The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-08-24
BoYcor1lNe A 1ANpcRAsBss.

a plutocracy.
B0YcOTrlN6 A LANDCRABBER.
The United Irish League, founded
by William O'Brien, recently achieved
a glorious victory over the British gov
eminent in the city of Cork. Nine
Catholic residents of the town of Tai
low, county Waterford, boycotted a
Catholic neighbor who had taken a
farm from which a Protestant had
been evicted by the Duke of Devon
shire for non-payment of rent They
were put on trial in their own town
and acquitted. Then on change of
venue they We're brought to Cork.
where Chief Justice O'Brien, common
ly called "Peter the Packer" occupied
the bench to convict them. He is the
same scoundrel who was recently stig-
matized by an Irish member in the
British parliament as "a judicial
blackguard."
The trial commenced by excluding
every Catholic from the jury. Thirty
six of them We're ordered to "stand
aside" and n jury of Protestants was
selected. The judge informed the
twelve Professionals that if the travers-
ers were found guilty he would deal
leniently with some of them. One of
the jurors answered that similar
promise was made on former trial,
but the judge imposed heavy SEN
tence, nevertheless. peter the Pack
err replied that he would not break
his word, but the jury evidently did
| not believe him, for they acquitted
three of the prisoners and disagreed on
the other six.
The reason why packed jury of
Protestants failed to convict the nine
Catholics is obvious. The Catholics on
trial refused to deal in business with
| O'Keefe, a Catholic, who had taken
the farm of the Parkers, who are
PrOtestants and Tories. Their offense
consisted in withdrawing their trade
from O'Keefe and giving it to another
whom they had set up in business as a
competitor. They had cautioned
O'Keefe against taking the. farm and
threatened him with boycott, but
he paid no attention to their protests.
In a years time he found himself ut
terly ruined in business with only a
| few customers left out of 700 who
traded with him before.
The attorney who represented the
prisoners was The McDermott, and in
his address to the jury he emphasized
the fact that they We're Catholics,
while the Parkers, whose cause they
espoused, were Protestants. mo man
with an 'O' or Mac before his name
was allowed in the jury box" ex-
claimed The McDermott, "but so free
were the traversers from bigotry that
they found them helping Protestants
in trouble in the same way they
would in helping the strongest and
most ardent member of their own
church."
1t is to the credit of the packed Prot
estant jury that it refused to convict
men who stood so loyalty by Prot
estant neighbor in misfortune. These
men risked their freedom for neigh.
Dor who was opposed to them both in
politics and religion, and the Protest
ants on the jury discharged three Of
them and disagreed on the other six.
"Peter the Packer was disappoint-
ed. He intended to make an exam
pie of the noble Irishmen who had
exhibited such friendship for man of
different faith who was the victim
of British landlord high in the coun-
ellis of the government. The judicial
ruffian said the trial of the six men
was still pending. He is determined
that they shall 60 to prison. 1t is
probable they will next be brought to
Dublin or Belfast where a packed
Orange jury will convict them of high
crime in standing by Protestant
neighbor who was turned out of his
ancestral home.
The men of Tallow have given a
lesson in religious liberation which
Orangemen would do we'll to Initiate.
They violated no law in refusing to
patronize landgrabber, though "Pe-
ter the Packer" who is a Catholic.
told the Protestant jury he had Sc
lected for conviction. that the Pope
had condemned boycotting in the days
of the land league. We hope that no
jury in Ireland will convict these men,
and that the government and its en-
mined ruffians will be baffled by a
united people seeking their rights in a
legal and constitutional manner.