The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-17
DR. JOHN 6. COYLE ACCOUNTS
 SERVICES OF IRELAND IN THE
 ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD

A large audience heard the eloquent speech of Dr. John G. Coyle, of New York, on the sub iect, civilizations Debt to Ire land," last evening. Fully 1 800 were present in St. Augustine's school hall, Dr. Coyle's speech follows in full:
 Civilizations debt to Ireland in part:
 Civilization is a composite of arts, ideas, institutions and customs and varies among the great nations of the world. Religion powerfully affects civilization. A people with a reli- zion which disregards the value of human life and permits neglect or death of the helepless, weak or aged is one that surely retards the devel- Opment of the people upon the best lines. Civilization, as we know it, and as developed among the great mass of the peoples of Europe and the Americas is a Christian CiViIiza- ton, altered from, developed out of organism and bettered by the infusion of the ideals of Christianity.
 Ireland was pagan before it was Christian. But even when pagan. Ireland had a mOnastic spirit that af- fected the Druidical religion of that time, g. love of learning that dfstin- guished Irishmen, and elements of dem Ocracy that survived and contin- ued, in better forms, under Christian influences. The ancient Irish had men trained in the laws, whose deci- siOns were respected, who kept the codes of civil and criminal law. These codes have been preserved in ancient writings and are known as the Ere hon laws. From very early days cap iJaI punishment was absent from the BrehOn code. Fines and compensa- tions, deprivatiOns and sacrifices in volving labor and service were a part of the ancient code.
 Ireland was untouched by the Ro- man invasions and it's people, were homogeneous before St. Patrick brought Christianity to them Unique in the history of the world was the conversion of the Irish. Other coun- tries visited the preachers and pro- fessors of Christianity with tortures and death. Ireland became Christian without a martyr. The teaching of Christ the Redeemer and Saviour appealed firmly to the Irish soul. All over Ireland monastertes and hermit ages, where holy men and women put aside the cares of the world, sprung up. Hundreds of these mon- asterIes, large and small, ezsist in Ireland today. The very bell used by St. Patrick is preserved in Dublin The place in the north of Ireland, called St. Patrick's Purgatory, is yet visited by Pilgrims from many parts of Europe and the world. By a deci- sion of the highest court, the place it. self, and the approach to it. have been declared to be the property Of the people of Ireland, not of the in dividuaI in whom title was supposed to be vested. Curiously enough, that individual is Sir John Leslie, a Pro- testant, father of Shane (John) Leslie, the Irish author. Shane Leslie is a convert to the Catholic faith His father sought to keep Catholic pill grirns from going to St. Patrick's Purgatory The court which decided that Sir John Leslie had no title, as such, to the shrine or it's approach, was one in which no Catholic sat or could sit. The decision is of inter est as showing the spirit of religious veneration existing in the members of the court because of the traditions of Ireland.
 When vandalism and barbarian in Iwasions all but destroyed Christian civilization in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, when the splendid church. es were pilaged and the ornaments, paintings and works of art were plundered or burned, or carried away, and the plains of western Europe were devastated and the people left in misery and the darkness of ignor- ance, forth from Ireland went mis- sionaries to spread learning and faith l.onee more in Europe. St. Fursa be-