The Irish standard., 1909-08-14
THE FA|REST LAND ON EARTH IS
THE GREEN ISLE Of THE OCEAN.
So Declares Sir VIM Butler Speech Meeting Held the
County Of LouthThe Irish People Of the Present Day Not
Strong Active Handsome Were Their Parents
Of Sixty Years Ago.

In q speech recently delivered at
patriotic gathering in the County of
Louth, Sir VIM. Butler said among
other things:
| Well, now, will take Ireland as we
have got 1t under our feet today, with
the sky above US, and the fair hills
around us. What is the best thing we
can do with her? That is the posi-
ton and the question l would try to
deal with; and first take the Ireland
that is under our feet and around us.
She Is the fairest land I have seen on
tiful- breasted mother. She has reared
at that breast Of hers, for thousands
of years, children tall and fair, strong
and active. I like to read Of these chill
dren in the old story books, Of their
strength and beauty, their fearlessness,
their longing for adventure, their love-
mour- breakins, their truth, their sense
Of honor. What can be finer than tho
picture we have of those old soldiers,
those warrior-hu who followed
Finn, the son of Cumhail, the father
y Of Oisin? 1t is from the song of this
son, Oistn, that we get the picture:
Il "We," l,e writes in his old age, "never
/, lied. Falsehood was never attributed
to us. BY courage and the strength
I of our hands we used to overcome ev-
cry difficulty" But 1t is not of these
grand old people individually that
, would speak, except as the children OF
that mother, who is our mother too
this ever-fresh and beautiful mother.
Erin. The question would ask is this:
What had this old race of strong men
!. and fair women got in their day that
we, their descendants, have not got
. now?" The same earth under us, the
same sky above us, the same streams
and rivers, the same soil, the same
climate, the same pure air-all these
things are here still, even the names
they gave the hills and the rivers, and
the plains, abide with us in some sound
u or form today. What, then, has hap
pened to us IL now we are not as
p strong and as active as the old races
I were? Have we changed any vital
thing in the habit Of our lives, that
might account for change in the
Of our constitutions? That is the
. question want to talk about, for as
II suredly It is a question which affects
e the Ireland OF today and tomorrow
with a thousand times greater force
Y than any other popular, unpopular
: political or patriotic question that
. could possibly be put before our PEG.
d pie. It is not Coll MacMorna, or Finr
1 Mac Cumhaill, or Cuchullain, OF
y Diarmuid nam-ban that ! would ash
C you to contemplate in the spirit OF
r their deeds or in the beauty Of theil
: poems; but 1t is these men and a thou.
= sand like them, in the flesh Of theil
j. bodies and the strength Of their arms
I. that would desire to bring to your no
t tice-because many Of our people today
u Unjust have the blood of those old mer
= in their veins; and living as we de
4 under circumstances of climate soil
= and surroundings precisely similar tc
u those BY which they were envroned
v we may we'll ask ourselves why w
q are not Of their strength and built
= when we are also Of their race ant
I. country. But before we enter upon thu
10 question Of the human I would stop {
h. moment to consider the animal ques
q ton. No one suggests that the ami
3 mails which are now with US in IRELAND
70 are less strong or less active thar
q were the old beasts Of five hundred o
81 a thousand years ago. A few Of tn
y wild species may have disappeared !,
IL the lapse of time; but all the domestic
a animals are in strength and spirit AZ
n good today as ever they were. Nay
q they are better and larger. The horse
II the OK, the sheep. the goat, are o
h bigger build now than they were. o
1t old; their sinews and muscles have no
P grown weaker, their teeth are as sound
ID their eyes see as clearly as ever. The,
!remain ~ unchanged as are the con