The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-04-28
THE NrERMoUNTAIN COLORADO CATHOLIC

! whom Cromwell and William fastened
/ on his native land. Gladstone sWep,
away Church ascendancy, and Parnel
ended most of their opportunities 1oI
| pluder. But they are still intrencheo
in the judiciary, in the executive, IN the
police and in the magistracy, ana tney
cling to their intrenchments with the
tenacity of pirates clinging to a cap
tured prize ship.
The queen and the parliament oi
England are now the sole support OF
this ruling caste. Is there free born
man alive who would not scorn the
Irishman who by word or act or deed
would indicate love or loyalty to the
government that still upholds the rul-
ing caste in Ireland? Gladstone tried
to end its power forever and give the
Irish autonomy. but royalty and Eng
lish aristocracy were too much for
him, and he died with his greatest
work undone Now we are told that
England and its queen are feeling a
change of heart.
THE IRELAND OF TODAY.
Events in South Africa have revealed
the weakness of the empire and the
valor and genius of Irish soldiers and
generals have made it patent as the
MONDAY sun that Ireland. content and
happy and governed, means the
safety of the British empire and an al
lance of the English speaking world
against the growing might and power
of the Slav. Till Ireland is happy, con-
tent and free, wherever on Gods foot
stool there stands a true Irishman,
there also is a deadly enemy Of Eng
land; and it is just that it should be so.
The dawn of justice and truth may be
al hand in England. No one doubts the
capacity of the Irish race for great at
fairs; none so ignorant as not have
been witnesses to its extraordinary
achievements in America, in Australia,
in Canada and in India in this century
of ours. The race that could have en-
dured the awful ordeal of centuries of
slavery and enforced ignorance and
bonds and chains and death and
martyrdOm, and come forth from that
ordeal unconquered, resolute and ag-
gressive, is mighty race and indie
structible as the polar star. EX-GOv-
ernor O'FerralI of Virginia once re-
marked to me: Il would not give "a
drop of my Celtic Irish blood for all
the gold mines of California" And we
Irish who walk with head erect and
fearless eye and dauntless heart. know
that we are children of the truest, the
bravest and most constant people that
God has yet created. We are heirs to
SUI les llldI lO OllltI IdCe CdAI UudSl
of, and we believe that in the councils
of destiny we are fated for a resplen-
dant morrow"
Standing on the verge of etc nifty. with
the light reflected from the infinite al.
ready shadowing her, it may perhaps
have been permitted to England's s queen
to see the true inwardness of Ireland's
strange and tragic story. She may be
granted to realize that a mighty des-
tiny awaits this race, which boasts the
bravest men and the fairest and most
virtuous maidens the world has ever
seen. The full significance of the awful
martyrdom of this Irish race may now
be graSped by her for the first time,
and her pilgrimage to Ireland may be
akin to that of the Plantagenet to the
tomb of Beckett. over the old age of
Gladstone there stole a feeling of love,
of pity and of Veneration for Ireland
and the Irish that was little short of
The real facts of Irish his
tory filled him with unutterable admi-
ration for the Irish people and with an
insa table longing to do justice to Ire
land. Does it not seem that a similar
feeling is creeping over the aged queen,
and that as the mists of passion, pre-
judice and ignorance are torn aside
and the real facts of history are laid
bare to her she is hungry to repair the
evils which her government has in
aicted, and thirsting to do justice to
this heroic race? 1t is significant if it
should prove so, but in my philosophy
the reign of truth and justice is as in
evitable in the evolution of nations as
the waxing or the warning of the moon
Dr the changes of the seasons. 1 do
not desire to peer into the councils of
the Eates, but believe as firmly as
0nlipVn in tie-i
The Irish race has been marked out to
play as glorious a part in the future
IF the world as ever before it has been
given to a people or nation to play.
P. A. O'FARRELL.
New York. April g. 1900