The Irish standard., 1894-09-22
T. D. SULLIVAN.
The Irish National Poet and Pa
triot viii Soon Visit This
Country.
AHEARTY WELCOME WILL BE

"a IL LnN 14 LAAOML w I'LL DE
Extended to the Author of the
Anthem, "God Save
Ireland"
It is announced from Dublin that T.,
D. Sullivan, M. p, the Irish National
Poet and Patriot, will visit this country,
to lecture. The author. of the Irish Ma
tional Anthem, "God Save Ireland will
have hearty welcome all over the
United States. Mr.. Sullivan has four
lectures on the following subjects:
l-"Ireland's Famous Men and Famous
Places"
2-"Fourteen Years @; the British Par
lament
3-"The Poets and Poetry of Ireland -
4-"Scenes and Incidents in Irish Po-
litical life"
Mr.. Sullivan has been in the United
States only once, on the brief visit made
by the Irish members which was broken
in on, in the height of it's success, by
the unfortunate Parnell episode.
The following extracts from bio
graphical sketch, by his lifelong friend,
T. P. O'Connor, M. P, viii! be of interest:
Timothy Daniel Sullivan was born in
1927. The home of the Suiivans was
thoroughly National, and amid the STIR
ring times of 1848 and the hideous disas.
ters of the two preceding years there
were all the circumstances to make the
National faith of the family bitter and
robust. The father was carried away,
like the majority OF the earnest and ener.
getic Irishmen of that time, by the gos-
pei which the Young Ireland leaders
were preaching with such fascination Of
voice and pen, became one of the leaders
Of the local AS club, and, as reward,
was dismissed from his employment by
one of the local magistrates. T. D. Sulli-
van, like the rest of his brothers, though
brought up in small and remote town,
b ad an opportunity of receiving good
education in the best sense of the word,
and the family was essentially literary
as we'll as National in 1ts tendencies.
The Sullivans we're closely associated
with another Bantry household, that was
destined, by-and-by to give promiL ent
figure. to the Irish history of the present
dey. The chief and the best school
master of the town was Mr. Healy, the
grandfather of the two members
of the present House of Com
mons of that name. 1t was from
Mr.. Healy that Mr.. Sullivan learned,
probably. the most of what he knows.
The ties between the two families were
! afterwards drawn still closer when T. D.
Sullivan married Kate Healy,the daugh-
ter of his teacher. His brother, A. Nj
Sullivan, though younger than T. D.,
was the first to leave home and seek for
tune abroad. After trying his hand as
an artist, A: NJ. ultimately adopted
journalism as a. profession, and became
connected with the Dublin Nation. T..
D meantime, had also allowed his mind
to run into dreams of a literary future,
and had filed a whole volume with his
compositions; but with the secrecy which
youth loves, he had not ntided his
transgression to any one. Two or three
OF the pieces had appeared in print, but
it was not till he came to Dublin and be-
gan to write in the Nation that the polit-
ical genius of T. D. Sullivan sought
recognition. Into the columns of that
journal he began to pour the verses
which he had hitherto so religiously kept
secret, and from the first his songs at
tracted attention. From this time for
! ward the name of T. D. Sullivan is mex
tricably associated with the Nation.
Though T. D. Sullivan has written
love poems and tender elegies, his pre-
ference has always been for the muse
that stirs and cheers. Many of his poems
became popular Immediately on their
appearance, and spread over the vast
world of the Irish race which now ex-
tends through so many nations of the
earth. A well-known story with regard
| to the 'Song from the Backwoods" will
illustrate the Influence of T. D. Sullivan's g
muse. Most Irishmen know that splen-
did little poem, with its bold opening and
it's splendid refrain:
''Deep in Canadian woods we've met,
From one bright island flown;
| Great is the land we tread, but yet
| Our hearts are with our own;
| And ere We leave this shanty small,
While fades the autumn day,
| Well toast old Ireland!
Dear old Ireland!
ireland. boys. hurrah!''
The song, which was published in the
Nation, in 1857, first became popula,
among the members Of the Phenix-So
|ciety, who, it will be remembered, were
Mt work IN 1853. and wae brought II