The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-10-08
WILLIAM O'DRIEN.S PLAIN TALK on
LAND GRADDERS.
DENuAcIA1|oA OF LANDLORD E YIcIoRs
BOLD AND FIERY SPEECH AGAINST
CASTLE TYRANNY.
The AUDIENCE REUSED TO ENTHUSIASM
FARMERS DETERMINED TO FIGHT
TO TEE HITTER END.

At recent meeting held in the county
of Glare, a branch OF the United Irish
League was organized, and William
O'Brien, M. F., delivered a stirring
speech from which the following is
taken:
Whatever else may be said OF this
movement, at all events 1t is all genuine
(cheers), it is all above ground There
is no deep laid personal or sectional
plot at the bottom of it. There is and
can be no question Of either humiliating
or making capital for Parncllitc or anti
Parnellite (cheers). We go for trusting
the people to fashion out the lines of this
movement for themselves hereafter in the
freest possible manner, guided by their
own passionate determination to stand
10 more wretched personalities or re-
examinations (hear, hear). But in the
meantime We say let every man who is
not content to spend his life broodine
and groaning over what is past and gone,
let him come to the front like a man,
and plunge into Il genuine practical fight
(cheers), against the tremendous forces
that are still threatening to wipe our
race off the face Of Ireland, while n
couple Of dozen men are carrying on
their ridiculous newspaper wars (hcar,
hear). In one word our program is to
translate into practical prose the watch
word of the poet, "'Thc friends we've
tried are by our side, and the foe we
hate before us. cloud cheers. Let
me take this division of West Clare as
an example. The United Irish League
look around and ask themselves in what
way can we most effectively help our
people, and hit the enemy in West Clare?
We find that hcartlcss evictions have
been going on even in this year of
famine--tha tenants homes have been
lcvclled and burned down (groans). We
find that the grabber (groans) has been
fattcning and llourishing in every dircc-
ton around you, Wills, good lrishmcn
were looking tlaggers at one another
ctruc'D Very we'll, we say let us al
the srabbcrs and the cvictors heart and
hand Cloud chccrs). Let us concentrate
all our forces against them. Lrt us light
up the public opinion of the whole coun-
try around about them. Let us make
them feel that without outraging any
law, human or divine, we can still bring
about their heads such Il storm OF pub
lie Indignation that no possible advan-
tagc they can have from grabbing their
poor ncighbors holdings will compensate
them for the contempt and dctcstation
they will receive from everybody whose
good opinion makes their lives worth
living (cheers). Don't you think that
that will be better work for Ireland than
debating as to who was right and who
was wrong in committee room No. IS
eight years ago? (Checrs). II Is always
an infalliblc test in Ireland to inquire
how the enemy regard these things
Don't you think the grabbers of West
Clare would be considerably easier In
their minds today if they thought that
Mr.. John MInerncy and Mr.. M'Ilugh
came together today for the purpose OF
fighting their old battle of the general
election all over again instead of coming
A. ..,;,, N
grabbcrs? cloud checrs). Depend upon
1t you will have Mr.. Vandcleur (groans)
only too happy to come here and Sing
you "WhO Fears to Speak of '98,' and
you would have all the bailiffs and grab
bers of West Glare swelling the chorus
daughter and groans). We were to con-
allusions to the last century, and if we
did not raise the slightly more awkward
question: Who fears to speak of the
land grabber (cheers and langhtcr), and
who fears to join in hunting him from
the historic fields of Glare? cloud
chccrsl. The grabbcrs and their masters
are as much the English enemy in this
present '98 as the ycomcn and the Hes
slams were in the '98 of old (hear, hear).
And if the rising of United Irishmcn that
we are organizing here today is not a
rising with weapons of steel but with
weapons that Engand's own constitu-
tion has put into our hands, ! make bold
to say the Irish people have only to be
as united and organized as we are here
in I.a:ashccda and they have it in their
power to effect more formidable rcvo-
luton against grabber rule and landlord
rule and English rule in Ireland than if
another French expedition landed in
Bantry Bay in the morning, with ban
ners flying cloud cheers). Indeed, the
grabbers of West Glare. who have a
pretty keen eye for the way the weather
cock is turning, are already beginning to
realize that it is all up with grabbing
in Clare for the present (cheers). AL