The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-11-19
THE PEOPLE CANNOT ASSEMBLE TO
DISCUSS GRIEVANCES. q.
THE CASTLE AUTHORITIES CONDEMNED.
DESPITE THE PROCLAMATION THE
MEETING Is HELD.

oeASh6eACAcu lue oplilt VI uIlI! aiming
the Irish people. Immense demonstra-
tons have since been held, where
O'Brien and Davitt have made vigorous
protests for justice and the right of free
speech. The following stirring Grafton
was delivered at Ballinrobe by William
O'Brien:
Il don't know whether the emissaries
of English law after beating peaceful
citizens off our highway roads, are going
to attack us here even in private house;
but l can say this that if these gentlemen
have the best of it in a street riot, the
Irish people always have the best in the
long run. When all is said and done. in
row in which they have all the weapons
we have invariably had the best of it
when it comes % acts of parliament l
don't know whether this proclamation
| today is special compliment to Mr..
Regain and the men of Ballinrobe for the
marvellous spirit that they have dis
played, or whether today's work means
that the famous policy of killing home
rule by kindness is to be knocked on the
head already, or whether they are going
to bark back upon the brutally candid
old English system of killing home rule
with the bludgeon and the bayonet. All
can say is that in the one event or
in the other we have everything to re-
joice over, because you may be certain
that Mr. Balfour would never have swal-
lowed all his boasts about this being the
most peaceful part of her ,majesty's do
Mains and would never nave gone back
to the old coercion methods only that
he knew that Irish NatiQnalists are COM
ing together again in the tbs, Old fight in as
great numbers and upon as great a tidal
wave of National spirihas ever occurred
in Connaught. ,,,
why did they suppress this Ballin-
robe meeting? Because they knew that
it would be one of the most marvellous
outbursts of popular feeling ever seen in
the west. They knew that ali llistinc-
tions between Parnellite and anti-Par-
nellite are now completely effaced They
knew that every district for 80 miles
around mas been sounded in way that
was never witnessed before. even in the
meetings when Capt. Boycott attained
his Immortality on the shores of Tough
Mask. Now, can they imagine that they
are going to kill off passionate and uni
versal public opinion such as that by the
petty blackguardism that was witnessed
in the village of Ballinrobe today? Are
they really childish enough to imagine
that they are going to destroy such a
spirit as was reused in this neghborhood
by the petty outrages and little street
assaults that they ATTEMPTED to commit
here today? Why. any child in those
Parity mountains could tell them that
Mr.. Starkie and District Inspector bowl
ing are the best organizers of the Unit
ed Irish League that could possibly be
employed because they have proclaimed
that this United Irish League is now re-
garded with dread to the core of their
hearts by every enemy of our people, and
that the union of Irish Nationalists,
which it typifies. is at the present mo-
ment the terror of their lives. and they
confess that the one way that Dublin
castle can see of conqucrng this United
Irish League is by trying to goad and
provoke an unarmed people into collision
with their own armed myrmidons. AS
I told Mr.. Starkie just This moment if
the men of the United Irish League in
Mayo had only weapons as good as those
fellows / am not at all sure that they
would be so very eager 10 create a col
lsion with us: but as We have not the
weapons we know a trick worth ten Of
that, and we have weapons worth ten of
their batons and their bayonets.
God knows it is hard for the people
to endure the perfectly de,vilish system
of petty persecution and foul play that
the government is putting in force
against the people; but thFf people nave
endured it fearlessly, and I am glad to
say that up to the present moment they
have completely balkep the calculations
of the manufacturers of crime and out
rage. l notice that eycn the writer OF
this proclamation had, not, the audacity
to mention crime or outrage in connec-
ton with this organization. Why? Be-
cause the fact is that pevGr in the whole
history of Ireland was there so mighty
an agitation that was so completely de-
void Of the slightest ,tinge of crime or
outrage There never was anything like
it seen here for the last nine years as a
mighty agitation going on which leaves
the power of the people supreme in Ire
land today, and yet what drives these
men perfectly Frantic is that Dublin
| castle cannot invent anything against
the United Irish League than the booing
of landgrabber or indulgng in the
wicked melody of The Peelcr and the
| Coat Now the crime and the outrage
are entirely Of their own manufacture
| and they know there is at the present
moment perfectly shameless and alb
ominable system of vindictive police ter
| rorism and foul play going on in this