The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-06-10
RESUME Of JUDGE 0'NE|L RYAN'S RECENT VISIT
IN THE TWIN CITIES.
TIMELY COMMENT ON THE IRISH SITUATION

LlSH SITUATION
Feiners in the beginning on the ques-
ton of efficiency. 1t reached an acute
stage only when they began to point
out to the people that their leader had
betrayed his trust as the custodian of
Ireland's national aspirations, and had
allowed himself, his followers, and as
far as in him lay, the whole nation,
to be bound hand and foot to the jug
gernaut of British Imperialism.
Until quite recently thousands of
our race in this country loyalty fol-
lowed the leadership of John Red
mond. They do not realize as
clearly as the thinkers at home
whittier he was drifting. They still
remembered Parnell and his saying
that mo man can put a stop to the
march of nation" And since here
in the Northwest the Parnell tradi-
ton still lives, at least among our
elders, the great majority have been
followers of Redmond on the SUPPOSE
ton that he was the inheritor of that
tradition. 1t was only when the great
war began and Redmond tried to make
Ireland the sentinel of England on
the Atlantic, it was only when he took
the Saxon shilling and hired himself
out as England's recruiting-sergeant,
that the veil fell from our eyes, and
we saw that he had abandoned the
path marked out for him by his for
mer chief, and had flung into the dis
card Ireland's historic claim of COM
plete independence.
Then the instruction broke out to
complete the work that Redmond had
begun. His recruiting activities had
already turned the nation against him.
1t remained for the Irish patriots to
crystalline that sentiment. At the
foot of Parnells statue in O'Connell
street they promulgated once more the
charter of Irish Liberty, and then vail
antly sealed it with their blood. Their
heorism has sent a thrill to the heart
of every heir of the Gaelic inheritance
throughout the world.
This was why O'Neill Ryan was
greeted with such enthusiasm during
his brief stay. OF course a gathering
of Celts is ever sensitive to high speak
ing; but it is more than doubtful he
| hor h1
ton a year ago. When, however, in
impassioned language he babe his
hearers slough off the slave mind and
put on that of the freeman, they rose
to him and lifted him up to still seren-
er heights on the wings of their en-
thusiasm. The burden of his speech
was denunciation of the slave mind.
He showed how England has always
in history followed up campaign of
arms by campaign of calumny, how
she deprived the Irish of education
and called them ignorant, of land and
called them lazy, of arms and called
them towards. Her ISLANDERS pursued
them across the ocean; they followed
them into the grave. Today these
same ISLANDERS are being propagated as
vigorously as ever-newspaper, in
pamphlet, in magazine, in novel
through the myriad channels of litera-
ture, social life, and in some cases re-
ligious activity. What could the poor
emigrant do against this insidious,
persevering propaganda? England
took care to block all avenues of reply,
and baited on every side, without the
hope of being heard, what wonder if
the Irishman, like the prisoner of Ar.
ras in Hugo's book, began to imagine
himself almost the criminal he was
accused Of being by his dexterous and
malignant enemies.
In time this produced the slave
mind. AS lrishmen climbed the social
ladder they grew ashamed of the land
of their fathers. The children of the
immigrant learned in school, by means
of textbooks compiled from English
historians, the story of Ireland's deg
radiation. They looked into the store
windows and they saw the vile car.
toon. They looked into magazines and
they read the mouthings of the villain
of the piece. He had an Irish name
and he spoke the dregs of English
speech. They sat before the foot.
lights and watched the coarse buffoon
cry of the stage Irishman with the
green whiskers and the impossible
brogue. And in this way it was borne
in upon them that to be irish was to
be low, and not to be Irish, respect
able. Since, however, they were chill
dren of this great republic and the
breath Of freedom blew hot upon their
souls, they resolved to be American
and nothing else, whereas all the time
deep down in their hearts, was the
conviction Of the superiority of Anglo
Saxon civilization.
The man himself is American to his