The Irish standard., 1902-03-08


where Irish faith and Irish nationality
were nursed and cherished. And the
hills of Wexford, the plains of Kill
dare, the mountain passes of Wicklow
bear witness to their desperate cour-
age under the shock and scourge of
battle.
They failed, these men of '9s, but
they left behind them memories that
Ireland will not let die. Among these
great men there was one whose name
l will just mention because he was
very closely connected with Robert
Emmett and because his history
throws some light on things that are
dark in Emmet's career. This mans
name was Thomas Adds Emmett. He
came in after years to New York and
his genius and his public worth were
so recognized by the citizens of that
great city that irrespective of creed or
nationality they erected magnificent
monument to his memory. Thomas
Adds Emmett loved truth and right
and Justice and so the English govern
ment could find no more suitable place
for him than prison cell. He escap-
ed to France and Immediately began
the old fight upon new ground. He
put himself into communication with
the French Directory. Here then is
the picture: One brother in France
asking France to remember Cremona,
Landen, Fontenoy and hundred
other battle fields where the Irish
Brigade shed it's blood like water; the
other working as no man ever worked
to prepare the Irish people for the last
and final struggle of their race.
Thomas Adds Emmett obtained prom
lses Of assistance for Ireland; a fleet
was being organized, and for one
bright, glorious hour, never since
Hugh O'Neil rent the ensign of St.
George upon the plains of Ulster, did
it seem nearer to the realization of
the dreams and hopes Of centuries
the establishment on the ruins of
Dublin castle of an Irish Republic.
l mention these things to you to show
that Robert Emmett was not the
youthful dreamer, the wild enthusiast
that men have said he was. Thomas
Adds Emmett had interviews with Ma
poleon and Talleyrand. The one was
a professional butcher and the other q
professional liar and so he was de-
ceived, and one day the news came to
him that his brother Robert had paid
the supreme test of his love for Ire
land by shedding his blood upon the
scaffold.
From that hour England's settled
policy has been the total extermina
ton of the Irish race. In less than
twenty years four hundred thousand
Irish families were flung out on the
roadside to die. In three years over
million persisted from the famine and
the fever brought on by famine. For
fifty years the sound most familiar to
the Irishman's ear was the ring of the
crowbar as it leveled his cabin and the
wall Of the emigrant as he gazed at
the beautiful blue mountains he was
to see no more except perhaps in
dreams. And all that time the Eng
fish press, which had the ear of the
civilized world, Knocked them in their
poverty and desolation and called
them assassins. Alas, no they were
not assassins. 1t is true that from
time to time men mad with grief and
despair took the law into their own
hands and a rifle did ring out upon the
night air and stain of blood was on
the land. But only seldom. They
fled across all the seas in ships and in
the darkest hour of their woe and
bondage your fathers We're not per-
mitted to depart in peace. The Eng
fish press flung after them this bitter
taunt: "How the lion of st. Jarlath's
must look on with envious eve at
these departed demons of assassina-
tlon.' That is what the scribes of the
English press called your fathers, the
demons Of assassination. How do YOU
like it, men and women of Irish
blood? "The Celt," shouted the Lon
don Times, sis gone with vengeance.
the Lord be praised" That scribe
wrote better than he knew; the Celt
went with vengeance and that
vengeance has ripened into hurri-
cane Of hate against England. The
wolf-dog of Irish vengeance some
times swept across the Atlantic and
like Coriolanus ut Corioli how he flut-
tered these pigeons in their doye-cotes
The descendants of these demons of
assassination are here tonight to pay
the tribute of their respect to the ideal
patriot Of Ireland's heroic age. They
love his name and his memory because
he was the incarnation Of opposition
to English rule in Ireland The hun
dreds who have been turned away
from this theater testify more elo-
Quently than words can the place that
Robert Emmett holds in the hearts of
men and women Of Irish blood. The
story Of his death is a weird and pa
thetic story. Those who witnessed
that CHASTITY scene say that when the
English government had hanged this
boy the hangman cut off his head and