The Irish standard., 1897-05-15

great, IT,: fifty years from now. the pane
gyric about to be delivered on O'Connell
will be as anectionately remembered as
are those of Ventura and Lacordafre.
In 1863 when the remains Of 0'Connell
were removed to their final resting place
in Glasnevin, beneath the Round Tower
and Sepulchre which grateful country
raised to one of it's greatest and noblest
sons, another of the sons of st. Dom
inic, Father Tom Burke, delivered an
eloquent Grafton before an audience Of
$4,000 persons, from which the follow
ing extract is taken:
O'Connell was Irish of the Irish, and
Catholic of the Catholic. His love for
religion and of his country was as the
breath of his nostrils, the blood Of his
veins; and when he brought to the sefv-
ice of both the strength of his faith and
the power of his genius. with the in
stinct of a true Irishman his first
thought was to lift up the nation by
striking the chains off the national
church. Religious liberty and perfect
legal equality was his first demand. The
new apostle of freedom went through
the length and breadth of ireland. His
eloquent words revived the hopes and
stirred up the energies of the nation;
the people and their priesthood rallied
around him as one man; they became
! most formidable to their enemies by
the might of justice and reason, and
they showed themselves worthy of lib
erty by their respect for the law. Never
was Ireland more excited, yet never was
Ireland more peaceful. The people were
determined on gaining their religious
freedom. Irishmen from 1922 to 1929,
were as fiercely determined on their new
battlefield as they had been in the
breaches of Limerick or on the slopes of
Fontenoy. They were marshaled by a
leader as brave as Sarsfeld and as dar-
ing as Red Hugh. He led them against
the strongest citadel in the world, and,
even as the walls of the city of old
crumbled to dust at the sound of Is
rael's trumpet, so, at the sound of his
mighty voice, who spoke in the name of
united people, "the lintels of the doors
were moved" and the gates were opened
which 300 years Of prejudice and pride
had closed and barred against our
people. The first decree of our liberia
tion went forth: on April 10, 1929, Cath
olic Emancipation was proclaimed, and
seven millions of Catholic Irishmen en-
tered the nations legislature in the per-
son of O'Connell. 1t was the first and
the greatest victory of peaceful princi-
pie which our age has witnessed, which
lreland's people paid to the greatest
principle Of peaceful agitation
The day has already dawned, and is
ripening to it's perfect noon, when Irish
men of every creed will remember
Q'Connell and celebrate him as the COM
mon friend and the greatest benefactor
OF their country. What man is there,
even of those whom our age has called
great, whose name, so many years after
his death, could summon so many low
ing hearts around his tomb? We, today
are the Representatives, not only of a
nation but of a race. >"Quae regio in
terris nostri non plena laboris?" Where
is the land that has not seen the face
of our people and heard their voice?
and wherever, even to the ends of the
earth, an Irishman is found today, his
spirit and his sympathy are here.
Time, which touches all things with
mellowing hand, has softened the recol-
lection of past contests, and they who
once looked upon him as foe now only
remember the glory of the fight, and
the mighty genius of him who stood
forth the representative man of his race
and the champion of his people. They
acknowledge his greatness, and they
join hands with us to weave the gar
land of his fame.