The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-29
IRELAND'S CONTRIBUTION TO
 WORLDS ACCOMPLISHMENTS
WHAT PEOPLE OF THE GREEN ISLE HAVE DONE
 IN LETTERS, LAWS, ARTS AND WARS
The Speech of Prof J. O. Monaghan Delivered Under the Auspices of St. Patrick s Parish-Jews Alone Have Shown Larger Average Greatness.

enemies, we may safely say that Burke and Sheridan surpassed all orators in the Senate. ancient or modern. If we may0Say that Bulwer LyTtton, Byron, WeHdell Phillips, and others who heard OConneH were sincere, then no ora tor, ancient or modern, equalled Kerry's great contribution to the worlds tribunes. O'Connell To the integrity and courage of Demosthenes, he added the fire, wit and brilliancy of Mirabeau, the majesty and stateli- ness of Webster. and to all that, hu- nor and menowness, a soft, soothing, ble to the others. Had he been born in lEngla nd. or even, in Scotland, any where but in Ireland, his fame as the worlds first orator had long since been assured.
 THE ARTS.
 In the arts. the Irish have always held a high place. If they have been surpassed by the Greeks it is because of seven centuries of oppression and repression. Tonight, I take up the facts, I pass over the period of pos abilities, the realm of speculation. There is enough in the actualities to interest us. If the race is inferior to the Greeks in art, or to the Italians of the Renaissance, it is surpassed by nobody else. The treasure houses of the world, the great museums, those of Dublin, London, and other large cities, bear witness, unwilling perhaps at IAhiSS, puI SlOTIOuS WltleSS to Wndt Ireland was in art, When Malfchi wore the collar of gold that he won from the proud invader, who had purloined it, doubtlessly from an Irish church or palace. The Cross of Cong, the book of Kells, rank in ornament at the highest point of the art, in the time to which they belong. But it is to no such far time I would have you turn, it is to London, and Dublin, to the most perfect piece of modern Gothic architecture, the parliament houses, designed by Barry. son of an Irishman, to the beautiful statues of Edmund Burke, Sheridan and Grat- tan in the corridor of that building, carved by Foley and, finally, to the man who has written his name re- gently among the first five or six of the worlds great sculptors, St. Gau- dens, Irish on one side and that, for the elements of greatness, the most the mothers side. Nor do I forget the Dona.hues and others. In music, Balfe holds a high place, as did and does Patrick Gilmore Among has never been excelled. No mans songs are so widely sung. The state ly ruins of the past, the round towers, the Rock of Cashel, Muckross, and a hundred grey walled, ivy-clad abbeys tell of a time when art was on its way up to the glorious ministers of France, Germany, and England. It Is hard to follow Ruskin, in his belief that the U point of their art before 1166. the year of Henry the Seconds invasion. do not believe 1t. The evidence is all against such an assumption. The dations in Ireland From the peas ants fondness for flowers, to the fondnesS for harpers songs, l the stately edifices to the Churchman's in Dublin, or the splendid pile that pours it's beauty on Queenstown, is only a by-path, rot @ long. broad way. In the present movement to revive the ancient language, we find the same fondreSS that we find in the peasants fcndness for flowers.
 Those who know the language best know how rich it is in literary treas u-es and resources. It is a verita'ble gold and diamond mine. The treas ures taken from it by Moore, the Scotch and the Welsh were found on the surface. In the depths are the real pearls the real diamonds, the pure Celtic gold. We are going after them. The movement is to go on, and on; and on. Nothing can stay stop it. the new University puts it into its curriculum, as a matric cudating necessity, is not going to hinder Ire land in her efforts to revive it. No power on earth can put or push back the great movement that has meant so much in the recent past and is to mean much in the future. In all
 
 than this effort to revive the Irish language has been recorded.
 LAW.
 What the race has done for law and legislation I hinted at in my refer l ence to Burke and Sheridan. In the former has had no equal. My advice to boys about to study economics, with the purpose of a future effort in politics, is to buy and read Burke. But it is not to Burke, or Sheridan, or O'Connell, or Parnell that I turn, it is to the Ire race in it's own, its initial, original efforts, at legislation. Sir Henry May1e and other large minded, liberal writers give unstiked praise to Ire is only small minds that pass over this | evidence of a nations greatness. To | nave evolved a system of successful legislation and Jurisprudence, one be- | knees, is no small affair. Ireland did this. In New York. a hundred years ago, the greatest lawyer was T. A. Emmet, an Irish exile. The greatest | that ended with 1900 was Charles 0'Connor; the greatest lawyer in Eng | and in a hundred years was Charles | Russell, recently deceased, chief jus l tice of the Empire. Keep that fact in your mind to ponder over. In the 1 records of diplomacy Ireland has al ways held high places. Only recently Lord Dufferin led all the Empires | diplomatic representatives. At one time, history tells us. EngIand's lead l ing representatives we're Irish. She , had Lord Moira in India, Sir Gore l Ouse1y in Ispahan, Persia: Lord Stuart | in Vienna, Castleregh in Congress. | in the Brazils, C1ancarty l in Holland, Wellington in Paris, Sir Henry WeIlesly in Madrid, all at one 1 lime. and all Irish. Are they acci- l dental think you, these talents, these powers?
 IN THE SCIENCES.
 What might have been done by the race had the record been written in gold rather than blood can only be guessed. The tales of the Goban Seer read like those of Hero of Archmiedes. If not as prolific as England, in ma terial inventions. the race has had a fair, I might add an enviable record. Tn the science as well as in the art of war, they were often, if not the first, l among the first captains of the ages. ONeil was called the third captain of his age by Henry the Fourth of France, 1 no mean judge. Wellington, who won Waterloo, was an Irishman. So is