The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1919-04-12
ireland a Nation Today
By Martin Rowan, of Minneapolis
Saturday, April u, 1919

Never, since that accursed day when,
at the instigation of that renegade
traitor, Diarmind MacMurrogh, the
Norman invader first set foot upon
her sacred shore, has Ireland pre-
scented holder, drawer, or more united
front to her enemies than she does
today. Seven centuries of usurpation
she has withstood- hundred
years of blood and iron. Sorrow and
misery have been the lot of her stall
wart sons and virtuous daughters.
Beyond the power of words to express
is the degradation which has been
heaped upon her children. Calumny
unparalleled has been showered on
her inhabitants. Chicanery, treachery,
perjury and deceit, the gibbet and the
sword have been the principal weap-
ons in the hands of the enemy. Not
on the face of Gods green earth today
and defiant under tyranny, persecu-
ton and despotism unequalled in the
annals of the world and emerged tri-
umphant like the Irish.
The Normans came with fire and
sword and what could not be accomp-
lished by these weapons was under
taken with falsehood and fraud. The
Normans we're partially successful -
but only partially-for the bulk OF the
Irish nation stood as firm and impreg-
nable as rock against storm-tossed
pillows. The Normans fostered quar-
rels between neighboring chieftains
and sought thus to create disunion
and Reorganization. Still Ireland sur
vived this internal disease and lived
through those dark and bloody years.
Cromwell came with sword in one
hand and fire in the other-Cromwell
the despoiler. Churches and schools
were destroyed. Scholars and eccle-
siastics as we'll as women and children
were put to the sword. The blood of
the sons and daughters of Innesfail
flowed as freely as water in the brooks
of Hibernia. The slogan of Cromwell
to the native land owners was "To
hell or to Connaught"; and the lands
of the natives were partitioned
amongst the "Ironsides'' of Cromwell.
After all this prescription, this
slaughter, this cold-blooded murder,
we find less than half a century later,
an Irish army at the Boyne fighting
q glorious fight for less glorious
cause and for an ignoble, cowardly
monarch; and again we find her men
and women side by side on the battle
ments of cannon-torn Limerick, gal
lantly defending the honor and the
birthright of a nation; fighting the
everlasting fight for the honor and
glory of the old land. Night came
down and a pail of woe fell on Erin.
The "Wild Geese sailed away, few OF
them ever to return to the land where
their valor and prowess wrought so
much havoc in the ranks Of the enemy
but they left a name and memories
that will live forever, not alone In
Ireland, but in every corner of the
earth where the history Of Ireland is
read, and with every man who loves
the sacred cause of liberty. Their
noble commander, Patrick Sarsfield,
dying on the plain of Landen, threw
a handful of his blood into the air
and cried, would to God that this
were for Ireland" Such was the spirit
and chivalry Of the age.
Now indeed one might imagine that
England could stand supreme and
wreck vengeance and destruction on
her proud high-spirited victims. The
old cause still lived on however.
Again in 1898 the old flag was un
furled. From the valleys and glens
of Wexford came the muffled tramp
of marching men. The pixies cleaned
on the hillsides and full many hire
ling Sassenach did these gallant sons
of old Ireland lay weltering in his
blood at Ross at Enniscorthy, at Oulart
and Vinegar hill. The west awoke
Once in her scandalous usurpation Of
Ireland did England triumph-not
with her valor in arms-but with the
speed of her relocated warriors re
treating before the half-armed rebels
May the green sod of Mother Erir
rest lightly on the dust of the mer
who made the Races Of Castelar, ar
epoch in Irish history-the patriots
who compelled the marauding Saxor
to flee before the Gael.
Once again, however, did England
appear victorious Well might one
say the cause was lost and that there
was no one left to stand in the breach
or shed his blood for motherland
But behold! Through the gloon
comes a ray of hope. The sun of des