The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-18
DAY FLTIINGLY REMEMBERED BY
 LOYAL SONS OF ERIN.

lo Sbppl lOotSlo. l uC lllSllApNiS | of the society and their guests were seated at twenty-one tables. An elab- crate banquet was served. The ban quet hall was beautifully decorated for the occasion.
 The literary programme was as fol- lows:
 Address of Welcome .................... President 1T |: Kinney n11e The The Day We Celebrate. Daniel colwei Knights of St. Patrick. James B. Martin The City of New Haven. ........., Song. .................,.. Riley Phillips, Jr Our Chaplain. ........... Rev: John Russell Song. ...................D .Dr W. J. Sheehan Ireland. ....... Captain Lawrence 0Bnen The Ladies ........Dr. John r, Sullivan
 CAPTAIN o'BRIEN'S ADDRESS. Captain Lawrence O'Brien responded to the toast Ireland" He said:
 When St. Patrick reached Tara he found wonderfully civilized nation, which, though under the cloud of false religion, had established laws, a recognized and settled form of govern ment, splendid national melody and poetry and the bards and men whom he met on that Easter Sunday morn ing were able to meet him with solid arguments; but when he convinced them they showed the greatest proof of their civilization by rising up on the instant to declare that Patricks preaching was the truth and that Pat rick was a messenger of the true God, and his fame spread throughout the land. The mystic sign of the Cross took the place of the blaze of holy fires on the round towers of Ireland.
 Oisin, bard and poet, who was the son of Fion MacCool, entered into an argument with St. Patrick The Saint asserted that all the bard's old associ- ates were in hell because of their unbe- lief in the true God. The ineredulous old pagan indignantly retorted:
 Were Fion and his spear with me,
 Two who never summed the clash of
 spears,
 Despite thy Clerics, bells and thee,
 We'd hold where Satan domineers.
 The pillar towers of Ireland,
 How wondr5usly they stand,
 
 And valleys of the land.
 In mystic file throughout the Isle
 They lift their heads sublime,
 Those gray old pillar temples.
 Those conquerors of time.
 St. Patricks fame became so great that Conal, the last one of the Druids who had returned to Ireland with the fenian soldiers, after aiding in expell ing the Romans from Gaul went to the home of his father, where the sacred fires had ceased to exist. They told him the gods were dead. He sought the priest to kill him at the court of Tara, but did not find him there, but found him in a lonely cabin watching beside an humble pallet where an old man had been stricken with black death, and when the fierce Conal witt messed the deeds of St. Patrick his wrath passed away and he kissed the hem of St. Patrick's garment, whom he had sworn to kill.
 In my country-part of Ireland there is a tradition that St. Patrick was anx- ious to see for himself the fine men and the beautiful women of the Golden | Vale, and as he stood there the Devil | had to fly away, and landed on the mountains north of Tipperary. He was | so vexed that he took a bite out of the | mountain and threw it at St Patrick; | it fell in the Golden Vale, and it is | known since that time as the Rock of Cashal, and the place where he took it | from is also known as the Devils Bit l @ni., n4 Fo. 1Drr 1f Al l len. And you are all invited to visit there and witness for yourself in this memorable year of 1898, and when you are there don't forget on the Hill of Tara a long grass-grown mound. The earth is raised; it is covered with a verdant sod; the Shamrock blooms up- on it, and the old peasants will tell you this Is the Croppy's Grave.
 In 179S ninety Wexford men fought their way, foot by foot, contested from | Wexford, and made their last stand on the Hill of Tara on the banks of the l Boyne river. They were surrounded by a great overwhelming number of the kings troops. They repulsed every charge made on them. They would not yield, and stood on the hill like lions
 
 soldiers. The officer in command of- fered them their lives if they would only lay down their arms. That morn ing they repelled charge and made the colonel with his dragoon take g cold bath in the river Boyne. All hope of succor was gone they trusted the plighted faith of the British officer, lait down their arms, and as soon as theil guns were out of their hands ever. man of them was fired upon and al that gallant band perished upon tht Hill of Tara. And they are enshrinet among the ancient glories of Ireland in the Croppy's Grave.
 The lesson of 179S is past; we saw il Wexford where a Catholic congrega tion was forced by rape and murde to resist, and when headed by thei priest, Father Roach, they drove tn yoemen before them in every fight un til for want of an organized commissa " they were obliged to disperse to ob
 tain food. The enemy could keep to
 gether, and when reinforced attacke, the men of Wexford and defeated then
 in detail. In the next parish Fathe
 Murphy told his flock to remain quiet and in doing so Father Roach and hi
 men were all destroyed, and when tn | yoemen attacked Father Murphy h l ~J how Nnt1 ID oh, 1,f asn-