The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-03-19
HOW IRISH kept THE FAITH,
CONTINUED from pa ge u

Shannon seeing Mass celebrated
among the ruins of an ancient abbey
and priests sitting upon tombstones
in the graveyard, hearing Confession,
and holding little flags to shield the
penitent at their knee.
Throughout these dreadful centuries,
the hunted priest-who in his youth
had been smuggled to the Continent
to receive his training-lurked like a
thief among the hills. On Sundays
and feast days he celebrated Mass at
rock, on a remote mountainside,
| while the congregation knelt on the
! heather of the hillside, under the open
| heavens. Faithful sentries watched
from all the nearby hilltops, to give
timely warning of the approaching
priest-hunter and his guard of British
soldiers. But sometimes the troops
came on them unawares, and the Mass
Rock was despatched with his blood
and men, women, and children,
caught in the crime of worshipping
| God among the rocks, were frequently
| slaughtered on the mountainside.
Mass Said Behind Curtain.
To enable the members of their con-
gregation to battle the inquisition, be-
fore which they were liable at any
time to be compelled to swear and
where they last attended Mass and
who was the priest that officiated, an
improvised curtain was oftentimes
hung between the celebrant and the
worshippers-so that they could truth
fully swear they did not see the cele-
brant This was also probably the
object of the flag that DeLatocayne
saw the priest holdingD
Then, Bishops and Archbishops,
meanly dressed in rough homespun,
trudged on foot among their people
and often dwelt, ate and slept in holes
in the ground.
The learned and sanity Bishop Gal
lagher (still famed for his sermons), a
noble and beautiful character, had
many escapes in his unending perez
grinations, travelling stick in hand, and
homespun clad, among his flock
sleeping, sometimes in human habita-
ton sometimes in hole in the bank,
and frequently among the beasts of
the field Once when he had the good
fortune to be sheltered under poor
roof in Donegal, he was aroused in the
middle of the night by the alarm that
the priest-hunters were close upon
him. Half-clad, he escaped, but the
poor man who had been guilty of hous-
ing him was taken out and cruelty
done to death. After this the Bishop
was translated to the midlands, the
Palace of the learned and truly noble
man was bothy built against bank
in the Bog of Allen!
Thus in their miserable lairs, in the
boys and barren mountains, whittier
they were trailed by wolf-hounds and
bloodhounds, were sheltered all that
was noble, high, and holy in Ireland,
while rascal and renegade, silk-and-
fine-linen-clad, fattening on the fat of
an anguished land, languished in the
country's high seats of honor!
OConneii FORCED Repeal.
The late date down to which these
prosecutions were carried may be
judged from the fact that the present
Irish Primate's predecessor, Arch
bishop McGettigan, used to tell how,
as a lad, at the Mass Rock in the
mountain, he acted as sentry, as AGO.
lyte, and as candlestick Zone of the
two boys who at either side of the
altar-rock held the lighted candle and
shielded it from the wind.
1t was only in 1929 that Daniel
Q'Connell after a long and a fierce
struggle, in which he rocked Ireland
and rocked England, succeeded in
forcing the English Premier, Peel, to
revoke the Penal Laws.