The Irish standard., 1911-10-21

give expression to the thoughts and
emotions that will sway the breasts
of Irishmen today when the vivid
afresh. My humble tongue cannot at
tempt to express one or two of the
things the occasion suggests to myself.
First, there is what has happened to
Parnell's memory after twenty years.
All! see how time brings it's revenge
to the great and noble! Where are
the belittlers of Parnells greatness
now? Where are the mists that tenn
porarily obscured it? We have all
seen at times the air thicken about
some great mountain and clouds and
mists descend upon it and hide it even
utterly, so that nothing of it remains
in view, and we have seen the newt
able day come when the atmosphere
grew clear again, when the clouds and
mists broke up piece by piece, lifted
and passed away, and there before us
stood forth the majestic outlines of
the mountain, bold and clear-c in
the suns light. So it has been with
the greatness of Parnell. The clouds
of storm and controversy that once
enveloped his greatness and shrouded
for many its true proportions, have
taken themselves into oblivion. To-
day, there is no Irishman, no matter
on what side he stood in the contro-
versies Of the past-and, indeed,
think 1 may say no 1rishman of any
class or party, who does not join in
admiration of this heroic memory, and
who is not stirred and thrilled in con-
templating it. Next, L would ask you
to look a little-only a little-at what
he was and what he did. 1t has been
the fashion amongst people who knew
him only from the outside, or did not
know him at all, to depict Parnell as
cold. sinister personality-hard, I'M
sympathetic almost forbidding, moved
by hate, but not moved by love. That
is the usual picture, Or, rather, Carl
cature of him to which we are treated
in the Press. But the instincts of the
Irish people knew better than that,
and, from the first, pierced the mask,
and l want to recall to you today. as
one who knew him intimately, I want
to recall to you what you know as
poignantly as / do. that Parnell was
man of heart, and. not only was he
Z H.
tenderest, gentlest and most sensitive
hearts l ever knew, and that it was
his sympathy for the down. trodden,
the suffering, and the weak-his pas
sionate love of justice and hatred of
tyranny-that led him into giving his
life for the emancipation Of the Irish
people. He saw the Irish peasant of
has day a serf and in misery-cheated,
hunted down, terrorized. He was
moved to the depth of his nature by
what he saw, and he resolved to be-
come a champion of this serf against
his wrongs, and to make him a free
man in a free nation. And in that task
he has gloriously succeeded. But what
Il task it was when he took it up!
wonder can we form even notion Of
it now-now that the forces arrayed
against him have been broken and
beaten, now that the land war is
practically over. now that the Irish
peasant is established and secured as
owner OF his holding, now that we
have a smiling up-looking country
reaping the fruits of Parnelrs sacri-
flee, now that we have a nation of
men, no longer, thanks to Parnell,
afraid to call their souls or their coun-
try their own? No! I do not think
we can realize it; for in those days
in 10 and '81-the forces of landlord
ism and monopoly, and the powers Of
the English Government behind them,
were In all their mistaken might. This
was what he rose to fight. And what
had he behind him? Behind him he
had a. people crushed and broken
spirited, feeble and unorganized, &C.
customed for centuries to be treated
as slaves. This was what he had be-
hind him when he stood up in the
House of Commons as their cham
pion to defy the serried power of a
mighty empire, and challenge and
scorn it's rulers In the sacred home of
it's proudest traditions !
shall never forget the night when a
few of NV colleap ues and ,nvselP atood
In room in Brighton while an Eng
Hsh doctor, knowing little of the trag-
edy and the pathos of what he told
us, repeated to us Mr.. Parnell's last
& message-"Give my love to my col
leagues and to the Irish people," Love
was the word, and it was character
istic of Parnell, of the Chief who new
4 er, in the bitterest and darkest hour
q