The Irish standard., 1899-03-18

guidance they met together, not in gid
ed and upholstered halls, with rich car
pets, but in the mountain Businesses with
the canopy OF heaven for shelter and
the stars their only guide to the trysting
place. Strong hands grasped in friend
ship and true hearts beat in unison,
bound together by sacred ties and united
for common purpose, they resolved to
resist to the utmost every encroachment
of despotism upon the liberties and
rights of the people and pledged eternal
friendship, hallowed by their country's
misfortune. Rory sent out Aeet-footed
and trusted men to inform the Catholics
of the county where the priest would
read the next Mass. He placed sentinels
on the hilltops to give warning to the
people of the approach Of sacriligeous in
truders. Those sentinels stood on the
hills and mountains while the winter
winds howled and moaned around them,
with the sleet cutting into their unpro-
tected faces"
He describes the massacre OF Mullagll-
mast, when one hundred and eighty of
O'Moore's kinsmen were slaughtered at
banquet while they were the guests Of
Sir Francis Cosby, commanding Queen
Elizabeth's troops, and tells how that
English murderer was afterward slain at
the Yellow Ford by the avenging sword
of the Defenders, led by the gallant Nc
Hugh O'Byrne. He traces the history of
the order down to the days of Cromwell
and refers to the barbarities committed
upon defenseless women and non-com-
batants by that sanguinary monster. He
reaches the 18th century when fresh laws
were framed for the degradation of the
people and quotes the following para
graph from A. M. Sullivan's "Story OF
Ireland:
"The eighteenth century was the era Of
persecution in which the law did the
work OF the sword. Then was establish
ed code framed with almost diabolical
ingenuity to extinguish natural affection,
to foster perfdy and hypocrisy, to petrify
conscience, to perpetuate brutal ignor-
ance, to facilitate the work of tyranny by
rendering the vices OF slavery inherent
and natural in the Irish character and to
make Professionalism almost irredeemably
odious as the monstrous incarnation Of
all moral perversions. Having no rights
or franchises, no legal protection of life
or property; disqualified to handle gun
even as a common soldier or gamekeep
er; forbidden even to acquire the ele
ments of knowledge at home or abroad;
forbidden even to render to God what
conscience dictated as his due; what
could the Irish be but abject serfs? What
nation i'll their circumstances could have
been otherwise? Is it not amazing that
any social virtue could have survived
such an ordeal? That any seeds Of good,
any roots of national greatness could
have outlived such long, tempestuous
winter"
He devotes chapter to the "Peep
O'Day Boys" the "Whiteboys" and
"Ribbonmen," and describes the COR
angemen" in their true character. He
shows the growth and progress Of the
order during the present century, and
concludes his story with the reconcilia-
ton Of the conflicting wings at Trenton,
N. ]. The book has been we'll written
and is free from bombast and gush. What
it contains is based upon facts cleaned
from several historians, both friendly and
hostile to the Irish The author has done
his work well, and his production will
doubtless gain widespread circulation
among the members OF the organization
whose history is written for the first time
by friendly hand. We hope Mr.. Nc
Grath will be adequately rewarded by an
immense sale of his very interesting and
instructive volume.