The Irish standard., 1905-12-23
To Understand the Intense Loyalty Which
the Irish Have Always Shown For
the Mo'hsn Land.
Ireland Furnished the Priests and Teachers'
Who Christianlzed and Educated
the English.

The love of the exiled Irish for the
mother land and the cohesive quail
ties of the race are now as ever an
object OF establishment and mystery to
those who have not studied the strange
story of ireland. says P. A. O'Farrell
in the Pilot. 1t were hard to elu-
cidate briefly, and yet in a world of
busy men a brief elucidation is the
only possible one. Families and tribes.
and races and nations come into ex-
istence and grow and flourish and fade
and die just as do individuals. Some
are born to play great parts and some
little. but all are born to die. 1t would
be churlish to deny the great parts
played upon the worlds stage by the
Greek and Latin races. and equally
churlish not to see the unique parts
now being played by England and
tAmsrica. To my mind. the French
race did more for the worlds progress
and civilization than any other people,
save the Irish. and am not unmindful
Of the titanic achievements Of the va
rious other nations of Europe. This.
is. of course, not the generally ac-
,epted opinion in America, but then
Americans have really no literature Of
their own and they get their views
from English books and English
writer's.
Ancient Greece must ever fill an
unique place in the worlds history
Its influence will last till the crack Of
doom. and its poetry. philosophy, pol
itics. oratory and art will remain the
wonder of the learned world forever.
1t was Greece that shaped the politics.
the art and the literature of Rome,
and Rome shaped the destiny Of the
modern world. She imposed her laws,
her language. her industry and her ar
| chitecture on Goth and Slav and Celt.
She built highways that linked all the
tribes and nations of Europe and
when the time came for the spread Of
the Gospel throughout the world the
empire building propensities of the
Latin race made the Apostles work an
easy matter. And when Rome's mis-
sion was accomplished she perishcd,
just as Greece had perished. The
name lived on but the soul had flown.
Contemporaneous with Roman and
Greek civilization were a Hebrew and
Irish civilizations; the Hebrew and
Irish civilizations were each as dis
similar as Roman and Greek were from
Hebrew or from Irish.
The modern world begins when Arab
and Moor and Goth and Vandal and
Hun overthrow the ancient world.
Centuries of darkness and misery and
barbarism followed before Europe and
the world began again to emerge from
the densest ignorance and superstition.
A few choice souls built retreats in
the Businesses Of the Apprentices and
there kept alive the art and the liter
ature that had escaped the rage and
fury Of the dusky sons of the desert
| and the still more destructive fury Of
Goth and Hun and Vandal. Those re-
treats in the mountains grew into mon
asteries and schools. There the light
Of Christianity was preserved in q
chaotic world. 1t was then that Ire
land took her place in the van Of the
worlds progress and civilization.
Ireland, pagan Ireland, had attained
a degree Of civilization far SURPRISING
that Of Greece or ancient Rome. Her
Brehon laws were the most humane
and humanizing Of any framed in an
cient times; special provisions were
made for women and children and men
of art. The lawmakers Of pagan Ire
land inculcated respect and cour-
tesy for women. care and love
! for children and honor for the poet
and musician. 1t was thus that chiv-
airy and music and poetry made the
| Irish race what it was when a young
Roman born in Britain was brought
| in bondage to its shores.
st. Patrick was the son of Roman
officer. born on the banks of the Clyde.