The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-03-18


England. It was not until this attempt
was made that the extraordinary and
wonderful nature Of the Irish people be-
came manifest. Nor can it be entirely
ascribed to the Celts in their nature, for
the inhabitants Of Wales suceumbed to
the pressure Of the English conquest by
forsaking their religion as we'll as for.
feiting their lands, and lost forever their
individuality; 50 did the majority Of the
Scotch. Neither has nature erected bar
riers to protect the Irish against an over
whelming foe; they always were exposed
TO every foray Of the mail-clad warriors
Of E gland, denied every natural as we'll
as artificial defense. Artificial defenses
might have been obtained by unrestricted
intercourse with the commercial world;
this was always denied to them by the
policy of the English freebooters; thus
they were doomed to a struggle with
bare breasts and crude weapons against
the steel and bullet of the Norman
Knights of Henry II, of John, of Rich
ard, of Elizabeth, of James, of Charles, of
the psalm singing ruffians of Cromwell
and the mournful Dutch scoundrels of
William III, but Of all the miseries of all
of these times, those inflicted by the
English pharisees of Cromwell and his
followers were the worst 1t had been
customary prior to bis time on the rebel
lion of an Irish nobleman against some
studied act of oppression, for the Eng
gllsh parliament to declare his title for
feited and to replace him by an English
freebo ter, but Cromwell forfeited the
ri hts Of the whole nation, confiscated
the entire island, gave to what he was
pleased to term the remnant of the Irish
people, the boys and fens of Connaught
which was in area not much more than
an eighth of the island, and divided the
balance among the psalm singing and
sniveling pharisees of his army, set a
price upon the head of the Catholic
separated fathers and mothers from their
children, sent women and children to the
Indies to become mistresses and slaves
of the English planters, drove the entire
nobility into exile, made it a merit in the
son to turn against the father, the wife
against the husband and drive the iron of
the great so-called Christian Reformers
into the souls of the Catholic peasants.
The end which the conquerors sought'
namely, the determination of the whole
Celtic population of Ireland, would I'M
doubtedly have occurred had it not been
for the Creator who ordained it all, and
the priests, who in the ten thousand
novels, fens and bogs were his ministers
to confound the enemy. Among all the
glories which have been sung upon the
Irish character in every age, it seems to
me too little credit has been given to the
wonderful labors of the Catholic priest
hood of Ireland for that people. Hunted
and bounded for centuries like the beasts
of the field, offered the most sumptuoue
livings and Inequalities at the hands OF
the conquerors for the betrayal of their
hocks, they, nevertheless, spurned the
offer, evaded the murderous spies in the
hedeerows and fene, and on the noun
taiss, kept the faith of the primitive
christianity in the oppres ed and dis
couraged people, fired anew the sparks
of patriotism among them and the desire
to live in their country and for their
country. They famed the vitality of a
race whom the conquerors believed to be
on the verge of extinguishment and urged
them even in direst poverty to be the
most prolific of mankind. God has not
forgotten them for he is rewarding them
in visible manner by making their sue
cessors in the priesthood the leaders OF
the hierarchy of that primitive church in
this country which is destined to be the
place of all the world where the teach
inQs of the Church universal shall be
truly known and not misjudged.
Forty years, says the historian, after
Cromwell had depopulated three -fourths
or Ireland, the very Cromwellian sol
diers were either becoming converted to
Catholicity by marriage with Irish maid
ems or had turned over their holdings to
some lord paramount who had sub!et
the same IN small holdings at sufferanca
to Irish tenants in the same manner az
had happened on smaller scale 50 many
times before, the oonquerers in few
generations becoming more Irish than
the Irish themselves. So we'll did vii.
liam III. understand this that when he
in his turn overran Ireland with sword
and flame, he established the Orange SO,