The Irish standard., 1900-05-19
IUNFORGoTfEN BY THE CELTIC RACE
A Recital of Cruelties Makes
the Blood Run Cold.
UNPARALLELED IN THEfR ATROCITY
Fidelity Of the Irish People to
the Catholic Church.

II The page of Irish history to which
VI refer, and which page ought to be
Mburned into the minds of the Irish Cath
IN olic race throughout the world, is that
Y which records the sacrifices, trials and
prosecutions suffered by the faithful
Catholics of Ireland during the inhuman
Epenal law times in defence of their faith
and fatherland, writes VIM. Ellison in
the Buffalo Union and Times. That
was period, as the world knows, to try
mems souls and to test their attachment
to their religion and country by pro-
cess of barbarity and inhumanity which
makes ones blood boil even at this dis
{ tance of time and place; although we
who live in this age of civilization can
never realize what the Catholics of Ire
! land endured at the hands of the Eng
lish prosecutors during the bloody reign
of terror and slaughter that followed
s2sthe religious atrocity, mockery and
;sa perversion called the Reformation" :"
/; forced into prominence by unfortunate
4 ieretics and apostates of the type Of
Luther, Henry VIII. and Elizabeth.
y Amy practical and fervent Catholic Of
the Irish race who takes up volume
that recounts fairly and nakedly the
atrocious tortures invented by the pre-
tended reformers to force Catholics to
give up their faith, must shudder at the
unutterable cruelties inflicted upon their
to the faith Of Christ as it was planted
in Ireland by St. Patrick. And we,
who live in these soft times OF ease and
comfort, wonder how our forefathers
could withstand the torments OF the
racks, the blows of the headsman's S
sword, the axe of the executioner, the
boiling pitch-cap, the thumbscrews, the
quick-limed boots, the tortures of the
"Scavenger's Daughter" an instrument
of torture in which the doomed victim
could neither sit down nor stand up.
But no matter how much the fancy may
strive to paint picture of the terrible
barbarities OF that heinous period, we
could not bring even the faintest idea
''of the reality near to us. But, being
more or less impressed by study of the
painful retrospect, we try to figure in
our own mind how the delicately nur-
tured Catholics of this present day
would come out OF the ordeal if brought
face to face will, such storm of reli-
gious persecution, sacrifice and slaugh-
ter
This trend of thought was induced
and made vivid in Our mind last even
ing by listening to the reproof of ven
cradle and eloquent Redemptorist rector
in reminding his Irish Catholic congre-
y CATION how lax they were in some points
of their faith, or rather how unmindful
they were OF the heroic qualities of the
ancestors from whom they had inherit
ed the priceless boon OF the true faith.
He vividly recalled the heroism OF the
early martyrs and missionaries, who
gave up all to follow in the footsteps OF
the Master, and confirmed, as He had
done, their devotion and fidelity by
shedding their blood. He dwelt upon
the nobility of the Christian leroism OF
the generations of Irish parents who
:. stood as firm as rock against the
heretical wave of Lutheran error and
blasphemy backed up by England's lust
full and apostatc monarch and all the
engines of death and destruction em-
ployed by the army of savage pcrsecu-
tors sent across the channel to subJu-
gate the faithful Irish nation, and make
it conform to the new code of worship
invented by the king and parliament. He
instanced case of extreme poverty and
suffering, in which heart-broken fa-
ther was found exhausted on door
step, with one dead child in his arms
and another by his side, dying from
sheer starvation, and himself suffering
the pangs of hunger. His pitiable con-
dition attracted the attention Of pass
er-by, who inquired as to the cause oi
his distress. The distressed victim con-
fessed his utter destitutio.! and helpless
condition and pointed to his dead and
dying children, and told of the wretched
hut beyond in which lay the cold re-
mains of his dead wife. 1t was tale
of grief to melt the most hardened heart
yet the person appealed to was not "a
good Samaritan" although he promised
food and all other necessaries against
temporal wants; but the conditions were