The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-09-10
NEW IRELAND,
SAYS M T|GHE

Thomas McTighe, who returned last
week from visiting his old home in Ire
land, tells many wonerful stories of
his experience, He had pleasant trip |
all the way from Honolulu to the Cove |
of Cork and saw things which caused |
him to marvel at the progress of Amer
lea and the advancement of the people |
in the old country.
81 found, after an absence of TWEEN
ty-six years, new Ireland and a more
contented people," he said yesterday
in remeniscing with a reporter. "When
l left there we were in the throes of
landlordism and there was a tendency
among the people to get as far away
from the oppression as the money they
had would carry them. Today it is
different and l take it that it is due
to the attitude of the government. In.
stead of making policemen and poll
ticians for the city of New York they
are making homesteads for the people
in Ireland. Hundreds, perhaps thou.
sands, of acres of land that would not
produce 'praty' when l left there
and where men toiled from 4 O'Clock
in the morning until 8 and 10 O'Clock
| at night trying to get living and keep
matched roof over their heads are
now green with crops for the men now
have an acre or more of good land and,
in many instances, a distorted home.
The old matched roofs have fallen in.
to decay in many ways and the peo-
Pile are getting more modern. The gov
eminent is discouraging emigration, the
| landlords seem to have gotten back
| their senses and at the same time more
of the milk of human kindness and
are cutting the rents in two rather
| than doubling them.'
| There was a bit of a twinkle in the
eye of genial Tom as he said this. He
had much to tell his friends over there
and his appearance undoubtedly in
Dictated prosperity and many were the
questions asked regarding far-off Ha-
wall. Boys on the warships that used
to visit Hawaii have gone back with
tales of the place but in Tom they
had the real Simon pure source of
information and they seemed bound to
get all there was to be told.
GAS the Irish Consul for Honolulu, "
continued Tom, 81 was accorded all of
the honors due to one in my position
the constabulary never took their
eyes off me. l took the folks to the
Theater Royal in Dublin one night to
see a show that had hard pronouncing
name but which turned out to be moth
ing more than a duplicate of enc of
our Hotel street attractions. There was
conjuror there who did bit of a
trick with flags. He drew from tube
the colors of one nation after another
and when he came to that of Great
Britain there was such an enthusiastic
and loyal greeting that the walls of
the place fairly trembled. l had to
stop and think. 1t was different from
the Ireland 1 had left years ago, left
it when the desire Of the people SEEM
ed to be to step on the neck of land
lord with one foot and Britisher with
the other. But today there is as much
loyalty to the flag and respect for the
landlords as you will find any where and
the harp of Erin has place in the
flag. But 1 am an American and from
choice at that, do you mind When
the joker doing the tricks pulled out
the stars and stripes / let out such
a whoop that l had the audience star
ing. There she u.s. cried, 'Old Glory,
the flag that floats over the free and
the brave There was no attempt at
violence, mind you, but seemed to be
source of wonder to the ladies who
sat in front of me. One of them turn
ed around to me and said l had moth
ing to brag about, the best people in
America are Irish. 'True for you,
Madam, 1 said, but the best WASH 4
in them while they stayed here
"Another sign of good feeling, and
an evidence that the feeling that once
existed, of the time when the wish Of
the Englishman was to see Ireland put
under water for twenty-fOur hours, had
been blotted out, was in procession
of the soldiers / witnessed outside OF
Dublin. There were twenty eight regi
ments in line and eight fine bands
One of them came along and played
THE Wearin' of the Green 1t was
a revelation to me for it does not seen
such long time since it was treason il
fellow happened to hum 1t wher,
polls could hear him.
"But if Ireland had changed during
the years L have been away l can tel
you my knowledge of the world wa:
broadened by my visits to the cities in
the United States. had never put
my foot on American soil before leav'
ing the ship at San Francisco for when
came to Hawaii it was by way Of
the Horn. The sights of San Fran
cisco startled me for Archie McKilloI
had his hand in the entertainment. The
growth of the place after the idea con
veyed by the pictures / had seen OF
the earthquake, struck me as being in
human, that something more than NOR
tai man had had finger in the max
ing. In Chicago there was more t.
startle me, for not satisfied with thu
streets for car tracks l found then
strung on trestles in mid air. New
York was of course the acme of al
that was big in surprises. More build
ings, more mid.air railways and som'
of them were out of sight. There
didn t seem to be room enough for al