The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-09-07
WRITER SETS DOWN HIS IMPRESS
sIoNs OF HISTORIC ERIN-coN-
DITIONS TODAY-WHERE LOVE
AND VALoR WANDER ToGETH-
Err.

AND VALoR WANDER ToGETH-
Err.
The following letter was written by
the London correspondent of one of
F., Chicago's foremost daily publications
and addressed to his wife. 1t is
descriptive bit of Ireland and will stir
f! the blood of the many Americans of
Irish descent who still retain in their
| hearts love of the scenic beauty of
old Erin. 1t was contributed to the
| New World by the wife of the cor
respondent, who thought that possibly
| the pleasure it gave her might be
shared by the other lovers of Ire
! lands soil.
Dublin, June 10.
| He'll may break loose again in Ire
| land any hour. We all fervently, pray
it will not. But should it, there is one
thing the pitiful worldwide break
! down to the Sermon on the Mount
| cannot destroy-the sweet blending of
| tradition, myth and fact which remain
! ever green for Erin, surprising en-
chantment
Ireland was the only other spot on
| earth that had a rich literature and
| genuine democracy OF government at
| the time ancient Greece was in her
| glory. China might be included in the
circle, at that, for hundreds of years
| before the birth of Christ Chinese lit
! 70 Of
the science of war than do the present
military experts" of London and
| Washington. Aphorisms of amazing
brilliancy and great good horse sense
were then set down.
The religious forms practiced by the
| Milesians and Druids bear a striking
resemblance to the mythology of an
cient Greece, and so it is not at all
! strange that Irish fairy lore and the
| multifarious superstitions that still OBJ
tain in Ireland be considered a sort of
third cousin to the Iliad and the dynas-
ty OF gods who found domicile on Mt.
| Olympus. The crude searching of the
ancient peoples for peep-hole into
the supernatural realm laid the foun-
dation for the myths of ancient Greece
at the very time they were accounting
for the deeds of the Milesian heroes in
| Ireland. The ancient Greeks Wor-
SHIPPED Apollo as the sun-god and the
god of medicine, divination, archery
and poetry and leader of the Muses.
Granard, one of the fairest villages of
County Longford, has it's name de-
rived from grain" meaning the sun,
and ard" high place or hill, or the
Hill Of the Sum-" The ancient Irish
were sunWorshipers, seeking from
this deity protection in time of trou-
bic and safety from dangers. They
also worshiped the moon and the
stars, just as did the Grecians. The
moat or hill, of Granard was one of
the places where they did this. stood
on this bill the other day, and, whilst
| am not a sun-worshiper. except in
the sense of bending reVerently before
this benefcent ball Of fire that just
now is bringing forth the primroses
and the daisies and the bluebell and
the thorn and the greatest green in
all the world here in this isle, one
somehow feels the supernatural, hears
the music Of the spheres" and in
stinctively reaches out to touch the
fairies at this place.
All of which is to say, the myths OF
, old Ireland and Greece, being contem
pOraneCus, were quite natural, and
, one should not dismiss the Had any
: sooner than the Roofing Sow, the
: Calf of Tough GoWna, st. Columbkill's
bell the Colt of Tough Rec or the ex
: ploits of the Chieftains who foregath
| cred at the Hill of Tara. The point
J is, that Ireland had all this imagery
at the same time ancient Greece haC
| it, only Ireland retained it, amended
5 of succeeding generations and finally
made it over into the sweetest folk
lore the world ever knew and perhaps
ever will know. g
Visit Ireland.
But what | started out to say wa:
that the Joliet descendants of thu
| Observation-Disclosures, Oh H6D6T F1nI
and Ir, of Aengus Olumchaidh anC
= Quenn Nave, of the O'Connors o
: Derry and Mall, of Anghaile and Finn
McCoul, of the OFearghails, nov
q known as O'Farrels, Farrells and Nc
= Farrells, of Connac and Clar and Core
of Boru and Sarsfield and Grattan, O
Wolfe Tone and Emmett, of the Doyle
and the Groves and the Grays and tn
Fahertys and ONeills and McFadden
and ODonnels and O'Sullivans Gan,
Sullivans) and Clares and Quinns an,
t Kelleys and McGoortys and McGarn
t and DUNES and Comerfords and No
( Knowns and Crumleys and Clancy
It and Hogans and Dolands and even tn
/. Durkins-in a word they all Shout
e come back before it is too late for
e wee visit even and look once NOR
It upon the place of enchantment an
Y beauty that seems to just be part G
!, the blue sky and filled with green lac
r ders that reach clear up to Heave
S and descending which come the trea
it of soft spirit feet and things that ca
}, be heard though unseen, singing eve