The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-01-02
Where the Celtic Race Is To Be
Found in All Its Prim-
\ tive Purity.
lhey Could Live Well If 1t Were
Not For Fear OF
s3,fa Eviction.
Ls>si= ~
Crime And Policeman Are SOme-
thing Unknown In The
Islands.

Standing on the extreme point of the
promontory of Rinoyle in the county of
Galway, the stranger looking westward
over the broad Atlantic as far as the eye
can reach can discern what seems to be
little purple speck on the horizon, says
q writer in the Connecticut Catholic.
With the golden sun setting behind it
it seems to be as one Of the blessed
Islands OF which poets love to dream:
"A golden cloud purples the deep where
It. lay -, -, .>.~s...
And it looks like an Eden away, far
away"
This is the island of Innishturk which
with it's sister isles Innishbotin and In
nishark form the extreme end Of the
; beautiful archipelago of Clew bay.
Viewed from the mainland the specta-
ator could never imagine that aught save
security and peace could be found in
those islands. Yet even here the hand of
the evictor is felt on these barren rocks,
where any vegetation save the mountain
heather would seem out Of place. The
dreaded agent of the "lord of the soil''
comes periodically to claim for his mas
ter the greater portion Of the hard earned
spoil for which the poor fisherfolk are
constantly risking and often losing their
lives in snatching from the sea-
Mr.. Gladstone has described writ OF
eviction as being equivalent to a sen
tence of death" 1t is worse; for the
father and mother it is sentence of
DEATH by slow torture in the union
workhouse, and the children--those lit
tie ones who were a pious mothers pride
and JOY on their little ocean bound rock.
Well, benevolent government will take
the boy into the army to associate with
the pickpockets and jailbirds of Britol
and Birmingham, and at the expiration
of his six years will turn him adrift on
the world, q moral wreck, nuisance to
society; and the girl, that pure, inno-
cent girl, that should have been the light
of some humble happy home, can choose
between a life of drudgery or a life of in
fanny in one of the great cities OF the
west.
Many people seem to forget that the
Coercion Act of 1886, though not now ac-
lively In force, is still the law of the
land; thus if any resistance to eviction
is anticipated a mere proclamation ap-
No 1off will oh q
such resistance a criminal offence and
make any person who aids or shelters
evicted persons, amenable to the law. 1t
is surprising that the great liberal party
when in power did not repeal this in
famous law; that is if they were sincere
Tin their protestations of friendship to
ireland and union of hearts"
The inhabitants OF these islands are
perhaps the purest type of the Celtic race
now in existence; they are mostly de-
scendants of refugees (many of them of
royal descent) who fled to these islands
at the time of the Cromwellian conquest
of Ireland. The men are fearless fisher
men, and the women are expert kelp-
gatherers, the kelp they export in large
quantities to the mainland where the pot
ash is distracted and sold and the refuse
used to fertilize the soil.
In gathering the kelp they will wade
out waist-deep into the water and wait
till the waves carry bunch within their
reach; sometimes huge breaker will
carry them of their feet and land them
dripping and laughing high up on the
beach; and how they do laugh with
laugh so clear and ringing as to awaken
~fhe echoes of the cliffs and cause the
golden eagle to scream out wild CHOIR
us to their mirth from his eyrie thou
sand feet above In the months of July
and August the able-bodied male popu-
lation emigrate to the agricultural dis
tricts of England to ''earn the rent" as
harvest men. There is not a railway ac-
,8cident that happens at this season OF the
year that does not count some frieze-
\ scoated native of the western isles among
ita victims; and all because ''my lord"
must have money to squander away at
the Baden gambling dens, or among the
& Partisan ballet dancers. The death of
/ TIE rent Garner usually means the evic"
ton OF his unfortunate family, for Shy
u lach must have his pound of flesh. Sure
INV Byron need never to have gone back
4 1900 years for his pathetic picture of q
dying gladiator. Would he not have
\ found It on that English railroad when
1 they raised up that simple western peaifs' peaiis
4 III With the life blood welling from his
slfpa .'..butchered to make a landlords q g
yss rs s3. & ..s.. .1.s.ss$s
IssyosAe of the wilder and more daring
h irita amongst the islanders find an
ier of making money to pay their
NV the ma ctnre off potter, " g,
Y hisky. They evidently have 1lo y,
in lp for ti,s gIlaw ! IN
& M as. isI ~ 4