The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-03-04
1.-THE EMERALD ISLE

Dr.. brennan First Applied that Poetical
Appellation to Ireland.
r w. McAlpine contributes the fol-
lowing interesting facts to Belford's
Magazine:
It would require much space and time
to prepare full lists OF the poets and
orators to whom Ireland's most familiar
pseudonym has been credited in the col
| umns of newspapers all over the world,
as we'll as in the pages of literary jour
nails, and in tho speeches of enthusiasts
too indolent to trace it's origin to q we'll
authenticated source. Even in the coun-
try of it's birth, John Philpot Curran,
Thomas Moore, Daniel O'Connell, Davis,
Darcy MCGEE, Thomas Francis Meagher,
Carleton and Dr.. Madden have been &C
corded the honor. Of it's paternity. To
none OF these does the honor belong, but
to DR. William brennan, an Irish poet
and patriot but little known to-day be-
| yond the limits of his own much loved
land.
! March II, 1915, is the date of preface
to collection of Drennan's poems pub
li-hed year later. Among these is one
entitled "Erin," which opens with this
stanza:
! "When Erin first ,se from the dalk-sw elliug
| flo d,
God blessed the green islan.,, He saw it was
| good;
The Emerald of Europe, it sparkled, it shone,
IN the ring of this world IN osr precious stone"
In the tenth stanza occurs the express
sion with which I have headed the arti-
Gle: 3.
"Arm of Eria! prove strong; but be gentle as
brave,
And, uplifted to strike, still be ready to save!
Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to detle
Tue cause or the men OF the Emerald Isle"
A majority of those who know DR..
brennan as the originator of the express
sion, having met with it only in the
stanza quoted, believe that it was here
first used in print; but in a note the all
thor thus corrects this impression:
1T may appear puerile to lay claim to
priority of application in the use of an
epithet; but poets, like bees, have very
strong sense OF property; and both are of
an irritable kind,and apt to be extremely
jealous of any one who robs them of
their sweets. The sublime epithet which
Milton used in his poem on the "Nativ-
ity," written at fifteen years of age Ellis
Thunder lasping handy, would have
been claimed by him as his own, even af-
ter he had finished the paradise Lost"
And Gray would prosecute as a literary
poacher the daring hand that would pre-
sumo to break into his orchard, and ap-
propriate a single epithet in that line,
the most beautifully desert ltive that
ever was written So
"The breezy call of incense breathing
morn" ~
Son such authority poetaster re-
claims the original use OF an eplthet,
The Emerald Isle, in party song, writ
ten without the rancor Of party, in the
year 1895. From the frequent use made
of the term since that time he fondly
hopes that it will become associated with
the name of his Country, as descriptive
of it's prime natural beauty, and it's in
estimable value.'
The poets wish was fully gratifed
long before he died.
The poet brennan was born in Belfast,
May q, 1854, obtained the degree of N.
A. from Glasgow at Edinburgh. While
engaged in the practice of medicine In
Edinburgh and Dublin, he wrote much
and in the latter city became prominent
as leader of TIP United Irishmen, an
organization of which he was really the
founder In 1894 he was tried for
wicked and seditious ibep' against the
crown, and was 80 we'll defended by Cur
ran that, according to the report as pub
lished in tue local papers, the jury were
reluctantly compelled" to render YER
dict of not guilty, on which the court
room rang with indecent and voc!ferous
plaudits.' He was, in theory, republl-
can, and would, no doubt, in practlce,
have preferred that form If government
which actually represented the popular
will IA enthusiastic Irishman, he was
yet one of the first to detect aud &C.
knowledge the fanlts of his countrymen.
Says one of his biographers, who knew
him intimately: against Incidence, lg-
norance and incompetence, no voice was
more Loudly or constantly raised. he
was the first to christen the potato a
lazy root; long before the era of modern
teetotalism he ~as ever ready to show
the evils of drink; and his whole life was
qniet crusade against bigotry and lg-
norance. 1T was not inconsistent in such
man to discourage an appeal to arms,
as on his trial he was proved to have
done. end to dread civil war as one OF
the worst misfortunes that can betall
any country. He believed that an I'M
g.