The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-11

I was set for poignant scene in the long tragedy that is Irish history. l Ireland waS swarming with starv- ing orphans and with destitute widows. Their bread--winners were either exiled or dead. The Eng fish colonists were determined to get rid of the Irish "vermin". Slave hunts were to be the last stage in the Cromwellian cleanup.
 At that time there was a dearth of labor in the sugar plantations of America. Cromwell determined to send plentiful supply of Irish slaves thither.. A business company, 'Messrs. Gellick- and Yoeman', was formed in Brtton to, fnonopolize the remunerative ttraffic in Irish flesh. The English officers In Ireland be- came agents and exporters for this company. The private soldiers were ready to augment their scanty income by taking part in the slave hunts, which developed into a profit able and sportive occupation-like the 'priest-hunts' of later years. In the bitter winter of 1850 the Eng fish hirelings swooped down on the defenseless Irish hon1esteads. In- nocent Irish lads and lassies were torn from their mothers clinging arms, and ferded together at cross- roads by Cromwell's' iminions' The poor people were nearly, all taken unawares, but many of them fled to the bogs and hills. Bloodhounds were used to retrieve the refugees. At last when sufficient number of poor wretches was gathered the drive to the seaport began.
 Tn the height of a bitter, winter those starving, half-naked creatures were driven through a land deso- lated by nine years of war and pes- tilence. What a woefil process sioni Loose -liinbed. youthsFof the noblest blood cin sEAr6pe, < cringinS under the stinging lash, .wtlting un- der brutal insults, straying, trip-, ping, falling, dragging lacerated feet through mud and snow, passing burned mansions and cllarred 1v vil- lages, on the long, lsadE journey to Cork or Dublin or. Galway. From the seaports the survivors were ex- ported to Bristol, which was the great center of the slave traffic. There they were marketed. On the auction day they. were stripped and exposed to the vulger gaze of the mob. Likely buyers pawer i and insulted them. Their teetr and physique were carefully examined. They had to 90 through their paces like horses at an Irish fair. All the time the whip sang and the insults lasted. The blood was drawn by the whip mingled with blush and shame on many an Irish rnaiden's countenance. t
 "Sold!" rang out. ss G;t.
 Fresh horrors awaited those trem- bling Irish slaves. They were forced into stinlxing hulls of rotten ships, to mipgle with. the scum of Eng fish town and the weli-nourished rats, in one fetid insanitary con- glomeration. Weeks and weeks crept slowly on until America was reached. Thousands succumbed to insanitry conditions. and hunger on board. Their bones, Miss Curtis, mingle with the bones of the later day famine emigrants on the Att lantic floor.
 Nor night nor day no restl"
 The coming of the Irish Papists must have created 8 stir in the colonies. Women and men were chained ankle to ankle with the Negro slaves and side-by-side they grunted and Acursed and suffered, partners in misery. The sun hlis- tered: the lash cut; the mosquito stung. Malaria claimed thousands of Irish slaves <. For fifty long years the nefarious traffic in Irish blood went onl Gaelic became the slaves vernacularl For hundreds of years Irish was the national lan- guage in Monserrat and,in the Bar badCesl Tn 1870.. Abbe Thebaud men many old negroes who spoke and un- derstood no other language.
 Cold history verifies our stafe- ments. Petty admits he sent l0,- 900 Irish boys and girls to the Vir- ginian sugar gardens in one decade alone. Tine letters of Cromwell and Ireton bear ample testimony of the terrible truth. It is cOnser- vatively estimated that over 3O,- 900 uaeIs perished as slaves in the Vireinian sugar plantations in half Q century. .
 That. Mlss Curtis. Is one chapter Of glorious" Empire history.
 Another was the potato famlne.0f ielg, when the British destroyed by starvation SO per cent of tho Irish population. In our own time was "the trouble" Of 1916 when British soldiers moved down the Irish for daring to reslst continued Brltlsh tyranny ln thelr-Iiot HFstoin'sv- country, And now hnlefIf9- Ilarr sclK FeheiilQpF colony og tbe Grown -f about % repent eI htF lTi11nan. [. denea aud salnkn N dnlnfnlnn sleEnn |mllhln the British nmplrel
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