The Irish standard., 1913-05-10

anti Home Rule attitude which a few
English Catholics adopt. Let him
bear in mind, please, that we were
brought up on anti-Irish IDEAS; we
heard and read of no others. Our his
tories We're written by allti-Irish, Eng
lish or Scotch Professionals. and people
of our own kith sandaMn had as deep
a detestation of Ireland ana the Irish
as any Protestant ever had We Eng
lish Catholics have been. Tor genera
tons, most rankly deceived. History,
social environment. political chicancry,
everything we were told bore harly
against Ireland.
How ireland Was Pictured for British
Minds.
1t was not merely prejudice; 1t was
first principle. And, as SO often hap
principles to any searching scrutiny.
Irishmen were wild and wicked; and
all the more wicked that they were so
conspicuously wretchcd. That is how
we did look on them. Whether we can
be excused for continuing SO to look
OH them is another matter; evidence
i'll favor of Ireland and her holy claim
for justice and liberty is SO full and
common today that ignorance may be
considered inexcusable. l know not,
being no appointed judge for my
brother.
But 1 gladly and gratefully bear
witness to the fact that. be God thank
ed for it, many English Catholics are
now quite willing and anxious even to
do all they can to atone for the bad
past, and that when Home Rule is
carried and Ireland's chains are dash.
ed from her arms, among those who
will rejoice over great dellverancc
from a mighty, wicked age-long crime,
will be numbered many an English
Catholic who. il ever he erred, went
wrong because he did not know. How
that there was in Ireland another
story of which his histories told him
never a word? What did he know of
that Irish life and story that was
handed down among the people, and
told over and over. again in the dark
cabins while the turf smouldcred down
fny r1S he
Irish Love for Learning.
History" says Mrs. Green. twas the
early study Of the Irish, the inspira-
ton of their poets and writer's. Every
tribesman Of old knew not only the
great deeds and the famous places of
his own clan. but of the whole of Ire
land. In the lowliest cabin the songs
of Irish poets lived on for hundreds Of
years. and dying fathers left to sons
as their chief inheritance the story of
their race. When war, poverty, the
oppression of the stranger, hindered
the printing of Irish records, there was
not territory in all ireland that did
not give men to make copies of them,
hundreds of thousands of pages, over
and over again, finely written after
the manner of their fathers.
Through centuries of suffering
down to within living memory the long
procession of scribes was never brok-
en. men tilling small farms, laborins
in the fields, working at black
smiths forge. And this among a peo-
pie of whom Burke records that in
two hundred thousand houses for their
exceeding poverty a candle on which
tax lay, was never lighted. AS we
follow the lines and count the pages
of such manuscripts. we see the mir
acle of the passion in these mems
hearts. No relics in Ireland are more
touching than these volumes, and none
should be more reverently collected
and preserved. They form a singular
treasure, such as no country in all Eu-
rope possesses"
. Ireland Has a Proud Record.
To how many of US English will not
that tale of devotion to the remem-
bered past come as weird evidence
OF our little knowledge of the Irish
people? Few Of us, at any rate, will
fail to read the final words of Mrs.
: Green's admirable chapter, introduce
ing a treasure of historical lore, with
full admiration. LET u.s." she cries out
to her countrymen, "let us in Ireland
remember that we have an ancestry
on which there is no need for us to
cry shame. Chivalry, learning, patrio-
tism, poetry have been found there,
even In huts to which an Englishman
would have hesitatel IN rive tho mama