The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1886-02-13
THE IR RISH RAJ CE.
Eloquent Words from the Lps Of William
O'Brien, n. r, Delivered Be-
fore ! Large Audisnce &


Paans Of Praise to Patriots Who VIII
Pause Only Whom Pesce Reilg;ns Is
il ST. Patfick's Realm.
BRIEF EXTRACTS.
do not envy the mental structure Of
the man who could read 4 page Of Irish
history, or even cast hisss eye over an
Irish landscape. without understand
ing that the Irish cause II not mere
affair of vulgar parish interests, but is
woven as inextricably around the Irish
heart as the network Of arteries
through which it drawsits blood, and
the delicate machinery Of nerves by
which it receives and communicates
its impulses.
The passion Of Irish patriotism is
blent with whatever is ennobling and
divine in our being, with all that is
tenderestin in our associat ations, and most
inspiring in the longingse ef our hearts.
It dawns upon US as Bweetly as the
memory Of the first gaze Of mothers
loving eyes. It is the whispered poetry
of our cradles. II is the song that is
sung by every brook that gurgles by us,
for every brook has been in its day
crimsoned with the blood Of heroes. 1t
is the wierd voice we hear from every
graveyard where our fprefathers are
sleeping, for every Irish graveyard con-
tains the bones of uncrowned saints
and martyrs. n Il 3.S
The Celtic is race ruled by it's spirit
ual instincts rather than by those more
ravenous virtues which we share with
the hog and the wolves, and race clad
in the beamy celestial armour Of faith
and hope is imperishable, no matter
how disarmed bare and degraded in the
eyes of triumphant soldiery or more
ruthless legislature. In the darkest
hour Of the penal night, when it was
transportation to learn the alphabet,
and when Irishmen were flung outside
the gates of Irish cities like lepers at
sun down by the sound Of the evening
bell, it is not too much to say that the
one simple little treason song The
Blackbird sung low around the win
ter hreside in the mountain Smelling,
had more influence in preserving the
spirit of Irish nationality than all the
sSsactments of the penal code, enforced
by all the might Of England, could
counteract. What the star that shone
over Bethlehem on the first christmas
night was to the three Eastern Magi;
what the vision of the Holy Grail was
to the knights Of the Round Table;
what the Holy Sepulcher was to the
dying eyes of the Crusaders fainting In
the parched Syrian desert, that to the
children of the Irish race was and is
the tradition that there has been, and
the faith that there will be, too, a gold
en-hearted Irish nation, the land of
song and wit and mirth and learning
and holiness, and all the Towering Of
the human mind and soul.
but the Irish race not merely survives
that black deluge of suffering and plum
der which has for seven hundred years
submerged the land. 1t emerges from
that long eclipse with youth renewed,
with strength redonbled; with hope un-
and with all the mental and
moral capacities Of great nation only
braced and rejuvenated by sufferings
that would have broken the spirit and
the soul Of any other nation.
This second youth and vigor more ro-
bust than the first, after so horrifying
an abyss OF years, is a phenomenon OF
which history gives us no other exam
pie.
The Celtic race today is in fact as
CONSPICUOUS factor in human society
as the Teutonie. It is a little less in
it is as distinct i'll type; it has
as rich range of capacities, sympa-
Lhies and ideals of its own; ITS fine
and aerial genius are ca
pable OF exerting potent and saving
influence upon an age which seems
only too ready to accept this world as
gross feeding trough at which happiness
consists in greedy gorging. There are
signs that English statesmen are be-
ginning to realize that race such as
that may be conciliated, but may be by
no possibility be blotted out. There
are signs that the genius of the Celtic
race is about to be restored to its ma
tural throne. and to receive its natural
development fcheers). God grant it.
Mere surly vengeance for vengeance
sake has never been passion OF the
Irish heart. There are many nations
whose arms and arts and prosperity
stand indebted to the Irish race. But
looking bask now, IS calmly as an
Irishman may. over the gulf of years
since the first attempt Of England to
subjugate this island counting its con
fscations all over again, realizing the
horrors Of all its massacres, pierced
with the agony and humiliation OF III
that endless, hopeless strifeit is my
firm persuasion that tho Irish race Of
to-day would drain that bitter cup
again, would tread that National CAL
vary Of shame and torment all over
again. would plunge hack once mora