The Irish standard., 1906-02-03

cess whatsoever, cut itself adrift from
q It's own past and throw itself in tmi-
u itation of the other into habits OF life
1 and thought and manners into which
God never intended it to be thrown
lapplause).
But, alas! that is the very thing
which the Irish race at home and
\ abroad, dazzled by the material pros
y perity of the great country to which
we are tied-many of them unwilling
ly tied-that is, 1 say, the very thing
that the Irish race have been doing.
l This folly, this madness, this suicidal
mania (for cannot call it anything
( else) Of rushing to adopt pell-meil
and Unfortunately everything that Is
English, not because 1t is good, but
because it is English, has been bad
for all parties. 1t has been bad for
Irish Nationalist; it has been equally
bad for Irish Unionists. 1t has been
! bad for our own country, and 1t mas
been worse for the country with
which we are connected. The more
divergence of thought and genius, of
natural aptitudes, the better; because
/ tell you, there is an individuality In
natjonalities exactly as there is In per-
sons-and to attempt to mould or crush
everything into one particular type has
invariably been fatal to the people
that attempted it.
In our case gentlemen, that attempt
has been fatal. If you take bird's-eye
view of Ireland today and compare 1t
with what it was you must be struck
by the fact that the nation which was
at one time the most classically learned
and cultured nation in Europe, is now
one of the least so-how nation which
was one of the most reading and liter
airy peoples in the world is now one OF
the least reading and the most unlit-
erary, and how the art products of one
of the quickest, most sensitive. and
most artistic of all populations are now
distinguished only by their hideous-
ness!
The causes of this CHASTITY failure
have ceased to be Irish without becom-
ing English (applause). 1t is to this
cause that l attribute more than to
anything else our awful emigration and
impoverishment. Irishmen leave Ire
land today because they have ceased to
feel that they have a country. They
will not accept England as their coun-
try, and yet in the Ireland that tne
Gaelic League found before it, there
was nothing to suggest to them any
thing else than an imitation England.
and the public mind had become hope
lessly confused and Irishmen had nc
standard to live by and they emigrated
in their thousands.
want to show you tonight hard
facts; I want to show you that In An
glicizing ourselves we have thrown
away with light heart the best claim,
upon the worlds recognition of us as
a separate nationality. What did MAJ
zini say? What is Goodwin Smith, back
there in Canada. never tired of de-
claring? What does the Spectator and
the English Times harp upon in every
issue almost? Why that we should
be content in Ireland to become a big
English county, because we have lost
the notes Of our nationhood, our Ian
guage and our customs.
What Is the answer to that? Have
you any answer for 1t? l declare to
God see no answer to it except to take
to our bosoms again the things we
have discarded. our language and our
customs, and to build up out of them
an Irish nationhood anew (applause).
! cannot understand for the life Of
me how 1t Is that Irish sentiment sticks
in kind of half way house Qaughter).
Why does it continue to say that 1t
hates the English and at the same time
continue to initiate them? (Applause.)
Why does it clamor for recognition.
noisily clamor for recognition as a sep
arate nationality when at the same
time 1t throws away with both hands
the only thing that would make it so?
Well, that Anglicizing that pictured
to you had everywhere eaten like dis
ease through Ireland Nobody noticed
It; nobody was told of it; but when
lrishmen know, then Irish sentiment
becomes a power in the land and re-
fuses Indignantly to relinquish it's
birthright. All, but the Irish had for
gotten the fact that they had a BIRTH
right at all. That is the truth of the
matter. They had forgotten that they
We're 1rshmen in any sense of the
word. The old race, the Macs and the
O's and those who should have Macs
and O's before their names-those are
the descendants of the men who Chris
tanned and who civilized Western Eu-
4 rope, the descendants of the men who.
for three centuries, amid the horror and
the darkness and confusion of the Mid
die Ages held aloft the torch of learn
ing and of piety unto every race of
mankind. They are the men who now