The Irish standard., 1899-01-07
NO TRAITOR 10 HIS COUNTRY
But He Accepted a Pension From
the Government.
A CONSTITUTIONAL AGlTArOR.
His Memory Unjustly Stigmatized
by Historians.

No panoramic survey of the Irish CEN
tenary would be complete unless it in
cluded the personality of the Rev. Arthur
O'Leary, writes John j. O'Shea in the
Catholic World Magazine. That eminent
Capuchin in an age distinguished for
brilfiancy in letters and debate was for
many years the most conspicuous on that
exalted stage. 1t is strange irony of
fate that he is now all but forgotten.
Not even the Drapier Letters-we
might indeed conjecture not those of
"Junius," high as these ranked in politi-
cal literature-created more interest in
the realm of polemical discussion than
the pamphlets of Fir. O'Leary. They were
more potent in their effects upon society
than either series of their famous pre-
decessors. They We're emphatically his
tory-making documents-that is, some of
them. So invaluable were they in pre-
serving peace for the time in Ireland
that the government of the day, hostile
as it was and hostile as public sentiment
was to the idea of Catholic enfranchise-
ment, felt justified in endeavoring to Sc
cure the author as permanent ally.
O'Leary was offered position by the
ministry and in an evil hour he accepted
the proposal. This at time when meas
ures were being actually prepared to
q n1o i,,o1 l., Sc
own order, altogether from Ireland, ap-
peared to many a very anomalous trans
action on both sides. 1t is little wonder
that it placed O'Leary under cloud of
suspicion, and it accounts to a large ex-
tent for the singular oblivion which has
..allen upon his memory and his writings
And yet the suspicion may be altogether
unjust.
FIR. O'Leary, it ought to be remember
ed, was man possessing no regular
financial resources. The position of a
priest in Ireland during his period was
very precarious, very often dangerous
The prospect of an annual income upon
which he might safely depend was not
one to be lightly thrust aside. If he
could accept such an offer without any
violation of his own private convictions
and the rules of his order, he can hardly
be blamed if he saw nothing very in
vidious in it. Yet it is pitiful for his
own reputation that he viewed the mat
ter in that light. His influence with his
fellow-countrymen at one period of his
career was very great. It would still be
accorded its full need Of acknowledge
ment had he, like all his brother priests
in Ireland, held aloof from a government
that had not the courage of it's own con-
victions with regard to Catholic emanci-
patton.
FIR. O'Leary's span of life covered the
very bitterest period of penal persecution
in Ireland. 1t was during his lifetime
that acts of parliament were passed en-
abling son to oust his father from his
property by CONFORMING" and Offering
the same scale of premium for killing a
friar as killing wolf. It was during his
time almost that the Irish vceroy, the
duke of Grafton, introduced a bill for
melting out to the Irish priesthood when
. caught, the treatment of Turkish slaves.
And yet by the force of his writings he
was enabled before he died to influence
English public opinion so as to procure
a considerable relaxation of the barbar-
GUS code in law as we'll as in practice.
He was perhaps more instrumental to
this end than any public man in Ireland,
inasmuch as he had. on more than one
occasion, made the English government
his debtor by his efforts toward the tran
QUILTING of the country.
About this time much alarm was ex-
cited by fears of foreign invasion France
and Spain were helping the infant
American colonies, and their fleets hov-
cred about the English and Irish seas to
prevent reinforcements being sent from
England. Father O'Leary wrote, of his
own volition apparently, nervously ar
gumentative pamphlet, entitled can Ad-
dress to the Common People," showing
them strong reasons why they should
take measures in defense of the country
and this at once enlisted the gratitude
of the government. The good impress
sion he had made in this important
quarter was speedily followed up by
services which he was enabled to render,
both by writing and going about among
the peasantry personally as priest, to
effect the suppression of Whiteboyism.
His writings on this subject provoked a
controversy with the Protestant bishop
Of Cloyne, DR.. Woodward, who endeav-
ored to twist the circumstance into a
proof that there was something in the
nature of a Popish conspiracy In the noe
turnal misdeed Of the Whiteboys, and
the sporadic revolts Of the peasantry