The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-03-31

Says the Shan Van Voght;
Where shall we have our camp?
Says the Shan Van Voght;
On the Curragh OF Kildare,
And the boys will all be there
With their pixies in good repair,
Says the Shan Van Vogln.
That, my friend, is from what Halli-
day-Spurling calls the Irish Marscil-
laise, and the poor old woman" sang
it in very troublous tones; in fact, in
the year Of our Lord and the Irish re-
bellion of 'oS, says Professor David
Cotter in the Catholic Standard and
Times. 1t is one OF those ballads which
Andrew Fletcher, of Saltoun, says are
apt to render laws imperative. This
particular ballad was, indirectly, the
cause OF many good Irish family
leaving the land of Fire and seeking a
new home and making new ties in this
great land OF ours. To-day, after all
these years, it has somewhat trouble
some effect, if you think the matter
out.
! Eight years agone stood on tho
Curragh of Kildare and placed five
sl1ilings on Holly for the Town Plate.
The man who took my money was a
'Sasscnacl," if accent and disregard for
a certain aspirated letter be any cri-
tcrion; and those who were parting with
greater amounts than l was we're as
certainly Irish. Holly lost and l
brought back my card to the City OF
Churches as another testimony of how
things may be lost in Ireland But the
few weeks in the "Old Countric" gave
me an aching at the heart. Brave coun-
try! gallant land! Eheu! fugaccs la
buntur ami. All, the unequal struggle
the rise and the fall-thc quick pulsa-
ton Of life-thc famine-tlc disease
the ship-thc land of the stranger! To
you, Isle of saints, how constant has
been sorrow! how dearly has she loved
you!
Tie Sunday following tic day that
Holly betrayed the trust placed in her
and, l may say, on her, l saw the Royal
Dublin Fusilccrs attending open-air
Mass on the Curragh. About eighty
per cent of the regiment was present,
and attendance was not compulsory.
This may account for some things which
puzzle lis in the South African cam
paign.
The Curragh OF Kildare includes with
in its boundaries some five thousand
acres OF pasture land, and to-day it has
three specific uscs-pasturc for sheep,
tracing ground for the province OF
Lcinster, and place Of permanent &C
jcommodation and instruction for $4,000
British soldiers. The money obtained
for the flesh and wool of the sheep
maintains absentee" landlords in Lon
don and elsewhere; the racing takes
many pound sterling from none too
fat Irish pockets; the barracks and en-
campment take much Drawn and muscle
i'll the shape OF Irish peasants and con-
vert them into English soldiery. Eng
land gives them much honor in Bocr-
land to-day; in fact, she gives them
precedence. lis ont lie pas.
If these five thousand fertile acres
we're divided among a satisfied peas
ant proprictary-but why illustrate from
Brctagnc and Langucdoc here? We are
talking Of the Curragh, in the Barony
OF Ophaly East, in the county OF Kill
Dharra, the Church of the Oaks.
South OF the town OF Kildare lies the
Curragh, which Thackcray calls "a
great strctcl, OF brilliant green coun-
try" When he saw it it must have
been beautiful indeed, with its sward
ncckcd here and there with clumps Of
golden -blossomcd Irish furzc. Hc is en-
rapturcd with it and with the hills
away to the left, picturesque in their
outline and OF wonderful COLOR" quite
different color, he says, to that in
England" different shadows, different
lights 1t is said that St. Brigittc was
the first owner of the Curragh, it lav-
ing been given to her by an Irish prince
whom she had converted to Christian
ity. His ownership may not have been
respected by his neighbors; but Bri-
CITIES fame made her title secure, and
her unboundcd charity drew such null
titudcs to her monastery that it was