The Irish standard., 1910-05-14
A TIMELY ADVICE
To the Members of the A. o. II. by
Hon. T. 8. Minahan.

nc 1OllO" Ing lloll d l1lISlN ttu~
dress by Hon. T. b. Minahan, former
national president of the American
Federation of Catholic Societies, at
Portland, Ore, will be read with in
terest in view of the coming conven-
ton of the A. o. H. to be held in that
city next July:
However the struggle for Home Rule
may successfully terminate, whatever
the final outcome of the uncertainties
board may be, those of us who have
thoughtfully marked and noted the I'M
folding of the great drama, with all it's
lights and shadows-as Americans,
we must lift our hats to the sublime
patience, the self governing capacity
shown in every crisis of the great
struggle by the Irish people and their
lnasterful leadership.
During the stirring events of the
ingenuity of cunning, every refine
ment of cruelty exhausted by Eng
lish craftsmanship to betray Ireland
into armed (rather unarmed) rebel
lion.
We saw I<ilmanham prison again
and again crowded with the brightest,
the bravest and the best of Irish lead
ershp We saw the rack-rcntng and
wholesale cvctions. We saw Eng
land eagerly play into the desperate
hand of Irish Jacobn and Girondist;
we saw her slamelessly court the sci
enti!ic weapon OF Irish dynamite that
she might, UNANIMOUSLY follow it up with
the paid treachery and perjury of tn,
LeCaruns and the Pgots.
The world has never refused to con-
ing race"
Never before, though, in all her fat
ed history has Ireland SO grandIy
measured up to the higher test Of
shrewd discretion, of sublime patience,
of heroic forlitude.
After all. is it not masterful dis
erection. calculating, far seeing cool
ness that strikes the hardest blow-the
blow that means success? F'ortitude
is nnhler than mere courage. Think a
moment.
was the heroism that died without
firing shot amid the terrific cam
nonade that hurled from Little Round
Top-was it surpassed by the head
long charge that breasted the deadly
slopes of Cemetery Heights? Wash
ington in the gloom after Monmouth's
defeat was grander than Washington
in the victor blaze of Saratoga and of
Yorktown. Marshal Mcdonald, seal
ing the Tyrolean Alps, battling the
avalanche of the Splugen, is greater
than Mcdonald piercing the Austrian
center upon the terrific field of Wa
gram. Ney, holding the rear guard Of
the retreat from MoscoW-tiring and
spiking the last gun at the passage
VI Viz ANl6Lldli, is d OuDIAihCI SpCSkoS1e'
than the "Bravest Of the Brave" seek
ing death in the frenzied excitement
of waterloo's bloody twilight.
Ireland curbing the hot blood Of
righteous but impotent anger under
the cruelty, the humiliation and the
shame of landlord evictions: Ireland
answering desperation goading coer-
con with stern but passive agrees
SION Ireland--Parnell, Davitt, Dillon,
Redmond-calmly pleading the stern
justice of their country's cause in the
parliament of man-they have pre-
scented All example of national dsci-
pline, of level-headed shrewdness that
has won the respect and gained the
irresistible power of the enlightened
public opinion of the civilized world.
Their country's sword hopelessy
broken at the fiilt, Ireland's leadership
OF today forged in the white heat of
the worlds public sentiment a weapon
grander in freedoms righteous cause
than any in all the armory Of human
power.
Just here, permit me a word of
eulogy to the memory Of the dead lead
er-Parnel
"How shall we rank him on glory's
page,
That more than rebel, just less than
sage?"
His epitaph is written in the Irish
heart. True. it is written in the sad
dest of all sad words--"it might have
BEEN"
Because he initiated the libcrtine
rottenness of English aristocracy; be-
cause he dared to sully the stainless
escutcheon of people whose honor is
pure as ''unsunned snow" because of
this he fell. And yet, the muse of
Irish history has written that name,
Parnell, highest Of all upon the tablet
Of brilliant practical s,1ccecSf,,1 T,.;ch