The Irish standard., 1914-11-21
Specially written for the Irish STAN
dard by Mrs. Ellen Ryan Jolly.

Specially written for the Irish STAN
dard by Mrs. Ellen Ryan Jolly.
We are In the smoke and shadow
Of warning world, and the misrepre-
sentation of our race. Neutral we
may be politically. But neutral it
surely is difficult to remain in the
midst of mutual devastation and fight
ing foes. AS private individuals we
are, thank God, still at liberty 10 have
our own opinions of things as they
are going on over seas, and free to
express them in our own way. And
one opinion, I, as daughter of old
Tipperary ancestors, must announce
before grow too belligerent through
repressed indignation. must protest
and vigorously against the British
slogan: cts a long, long way to Tip.
perary." A British war ditty, for
sooth! What a desecration to the
sacred memories of the glorious his
tory of all Ireland! The very voices
from the graves of thousands Of
martyrs call out against such mock
cry! A maudlin, mendacious set of
jingling, meaningless doggerel, sung
in rag time by the poltroons wearing
the lobster-back uniforms of the Brit
ish army!
cts a long, long way to Tpperary!
For my heart is there" Oh, how can
any lover of Ireland, nation, how
can any one of Irish blood STEPPED in
the sad story of British misrule since
the days Of Henry II and his robber
Norman barons sit unmoved while
John Bulls minions go forth to fight
to the strains of bands playing, '1t's
a long, long way to Tipperary?"
Yes, it is a long, long way from the
Tipperary of Charles Kickham, from
the Tipperary of William Smith
O'Brien and his grand companions, the
Young Irelanders of '4S, assembling in
the Golden Vale, the Glen of Aherlow
at the rising in Ballingarry!
A long, long way from the Upper
ary that elected the noble John Nit
chel to a seat in an English parlia-
ment even while he yet wore the
felon's fetters as political convict
doomed to Van Diemen's Land! A
long way from the Tipperary of Rob-
ert Emmet's parents! A long way
from Tipperary of the parents of
Thomas Francis Keagher, who i'm
mortalized Ireland's military might in
his Irish brigade. Thomas Osborne
Davis crying "Give me the matchless
men Of Tipperary," would surely mar
vel at the spirit of modern Irish
militarism if he knew to what depths
of political degradation the Sassanach
would drag the premier county of fair
1nnisfail. cts a long, long way to
the Tipperary" Of Patrick Sarsfield
and his gallant colleagues who rode
over the sunny green fields Of Upper
ary near proud "Slievenamon and Gal
tees" to fire the siege train of the
Orange foe at his toric Ballyneety.
"It's long, long way to Tipperary!"
Surely change has come over the
spirit of John Bulls military minions.
The false Britons are shouting about
their hearts being there in Gallant
Tipperary." Was the Briton's heart
in Ireland at the siege of Limerick or
when the women Of Wexford were
butchered at the market cross! Did
England weep when she sold as slaves
to the Barbados thousands of God s
anointed priesthood? What interest
did England ever manifest towards
Ireland? Let her answer. Was the
British heart in the Tipperary of my
people when the penal laws murdered
the sanity Father Sheehy and placed
his anointed and severed head upon a
pike above the gates of gloomy Clom-
mel Jail in Tipperary, where it remain
ed for ten years exposed to the jeers
of brutal English soldiery? Was
the British heart in sympathy with
Tipperary when the broken-hearted
and aged sister of Father Sheehy
stole at dead of night to Clomnel Jail
and climbed, by aid of plying neigh
bors, to the top of the wall and rev.
erently lifted the head of her precious
brother, which she carried away in
her apron to Lisronan cemetery,
where, still in the dead of night, the
head of the patriot priest was placed
in sanctifed Tipperary soil near the
dismembered body in st. Stephens
cemetery? Was John Bulls heart in
Tipperary when the walls Of old Clom-
mel Jail were saturated with the blood
and the tears of innocent victims?
Was the heart of England in Upper
ary when she filled the old barracks of
:. Nenagh with a soldiery which was a
disgrace to mankind? Was the Eng.
lish heart in Tipperary when the four
winds of its cross roads carried to all
parts of the world the shrieking cries
of agony of the tender-hearted Irish
mothers bidding lifelong farewell to
the children upon whose fair faces
they were destined never to gaze
Uy>> 49, D.sk>~So hn>~& a.