The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-11-04

Err B
as the landing Of the Pilgrim Fathers"
at Plymouth Rock. So powerful was the
instinct which attached them to their an
cestral state that purely Kettle Scottish
colonies re transplanted themselves into
Ulster, hundreds Of years before King.
James's plantation; and Highland sol
diere. led by the Dukes forbears, fought
on the Irish side in all the last great raj
lies for the re-establishment Il the Bre-
hon institu ions. A daughter OF the
house Of Argyle was married to rebel
O'DoEnell; a son OF the same house led
the troops of the Isles in the army of
O'Neill. For all his pamphleteering,
there is nothing in Inverary Castle which
the Duke prizes SO well as the family
tree which proves him to be the descend
ant OF princes more genuinely Irish Ma
tionalist than the Prince of Wales is
genuinely English. When such q man
as he can argue, for the purposes OF a
Unionist pamphlet, as if it were nonsense
to talk of the Ireland of his Grace's an
cestors as u country better bound to
gether than the Roman Empire, and
gifted with Jurisprudence, literature,
and civilization Of it's own, how can we
wonder If the Cockney journalist, im-
AGNES that he shows his wit by pulling
the beard of King Brian Borumha, and
treating Finn Macdonald on the same
historic level as Jack the Giant Killer
The part which Irelan1 took In saving
western civilization during the breakup
of the Latin Empire is recognized by
every European historian who is not an
jnveterate Englishman--Thierry, Guizot,
all the learned historic excavators of
Germany. Irish troops pressed the Of
Terminate imperial le9ione in the passes
of the Alps. Irish scholars occupied as
eminent place in the court Of Charlie
magne as Greek scholars in the Italy of
Renaissance.
Irish history is the only department OF
human knowledge as to which ignor-
ance is not anly permissible among edu'
Gated people, but is cultivated, obtruded,
and glor1ed in. Tue treatment of Ire
land is as shameful to English scholar
ship US it is to English craftsmanship.
The statesmen out of one of the most fer
tile islands of the seas, have fashioned one
of the most unhappy. A great romance
might be written of how the old Gaelic
literature was saved from the persecu-
ton OF ages. "Bonnie Prince Charlie's''
among the Scottish crags
were not whit more exciting or more
touching 10 their appeal to gentle hearts.
There descended yellow manuscript
volume. from unknown times, through
generations of a Tipperary peasant fam
lily, half-farmers. half poets. It's exist
ence came to the knowledge Of Edmund
Burke. The great Irishman was not g
Gaelic scholar himself, but his Kettle
genius enabled him to divine Kettle
national treasure in it's ragged pages.
BY his means the manuscript WAS pur"
chased for a few pounds Then came 8
pathetic discovery. It was written in
lost tongue. It's ancient law dialect had
been obsolete for ages. The learned
puzzled over it's crumblipg pages in vain.
The task was given over until there arose
four scholars consumed with a sacred
passion for the Gaelic learning. They
dug up old glosses--so many that they
discovered 10000 Irish words not to be
found in modern dictionary. They
compared, and guessed, and bit by bit
deciphered. The manuscript of the Tip
perary cabin turned out to he the only
existing copy OF the "Sheanchus Nor
that venerable Gaelic law-code, which is
far and away the richest European body
of laws that il not borrowed from the
Romans; and tue Brehon Law Commits
sion (good, worthy men, of whom, be-
lieve, only two understand word of
Gaelic) nave ever since been engaged in
purchasing driblets of translations OF
the priceless manuscripts which the Nc
Egans, for generations, risked their
goods and lives in order to preserve.
The race of the. McEgans, however, is
one which most educated Englishmen
are not ashamed to think as the enemies
of learning and the spawn of barbarism.
They would be greatly amused if they
were told that ie was to Irish schools
and Irish colonies Ang]o-Saxon England
owed the better part OF It's poetry, it's re-
ligion, and its civilization. They have
only to ask any well-informed German
man of letters, nevertheless, to know
that to deny it would be like denying
that William the bastard of Normandy
won the battle of Hastings
From the sixth to the ninth century,
speaking roughly, Ireland was more
compact body of united states than
Britain. GanI. Germany. Spain. or the