Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-05
Copyrighted, 1881

DEsTINY-sT. PATRICK sUBJUdATING pAaANIsn
Copyrighted, 1881
Special Correspondence of The EVENING STAR.
NAvAN, IRELAND, Nov. 20, 1SS8.-'sAt Temur
to-day place the virtue of the birth Of Christ
with his baptism, the virtue of his crucifxion
with his burial, the virtue of his resurrection
with his ascension, the virtue of coming to
eternal judgment.
SAT Temur to-day may the strength Of God
pilot me, may the power of God preserve me,
may the wisdom of God instruct me, may the
eye of God view me, may the ear Of God hear
me, may the word of God render me eloquent"
On an Easter Sunday upwards of 145O years
ago, us chanting, st. Patrick came up one of
the five ancient roads which led to the royal
hill of Tara. Eight devoted followers and the
youthful Benignus. son of Sechnan, were with
him. The chieftains and princes of Meath
were assembled to celebrate the festival of
Beltaine, or fire of Baal, until whose sacred
flame was lighted none dare kindle fire in the
surrounding country on pain Of DEATH King
Laeghaire, prompted by his druids and magi,
had invited ST. Patrick to discussion with his
wise men of the royal palace, but had also
treacherously planned the noble missionary's
death on the road from Slane OF this he
knew, but, undaunted. pressed on unframed.
sonages OF the realm around him, King Laeg-
haire saw and felt the loving power Of Chris
tianity overcome the idolatries of Baal The
king his arch-poet Dubtach and the entire
court were converted through the gentleness
and elOquence of q humble missionary: and
thus and at this very spot was paganism over
thrown in Ireland.
THE HILL OF TARA.
Whether or not one follows the footsteps of
St. Patrick and reaches the hill of Tara from
the old Slane road, il he has eyes of sense
and soul which see along the shining lines of
bardic tradition and the equally luminous ways
OF authenticated history, a marvellous fascina-
ton attaches to the spot and the entire sur
rounding region. The place itself may Justly
be regarded as the very fountain-head of a
prehistoric life and lore more sonorous event.
full. and winsome to the student of ancient
days and ways, than has ever been developed
IN relations OF the wondrous Morse mythology.
1t Is a curious fact that while the subjugation
of Irish men, the sequestration of Irish
fame, and the humiliation of ancient Irish
glorles. through the pauperization and extirpa-
ton OF Irish people. have for centuries COM
prlsed the basest and most vigorously active
policy OF one of the greatest of governmental
four stanzas of but four lines each by an Irish
poet. the immortal Moore, in an instant re-
klndled the flames upon every hilltop of love
for land, history, tradition, and freedom.
The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul OF music shed,
As i that Sc soul I had II deg i1f's "'i''
Thus freedom now seldom wakes
Is when some heart indignant breaks,
10 show that still she lives.'
THAT SONG OF MooRE's,
which thrilled the earlier part of our own GEN.
fury, let the world know there had been a
nd
have been, or throbless as was the melody
given the words to those who sang and heard
outside of Ireland, it furnished the living fire
in every real aspiration by Irishmen for Ire
land. The poets sang again. The starving
tenants labored, prayed, hoped. The men Of
torians began anew. And these patieht,
unknown souls, the archaeologists and anti
quarians, to whom any land owes infinitely
more than can ever be paid, tireless, unvan-
pushed, unknown and unrewarded, dug,
delved and prodded sifted, compared, re-
jected. proved anew, until no land beneath the
sun can furnish more clean and noble high.
ways from the commonplaces Of to-day past
illimitable treasure-fields and broadening land
scapes OF historic centuries, eventful ages and
relnhabited areas, on to the silences of the re-
hottest past than this one; whose people, with
worlds sympathy, are struggling for a half
OF that human liberty which America a quarter
century since dared no longer deny her black
chattels and slaves.
wONDROUs MEMORIES. trY
Without this knowledge and sentiment Tara
is but apretty hill of Meath, or rather q group
Of pleasing hillocks. With it, the whole region
swarms with wondrous memories and pres
ences. Without it, look where you will, there
is but charming landscape, winding roadways
bordering hedges, clusters of sycamores, tiny
meadows, trailing walls, quaint, sleepy villages.
gray old mansions. and cabins of white, with
their thatchings of russell brown. With it, for
the miles the eye can reach, and a county's
cross-distance in every direction beyond, rise
the wraithful and actual monuments to the
known life and activities of men, during more
than three thousand years. Not 20 miles to the
east Is the Irish sea, upon whose near shores
the ravaglng Danes and the as remorseless
Britons landed times without number for repri-
the Broad Water, the Deel, the lower Black
water. the Stonyford, the Matlock, the slug
glsh Blackwater and the murmurous Boyne, all
CLEAN and simmer past banks, through gorges
and giens, and within forests and valleys,
where every rood has its tale of storied past
to tell. To the southeast, not q days tramp
away. are Dublin county and city with their
countless legends traditions and histories the
clumsiest truths in which read like glowing
romances. Over here to the west, bit, is
rough old Mullingar, near the superbly ornate
shores Of loughs Dwell and Ennel where i'm
probable things are granted, and even land is
held IN perpetuity, until when the king comes
TO Mullingar," which never was, or il, to be.
Nearer, is venerable Trim, where innumerable
momentous things have been done in Irish
history, and where, when in 1446 parliament
was there held, it was enacted that ssthe En-
glish should not wear their boards after the
Irish fashion, nor the Irish use shirts colored
with saffron"
KELLs,
cluster of towers and sacred monuments,
site Of former mighty battlements erected by
monarchs Of the great kingdom Of Meath,
andcity Of ecclesiastics, where that most mar
velous production of human patience and
labor extant, the Book of Kells Gospels, was