The National tribune., 1902-03-27
THE SHAMROCK.
Its Antiquity as National Emblem.
CThe Pilot)

Most of the scholars nowadays refuse
to assign any antiquity to the shamrock
as an Irish emblem, says a correspondent
Of the Freeman's Journal of Dublin.
They say that il has not two centuries
Of existence as such and that the beauti-
full legend of st. Patrick's use of the
plant as an illustration of the mystery Of
the Trinity is Il myth and was first told
in 1907, and by an English chrOnccr
There are few of the scholars who have
Investigated this subject do not mOralze
upon this fact and marvel that legend
and national emblem should be i'm
posed upon Il whole nation and treasured
and told to its remOtest corners, on
mere tale invented by an admittedly OBJ
scure foreign writer.
Therein, perhaps, lies the weakness of
the scholars. These English writers were
never, perhaps, heard of in Ireland until
the scholars quite recently found them
out and treated them as authorities upon
the subject.
1t is pointed out as a strong argument
that none of the ancient glossaries con-
tain the word shamrock, and that its first
appearance in vocabulary or dictionary
was in the Irish English Dictionary, pub
lished in 1907, by Lhwyd. The word
and a quarter older than that. for in 1913
in the Image of Ireland with Discov-
erie of Wood Kerne," written by John
Derrick, and published three years later
in London in black letter. there is the
following reference To the Irish:
For in verie trOthe my harte Ibhorreth
their dealings, and my soul doocth de-
tcste their wilde shamrOcke Manners
Seven years earlier, in 1911. Campion's 9
jsta Of Irnl
tanning the following passage:
"ShamrOtes, water creSSeS, and other
herbes they feed upon"
These writers all treat of the shamrock,
or the shamrotc, as Il well-known word
needing no definition or explanations, and
if the word was so universally recognized
in their day. lis among the people
in writing or Specch must have been
much older.
The glOsSaries are all far from com
plete, and the older glossarieS are incOm-
plete chiefly as regards the most common
place words which needed no definition.
Some Of the best established facts as to
the art and customs of the ancient Irish
would disappear il the absence Of liter
airy description is to discredit their ex-
istence. There is no description of the
round towers. which are a substantial
possession of Ireland, notwithstanding
Various ornaments have been found and
ancient dwelling places have been laid
bare colroborating local tradition in spite
of the negative evidence in history as to
their non-eXistence.
Numerous traditions peOpled the cOun-
try with legendary heroes whom literary
students declared to be mythical, but
since the discovery of ogham stones, and
the study of the inscriptions. numbers of
funeral monuments have been found bear
ing names corresponding to those that
tradition assigned often to the same dis
trict. 1t would be absurd to identify these
monuments with the legendary heroes, but
they corroborate tradition to the extent
of showing that persons bearing such
names existed.
Investigations and discoveries in Ire
land and elsewhere constantly vindcate
tradition against the abuse of written his
tory.