The Irish standard., 1897-09-18
A ROUND TOWER ERECTED TO THE
DECEASED MEMBERS OF
THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANs
PATRIOTIC AND ELOQUENT GRAFTON
ny JOHN E. FINERTY.
A MAGNIFICENT GATHERING OF cELTs
GREAT ENTHUSIASM ELECTED nv
THE Ex-CONGREssMAN.

On Sunday afternoon, Sept, s. about
$4,000 OF the patriotic Celts of Chicago
gathered at Mt. Olivet cemetery to wit
ness the ceremony OF the unwilling of
the mortuary monument In the form of
an Irish round tower erected by the
A. y. II. of Cook county in memory Of
their departed brethren The tower
looked imposing. wreathed in national
bunting. Thirty feet high, resting on a
base seven feet square, with It's quantity
carved windows and scnlptured stone,
1t brought many heart back to the
quiet hillside and watered glen where
the originals adorned the scenery of
lnnisfatl. The marshal Of the day re-
ported that 1,40O members of the A. o.
II. were in regalia. Company of the
Hibernian Knights and two battalions
OF the Clan-na-Gael guards turned out
i'll full uniform and carried swords.
State President Heating made a brief
address and introduced County Presi-
dent Henely, who acted as chairman.
Rev. FIR. Ryan, assisted by Rev. FIR. Rey-
nolds and Crimmins, blessed the monu-
ment, after which FIR. Reynolds deliy-
cred patriotic address which elected
rapturous applause from the enthusias-
tic assemblage
The orator of the day was Hon. John
h. F1nerty, who delivered a magnificent
address from which the following ex-
tracts are taken:
1t was natural, he said, that the men
and women of the Irish race Should
meet in the free, open air of heaven to
dedicate monument to their honored
and deeply mourned dead. 1t was the
custom of their early Celtic forefathers
to so assemble. They never met in
halls. Their auditorium was a daisy
spangled hill or the bright green valley,
and their roof, which God placed at
their disposal, was the azure sky of
Ireland. When st. Patrick preached at
Tara, he spoke in the open air. He re-
membered that the Redeemer addressed
the multitudes who followed Him to
the eminences that rise around the city
OF observation-disclosures under the glori-
Gus canopy of that heaven which was
his home. (Applause.) St. Patrick fol-
lowed the same practice during his long
and glorious mission in Ireland, which
led him to circle the island, leaving a
train of enduring radiance in footprints
of sanctity that are not yet obliterated
from that sanity soil. prolonged ap-
plause.) Nor was this practice confined
to the patron saint of Ireland. 1t was
followed by Irish kings, princes and
chiefs who often summoned their faith
full kindred clansmen to assemble on the
hill slopes or mountain tops, to hear
words of thrilling eloquence uttered by
the orators of the people in the grand
old Celtic tongue. (Renewed cheers.)
They could cross on the pinions of
fancy that day the four thousand miles
Of land and water that lay between
them and Ireland, and behold those an
cient hills and towering mountains, un-
der whose shadow their people still
dwelt, rising in their beauty and majes-
ty, exactly as st. Patrick and King
Brian and Hugh O'Neill beheld them
centuries ago. The choice of monu-
ment for the dead Hibernians of Chicago
and Cook county was singularly, and
gratifyingly, appropriate. Nothing
could be more SO. The round towers of
Observation-Disclosures the dissenting
views of a few archaelogists-we
among the most ancient memorials of
human civilization. (Applause.) No
man living-no man passed away-no
matter how great his learning, could
guess their patriarchal age They rival
ed i'll antiquity the pyramids of Egypt
; and the august temples of Greece Ev-
erywhere in Ireland they pointed i'm
pressively to the eternal throne of Cod
; While the abbey, the convent and the
church had fallen before the fierce blasts
of relentless persecution, even the Dane,
, the Norman and the Englishman had
spared "the pllar-towcrs of Ireland"
prolonged cheering.) They seemed as
indestructible as the Irish cause itself.
| (Renewed applause.)
In mystic file, through the isle, they
lift their heads sublime
Those gray old pillar temples-those
conquerors of Time!
| (Great cheering.)
Yes, like the descendants of their
| builders, they defied time and power to
! conquer them-old and SCARED by many
a conflict as they were. (Cheers.) What
sublime contemplation
| The names of their founders have van
ished in the gloom,
Like the dry branch in the fire, or the
body in the tomb;
But today, in the ray, their shadows
still they cast
Those temples of forgotten Gods, those
relics OF the pasti