The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-04

fuI and inceSSant zeal to raise Ireland to that position which was the prec- ious dream and ideal of his life, a nation among the nations completely free and independent.
 MIR. CULLINAN's ADDRESS.
 Foremost Young Attorney Presiding
 Officer At Successful Patroit
 Meeting.
 Mr Cullinan said among other things:
 I observe that the committee has provided 8 musical program which promises to be most entertaining and they have selected, to commemorate the occasion, an orator of ability and distinction. Notwithstanding the eX- cannot believe, as . look into the faces of. this great assemblage of peO- pie. that you were drawn here mere ly or chiefly by reason of the pro- gram which the committee has pro- vided. The opportunities for you to hear good music are frequent and ii is not unusual for you to listen to distinguished orators. What reason then has impelled you, in such vast numbers, to rellnquisn the comforts of your fireside and the social enjoy ment of your homes on this Sunday evening and crowd this theatre.
 It is related in the gospel of Luke and also in the gospel of Matthew that Christ once asked an audience gathered about him if they had gone into the desert for entertainme or to see a distinguished stranger. His words as I recall them were: What went ye into the desert to see reed shaken by the wind? What went ye out to see man clothed in soft gar- ments? Behold they that are in ro1 nd A found in the houses of kings"
 He we'll knew in addressing that audience that they had not gone into the desert for entertainment and he desired to emphasize the transcend ing and eternal import of their real purpose in going into the desert, which was in quest of that redemp- ton which had been so long promised to them by the prophets.
 The aspiration of the Irish for ns.' the longing of the <ews for redemp- ton, but next to God, country has always claimed the ardent affection and the greatest devotion of the Irish people. Neither is the question of Irish nationality, as was the question of redemption, of eternal import, yet, my friends, it is a far cry from the twelfth to the twentieth century and during all those intervening centuries the Irish have never relinquished the nope or ndliOIdllty nor dDduuOLou liIC purpose of casting from the neck the yoke of subjection to England.
 When, in the twelfth century, the expeditionary of Henry II of England landed upon the shores of Ireland, authorized, sad to relate, by bull of man who was ever bishop of Rome, to subject the temporal affairs of Ire- land to the authority of the English king, the Irish repudiated the au- thority claimed by the Roman Pom tiff and fought valiantly to hurf back the invader and the fight then be- gun. Although there have been breathing spells when peace prevail ed, the fight has never been finally abandoned. passed since that time and yet to- night, here in Bridgeport, among a people many of whom have never seen Ireland and most of whom will never again set eyes OF it's green hills, living under a government where they do not personally feel the weight of Ireland's subjection, there is never theless the same feeling of resistance and the desire for Irish independence is as strong in your hearts as it was in the hearts of your far distant pro- genitors, who fought to hurl back the troops of Henry II.
 The resolution then formed, never to submit, has been handed down from son to grandson, from genera tion to generation, from century to century. Never before has resolu- ton. conceived in the mind of man. been projected so far into the future. It is a marvel of the ages that your ancestors, of that distant day, should be able to have impressed upon you, living under such differing political and social conditions, their ideals and purposes. History does not else- where record an instance where the purpose of liberty and independence has been so tenaciously upheld and we find a record of a people who have endured so much and so long.
 As the. tribes of Israel, for centur- ies, looked forward to the coming of the Redeemer, the Irish have, during those seven centuries, looked for a from thraldom to the English op- pressor. They have always entertain eds the hope that some time there would be born to an Irish mother 8 genius, who, by arts of statesmanship would accomplish their independence or with sword in hand, would lead | them through a red sea to the prom ised land.
 The young hero, whose memory we celebrate tonight, was so imbued with in the cause of Irish in- that he came to believe 1 that ne was the selected agent of the | Almighty to accomplish the deliver | ance of the Irish people and he went l forth, like Joan of Arc, believing that 1 the nobility and justice of his cause l would command the interpretation of the Almighty and that, through his i leadership, his country would be de- i livered from English subiection, and l like Joan of Arc, his hopes were dis 1 and like her, he met | felon's death.
 We cannot but admire the purity l of purpose and the heroic daring of | young Emmet, and his unfaltering | confidence, at time when many i leading men of his race were losing i confidence.
 When his friends and college chum, | Tom Moore, was dedicating to his | country these doleful lines:,
 Weep on, weep on, your house is | past,
 Your dream of pride is o'er."
 No such despairing thoughts were | by young Emmet. He ! was burning with enthusiasm and ! with courage born of the faith which l he had in his cause, he dared to enter | the ShambleS where so much Irish | blood has been shed.
 I want you to understand that we have no complaint against the English l people. The complaint of the suffer- ings which the Irish have endured is a charge against the English govern ment. We know that for the greater part of the time when the Irish peo- pie were suffering severely at the hands of an aristocratic. and despotic English government the English peo- pie were suffering somewhat similar ly and we also realize that since the nF ;c