The Irish standard., 1886-09-18
AMID THE LONELY GRAVES
OF United Irishmen Oh the Far Famed
Hill of Tara, the United
Societies Of Dublin
ASSEMBLE TO COMMEMORATE
The Great Repeal Meeting Held Thera by
O'Connell in 1894 Sketch
of the Movement.

-t
Of the Movement.
The name Of Tara is known and re
yered all the world over wherever ther
is an Irishman to be found. " itb i
are connected some of the most glorious
as well as the saddest epochs in the his
tory of Ireland. From 1000 years be
fore the Christian era to the sixth CEN
Jury it was the seat of the Irish mon,
archs, and what more suitable, G andel
or more picturesque spot can be found
for a. palace, Commanding a magniti.
cent view Of the surrounding country
within a radius Of twenty miles it is
still, from its long and gradual slope.
quite easy to ascend, and not SO high
as its view from the top would lead
one to believe. The Pagan Irish
kings must certainly not have been the
wild, nncultivated, hiily-loving mon
archs with their own internecine War
fare and the records of some historians
would have us imagine. Indeed, at the
present day, it is sdoubtfulif there could
be found many better judges or lovers
Of art and scenery than the majority Of
the Pagan kings Of Ireland. In the Sc
lection OF their palatial sites, in their
hospitality, in their warfare, in their
administration of justice. their devo-.
tion to religion, such as it was, and,
above all, their respect for females,
they compare favorably with modern
1nonarchs. The Irish kings as rule
showed an amount of common sense
for which some of the lords and MON
archs Of the present polite age might
well sigh, though, it goes without say
ing, the Irish CT to-day do proudly
boast of being far more civilized than
their ancestors were 1000 years ago
when
TARA, TELLToWN AND T.ALIAQHlA. Z.
we're the centres of life and law. They
have undoubtedly advanced to q very
high state of civilization and knew
more than the widest fancies OF our
ancestors evsr imagined; what was a
mystery to their ancestors is to them
quite plain and simple. But the ques--
tion il, do they advance in content
nent and happiness according us they
advance in civilization? Many believe.
they do not. The more they advance
in knowledge the unhappier do they
become and the more they want, like
the miser in Goldsmith's Traveller, ~
.'Jgoards after hoar7s his rising raptures fill:
Yet still he sighs, for boards are wanting STILL"
So it is with human nature. Man is
never content, no matter how much he
may have, nor is it in our power to re-
tard the progress OF civilization. Its
pioneers are, when required, raised up
by the Almighty Himself. They dis
cover, they invent and they teach, and,
in the struggle fer existence, what
they do we must recognize and adopt,
Greed, therefore, is growing, it has
been growing from the beginning of
man. It was greed combined with
knapery that reduced such famous
plaeesas Tara and Telltown to fenced
plats for the beasts; but they cannot
romain always so. The spirit which
has. kept the people of Ireland for seven
centuries fighting, praying and watch
inc for freedoms ray can never be ea-
tinguished. Liberty may be, and very
probably is, a long distance off. but it
evidently must come, and when it does
TARA OF THE KINGS
may again regain it's glory 1t was to
commemorate the glory Of old Ireland
and speak Of the prospects OF the land
whose regeneration is even prophesied
in its history, that all the societies of
Dublin and surrounding towns gath
cred at the top OF Taras Hill just op-
posite the s'chair'' OH the I'D rlt. 1t
was, indeed, gathering calculated
from its numbers to orecall the vast audi
ence that once assembled there to hear
O,Connell. The speakers collected
under trees adjacent to the churcbyard
walls, and, taking their stand amongst
the graves, delivered across the wall a
Few speeches and recited some passages
of Irish history. The president of the
united societies, Mr.. Green, took the
chair and delivered an address on the
past history Of the country. He said
they had come all the way from Dub
lin to Tara to celebrate the anniversary
of one of the preatest events in the re-
cords Of Ireland, the great repeal
meeting Of #lS44S. It would now be
auite eimpossible to gather such a. .mul-
ltiittude on the hill as o Connell did in
That ear, for the simple. reason that.
The people are not in the country. The
speaker then went on to say that Ire
land a civilized nation when the
elassica land OF Greece was inhabited3 i
bYlstheS savage Pelag ms. more q y thanSI
before the light of q e Ghristian b