The Irish standard., 1909-03-13
THE DAY WE CELEBRATE.

THE DAY WE CELEBRATE.
Next Wednesday being st. Patrick's
Day, the Irish Standard, in addition
to giving a brief biography of the
patron saint of Erin, deems 1t proper
to say a few words editorially about
that holy man who carried the light Of
the gospel to the Emerald Isle fifteen
centuries ago and rescued it from the
darkness of paganism. Ever since,
from generation to generation, the
children of Erin have adhered with
marvellous tenacity to the faith m-
planted In their hearts by St. Patrick,
and today it is as fresh and green IN
their souls as the shamrock in the
lovely valleys of their native land.
What the Irish have suffered for adj
herring to the faith of St. Patrick
no tongue can describe, no pen can
portray. They sacrificed their estates
and often their lives for that faith,
and even today in their native land
they are Disseminated against by
alien rule, for their loyalty to it. But
it was in the 18th century they suffer-
ed thesmost. DR.. Samuel Johnson, the
great Englishman, who belonged to
the Church ''by law established" de-.
clares that. there is no instance, even
in the ten prosecutions of the early
Christians, Of such severity as that
which the Professionals of Ireland have
exercised against the Catholics" Ed
mund Burke, the statesman and ora
tor, declared that the penal laws en-
acted against the Catholics of ireland
were "the most odious that ever pro-
ceeded from the perverted ingenuity
of man." George Bancroft, the Ameri-
can historian. asserts that "by the
laws of William and Anne, St. Pat
rick himself, in ireland, in the 18th
century, would have been felon."
Thomas Davis, the Irish poet, though
a Protestant, writes as follows of
these awful prosecutions for con-
science sake:
A stranger held the land and tower
OF many noble fugitive;
No Popish lord had lordly power,
The peasant scarce had leave to
live;
Above his head
A ruined shed,
No tenure but tyrant's will
Forbid to plead,
Forbid to read,
Disarmed, DISTINGUISHED, imbecile--
What wonder If our step betrays
The freedman, born In penal days?
The descendants Of the monsters
who prosecuted the Irish on tile pre-
tense that their religion was idola-
trous, but chiefly to rob them of their
property had the effontery to point
at their victims as Ignorant barbara
ans" after depriving them of educa-
ton for almost a whole century and
making it a crime for an Irishman to
educate his children at home or in for
eign lands. It is almost a miracle that
the Irish have recovered so rapidly
from the enforced ignorance of those
days, and are now better educated
than their English oppressors.
The Irish Catholics could have
avoided all the pains and penalties in
tiicted upon them If they had changed
their religion as the English and
Scotch had done; but the more they
were prosecuted the more they chung
to the faith of St. Patrick, and few
there were who exchanged 1t for a
mess OF British pottage.
Men of the Goth century, without any
fixed religious tenets, and whose sole
ambition is to obtain wealth and hon
ors in this life, may say that 1t was
foolish for the Irish to have exhibited
such stubborness and relinquished all
the pleasures and comforts Of life for
an idea. The men who think that one
religion is as good dis another cannot
understand the heroic principles that
actuated the Catholics Of Ireland in
those gloomy days. All they had to do
was to abandon the faith Of st, Pat
rick and acknowledge the wicked
kings and queens Of England as the
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