The Irish standard., 1909-02-13
"A DOOMED GLASS
!rhS Modern Aristoeraey Of Ireland 10
sasss Perishinq.

ia q letter to the Westminster Ga
SEsette, Rev. James o. Hannay, rector Of
sWestport, County Mayo, says:
The Irish aristocracy is perishing;
Spsrishing, not as that other Irish aris-
sbocraoy which fought for the Stuart
ipause and went down like a stormy
sSun In a blaze Of romance; not like the
French noblesse, men and women, who,
sis they could not live wisely, at least
knew how to die with a sheer or a
s3ibe on their lips, contemptuous, even
stns the tumbrils, of the canaille which
had conquered them.
This aristocracy of ours is passing,
Sunsung, unlamented, in such way
that the world cherishing a last vision
slof 1t, will think Of it hereafter as a
sclass Of higglers driving belated bar
gains in a falling market. They have
sbved, these gentlemen Of Ireland. aloof
from their people and their land. Thsy
are dying aaoof from them now. They
have earned in the past no love. Hum
SIble folk have not gathered round them
for shelter and protection. No beauty
los, service or sympathy has won the
heart Of Ireland to them. And yet they
were men, and strong men,. They are,
lin their isolation and their decay
strong men still. No other class any
where, perhaps, has bred such sons.
Read the roll of thenl-Wellesley,
Cough, Napier, Nicholson, Dufferin,
and hundred more, the greatest Of
1.-The great, the strongest Of the strong.
Tilt might be written Of them as it Wis
sof those who preceded them in Ire
land:
Fighters in every cline,
s In every cause but their own
But no poet will ever sing the great
EIpess of this latest of our aristocracies,
Ter its strength. In spite of all the
honor they won they are going to en-
/, tinction without honor.
Their houses are scattered about Ire.
slIand-fair houses, with green demesnes
4 In the midst of the desolate boglands,
cr stately among the mountains and
i lakes, or halls with varied gardens
!: and fine trees, where the pasture land
u Is rich in Western Leinster. There Are
4 pitcures on the walls, battle-pieces, and
4 portraits of the men who won the
battles. There are old arms stored,
fend curios from the East, trophies Of
grandfathers who went empire build
ing. and to whose credit, more than
that of any other class, it stands
that an empire has been built. Across
the Channel. in England. traders have
| grown rich by exploiting the countries
which these Irish gentlemen of former
generations won for them. And now
4 the descendants Of the great soldiers
jsend administrators sit and grumbe
arnid the gathered witnesses of old
trlumphs. the furnished loot of many
fights, the prizes of high energy IN
governing. They could win, these de;l Il
heroes. any land under the sun except
their own. rule wisely everywhere on
3cept in Ireland. Their children pay the
penalty; sit solitary in their grelt
houses, complaining bitterly over their
wine in the evening. staining the white
;fonor Of their pride now and again
by whining to the leaders of a con
temptuous bourgeousie. or the chosen
Spokesman of a ravenous proletariat;
new generations who know nothing Of
the older men and their deeds, care
Iothing for them and their privileges
thi These gentlemen of Ireland. who
have never cared for Ireland, sit grind
Ing out the monotonous tale of Their
grievances while politicians laugh at
them. They are conscious-and this
Odds bitterness to their downfall
that they are. as their fathers We're
capable of great things of acting very
strongly and nobly. Only they do no.
act because somehow they have miss
ed the way. They just watch with
peevish irritation the slipping Of slate
sitter slate from the roof of their castle
or power, the sagging of caves shoots
#ehoked long ago. the loosening of rusty
holdfasts from their walls. Over tlei,,
lives there has gathered a. nervelass
4 melancholy; grey mist. charged witt!
51nsidious damp. is settling down on
them They are blackened like ;1e
Potato leaves in the field. 1t is the
sense Of a hopelessly lost cause which
blight them so utterly that they have
mot displayed, not once in the last half
4 century. a single flash even of the des-
ssperate courage Of despair