation, gave form
to the crystal, WAS not more powerful than
che moral influence that tended to cement in
bonds almost indisssolnble she children of
misfortune" Lord Gssford, Governor of Ar
magh, also justifed the organization of the
people in their own defense, in the following
words, spoken at q meeting of the Magistrates
of that county, on the 2sth of December, 1875.
"The banditti had comneEo oed and carried on
persecution of atrocious cruelty they spared
neither age, se<, nor innocence neither an
oient nor modern history could supply an ex-
ample OF the ruin and misery inflicted by the
orapge'men. Let this, l pray, be marked
WELL" he continues, "tnat the only crime of
the wretched objects of this ruthless persecu-
tion, was profession of their own Catholic
faith or an intimate connection with person
of that faith" Out of the secret agencies en-
ployed against the Catholics eprCng an nrganl-
cation in 17S4, known as the Peep o. Day
Boys" composed exclusively of Protestants,
the intent and puLpose of which was to carrE