The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-08

Meeting as we do here to commem- crate the birth of Robert Emmet 1t is necessary to explain to some extent
 the evolution of the Irish nation which led to the climax marked by the death | of the young and devoted leader of the Irish Republicans in the year 1903. The average reader or student of the history of that period finds it difficult to understand the causes of the long and unremitting warfare waged in Ire l land from the days of Strongbow's in- and martyr. Why one is forced to
 ask. why should every century be | marked by desperate unheavals of a supposedly subjugated people. upheav- against awful odds. to win national freedom from foreign control? Whence came this unconquerable desire to be
 free which gave evidence of virile ex-
 assuring the world that Ireland had been pacified? Why this resolve | among the descendants of the invading | oppressors to link their destinies with those of the descendants of the people their fathers had shed their blood to
 suOdue? Why also the change from the leadership of a native chieftain to
 become supporters and champions of
 an alien king and later still from sup
 pliants for provincial religious liberty
 to the belief that only a native inde-
 pendent Republic could save the Island
 and her people from national and
 IdSldl SAIItCliCu.
 Failure of Clan System
 '1 will briefly sketch the salient points of history which may enlighten
 us the problem. From 117O to 1903
 the Irish clans either singly in groups of allied chieftains, had fought the invaders for the protection of in dividual rather than national liberty. Each century the character of the struggle changed and towards the close of the reign of Queen Bess the absorp- n ri Int ha fiyh ir1c ranks of the patriots caused the de- velopment of a new element in the struggle for the Nations freedom.
 When the great chieftains Earls O'Neim and O'Donnen, had fled to the Continent it may be said the clan SyS- tenn lost its claims on the loyalty and affections of the followers of the old Irish families. Ireland was said to be completely subjugated. The Irish peo- pie were said to be dead or starving in bog, cave or forest. The writers of the day chropicled the fact that a new Ireland of loyal settlers had taken the place of the rebelIious clans. Strange must have been the thoughts of those boastful Englishmen to learn that scarcely twenty-five years later, the Irish had so far recovered from flame, sword and starvation as to be able to offer succor to Charles the First if he would protect them in free dom of worship and against confisca- tion of their estates.
 COWarO1Ce O1 James |.
 ''The Irish people had vainly hoped that James the First, son of Mary Stuart, would deal kindly with the people with whom his mother was con- nected and whose religion she profess ed. Disappointed in this hope they brfbeti the needy son with an enormous sum of money to grant them justice | The remnant of the Irish clans took arms in the hope of separation, the Anglo Irish Catholic took the field in behalf of religious liberty. In the long | struggle which ensued Ireland was | a gain crushed and fifty years after the departure of the Earls it was again i she was Subjugated. Yet | thirty years later Ireland is again in | arms in strange blind madness trusting | the Stuart, wrapt in the vain belief | that Ireland could be an independent | Catholic nation with James the Sec | ond as King The deceit of Talbot ] and cowardice of James ended in the | defeat of the royalist cause and the fall of Limerick saw the commence ment of another reign of terror. The century opened with the an- that the mere Popish Irish were again crushed and 'papist had no existence in the eyes of English | law Mark these announcements of | the complete national and religious of the Irish people. Then. under the direction of an Allwise Prov idence, commenced the wonderful of the many peoples who were to form the future democracy of the Irish race The Irish nation in it's days of glory had been republic; it's elected Ard-Righ was the president | who sat in Royal Meath set apart for the residence of the duly elected ruler under whom the Sub-kingS or chieft- aims as governors managed the affairs of their provinces, and territories, not as proprietors but as part owners with the members of their clans.
 Soul of Nation Revealed
 '"The spirit of republicanism per- meated the soul of the nation and in the darkneSt hour of trial made itself | manifest in the new growth or rebirth | of the nation from the travail in which i 1t labored for nearly a century. The | new champions of religious liberty | came from the children of the non-