The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1890-05-24
RISH z & & Y 81 a rs.

IRISH PRlr laEst' WIS.
They Show ~ Their Conduct that
They Are Intrud ers.
II Their Hatred Of Catholics 40 Bitter - OF
Old w. Weakening Of Power and Pres
tiges- The Irish Protestants working
Hard to Keep in Sight.
s It is partly amusing and partly ex-
asperating to watch the behavior Of
Irish Professionals as q body, if, indeed,
one is justified in regarding them as
having any unity at all. But in this
respect they resemble their friends in
this country having just as much and
IS little consistency as those who are
nominally induced within the pale Of
the Establishment There Ia this to be
said for Irish Professionals. They were
intruders from the first, they knew
this, and have always shown by their
conduct that they felt they were in
truders.
Even when they had the whole power
of the State at their back, there seems
to have been q consciousness that they
could never be successful in making
Professionalism the religion of Ireland.
How much more must this be the case
now, when little remains, compare
lively, of that predominance which
they claimed in years gone by. They
have now to do the best they can for
themselves to keep their position if
possible.
The Professionalism of those processing
it in Ireland had nothing religious
about it, if we examine its foundation
and true character. 1t was like the
weapons which they brought with them
or imported from England, part of
their fighting gear with which they
were to hold the island in the name of
England, for doing which they were to
receive lands, Offices and 6thers, emolu-
ments. But precisely on this account
an ultra-Protestant character is the
chief feature of the Irish form of the
religion imported from England. It
was not merely more Calvanistic than
that of our English Establishment, but
IL was less positive and more negative
than almost anything in Great Britain.
It's professors had the same prayer-book
and catechism as were in use in Eng
land; but it was the anti-Papal, anti
Catholic attitude of Protestan tism that
took most firm hold of it's Irish ad-
herents.
When, some twenty years ago, imme-
diately after the Disestablishment, the
first General Synod of the Disestablished
Irish Protestant Church was being held,
many persons were shocked by the little
Difference paid by the lay members of
the Synod to the Bishops. A clever
Englishman who knew Irish Protestant
ism we'll, remarked that the clergy had
taught their hocks too long and too
strongly the one Shibboleth, ''To hell
with the Pope;" this was the sum and
substance of their Professionalism. He
was not far out. Anything which
savors of placing Catholics on footing
of true equality with Protestants is as
hateful in their eyes to-day as it would
have been to their fathers sixty years
ago. It is to them symbol of the
weakening of their power and prestige,
en- indication that the religious mission
of Anglicanism has failed, and that in
their own country, on their native
soil, Catholics are no longer to
occupy position Of inferiority. The
King of Prussia is represented at the
Court Of st. James by Catholic Am
bassador. The Sultan has also Catho-
lie Ambassador in England, as he has
50 many other Christians among his
high officials. A Protestant may be
the Prime Minister of Catholic France,
or of Catholic Hungary, but that in the
United Kingdom Catholics should hold
position of perfect equality with
their Protestant fellow countrymen,
seems to be an utterly intolerable thing
in the eyes of the commercially insignif
can't minority of the Irish population
who are Professionals.
1t is certainly strange condition of
affairs