The San Francisco call., 1898-07-10
LEEDS OF '99 RECALLED
CONTINGGNTS FROM DUBLIN AND ADJoINl NC COUNTIES.
Clancy Tells of the Speeches That Are Not Pleasant for Those Who mink the Struggle for
 Independence Ended.
BY J. J. CLANCY.
cnrrespondenee Of The Call.


 of course, Nationalist Ireland, which, after all is the real Ireland-dld honor on Sunday and Monday last to, per haps, the greatest of the heroes or w Theobald Wolfe Tone For many years past an annual pilgrimag, has been made to Bodenstown church yard, in the county of Kildare, where Ione lies buried, and every year very re- spectable gath ril- it proved to be; put on Sunday last, O. course, the gather ing was exceptionally large and repre- sentative, contingents coming rom Dublin and all the adjoining counties as well as from the county of Kildare itself. need not dwell on the cere- monies in the graveyard. The speeches delivered cannot have been very pleas ing to those who imagine that thc struggle for Irish national independ- ence is at an end. They ana the en- tbusiasm with which they were re- ceived showed pretty plainly that that struggle is by no means over and that such concessions as are involve in the coming local government reform are not in the least likely to satisfy the Irish aspirations for national freedom. On the day after the demonstration in Bodenstown a convention took place in the Rotunda in this city for the pur- pose of starting a movement for the erection of a public monument to Wolfe Tone in Dublin. This also was very successful gathering, and among the subscriptions promised on the occasion was a very considerable one from San Francisco. Tn subscribe in San Francisco, therefore, will be interested to learn that one of the best sites in Dublin has been secured for the Tone monument.
 I do not know whether all my read CTS are acquainted with the conforma- tion of Dublin or its principal streets. But those who are will know what l mean when l say that the principal and most frequented thoroughtares are O'COnnell street date Sackville streeD, Westmoreland street, College Green, Grafton street and one side of St. Stephens Green. Those thoroughfares though they do not run in a straight line, and they are the places where people most do congregate." Accord ingly most of the points of vantage in them have been already occupied by statues and other monuments to Vari- OUS pclSOHdSeS. III O COHH6ll street there is NelsOn's Pillar, which is really an eyesore, because, from it's height, it cuts the finest thoroughfare in Europe in two, there are the statues of Father Mathew, the Apostle of Temperance, and of Sir John Gray, the man who was the chief agent in providing for Dublin the finest water supply in the three kingdoms; and, finally, the OConnell monument-the noblest work ,F Ia T,-t-I TH. one of the noblest and most artistic works of it's kind in the world The O'COnnell monument is at the lower end of O'Connell street, just at the bridge over the Liffey, which also is called after O'Connell; and the only other really prominent spot in O'Con- nell street which is now vacant is at precisely the opposite end-opposite the historic building known as the Rotun- da. In WestmOreland street Smith O'Briens statue stands at one end-the O'Connell bridge cnd-and the statue of Tom Moore, the poet at the other end, facing one side of the old Parlia- ment House of Ireland. Then come the statues of Goldsmith and Edmund Burke, Grattan and King William TIT fin College Green, and from that point the space is clear to the point of june tiOn between Grafton street and St Stephens Green. It is this point which Is to be dedicated to the memorial to Wolfe Tone, and there could hardly he a better one, except the vacant spot at the ROtunda. It is certainly. for tba present at least, the most fashionable quarter of Dublin, and it is difficult to see where a better site can be found for the statue to Parnell which will certainly be erected later on and which deserves the best site which Dublin can afford
 We are to have another French in- Vasion of '9S next August to inaugu- rate the national monument to be erected here to the memory of the men or '98. l am reminded of the fact by the meeting just held in London to make arrangements for the reception of the French visitors, among whom will be included some members of the French nobility, and who will be en- tertained in London on their way over to Dublin by a great banquet in the former city. Already an influential committee has been organized to make preparations for this banquet; and doubtless the result will be satisfac- tory. Meanwhile William Redmond, M F., brother of the Parnellite or h. dependent Nationalist leader, has been requested and in accordance with that request has arranged to address a AiiNNtiii@ III I di lS III COIlneCIlOn W1ln lHe celebration of the '9S centenary; and the probability is that this also will be a very interesting gathering Alto gether the centenary of '98 promises to be worthily celebrated, but the cir cumstance that this war with Spain has absolutely prevented the large im- migration into Ireland of Irish -Ameri- cans this year has at the same time largely damped enthusiasm in the mat ter We were all looking forward to such an inroad of American friends and cousins that the idea of Admiral Dewey or General Shafter wanting so many of them quite took our hearts away.
 We have been very much exercised m Dublin and throughout the provin- clal towns during the past week, owing 10 circular issued at the instance of the Government for the purpose of as- certaining the views of the existing To- cal aut thorities on the question whether there should be annual or trjennfal elections under the new scheme of local government. As far as I can see tbe fa1