The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-08-14
THE FA|REST AND On EARTH IS
THE GREEN ISLE Of THE OCEAN,
So Declares Sir Wm Butler Speech Meeting Held in the
County Of Irish People of the Present Day Not
Strong Active Handsome Were Their Parents
Of Sixty Years Ago.

In 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 it 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 l take the Ireland
that is under our feet and around us.
She is the fairest land I have seen on
earth. She is bounteous and beau
tiful breasted mother. She has reared
at that breast Of hers, for thousands
| of years, children tall and fair, strong
and active. 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-
making, their spear shaking, their ar
mour-breaking their truth, their sense
Of honor. What can be finer than tho
picture we have of those old soldiers,
Finn, the son of Cumhail, the father
of Oisin? 1t is from the song of this
son, Oistn, that we get the picture:
Il ''We," he writes in his old age, "never
lied. Falsehood was never attributed
to us. BY courage and the strength
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 l 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
or form today. What, then, has hap
pened to us II now we are not as
strong and as active as the old races
: were? Have we changed any vital
thing in the habit Of our lives, that
;,.I>k @Lo to-
physique of our bodies and the strength
Of our constitutions? That is the
question I want to talk about, for as
suredly 1t is a question which affects
the Ireland of today and tomorrow
with a thousand times greater force
than any other popular, unpopular,
political or patriotic question that
could possibly be put before our peo-
pie. It is not Coll MacMorna, or Finn
Mac Cumhaill, or Cuchullain, or
, Diarmuid nam ban that / would ask
!: you to contemplate in the spirit Of
their deeds or in the beauty of their
poems; but 1t is these men and thou
sand like them, in the flesh of their
bodies and the strength Of their arms,
that would desire to bring to your no.
tice-because many Of our people today
must have the blood of those old men
in their veins; and living as we do
under circumstances Of climate. soil,
: and surroundings precisely similar to
! those BY which they were environed'
!, we may we'll ask ourselves why we
are not Of their strength and build
when we are also Of their race and
country. But before we enter upon the
, question Of the human, I would stop a
moment to consider the animal ques-
, tion. No one suggests that the ami
!, mails which are now with US in Ireland
, are less strong or less active
. were the old beasts Of five hundrf@s :
{ thousand years ago. A few ot66ie
, wild species may have disappearEt In
, the lapse of time; but all the do1F,sttc
! animals are in strength and split as
good today as ever they were. Nay,
j they are better and larger. The horse.
Z the OK, the sheep. the goat, are Of
, bigger build now than they were Of
{ old; their sinews and muscles have not
grown weaker, their teeth are as sound
!. their eyes see as clearly as ever. They
remain 80 unchanged as are the con-
x. Z { fts s5sf7s