The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-02-25
BUILD UP IRISH PROSPERITY.
How This Most Desirable Thing Can
Be Realized.


The writer of the following treatise
IS one of those men who have set theil
minds on the building up of an Irish
Ireland; and, truly, Irish Ireland needs
their aid, being today in deadly peril
ireland is in danger of becoming an
Anglicized ITeland-that is. an Ireland
IL name! mere geographical term, no
! longer a nation with a nations high
ideals. but mere province crouching
| in abject submission at the feet of an
| tmperfous master.
Nationality is like an impregnable
fortress which cannot fall but through
the carelessness or treachery of it's de-
tenders. Nations perish from internal
weakness; rarely, if ever. from external
assault. A nation ceases to exist only
when 1t has lost that vivifying spirit
which is known as nationalism AS long
as it retains its own language, culti-
Yates its own literature and adheres
to its own customs it remains a nation.
despite foreign rule. In a word, it falls
from its rank as a nation by its own
Will not by the effort of it's enemies.
This is the view which the writer of
this work adopts.
The author is young man. and has
all the vigor, the earnestness and the
cutspokenness of unperverted youth.
He is an enthusiast, but a practical
one, not a mere dreamer who sighs for
the winning of unattainable good.
He belongs to that rising generation
of Irish nationalists upon whom the
hopes of our country chiefly rest. He
deals in this little work with questions
very vital to Ireland, and deals with
them as effectively and fully as a linn
tied space allows. Passing by the evil
influences of that "fons ct origo NAL
Drum the foreign government. he pre-
fers to treat of the internal evils from
which our country suffers-evils which
he believes can be remedied by our
selves
We think most of his readers will
agree with him in his condemnation of
seoininism. that mental disease Cper-
haps we should saw disease of the
brain and hearD which, unhappily, is
so rife among our upper and middle
classes. Seoinin and Seoininism are
now familiar words used to designate
that section of the Irish people who are
servile imitators of the ways and man
ners of the foreigner-the Preacan Nor
and who look down upon and con-
tenn anything and everything that is
distinctly Irish. This class of per-
son differs but little, save in being
more contemplate, from another
known as the Garrison. who pride
themselves on their English descent
and boast of being as English in blood
as they are in sentiment. They have
been long the "pampered minions" of
our foreign rulers, and repay their pat
ronage by what they call loyalty.
which means-as they choose to under
stand the word-that they will uphold
the authority of the foreign power as
long as that authority unduly fayors
themselves, and no longer. History
shows clearly that their loyalty is syn
onymous with selfishness. The motives
which animate this class of persons tire
not high, but we can easily understand
them. They are willing to sell their
country-for a consideration-like the |
miser Trapbois in Scott5s novel.
The seoinin class is Catholic in creed |
and Irish or Celtic by descent. They |
ought to be national in sentiment. but |
lnhappily they are not. Unlike The |
Garrison, they owe the government
1othing. Whatever freedom they en- |
Joy in religious or civil life they owe
20 the struggles and sacrifices of |
heir nationalist brethren. Yet they
IRE enemies to Irish nationality i
sither by openly opposing or by ignor-
ng it. They do not believe in their
'wn country or their own countrymen, :
lor apparently in themselves. Davis
must have had these people in
Hind when he penned the following
ines:
That chainless wave and lovely land
freedom and Nationhood demand
Be sure the Great God never planned.
Cor slumbering slaves a home so
grand"
These slumbering slaves do not love
+ believe in their own country. They
ave no share in the hope that their
and may yet regain its freedom. They
re anglicized. yet they are not Eng
sh. They are merely Irish slaves who
pc the ways of their masters.
our author attributes the degener-
cy of this class to the training-we
all it educRtion-they have received |
our intermediate schools. conducted !
lainly by religious bodies He dwells :
lth due emphasis on the consequences
this, false and pernicious system of :
'aching pursued in the greater num- :
er of these schools in which every- }
ling Irish is either quite ignored or !
urred- over, to wit; Irish history. :
nguage, literature. and all that | +
nowledge. which, if impaired, would a
ma to make the pupils respect them
Ives too much to become the seryiIe Y
'pyists and admirers of the ways and y
shiol1s of foreign people. and would
cline them to love and honor their
'h country. His arraignn1eHt of Il