Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-02-25
A TRIBUTE. TO ERIN
Justin Huntlef Mccarthy Writes Of
Irishflen Abroad.
ACHIEVED SUCCESS ssDENIED At home
Have HeIped,nlto Swell the Ranks
of Many Armies.
KEARNEY AND SHERIDAN

Copyright. 1899, by the International Literary
and News Service9
written for The Evening Star by Justin Huntley
Mccarthy
Generations of misruIe have denied sue
cess in Ireland to the Irishman. To re-
count the wrongs inflicted upon Ireland by
Engiands injustice is to retail thrice-told
tale. Happily, in some degree that injIs-
tice Is thing of the past. The Irish Cath
Ole Is no longer denied, as, not SO very
long ago. he was denied, all the rights of a
human being. The merciless oppression
which ground the Irish peasant down into
the earth which he TILED for aliens or alb
sentees to reap has slowly but surely been
diminished. The heavy load has been
Hshtened a little. Something has been done,
though much remains to do to better the
condition of Ireland and of Ireland's sons.
A great English party is pledged to the adj
vocacy of principles of political liberty
which would have seemed less than
treason to that same party a generation
ago. The time may come, the time may not
be Tar OFT, when the patriotic Irishman,
eager to attain that success which is the
aim of every buoyant spirit, may seek 1t in
his own country and among his own people
ana not pc forced to cross the seas and fol-
low his star into far countries and among
foreign peoples But the time is not yet.
The curse of Swift still prevails. The Irish
man of today, like his grandfather and his
great grandfather, and many an ancestor
before that. knows that the great rewards
OF life ara not to be gained in an island
gagged by tyranny and crippled by oppres-
sion. The 1rishman at home, the Irishnan
VINO mas not surrendered to the dominant
race has ever had few of those chances CT
distinction that have always been freely
offered to the Irishman abroad. If the alb
sentee landlord has been one of Ireland's
f1,n otS,ny tot
mas been one of her greatest losses 1t is
tragic to think that Ireland has been de-
rr1Ved OF the genius, the courage. the wit
that nave made the Irishman abroad so
SUCCESSFUL with success denied at home.
Where They Have Conquered.
The continent of Europe offered fruit
full field for laurels to the adventurous
Irdshman with little. other fortune than his
stout heart and his, good sword. Beneath
the lilies of F'ranaesin the splendid squad
rons of the chivalry of Grand Old Aus
tria" to use the fine phrase of Mr.. George
Mefedith-ln the. Well thrilled regiments of
the little Prussi& thaftwas yet to grow SO
great, lrtshmerI.songM and found those
opportunities fdE Military distinction that
We're denied to Pm &C home. Beyond the
Pyrenees, too t&heathfthe bright skies of
Spain the warn Irish blood grew hotter
ana the warm F4lsh kfart beat faster in a
land whose cree4and whose character were
so intimately hS owl Wherever true
hearts, true haff3s and true swords were
needed the waTnaerinEs Irishnan found a
welcome and mSde agpane and fame. In
those early dayssft was especially military
glory that appealed tnsthe exile from Ire
land. Born of fighting race inheritor of
fighting spirit, STEPPED in the spirit of
free lance chivalry he was ready to serve
any flag and any cause save one. Wherever
the recruiting sargeants of the armies of
Europe carried their canes and fiuttered
their. shoulder knots men from every coun-
txys &1kl-- n
them. offering ther ttbpd and brains in ex-
change fer a chance of. SIX feet OF honor
able earth and a chance to strike, some
time and some how. a blow at the tradi-
tional enemy. To the minds eye they seem
TO line up, those 1egions of gallant hone
less children of ireland, fierce tender gen
eratiOns, habted in every uniform under
heaven talking every speech on earth with
the brave Mfleslan brogue and ready at
any instant to fight anybody and every
body. but above ALL one enemy with the
cheerful pugnacity which came with their
first breath, only to leave with their last.
A Famous Old Ballad.
/ know of nothing which expresses more
patheticaIly the position of the Irishman
abroad than the ballad which belongs to
the Spirit of the Nation" collection, the
ballad Of "The Irish Brigade" 1t repre-
sents the comrades Of that famous cohort
gathered together on the eve of battle
The mess tent is full and the glasses are
set and the gallant Count Thomond is pres
ident yet The veteran proposes a health
to the French king. which is drunk in a
rapture of loyalty and applause: a toast to
King James, which is received with rever-
ence, and one to z"George the Elector,"
which is greeted with cheerful derision.
Then comes the tragic note, Good luck to
the girls that we wooed long ago where
Shannon and Barrow and Blackwater
flow" Dear and beautiful names of dear
and beautiful rivers, to be forever remem-
h NT-sv, =
Seine and God knows how many alien
streams besides. so the song sweeps on to
the last toast, God prosper old Ireland"
and at that toast the cheeks of the brave
men pale and in another moment they rush
out to fight as they have fought before, as
they will fight again.
That song of the Irish brigade is to me a
deathless allegory, the abiding parable of
the good and brave men. the generous and
the faithful and the true who have carried
their love for Ireland into strange lands
and surrendered their genius to strange
services, and have shown to all the world
what the irishman can do where he had a
chance to do and to dare and to suffer and
be strong, and, above all things, be free
Aid to American Independence.
After a while. however, a new field OPEN
ed out for Irish enterprise and Irish am
bition. Irish hands and Irish hearts no
longer were to give themselves to France
and to Austria, to Prussia and to Spain.
Across the Atlantic a number OF gentlemen
were signin,, Declaration of Indepen-
dence; a gentleman from Virginia was re-
viewing insurgent troops near Boston in
Massachusetts,, and a new opportunity was
offered to the Irishman abroad. Irish SOL
diers and Irish generals helped Washington
to victory. There were Irishmen at Breeds
Hill and at Valley Forge. Irishrnen whose
zeal for tie young colonial union was
auiekened by the Thought that the enemy
of liberty abroad was the enemy of their
liberty at home. From that day forward
the American republic became the shelter
of the exile, the hope and the home of the
Bright in one of those eloquent speeches in
defense of Ireland which he delivered in
the days of his greatness. whenever the
Irishman thinks of freedom and HAPPINESS
he turns his eyes TO- the setting SUM-"
America became, fin the picturesque phrase
of a lover of Ireland, the next parish to
Innisfail No need now to stiffen the reg
iments of France, to swell the levies of
Austria and SPAIN Over the swans Bath.
In the track of the Wild Geese, Law a land
of freedom where the impetuous. eager
Celt might know the joys and strive for the
prizes denied to HIM in his own home. And
so it came to pass, that for the last century
much of the besei Of Tfeland's breed have
ma ssad in a ceaAeIesSo stream ooro,, -