The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-04-22
Poet, Priest and Patriot of thu
South-His Birthplace Not
Definitely Known.
He Loved the South with Ardent
Devotion Where His Memory is
Still Revered.
Besides His Poems he Contributed
Prose Articles to Newspapers
and Magazines.

The following short sketch of the
| life and work OF Father Abram j.
Ryan, The Poet Priest of the South"
is taken from Il lengthy article in the
Southern Guardian by Rt. Rev. j. NJ.
| Lucey. The Southern Guardian is
new Catholic paper of Little Rock,
Ark, of which Monsignor Lucey is
editor.
| The two words, poet and priest,
are generally given as an index to
| the character of Father Ryan We
may safely add another title, that of
patriot, for there is certainly no man
| in the whole South, soldier or civil
ian, who displayed more patriotic de-
vOtiOn to the cause of the Southern
Confederacy than Father Ryan. His
| whole being, poetic and priestly us it
was, seemed to be at any and every
moment SO permeated with profound
Southern feeling that the most trivial
circumstance as we'll as the grandest
occasions OF life would awaken the
hidden fire as the steel, when IL
strikes the flint, calls for the hidden
flame.
There was no qualification OF SEN
| timent or modification of language
when speaking aof important events
of the Civil War His whole soul be-
came concentrated in the act OF OK
preston OF his ideas. On one occa-
sion. thirty-four years ago, when de-
Pine Bluff, Ark, on the career of the
leaders of the Southern Confe1eracy,
he declared that more of true great
| ness and grandeur rcpoSed in the
tomb Of Robert lG. Lee than could be
found elsewhere in the United States.
| This WAS the sentiment that he ut
tered. The language cannot be re-
called. His soul was on fire. His
whole frame quivered. His eyes were
AblaZe and as the cadence Of his pas
siOnnte tones closed, a hush Of fear
and awe fell upon the audience. There
were present, however, in the audi
encc several men who had served as
officers in the Federal army. One of
them, though he had married South
hear such a eulogy on the idolized
commander of the Southern armies.
He arose and with his family left the
| hall The writer the next day asked
Col. Herman Carlton, who was pres
ent, one of the greatest lawyers of
the State and one of the most es-
tecmed among old Confederate sol
dicrs, whether Father Ryan's Ian
Suagc, properly interpreted, could
Justly give offensc TO anyone, and he
| replied in the negative. But whether
or not. Father Ryan could not speak
otherwise on Southern subject than
with the most intense feeling OF
Southern patriotism.
| His Birth, Life and Death.
| There is some dispute as to the
place of his birth and the exact date.
Limerick, the city of Ireland's broken
treaty, claims that he was born there
in 1894. Both Hagerstown, Maryland
and Norfolk, Va, CAIN to be his birth
place, the former in 1885 and the lat
ter in 1886. The citizens of Norfolk
have emphasized their claim by erect
ing to his memory a beautiful monu-
ment in one OF their squares. il
seems certain that the poets early
childhood was spent in Norfolk.
There also lived distant cousin
of his mother, who had daughter
born on the same day as the poet.
Their mothers playfully, yet hope
fully, betrothed them in their cradles
and for the first five or six years Of
their life they grew up with an un-
derstanding of the matter.
When Abram was about seven
years of age his parents moved to
St. Louis, Mo-, where he was sent to
the schools of the Christian Brothers.
In his growth he became thoughtful
and serious beyond his years. His
spirituality, his reverence for every
thing holy developed so intensely that
at sixteen he proposed to the beau
tiful girl that he was to have mar