The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-11-27

The Celt is a dreamer. He is NJ
doer Of deeds. Grosser, greedier ma
tions count aotualities as success. The
Irish heart is big with mystic plans
and cryptic visions. Spiritually, ra-
cially and geographically isolated, Irss
lands peculiar primal traits have res
mained intact Yet no matter what
mighty masters have invaded her soil
by the magnetic and mysterious quail
ity of her supernaturally surchargod
air, she has been capable Of blending
antipodal nations into her own Stock,
and of making them more Irish than
the Irish. /
Ireland is the paradoxical land o.
the unexpected. In country whore
the most Infamous code of penal laws
ever framed crushed out presumably
the very desire Of education, the flame
of learning glowed with feverish inten-
sity on the hillsides Of Ireland, in tho
lonely mountain cabins. and the de-
serted fisher huts and the centuries.
old traditional scholarship fourishcd
defiantly. From the violent, bellicose
temperament of the inflammable Irish
nature springs the mildest of philo-
sophers and poets. From the isolation
Of her bogs and fens and mountain
material of cosmopolitan emigration.
Crushed and consumed by tireless tyr
amy, Ireland's sons help to kindle the
beacon fires of liberty in lands afar.,
The purity and piety Of her peasantry
have begotten national life so in
tense that nothing can annihilate it.
The Irish excel in physical prowess,
imperturable philosophy, patriotic pas
sion, peculiar patience under oppres-
sion, in sngle-hearted morality, in re-
ligious fervour, reverence for authors
worldly wisdom. This most intellectual
people Of the world would have been
hampered by a persecution and hold
back by age-long inducements to ig-
norance. yet though the miasmatio
ridicule Of their conquerors has
crushed and enfeebled their energys
Ireland is nation Of heroes, rebels.
saints, missionaries and apostlas.
Grace, loyalty, tact, and the keen Wit
light and airy, supposedly a patrioiau
patrimony, are adjunots Of the Irish
peasantry to a unique degree. Cour-
tesy, hospitality, delicacy Of sentiment
sympathy, comprehension and sociabi!-
ity, all distinctions accredited to a no-
bility are found in abundance in the
humblest home in Ireland. Perssou-
tion in driving the gentry out Of its
allotted conduits thrust such rsEal
ants humber runnels.
Most critics of Ireland, superficial
and supercilious, speak big of things
that concern them not Of which they
wot not little. Ignorant of Irish his
tory. Indifferent to Irish wants or
claims, lily instructed In the deeps and
subtleties of Irish character, imbuei
and impregnated with suspioions and
prejudices against the longings for
Irish national life, what have these
hostile personages to say against Irish
aspirations?
International sympathy is impossible
where deliberate disdain and inhe--
tied hatred prevent fair examination
of Irish affairs. f@
The wild Irish" has been bywor1
on English speaking lips since the
days of Elizabeth Tudor when Ed
mund Spenser, with his scurrilous wit
and fragrant fancy, belittled starv-
ing and cnraged peasantry into crimes
and goaded them on to madness. That
homely adage of giving a dog his bad
name and it will stick has been exem-
plified indeed in the prejudice against
the Irish. Fiction and the footliShte
glamors have helped to perpetuate tho
hideous caricatures and indecent dis-
tortions Of the Irish race. There arc
millions yet unacquainted with the
Irish as typihed in the noble figures
of her bards, her saints and her mis-s
J sianaries f.
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