Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-10-16
WHY GOD LOVES
THE IRISH FOLK
Paper Read Before the Catholic
Woman's Club by Mrs. Hugh
Kelley Of Baraboo

f'Why God Loves the Irish,' was
the subject Of the paper read by
Mrs. Hugh Kelley at the Catholic
Woman's club on Wednesday, Octo-
ber 8. 1t would take considerable
space to print all this splendid paper,
SO we will endeavor to condense it
enough to give the substance, viz.
Nations, like individuals, derive
support and strength from the feel
ing that they belong to an illustrious
race, that they are the heirs Of their
greatness and ought to be the per.
petuators OF their glory. The finer
values in Irish character and Celtic
intellect have been misprized. Amer
leans ought to know something OF
English capacity for disparagement.
This same disparagement fairly ex,
ceeds itself when it undertakes the
task OF explaining British misrule OF
ireland, by blaming 1t all in the
character, disposition etc OF the Irish.
1.-The Irishman says the English his
torian Froude, sis chronic rebel"
upon which Horace Greeley remarks.
<t rebel is a man with sense enough
to know when he is oppressed" That
When Ireland was a nation, her ideals
of expansion were intellectual and
moral, not military or commercial
She did not bring christianity TO
France and Germany by conquest,
neither did she bring civilization by
the mailed fist.
The Irish mind delights in reason
ing and criticism; 1t is quick, sharp
and active keen in analysis and rapid
and ready in combining and correlat-
ing.
The dominant note in celtic litera-
ture according to Matthew Arnold, is
sentiment The If4sh Temperament
is poetic. 1t looks for abiding good.
It Graves the love that does not al
iteration find 1t seeks the eternal
verities. AS in the old Irish song
rendered to us by Gerald Griffin:
Castles are sacked in war,
Cheftains are scattered far.
Truth is a fixed star,
Eileen Aroon.
We understand men and we under
stand races best when we under
stand their moods. Time which was
expected (by her foes) to bring
about no Ireland, has in reality en-
gendered a national life more in
tense than ever The Irish race pre-
ferred their conscience and their re-
1igions to peace and prosperity.
That is fundamentally the preference
which leads man of honor to adj
here to his principles. The ordeal
by which the Irish, IS a race, have
proven themselves should justify a
high appraisal Of their qualifications
for citizenship.
If it were so that the invaders OF
France had not been turned back at
the battle of the Marine and as a
consequence the Germans got posses
sion of France in the course of a
century the German schoolteacher
might be teaching Europe that this
great conquest was the triumph OF
the civilization of the Elbe and the
Vistula over the disorganized civiliza-
tion of the Seine How the history
makers and writer's obliterate the
glories of the conquered! How easi-
ly might the theory come to prevail
among the dominant Germans of A.
d. 5000, that the rebe1lious French,
reduced economically to hewers of
wood and drawers of water were
totally unfit for self government
This is the situation from which the
Irish have been emerging. There
certainly is stamina in a race that,
banished and massacred, hunted and
famine plagued, has kept the flag Of
nationality flying through so many
vicissitudes. A great American COM
mander was much applauded for
fighting it out on one line eff it took
ed the principles Of Home Rule
through forty summers of hope and
winters of disappointment, never
doubling that the clouds would break.
If this is not an evidence of the real
moral force of the race, where is
there better test? John Mitchell,
an Ulster Protestant, wrote sThe
Passionate Aspiration OF Ireland for
freedom will outline the British EN-
uire" Irish leaders have always
stood manfully for right regardless
OF consequences.
When negroe slavery existed in
the British colonies of the West In.
dies, a little party OF three men in
the British Parliament began to
agitate for negro emancipation
The West Indian interest pledged to
maintain negroe slavery consisted oil
twenty seven votes in parliament
They came to DAME O'Connel and
offered to throw their twentyseyen
votes to help on every Irish question
If he would oppose negroe emancipa