The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-06-09


dearer to the Irishman than the Rock
of Cashel, says p. A. O'Farrel In the
Boston Pilot. The rock properly, So
called, is a rugged hill towering high
in the midst of a plain of great extent
and unexampled loveliness. From i'm
memorial times this plain has been
called the Golden Vale," and tradition
has it that Cromwell looked out upon
the lovely scene from the Summit of
the Rock and exclaimed, We'll was
such a country worth fighting for
The story of Ireland is written in
the ruins that crown this lofty height
climbed to the summit of the Round
Tower up a spiral staircase of some
200 steps. This Round Tower is so
ancient that it's origin belongs to the
folk lore period of the Gael. Perhaps
from it's towering summit the druid
priest of pagan Ireland waited for
the dawn to signal the advent of the
glorious god of day. Perhaps it was
from the summit of this tower that ST.
. Patrick belleld the enchanting lowell
ness of this wondrous vale drained by
the Shannon and the More. 1t was
here most probably on the crest Of
this rock that ST. Patrick won the
King of Munster to the religion of the
Crucif1ed. 1t was here in presence of
a vast throng that Ireland's apostle
baptized MINISTER'S chief. During the
ceremony st. Patrick inadvertently
rested his crozier on the foot of the
Prince. and when it was over the
youths foot was seen to have been
pierced by the sharp end of the croZier
But not murmur escaped the Prince
for he believed it part Of the cere-
nony. The great Irish painter, Barry,
the protege of Edmund Burke, has re-
produced this memorable scene on cam
vas. and it is as immortal and as ep-
och making as that fiery cross which
Constantine beheld in the heavens when
seeking the Empire Of Rome and the
world.
The Present Needs Light from Past.
have no intention of reproducing
legend or folk lore here. for I wish
to pass rapidly to the condition of the
Ireland of today, but no one can un-
derstand that unless he knows some-
thing of the Ireland of the past.
Kings and Bishops and knights and
peasants have throughout the ages
climbed to the summit of this Round
Tower. For we'll nigh two thousand
years or upwards it's spiral stone steps
have been worn away by the footsteps
of the vandal or the Pilgrim and here
they are still, apparently as solid as
or rather, l should say, part of the
Rock of Cashel itself. / came here as
pilgrim, with the pilgrims rever-
ence for the past of this wonderful
shrine, and l looked out over that
plain far away to where saw the hills
of Clare and Galway. Away to the
East, beyond the More, could see
Sieve Bloom, and to the South tower
ing upwards to the blue skies, were
the Galtees. Never was vision of
landscape or hill or dale, of wood and
river half so lovely as that unrolled
before me as l stood on the crest of
Cashers Round Tower. The ploughed
field, the f1owery meadow in the bloom
of springtime, the sprouting grain, the
many tinted orchard, the groves, the
woods the silver sheen of the brook
that sparkled in the MONDAY sun,-all
Law before me and were as beautiful
and sweet as if fresh from the
Creators Eand. Wondrous land of Ire
land, thought, young and fair and
beautiful still, despite a world of woes
and thousand years of agony and
despair. But cannot now and never
could despair of such country. The
tyrant and the knave can smite her
still. as they have smote her through
the dark ages Of her story but they
cannot take away her beauty nor the
boundless fertility of her soil. When
the traveller from Toxic to Timbuctoc
shall stand upon the broken arch Of
London Bridge sketching the ruins Of
st. Pauls, the fields and wales of Tip
perary shall be as young, as beautiful
and as prolific as see them now, an6