Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-06-27


not Orangemen In Ireland by good
deal. Some OF the greatest and most
loyal of Irish leaders have been
Protestants, like Parnell, who was
a Presbyterian, and Robert Emmett,
who | believe also was a Presby-
terian. But Parnell always was
elected from Cork and never from
the district in which he lived, be-
cause the Protestants would not vote
for him. With loyal Irishman in
Ireland on the question of whom to
vote for for Parliament the only
question was, lis he loyal and faith
full to his country" and they never
inquired as to his religion. Thus
you see the Catholic constituents
elect Protestants, IL men of ability
and loyal to their country, even over
a Catholic of less ability or less 10y
atty, whichever II might be.
When the beautiful editorial writ
ten by Judge Kerr said that one of
the main purposes of England was
to force the Irish to reject their own
religion and accept the English re-
ligion, he said the truth. As you
know, at the time of the Reforma-
tion, under Henry VIII. and under
an act of Parliament the property of
all Catholics was confiscated and
lost by them to the Crown, and II
was made crime punishable by
death to offer up Catholic services
by the ministers, or for anybody to
attend the Catholic services in Ire
land, and many thousands of people
were put to death because of their
religion in the most brutal and
cruel manner. After Ireland was
first conquered by England the very
richest part of Ireland was taken
from the Irishmen and given to
English colonists, who were sent
from England for the purpose of
anglicising the Irish, but in that day
and time the English and Irish had
the same religion as the people
throughout the world had, and in
stead of the English colonists maxi
ing the Irish English, the reverse
was true. and the English colonists
became Irish so much so that
Henry VIII. said they were more
Irish than the Irish themselves, and
they were really in opposition to
tyranny and brutality. Thousands
of the Irish became Protestants at
the time of the Reformation, but to
their credit be 1t said they declined
to compel the Catholics, who had
lost their property by fidelity to
their old religion, to vacate their
property, and the King of England
said he would send no more English
to Ireland. Then the Scotch invaders
were selected and sent. assisted by
an English army to dispossess the
Irish Catholics in Ireland. But
will not enter into any further dis
cussion of this subject. except that
1t resulted in a war almost of ex-
termination, and bloodshed and as
sassination of all kinds between the
invaders and the Irish. The So
called Scotch Irish of North Ireland
are the descendants of these in
vaders, and they have not any Irish
blood in them, for the reason that
there was no affiliation between
them and the Catholics, or even the
Protestant Irish in North Ireland;
and If you want to insult a real
Irishman just insinuate and ask
him If he is descended from these
invaders. He would just as soon
you would ask him If he were de-
scended from assassins like Curt |
Jett or Hargis and other feudists of
Eastern Kentucky.
The new home rule bill wisely re-
strains or forbids any legislation on
religious questions or schools, and
the Secretary of Ireland will have
the veto power, as we'll as the King
of England, over all legislation. The
new home rule bill is very imper-
feet, mainly because the Senators
are to be appointed by the Crown
of England, and not elected by the
people, but this defect will give
them something more to look for
ward to remove. The acquisition of
the religious emancipation act for
Ireland under the leadership of
U'Connell was a wonderful victory,
due entirely to his eloquence, and
the established church of Ireland
was disestablished by an act of Par
lament. He advised the Irish peo-
pie to appeal to the sense of justice
of the English people. and to have
no dream of acquiring anything by
arms from the English. and in this
he was right. But the most practical
thing done was the formation of the
Irish National party by Parnell when
he was a young man from college.
As you know, Parnell's mother was
an American lady and a daughter
of Commodore Stewart of our navy.
He was in no sense an 0rangeman.
but true. loyal Irishman. saw
in the public press that the Ulster
ties now propose to go to Dublin and
prevent the organization of the Irish
Parliament. In this they will ut
terly fail, for the reason that the
loyal Irish can drive them away,
but such an effort on their part will
be wholly unnecessary, because the
English army will take care OF that
nronasitfon