The Irish standard., 1906-01-13


was born into the midst Of the Re
peal Agitation, under the shadow OF the
Great Tribune, O'Connell, says Char
lotte Grace O'Brien, in Donahoe's
Magazine for January. My father,
William Smith O'Brien, at that time
being on intimate terms with O'Con-
nell, 1t may well be ! too had my
blessing, as a new Irish colleen, from
that good Catholic. hope so, 70:
however far the pcaceable instincts
OF the man may have led him to over
strain the doctrine of non-resistancc,
he was undoubtedly right in the main
thesis, that constitutional agitation
was the only possible way to work
under the circumstances.
The Nation newspaper was in full
blast-mourning, however, the death of
Davis, but IL l look back on the joy
Gus hopefulness Of that period, when
the Gael was still Il solid mass-when
the birth throes of the Irish-American
nation-nay the Irish World nation
had not yet left the motherland like
Il corpse on the dissecting table,
when the language and the traditions
had not been destroyed by tho slow
poison of National Education"-I do
not wonder that child born amid
such prenatal influences and in the
very heart Of such Il movement, should
have been inclined all her life to look
out and see the coming light, no mat
ter how many dark shadows lay about
her feet. For who can sufficiently
value for evil or for good the pre-
natal influences that enfold each new
birth, and how great is the RESPONSE
bility of mother and father to see that
every thought and every circumstance
surrounding their hidden treasure
should be holy and sanctified to the
Lord.
This thought has often been in my
mind in considering my own life and
the life Of my youngest brother. who
was born into the tragedy of 49," who
was baptized in Kilmainham prison
but whose whole short but most beau
tiful life seemed shadowcd by a gen.
tie melancholy and natural holiness
was born before the famine in q
time Of what we now see to have been
n blind hopefulness-he, after that
awful crucifixion through which the
Gaelic people and all who loved them
entered new life. We equally loved
Ireland-1 largely as a political entity
he with the personal love that reached
each Individual heart. On his tomb
was engraved "He that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God" His life was
as the very embodiment of that pas
sionate love and agony the famine RI
pened In the heart Of my father and
mother,-father seeing the terrible ex-
tent of political degradation and mis-
cry that came out Of 1t, mother feeling
for all the Individual suffering.
So it was that when I was three
years old my father was sent away tc
the years of exile that awaited him in
stead Of the immediate death he sc
longed for and my mother turned
back to take up q semi-widowed life
sadly numbered by the great debts in
volved in the legal expenses of the
trial, and with an infant born into g
great sorrow. But she was a woman
of q singular courage and high spirit
and the children, seven Of us. were
not allowed to suffer from her griefs
Our life was very simple in our ole
country home in County Limerick, and
in that life came my earliest knowl.
edge of Gaelic. Unfortunately it wal
very limited. The language had died
out there more than in most westerly
districts at that time. and also
1 think the traditional stories.
Looking back to even the oldest OF
the men, it seems to me that though
they knew the language 1t was not
much spoken. Still when one went out
among the cottages one was sure to
be greeted with sweet vocative Gaelic