The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-03-19
ST. PATRICK.
Was an Important Factor In the Making
Of Ireland,

aul ldctof Ill Tue making OIL Ireland
quite apart from all question Of his
& apostolic mission that there is deep
affection for him in the heart of every
Irish Ceit. says Anita MacAIahon in
\ the Dolphin. Yet so great is the ma
tional tendency to seize on the ludi-
crous side of things, that even our
great apostle is not infrequently made
the topic of jest or pleasantly, a fact
which, though not unkindly meant.
seems out of harmony with the MEM
DRY of one who is as noble Il type as
stands out from the background OF
any country's history. Percllance we
ourselves are somewhat to blame for
the false opinion there is abroad con-
corning Ireland, for though we'll con-
scious of how fatally easy it is to sink
from the sublime to the ridiculous, we
are apt to forget that it is almost an
impossible feat to climb from the ri
diculous to the sublime.
The Donnybrook, Fair type of Irish.
man who, hornpipes through life, the
shillalagh in one hand and Il flask of
Mountain Dew in the other has. by
medium OF the comic opera and
drama. become so traditional as to
have almost erased from the worlds
memory the other side of Irish his
tory, we'll represented by the majestic
figure of st. Patrick, whose emblems
are quite as typical of Irish character;
the crozier standing for the high
idealism of our race, AMI the sham
rock with its tenacious grip on Irish
soil, we'll illustrating the attachment
of the Irish Celt to his country
There is scarcely a hillock or village
in Ireland which is not in some way.
associated with the saints name, and,
though there has probably been some
exaggeratiOn in the matter, | would
remind the captious critics who say
r that it would have taken ten st. Pat
riclls to have covered all the ground
mentioned in the Patriciun legends,
that the apostles mission extended
Il comparatively small country. Every
thing Irish is SO entwined with the
figure of the apostle that it were Il
sheer impossihlity to imagine an Ire
land without st. Patrick. 1t was no
idle promise that was made the saint
when it was said to him that 80 long
as sea grdeth this isle so long thy
name shall hang in splendor DER it,
like the stars of Cod
He is the Dante of Irish literature
the first Gaelic Ms. being his beauti-
full hymn which received the title of
'Deer's Cry" from the fact that the
lives of the saint and his companions
We're saved by the ass;lssins installing
this plaintiff chant for the cry of deer.
lrelands history might almost be
said to have begun with st. Patrick,
for at the close of the fourth century
the population of Ireland was only
100000, and there was scarcely n good
sized village throughout the country:
rs it has been POLITICALLY expressed,
forests We're the cities of the early
Celts.
Our authentic history does begin
with st. Patrick, and it is with him
that we are enabled even to glance
into the glimmering twilight of pro-
Christian Ireland since it was by the
introduction of the Latin script that
it BECAME possible to set down in
writing the myths and legends of our
pagan fOrefathers. st. Patrick in Il
prophetic spirit seems in truth to have
foreseen that these would be rejoic-
ing to countless good people until the
end of time"
Regarding the origin and birthplace
of st. Patrick Il whole literature has
accumulated. which we'll illustrates
the truth of Mark Twain's remark. as
to the amount of INSTRUMENTATION that
a conscientious person in pursuit of
information can acquire. Considering
that one of the earliest historians of
st. Patrick writing toward the close
of the seventh century. complained of
the hopeless obscurity enveloping the
saints early life. it speaks well for.
the llOpefulness of human nature that,
nothing daunted, people still so on
guessing
The nationalist suggested range be-
tween the far asunder poles of Irish
man and Jew, and no less than four
teen places claim the honor of being
the saints birthplace. All these
theories We're, however, swept aside
the other day by a twentieth century
historian, who makes the startling
statement that st. Patrick was really
born in the vicinity of London. Hence
we need not be astonished to hear
some one style the apostle a genuine
"cockney."
On the other hand, some writers
have denied the existence of st. Pat
rick altogether. Their extremely logi-
cal argument is deducted from the
fact that, since the apostle is said to
have been born in so many different
places, it clearly follows that he was
never born anywhere at all. This
method of reasoning might have had
serious results OH the history Of the
Irish race if the mischievous mania Of