The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-04-30
But God knows best; and Mr.. Ran
dali, who is Il devout Catholic never
repines at his lot.
THE HILL OF TARA.
What a Correspondent Has to Say In
Relation Thereto.

Elysian, Mimi, April 20, 1904.
Editor Irish Standards:
Having read i'll your interesting jour
nal OF Il recent date that Lord Dudley,
TIE viceroy OF Ireland, has started Il
subscription for the purchase of the
historic Hill of Tara, County Meath, it
reminds me of Il visit the writer re-
Gently made to my friend and fellow
townsman, Mr.. Daniel Riley. Mr..
Riley is an honored and respected
citizen OF me town of Iosco, Waseca
county. He is also one OF the early
pioneers, having settled here in 1856.
when the white mems cabins were
few and far between. He is now in
his Slth year and Il native of County
Meath, where he was born little
more than i; mile from the Hill of Tara.
In his boyhood days lie used to play
football and other games with his
youthful companions on the hill. He
says that it is quite level on top. In
company with his father and other
members Of the family he attended the
great monster meeting which O'Con-
nell held on the hill in 1913 At that
meeting perhaps more lrishmen as
sembled than ever got together at any
time since or before. AS am Il County
Wexford man L was very much inter-
nst in, 1, =
most sublime.
With regard to the incident of the
"Croppy's Crave mentioned in IL for
mer issue of the Standard, the words
of Father Tom Burke occur to me. In
the very midst of the ruins, there, per-
laps, on the very spot where Ireland's
ancient throne was raised, there is {,
long grass-grown mound. The earth is
raised; it is conversed with Il verdant
sod. The shamrock blooms upon it
and the old peasants will tell you this
is the Croppy's Grave. In the year
l19S the year of the trials and struy-
gles some ninety Wexford men Or
tlcrelbOuts, after the news came that
the cause WAS lost, fought their way
every inch from Wexford until they
came to the Hill of Tara and made
their last stand on the banks of the
river Boyne. There pursued by Il great
number of the kings dragons they
fought their way through these two
miles of intervening country, their
faces to the foe. These ninety heroes,
surrounded, fired upon, still fought
and would not yield until slowly, like
the Spartan band at Thermopyla, they
gained the Hill of Tara and stood there
like lions at bay, surrounded on all
sides by the soldiers. The officer in
command offered them their lives il
they would only lay down their arms
One of these shell-makers had that
morning sent the colonel of the dra-
gOors to take Il cold bath in the Boyne
In an evil hour the Wexford men,
trusting to the plighted faith of this
British officer laid down their arms
and as soon as their guns We're out
of their hands every man of them was
fired upon and to the last one they
persisted upon the Hill Of Tara, and
there they were enshrined among the
ancient glories of Ireland and laid in
the Croppy's Grave. And they tell how
in 1913, when O'COnnell was holding
his monster meetings throughout the
land. in the early morning he stood
upon the Hill of Tara with hundred
thousand brave, strong Irisllmen
around him. There was tent pitched
upon the hill top; there was an altar
erected and an aged priest went to
offer up the mass for the people. But
the old women, the women with the
gray heads, who were blooming maid
ems in '9S. came from every side and
they all knelt round the Croppy's
Grave, and just as the priest began the
mass and the one hundred thousand
on the Hill sides and in the wales below
were uniting III alteration. a loud CRY
of wailing pierced the air. 1t was tina,
of the Irish mothers and Irish maidens
pouring out their souls in sorrow and
wetting with their tears the ShamrOckS
that grew out of the Croppys Grave.
WILLIAM LEE.