The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-09-30
AN IRISH MOTHER
Ne Country ON Earth Where
Maternal Affection
IL More Truly Rxemplltlea Than
in Ireland.

country on earth where it is more
truly exempEf1ed than in Ireland,
says e. F. McKenna in the Irish
World.
Continual suffering develops human
passions to wonderful degree, par
ticularly those of hate and love; hate
for those who are responsible for the
sufterings, love for the fellow-sufferer.
Where there is innate love suffering
purities it; where there is natural
antagonism suffering increases it un-
til it becomes hatred Of the deepest
kind. Continual suffering has either
of two results, sublime courage or alb
solute despair; the one psychological,
the other physical. The mother of the
Maccabees saw her sons delivered to
the executioner; maternal or natural
love tempted her to rescue them,
even at the terrible cost; but spiritual
love sustained her courage and con-
Quered the natural feeling. This is an
example of physical courage strength
ened by love in its truest and highest
sense. And this is, precisely, the Or
deal through which the Irish mother
passes every day. The history of Ire
land, for the last century especially,
is pregnant with such examples; and
there have been many such unseen,
unnoticed and chronicled only in the
Book where all deeds are recorded
with the pen of Justice.
When there is a strong, deep re-
ligious feeling in a land where op-
preston holds sway there is conse-
quent internal suffering-hopes and
fears, cares, anXieties, suspenses, suf-
ferlngs that affect the heart and the
soul, that test human courage and de-
velop the most sublime virtues. And
so it is with Ireland. Tyranny has
been and is rampant there and OPP
preston has been the embryo from
which evolved the ideal motherhood
and womanhood-the Irish mother.
The love of the Irish mother for
her child is spiritual as we'll as a
natural one. Her consideration for
the welfare of her offspring is not
based on the mere natural law that
compels the bird to hide and protect
her young, or the tiger to fight for
her cubs. Her first and paramount
consideration is for the soul of her
child, and, as time increases, SO does
her watchfulness and her anxiety. She
fully realizes that the child is given
to her by God is, after it's temporal
journey, to be returned to Him, and
she realizes, also, that she is ordained
by God to preserve that soul, let the
cost be what it may-suffering tor
ture, life itself-during at least part
of that journey, and, if possible,
through all of it.
Anyone acquainted with Irish his
tory, particularly that of the last Gen.
tury, will at once perceive the effect
which the extraordinary emigration
has had on the Irish mother. Nobody
more than she realizes the bitterness
of the cup she has had to drain; no.
body more than she comprehends
what this terrible exodus means; and
she, more than any other, is justified
in cursing the base laws that COM
PEELED a revolution of the natural law
by separation which God never in
tended. The first duty of the Irish
mother is to instill into the heart Of
her child the principles of her faith.
She bends the youthful branch in the
direction of Truth; she guides the tiny
feet along the paths of virtue; she al
lows material ambitions to become,
entirely, a secondary consideration,
and directs the youthful mind toward
higher and nobler aspirations. And,
when her task is about accomplished,
when the well-nurtured flower is bloom
ing in the splendor of spiritual health,
we'll nigh realized and her cares and
anXieties are gradually giving place to
peace and contentment, the tide of
emigration sweeps along and carriN,
the loved object far into the troubled
sea of uncertainty.
There is nothing sadder than the
parting of mother and child. In one
brief moment are concentrated all the
charms and sweetnesses of innocent
babyhood and the natural tenderness
of growing childhood. The souls that
had been unity are thrust asunder
to be separated, perhaps, forever
There is hope in the mothers breast
that the emigrant will return. Re
turn! for what? The question is un
answerable; but the hope still lives
and will live until in her last moments
she breathes prayer for the welfare
of the child whom she now realizes il
lost to her. The child Of the Irisf
mother is always a child to her; thu
change from childhood to maturit!
does not cause corresponding change
in the maternal heart; the same low,
is there for the man or woman as TO
the child. And, after the separation
that love is Intensified.
There is yearning In the mother
bruised heart; there Is void in he
life. No more will she feel that sell
reliance which protectors of youth an,