The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-12-07

summer of 1913. He found it newly
awakened land. The Dublin Nation.
with Duffy, Davis, and Dillon at it's
head, had been established and was
disseminating it's glorious teachings
throughout the country. Father Mathew
had reclaimed many of the fall
ell ones by his temperance crusade,
and O'Connell was holding his great
demonstrations from one end of Ire
land to the other. The people had
!resolved to become nation once
again.
His father was then mayor of Wa
tcrford. He had the honor of being
the first Catholic mayor elected in
Ireland in two hundred years, and he
was worthy of that distinguished
honor.
In 1913, Il month after lie had cele-
brated his twentieth birthday, he took
part i'll the great repeal meeting of
Lismore and there delivered his first
political speech. He acquitted him
self so we'll on that occasion that
OConnell, who was present, clapped
him on the shoulder and enthusiastic
ally eXclaimed: "Well done, young
Ireland!"
| This was the origin of that term,
which was destined to go down the
ages as typifying one of the most bril-
liant bands of patriots that ever
strived for Ireland
For two years after his speech at
I.ismOre AIeagher refrained from ac-
tive participation in politics. but he
did not lose interest i'll the national
movement. He spent his time in
studying for the bar and travelling.
but always kept a keen eye on the
progress of events.
In his personal Rccollections" lie
gives us a faithful description of those
years and dwels particularly on the
entry of Smith O'Brien into Concilia-
ton Hall on the third Monday in Jan
uary, 1914, while the State Trials were
going on.
The moment O'Brien was recog-
nized," he writes, from the floor OF
the huge hall, from the galleries. from
every place where they stood or sat,
the thousands assembled there that
day leaped up with the widest de-
| 1isr1,f 4 .1,r ,nv, III
hear only in Ireland, shook the very
stones in the building. Again and
again it was renewed. Again and
again did the enormous mass seem to
leap toward the ceiling, and again and
again did it sway to and fro, black
forest bending to the Storm"
While this soul-inspring scene was
being enacted, Meaghcr was sitting on
enc of the committee benches. He
had Il full view of the scene and wit
lcsscd every emotion O'Brien betrayed
every incident of that magnificent
welcome.
The story of another day in O'Brien's
cventful history-when death itself
confronted hints thus feelingly told
by Mcagller:
'"Thc day lie was sentenced to death
in the Court House of Clonmcl, when
he was brought back in that hideous
prison van to the Jail, escorted by a
body Of Orange constabulary with
fixed bayonets and ball cartridge, and
almost every man in the town sllrunk
back and covered, and the women
alone, filling the heavens with their
passionate cries of grief and ven
gcancc, followed him to the gates and
sworc to be true to him, and not see
him murdcrcd-that day. as l sat with
my noble young comrades in low
arched cell, which from the top of the
Jail overlooked the street, and those
cries came up to us on the cold wind,
and echoed through the dismal corri-
durs and dungeons of our fortress, |
could not help calling to mind the
scene of his welcome in Cancellation
Hall and contrast the tumultous Ell
thusiasm with which O'Brien was then
greeted with the bleak loneliness of
the day he was sentenced to death.
Did the contrast ever occur to him
self? l never could bring myself to
ask him. The question might have
gone like Il dagger to his heart. AS it
WAS, throughout his Imprisonment
and exile he shut his eyes to the past,
and with Il noble calmncss endured
all that had bcfallen him."
All it is very hard to stop quoting
from Meaglcr His sublime words.
his depth Of feeling, his clear, express
i've style, and, above ALL the great
heart which continually wells up in
all his speeches and writings make Il
extremely hard to part with, even for
four short weeks.
Every word he said of O'Bricn is
true of himself. as the continuation of
this story will emincntly prove. He
can well say. with Michael Dohcny--
I've run the outlaws bold career
And borne his load of ill!
His troubled rest and waking fear
With fixed sustaining will;
And should his last dread chance be-
fall
|