The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-08-26

the country.
Mr.. William O'Brien, who was re-
ceived with great enthusiasm, said:
No words can express all that I feel
as to the fidelity, the unconquerable
fidelity, OF the people OF Tipperary, not
to-day alone, but for many an historic
year. This is a really glorious gather
ing, and it only shows how wrong are
those cowardly people who are always
telling us that all the old spirit is gone
out of the country. The spirit of Mrs.
Mafer, of Kilburry, has not gone down
after nearly twenty years OF battling for
her children's home, and tell you that
it will be the fault and the eternal dis
grace OF the men of this generation if
Mrs. Maher and every other evicted
tenant like her do not live to see the
end Of their troubles, and to see the end
OF Irish landlordism with them. 1t is
great pleasure to see our genial and
distinguished friend, the Archdeacon,
taking his rigftiul place at the head of
his people, and to hear a speech which
will be an important event in the his
tory OF this movement. If l may be al
lowed to say SO, an Irish priest is never
better occupied, outside his own sacred
function, than in helping to preach
peace and unity, and to calm down
those passions and hatreds which have
made such havoc, both for Faith and
Fatherland, among the young men who
are rising up to manhood around us.
That is the doctrine your great arch
bishop has been preaching through all
his illustrious and honored life, from
'4S down to this hour. His graces
blessing has brought good luck in this
movement. 1t only proves once more
that there is no living man OF our race
who understands the workings OF the
Irish mind so thoroughly, or who re-
spends to them SO instinctively with his
own big Irish heart
Here we are all genuinely united on
this broad platform-an eminently Cath
Ole ecclesiastic in the chair-our SPLEEN
did old Protestant Nationalist, John
Ferguson, beside him, and my friend,
Tom Condor, and by our gallant friend,
Jas. O'Kelly, who fought like soldier
and gentleman on the Parnellite side,
and is now fighting with the same hon
esty and determination to put an end to
this unnatural hostility between brother
Nationalist, and to give Ireland once
more a united organization before
which her enemies will have cause to
tremble. This League has not the good
fortune to please everybody. What hui
man being or human project ever did?
This movement is sweeping
on, North, South, West, and even East,
and is gradually gathering into its ranks
every man who is willing to work to put
an end to landlordism and to English
rule, instead Of cravenly abandoning
the country to those paltry parliament
airy rivalries, which made us the mock
cry oil our enemies and the shame of
our fellow-countrymen in other lands.
So far from resenting any
honest suggestion for improving upon
1t, this League went on the principle of
gradually developing itself little by lit
tie, and leaving the common sense of
the country to determine its final con-
stltution and program. Well, up to the
present nothing else has turned UP,
good, bad or indifferent There is no
other ineligible National program OF
any sort or kind before the country that
gives glimmer of hope for the future
OF the Irish cause. Not only that, but
am bound to acknowledge that men
OF all the sections into which the coun-
try was divided couple OF years ago
OF course, l am not speaking of the
members OF parliament, but OF the peo-
Ple-are accepting this League as a way
out OF the miserable morass in which
we are mountaineering it not in
any Wild thoughtless rush, but with a
slow and steady dcliberation which is
the best guarantee for the stability and
permanence Of this movement
Well, that being so, it is our duty to
accept criticism, and even unfair criti-
cism, with great deal of patience. We
have got to make allowance for the diff
tlculties even men of the greatest moral
courage and patriotism have in seeming
to take up different point of view
after all the passion and bitterness OF
the last few years We must be pre-
pared to go any possible length to prove
that this League is no party manoeuvrc
and no personal manocuvre-tllat it in
wolves no surrender of principle for any
man-that it has no bearing whatever
on those dead and half-forgotten parlia-
mentary squabbles in which really no.
body now takes any interest except the
few gentlemen concerned, and as to
that whatever one side proposes the
other is sure to propose the opposite.
The doors OF this League are wide open
IN welcome, and in equal welcome to
men of every parliamentary section,
and, for the matter of that, to the not
inconsiderable body of men who be-
lieve in no parliamentary section at all.
For my own part, regard the