Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-18
OLD ST. PATRICK.
The Boys Keep His Memory
Ever Green.
1.-THE DAY WE CELEBRATE"
An Eloquent Lecture by Bishop Brennan,
Under the Auspices of the Altar
Society of the Cath
Ollie Church.

Yesterday was a cold day in March. but
the boys who reverence the memory of old
! st. Patrick had as warm a place in their
! hearts for hin and for the national holi-
| day as if the weather had been more kindly
ShamrOcks and sprigs OF green adorned
| many q coat lapel, and green neckties and
scarfs gave shame to the emerald tint of q
Panhandle wheatfield. To see some of the
knots of men moving up the street gave one
a thought that Burnam wood was moving
On Dunsinane indeed.
sssRev. Father Brennan arrived on the 80
west-bound Texas and Pacific train from
Dallas, to deliver his lecture on The
Day We Celebrate, and was met
by Rev. Father Guyot and delegation of
prominent citizens, and was escorted to the
Catholic church, where he remained until
the hour OF lecture. On account of the
mud, the programme previously arranged
for a procession of the Fencibles, Ancient
Order of Hibernians and the firemen, was
abandoned.
THE CONCERT.
At s O'Clock the large dancing hall at
tached to the Railway employees club room
was packed. Every seat was filed, and
kmany were standing. If the ladies Of the
Altar society desired any further evidence
of the appreciation of the people, they
would have had to hire another hall for the
appreciation to have room to manifest
.1elf.
The room was tastefully decorated with
punches of green, and the American flag
was prominent in many places In front OF
the stage and on one side was large star
spangled banner, and on the other side the
banner of the local Fort Worth lodge of the
Ancient Order of United Hibernians. On
the stage were many prominent Fort Worth
citizens, and Bishop Brennan, the orator of
the occasion.
8 The programme as formerly published in
THE GAZETTE was followed with a few
changes. Miss Blake rendered 1.-THE Harp
That Once Through Tara's Halls" in a
feeling manner, and was followed by Mrs
Price, Miss Bragassa and Mr.. F'enelon in
trio, Come Back to Er1n,'' which was
warmly applauded.
Mr.. N. NJ Washer treated the audience
TO a song that was received with apprecia-
ton.
,sssssf vocal trio, ''Believe Me" by Mrs. Cur
It's and Messrs. Bayrhoffer and Orchard,
was encored.
The flute solo of Mr.. Lusk, bringing in a
medley of Irish melodies, was finely rem
dered and greeted with applause.
,ssIhen came the event of the day, the
LECTURE BIZ BISHOP BRENNAN.
Upon being introduced to the audience,
the bishop arose and after the subsiding of
the applause that greeted him he began by
paying compliment to the city of Fort
Worth, after which he launched into the
topic of the day.
Upon this festival occasion-the re-
igiOus and national holiday of the Irish
race-we are gathered together in all the
countries of the earth. The Irish are
lovers Of social festivities, and in all coun-
tries on which the sun shines, from the
Southern seas to the Arctic ocean, IN all
lands whose shores are laved by the At
lantic or Pacific, the Irish people are gath
cred together to-day to do honor to the
patron saint of Ireland"
The orator then gave sketch of the his
tory OF st. Patrick, from the time when he
was carried prisoner to ireland, and told
of the mighty work he did, of turning an
idOlatrous people TO the worship of God, of
what he did for civilization and learning,
and his redemption of ireland. 1t was fit
and proper that the memory of this man
should be forever linked with the civil and
religious history of ireland.
The Irish were a happy, prosperous and
united people, and Brian Baru's victory at
Ciontarf over the Danes secured the island
from these pirates. But divisions arose,
Ireland. Henry II in 1172 set foot on Irish
soil, and the day of Irish liberty began to
pale to its evening.
After Henry came John, Catholic mon
arch and cruel oppressor HE was a |
Catholic. but under no English sovereign, |
OClOES VI SlllCG, were gESdtGE pEdC-
ticed. And let no man say" cried the ora |
tor, in q burst Of impassioned eloquence, |
shat her religion has brought her. woes |
upon ireland. Her oppression has been an |
oppression of race, not of religion. Some |
Of the grandest helpers, truest friends, of |
Ireland are numbered among the Protest
ants, and her own people, Protestant as
well as Catholic, have cast aside the differ
ences of religion and stood in the unity of
common brotherhood for the cause OF the
IRISH nation" This sentiment was greeted |
with tremendous applause.
Then came the reign Of Elizabeth. when
the burdens of the people were added to.
Then were those grand monuments of Irish
earning and piety the monasterieS, RACED
to the ground, so that now one might pass
through the land without hardly taking his
Eyes from these marks of vandalism, these
mementoes of former greatness,
umbled to the earth, the very stones held
oEether only by the ivy green.
The times of Cromwell and of the Jameses
we're passed by rapidly, and coming down
o later times proper tribute was paid to
hose IriShmen who had shed their blood
nd given their lives to the establishing of
liberty on the American continent Irish
len in all countries are the friends of
iberty-liberty of religion, liberty OF ac-
ion, liberty of thought, liberty of speech,
liberty of the press-in every country except
heir own, where is no liberty.
The days of 1917, when famine covered
he land with gaunt death, showed the
eroic nature of the Irish people. It was
hen that the organizations were entered
lto that had for their purpose the freeing
f ireland. Among these was the F'enian
which the Speaker apos-
rophized with glowing words, saying the
world had not understood 1t or its objects, |
nd had misiudged it.
Some among US say, let the Irish close
heir divisions, and then we will be one
With them in the cause of Irish freedom
here are no divisions in ireland, said the
peaker. They are one as 4 nation. They
re divided on political principles as the
eople of America are divided, as the people
+ England, of France, of Germany, are di-
lded, but when the cause of the Irish peo-
lie is at stake they are one.
Incidentally the speaker went aside to |
ulogize Patrick Egan, saying he was an |
onOred and honest Irishman. who was [
riven from his own land, as others of his s
ouDtrymen had been, and had risen TO
in the land of his adoption. !
1t had been said of the Irish people that q
hey were not Industrious and would not :
-OTk. Let the record of Irish achieve !
tents all over the world repel that taunt! I
It home they have no factories, their /
lines are undeveloped, the land is owned
V foreign landlords-what then, have
ley to work at and to work for2 The r
rish heart is broad and generous, not used :
} the little details and close methods of {
but the industry and energy of