The Irish standard., 1911-04-29

the elevation of thought and character
necessary to tell that wondrous story
of early Christian Ireland. And then
came an unparalleled eclipse, thous
and years of tears and blood and woe.
Like the glory and splendor that
marked the age of Ireland's three cen
turtles of intellectual and spiritual
achievement as the great civilizing in.
fluence of the world, the thousand
years that followed have no parallel,
in the greatness of it's sorrow and in
the heroism OF it's endurance.
For seven centuries, Morse and Nor.
man waged unrelenting war on Celtic
Ireland. The Morse and Norman per.
iods bring us to Elizabeth and then
began the most ruthless war for the
determination of a race and re-
igion the world has ever known. Fire
and sword, the pitchcap, and the glib
bet, nameless outrages and the dun
geon were all employed not to SUBJ
due, but to wipe out of existence Celtic
and Catholic Ireland. The Irish race
believed itself in possession of the
Religion of Christ, in all it's primitive
purity, beauty, and holiness. They
deemed themselves the custodians of
that religion, while they knew that
the tyrants that sought their utter
and complete destruction were apos-
tates from the church founded by the
Redeemer.
1t was this sentiment and belief that
sustained Celtic Ireland through three
centuries of crucifixion and martyr
dom, without any parallel, in history,
romance or story. The opening Of the
nineteenth century saw Celtic and
Catholic Ireland apparently PROSTATE,
blighted, ruined, race of helpless,
hapless, sullen, slumbering slaves.
Suddenly portentious figure appeared
upon the stage of Irish life, and called
her slumbering millions of slaves to
arise. O'Connell. with his leonine
courage, his naughty brow. his mag
nificent physique, and his matchless
eloquence, hurled defiance at his
countrys tyrants and summoned his
race to her resurrection.
What has happened since then has
been little else than the carrying out
of the ideals and dreams of the great
O'Connell. Ireland's hour of redemp-
ton had come, her ancient Celtic and
Catholic people were to resume their
place in the very van of the progress
and of the civilization of the world
In the century since then, ireland has
raised aloft the best and noblest ben
evolent and educational institutions,
existing upon the globe, and the race
has dotted the hills and the valleys
of holy Ireland with Shrines and tenn
pies that excel those of her glorious
past. The conventical and Monastic
schools and colleges of Ireland are
at the present hour doing the best edu-
cational work of any schools in the
world. There is some mysterious in
stinct in Irish veins which goes un-
erringly to the goal for the noblest
achievement and when 1t Is un-
hampered and unshackled, 1t achieves
amazing results.
England has exhausted every device
known to have an ingenuity to graft
on Ireland schemes education at vari-
ance with the genius OF her people.
The result has been waste and failure,
and very often qualification. And to.
morrow when Ireland gets into her
own hands, the shaping of her own
destiny in a manner compatible with
the ideals and genius of her race, there
can hardly be doubt but her future
will be as brilliant and as glorious
as it was when she was the light of
the world and the Island of Saints
and Scholars.
And now let me come back to the
Irish sisters of Charity and to their
share of re.creating the new ireland
of today. Men like O'Connell, Parnell,
or Redmond, who occupy the center of
the stage in any great national move
ment are always liable to cast into
the shade the achievements of master
minds whose work is more lasting and
more necessary than the work of the
star actors.
Mary Akenhead, the founder of the
Irish Sisters of Charity was born in
Cork in 1889, the year of the French
Revolution. English and Protestant
on her fathers side, on her mothers
side, Irish and Catholic. She had all
the social and educational advantages
which Dublin and Cork offered. But
Mary Akenhead, though prime favor
lite in the narrow but brilliant society
of the Irish capital of the early nine.