The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-05-13
The Irish Have for Centuries Suf-
fered Exile and Death for
the Faith.
No Other People on Earth Has a Rec
ord of Warfare That Compares
With Theirs
The Catholic Religion Has Been Their
Mainstay in All Their Numer-
GUS Conflicts. G.

In the following passage from an
address by Mr.. J. F. Keirnan, the Sc
cret of hopefulness Of the Irish people
is we'll set forth:
Three hundred long years of inces-
cessant war, making the Irish people
1000 years engaged in actual warfare,
700 years with the Saxon and 800 be-
fore that with the Danes. Where is
the nation upon the face of the earth
that has fought for 1000 years? Now,
my friends, what did the Irish people
fight for during all this time? They
fought with the Danes, they fought
with England. What did they fight
for? They fought for something they
had never seen. They never saw
Christ in the Blessed Eucharist; they
never saw the Saviour upon the Cross
and yet for that Christ on the Cross,
for the Saviour in the Tabernacle, they
fought these 1000 years. They shed
their blood until every acre of land in
Ireland was red with the blood OF. the
Irishman that was shed for his reli-
gion and for his God.
- What does this prove? Does it not
prove that beyond all other races and
nations, the Irish character was able
to realize the unseen, and so to sub
stantiate the things OF faith as to
make them Of far greater Importance
than liberty, than property, than life?
For any man who goes out and says
1 am ready to give up everything that
I possess, am ready to die for Jesus
Christ who is present, though I never
saw him, that man is pre- eminently a
man of faith. The Irish nation an
swered the Dane and the Saxon thus:
we will fight until we die for our
God, who is upon our Altars?"
Now I ask you to find among the
nations Of the earth any one nation
that was ever asked to suffer confis-
cation and robbery and exile and death
for their faith and who did it like one
man for 1000 years? When you have
found that nation, when you are able
to say to me: Such a people did that
and prove it to me, will give up what
| said namely, that the Irish are the
g most formed In character and in their
faith of any people in the world. AS
soon as you are able to prove to me
that any other people ever stood so
much for their faith, I stand corrected,
but until you prove it, I hold that
the Irish people and race are the most
Catholic on the face of the earth.
Gentlemen, consider the next great
impress of the Catholic character
stamped upon the Irish people. The
apostle tells us 1--WE are saved hy
hope" The principle Of hope imposes
confidence in the divine promises OF
God, in the certainty of their fulfill
ment, confidence that 6s newer xshGl-
en-, that never loses itself, THAT newer
for an instant yields to despair. I ask
you if this virtue is found stamped
upon our Irish character? Tell me
first of all as wish to prove it, dur
ing this thousand years Of fighting for
Ireland, was there ever day in the
history of our nation when Ireland lost
courage and struck her flag? That flag
was never pulled down. 1t has been
defeated on many a field, it has been
dragged in the dust, dust stained with
the blood of Ireland's best and most
faithful sons, but never has the ma
ton for single hour hesitated to lift
that PROSTATE banner and fling it out
to the breeze Of heaven, and proclaim
that Ireland was still full of hope.
Scotland has as glorious a banner as
ours. The Scotch banner was hauled
down upon the plains of Culloden and
the Scots never raised that flag to the
rasthead again. 1t has disappeared
1t is no longer Ireland, Scotland and
England. as it used to be; it is Great
Britain and Ireland. Why is 1t not
simply reat Britain? Because Ire
land refused to give up her hope and
Ireland never acknowledged that she
was ever anything else except a na
ton. My friends, it was that principle