Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-02-27
AT CITY HALL
Lecture for 1suslit of Irish la6Usssies
 Was . Literary Treat

|
 Was . Litssary Treat
 The lecture given in city hall last evening by the Rev Father OFlana- gan of Elphin, ROscommon county, Ire, for the benefit of the Irish indus tries of that place was rare literary treat. Timothy Luddy was chairman. The attendance was quite large. | Father O'Flanagan is a tall young man. quite recently ordained. He is about six feet and every foot of him seemed to athlete, as he stood direct ly in front of the foot flights telling how Ireland came near loOsing her na- tionality. her customs, her habits and her language through the wiles. the oppression and the laws of England. i The average speaker on anything per taining to Ireland goes back to pagan times; not so with Father O'Flanagan. He kept his audience in modern days and dealt with times and incidents with which many were well acquaint- ed.
 To the amazement of everybody he began in Gaelic. He spoke for about five minutes in that tongue and then translated it to the popular language. He said that usually the speaker on Irish topics would say that he was glad to see so many friendly faces in his audience and be able to speak to them in their own tongue but Father O'Flanagan could not say he had those feelings. On the contrary he was quite sorry that he would be obliged to give his discourse in a tongue foreign to the majority of his audience.
 But Ireland never lost her nation ality," he went on.
 There were some to whom it clung like with customs and its habits and its beautiful family life. But they were seriously endangered neverthe- less and in some parts they were al- most frozen in the heart.
 we have been taught said he. ''to give the tips of our fingers to q friend instead of a hearty shake of the hand.
 To know ones country. one must know it's life, its good features as well as it's bad ones. And to love it, the love must be intelligent and found ed upon true knowledge of it's faults and its virtues and to save it you must understand it's people and their customs.
 When does a person begin to love ! The child in the cradle begins to love when it first hears the tender word mother, and it begins to understand when it begins to understand the {, meaning of mother and all that it i'm. plies.. As the child grows. hts love of home and family grows with him and in time it goes into the fields in the early spring time, when the seasons are beginning to smile again upon the land and it piucks the little, shamrock and puts 1t in his cap. and perhaps forty years after. that same child nc longer living under his own natural conditions receives from Ireland bos of shamrock on St Patrick's day ant in Waterbury he puts it in his hat
 The child is ten years old. and tht mother points out to it the mountain side from the view from the from door. and tells him that there goot men died and fought for the land
 Maybe it is at the fireside of an eve ming the story of Ireland Is told th' child by its father or it's mother. O. ' perhaps young girl is coming homo from market. She has bought al English magazine and she sees Il pic ture of the Prince of Wales dressed il [ d military uniform in it. Or it ma. be a picture of Gladstone given ava. , with the Weekly Freeman. And may ! be she meets with a constable on tn way and he firts with her and he tell her that the prince himself is in favo
 of home rule. A member of the famil.
 happens to remember that he wa
 born on the same day as the prime . himself and another. who fought a , the battle of Balaklava. boasts that h
 was drilled in at Aldershot the reg ment commanded by the prince. "The boy becomes man and i time is elected a member of the co,n ty council. and he presents to the kin ! on his triumphal march through Irt 3 land an address of welcome" Q Father OFlanagan then said tina !. in the school books of every natiO
 in the world nationality is the mai
 spirit embodied in them, except in th
 land. Over every school house tber ]. are the words ''Irish National School t and one would naturally suppose tha & inside the walls there must be som ?. nationality.
 e 'SOme years ago a commission lei . England to inquire into the education = al methods of the countries of tn l" world. Last year that commissiO e visited this country and upon thel r. return to England they made a reDOI
 in which they stated that patriotisl
 and nationality formed the predomil
 ant features in all the books used ,. the schools they visited. "The cons y quence is that every child is a patrit in his own country. except in Irelan' 't In the United States. the unfurling { 'r the flag is the first exercise in openin
 q new school hotISe. and from fla t. stan where all the children can st ,e it, it flies every day in the year. Loo il upon Ireland then where no such spir = of nationality is taught The speak,
 said that not until after cighty-eigl
 pages are turned over in the fifi
 reader in the Irish school books st there a word seen about Irish natio 2. ality. But there were plenty of refe 'u cnces to England. Scotland and Il 70 United States. Tine fact is that Iris 7. children are taught in the Irish natio
 al schools to islander Ireland. The = school books teem with stories
 English prowess:
 "Ye mariners of England who gual
 our native seas
 Whose flag has braved thousaI