The Irish standard., 1907-03-23

,y.SNls
ton at least that believes in fighting.
The Irish are before and above every
thing else Il fighting people. Before
the little Emerald Isle was their head
quarters, when they were Il great row
ing power on the mainland, in the
German regions and in Spain, the Gel
tic chief who talked to Alexander the
Great, then bound on conquest eX-
pressed the idea We'll. Alexander
thought it would be nice to give the
wild Celtic chieftain chance to pay
a pretty compliment, so he asked him,
What are you afraid cf?' He thought
the answer would be, of course, that
the Celt was afraid Of the majesty of
Alexander, but not at all. The reply
was: L am afraid the sky may fall
on my head. l am afraid of nothing
else
We hope the ST. Patrick day speak
ers, for the benefit of thcir American
hearers. will emphasize this fighting
quality of the Irish nation. They should
emphasize, too, the fact that the fight
OF Ireland has always been made
against overwhelming odds, hopeless
odds. Only the marvellous vitality Of
the Irish people could survive what
that people has gone through and still
present a fighting. undisnayed front
to the power of England. At one time
when murder had already cut down
the youth of the nation, forty thousand
went into exile, and that did not weak
EN- the Irish spirit Cromwell mur-
dered his tens of thousands, famine
murdered it's hundreds of thousands
that did not destroy the fighting spirit.
Laws We're passed to keep the Irish
farmer from selling his cattle. Other
laws We're passed forcing him TO sell
to the Englishman at minimum price
of five pounds any horse that he might
rather than let the Englis1man have
it. These infamous laws against agri-
culture, trade and industry did not
crush the Irish fighting character
Year after year emigration TO this
country and to other countries slim
ulated by English injustice has been
bleeding the Irish nation-and yet the
fight is KEEP. on at home, and it is kept
up loyalty here in America and else
where. While other and bigger nations
Of the world have given in, settled
down submissively to take things as
they come, the extraordinary fighting
character of the Irish has kept them
rebellious and resisting, with hopes
Of an honorable solution of the great
Irish question which can only be found
in Home Rule.
Persecution Of the Irish by the
power of England has been kept up
with extraordinary animosity and en-
ergy, with all the resources, military
and financial of powerful country
but the work of subsection could never
be made complete, and it never will be
made complete Hypocrisy has been
the basis of English misgovernment
for years, for centuries-a stupid in
sular assumption of superior charac.
ter even of superior morality. Henry
the Second, trying to conquer Ireland
more than three hundred years ago,
announced that lis aim was Ito en-
large the bounds of the church, to re-
strain the progress Of vices, to correct
the manners of Irelands people, to
plant virtue among them and to in
crease the Christian religion" To those
who know the intensely religious char
acter of the Irish, to those who know
that plain statistics prove beyond all
question the Irish people to be freer
/ from vice than any other, such a
declaration stands as typical of Eng
lands attitude toward Ireland.
| Misrepresentation by wcll-meaning
snobs, oppression frankly brutal and
murderous, have alike failed to dis
courage the Irish. They still agitate
still rebel against English injustice
still demand their rights-and they'll
get them. They offer an excellent ex-
ample to the people of America, so
submissive in the presence of lawless-
ness from above; so willing, apparent
ly. to give up their own tights rather
/ than face the struggle to maintain
them"
The following excerpt from The
Christian Advocate, a Methodist organ