The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-04-09

if he were seen going into an eating
house in country town, that the by
ISLANDERS might think he was half
starved at home! 1t is stories and pc
culiarities like these that have made
printers copy" for our endless critics;
it is stories and peculiarities like these
which have gotten for us name we
| do not honestly deserve.
The other stock charge of jealousy is
! extremely put in the following anecdote
OF Doctor Johnson: Boswell once asked
him: "How is it, doctor, you always
speak ill of Scotland and never of Ire
land?" And the doctor replied: "You
Scotchmen are Joined in conspiracy
to make little of everyone else and
much of yourselves. The Irish on the
other hand are an impartial people. I
never heard an IriShman say good
word of another" would like the
doctors ghost to define his terms, to
define what he meant by an Irishman.
1t would not take the learned doctors
acumen to observe that even today, if
Derry man met Kerry man in Der
ry on the twelfth of July, or the Kerry
man the Derry man in Kerry on the
seventeenth of March, that their criti-
cism Of each other would be quite
lively. 1 admit that in private life,
in business, in social relations, jealousy
is a rather marked feature in our
character; that no persons have suf-
fered more from low Irish jealousy
than honest Irishmen themselves; but
l do say that under the pressure of a
generous impulse, or when the object
at stake is one Of high Importance
like nationality or religion-there has
been more steadiness, more cordiality
and more unanimity in the Irish than
in any people of modern times.
Ladies and gentlemen, whatever be
the defects of our character and the
plight of our country, we Irish have
made an impression on mankind. A
great French writer, Ernest Renan,
has said, speaking of the nations
that are fitted to play part
in universal history, that they
must die first that the world may
live through them. A people, he says,
must choose between the tranquil and
obscure destiny of one who lives for
himeslf and the troubled career of one
who lives for humanity. The nation
Which revolves within it's breast social
and political problems is always weak
politically" Thus it was with Judea.
On the ruins of Jerusalem arose the
city of God-the kingdom of our Lord
on EARTH" Thus it was with Greece.
On the fatal field of Chaeronea the
page OF her history was to all appear
ance closed, yet from that moment she
was to enter on a larger life and a
universal empire. So would it be with
Ireland. She would have deposited her
leaven upon the literature and Protest
antism of England, as she would have
left the marks of her muscles upon the
Industries of her bravery on the bat
tlefelds Of America.
But 1 do not believe that Ireland.
though often doomed to death, is fated
yet to die. She has survived so far
the ordeals that extinguished Greece
and Juda. The Roman leveled Juda
to the dust and changed the very name
of Hellas. England has never leyeled
ireland nor has she been able to change
her name, much less her sentiment.
Yes, it needs no prophet to declare
that Ireland will live. She still DOS
sesses vitality, physical, intellectual,
moral, religious-she still has the sta
nina of nationhood. A country which
possesses the virtues of piety, rever-
ence, honesty purity, veracity, bravery
and gratitude; the faculties of imagina-
ton and of memory; the qualities of
courtesy, wit, good-nature and light
heartedness will not always waste the
sweetness of these gifts on foreign air.
They will win for her, with England's
consent or without it, measure of
liberty sufficient to console her for all
the blood shed by gallant Irishmen. and
for all the tears wept by fond Irish
women over their heroes graves,