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diff --git a/12111-h/12111-h.htm b/12111-h/12111-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96c4955 --- /dev/null +++ b/12111-h/12111-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13427 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Glories of Ireland, Edited +by Joseph Dunn, Ph.D., and P.J. Lennox. Litt.D..</title> + <style type="text/css"> + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + + IMG { + BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; + BORDER-TOP: 0px; + BORDER-LEFT: 0px; + BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px } + + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + H1 { margin-top: 4em; } + H2 { margin-top: 3em; } + H3 { margin-top: 2em; } + + .ctr { text-align: center } + + hr.break {width:75%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; } + hr.thoughtbreak {width: 50%;} + + .poem + {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12111 ***</div> + +<h1>THE GLORIES<br> +OF<br> +IRELAND</h1> + +<h2>EDITED BY<br> +JOSEPH DUNN, Ph.D.,<br> +AND<br> +P.J. LENNOX. Litt.D.,</h2> + +<h3>PROFESSORS AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA</h3> + +<h3>1914</h3> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2>TO THE IRISH RACE<br> +IN EVERY LAND</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><i>Ireland</i>:</p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"All thy life has been a symbol; we can only read a part:</p> +<p>God will flood thee yet with sunshine for the woes that drench thy heart."</p> +</div> +<p>JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>We had at first intended that this should be a book without a +preface, and indeed it needs none, for it speaks in no uncertain tones +for itself; but on reconsideration we decided that it would be more +seemly to give a short explanation of our aim, our motives, and our +methods.</p> + +<p>As a result of innumerable inquiries which have come to us during +our experience as educators, we have been forced to the conclusion +that the performances of the Irish race in many fields of endeavor are +entirely unknown to most people, and that even to the elect they are +not nearly so well known as they deserve to be. Hence there came to us +the thought of placing on record, in an accessible, comprehensive, and +permanent form, an outline of the whole range of Irish achievement +during the last two thousand years.</p> + +<p>In undertaking this task we had a twofold motive. In the first +place, we wished to give to people of Irish birth or descent +substantial reason for that pride of race which we know is in them, by +placing in their hands an authoritative and unassailable array of +facts as telling as any nation in the world can show. Our second +motive was that henceforward he who seeks to ignore or belittle the +part taken by men and women of Irish birth or blood in promoting the +spread of religion, civilization, education, culture, and freedom +should sin, not in ignorance, but against the light, and that from a +thousand quarters at once champions armed with the panoply of +knowledge should be able to spring to his confutation.</p> + +<p>To carry out in a satisfactory manner over a field so immense our +lawfully ambitious aim was, as we realized at the outset, not possible +to any two men who are primarily engaged, as we are, in other work of +an exacting nature. Therefore, to render feasible the execution of our +undertaking, we decided to invite the collaboration of many scholars +and specialists, each of whom could, out of the fullness of +information, speak with authority on some particular phase of the +general subject. We are glad to say that the eminent writers to whom +we addressed ourselves answered with promptitude and alacrity to our +call, and have supplied us with such a body of material as to enable +us to bring out a book that is absolutely unique.</p> + +<p>From each contributor we asked nothing but a plain verifiable +statement of facts, and that, we think, is exactly what they have +given us, for, while we do not make ourselves personally responsible +for everything set down in the following pages, we believe that what +stands written therein bears every mark of careful research and of +absolute reliability.</p> + +<p>Although on many of our subjects little more remains to be said +than what appears in the text, yet the treatment on the whole does not +claim to be exhaustive, and therefore each writer has, at our request, +appended to his contribution a short and carefully selected +bibliography, so that those who are interested may have a guide for +further reading. For our part, we consider these lists of works of +reference to be a highly useful feature.</p> + +<p>It is a glorious thing for us, who are proud, one of us of his +Irish descent and the other of his Irish birth, to think that the sons +and daughters of mother Erin have so conspicuously distinguished +themselves in such varied spheres of activity in every age and in so +many lands, and that we were privileged to make public the record of +their achievements in a form never before attempted.</p> + +<p>We have other works in contemplation, and some actually in +preparation, which will go far to strengthen the claims put forward in +this book. In the meantime, we trust that the reception accorded to it +will be such as to encourage us to persevere in making still better +known the Glories of Ireland.</p> + +<p>JOSEPH DUNN<br> +P.J. LENNOX</p> + +<p><i>Catholic University of America,<br> +Washington, D.C.,<br> +November, 1914.</i></p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3><a href="#T01">THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY</a></h3> +<h4>Sir Roger Casement, C.M.G.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T02">THE ISLAND OF SAINTS AND SCHOLARS</a></h3> +<h4>Very Rev. Canon D'Alton, M.R.I.A., LL.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T03">IRISH MONKS IN EUROPE</a></h3> +<h4>Rev. Columba Edmonds, O.S.B.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T04">THE IRISH AND THE SEA</a></h3> +<h4>William H. Babcock, LL.B.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T05">IRISH LOVE OF LEARNING</a></h3> +<h4>Rev. P.S. Dinneen, M.A., R.U.I.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T06">IRISH MEN OF SCIENCE</a></h3> +<h4>Sir Bertram C.A. Windle, Sc.D., M.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T07">LAW IN IRELAND</a></h3> +<h4>Laurence Ginnell, B.L., M.P.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T08">IRISH MUSIC</a></h3> +<h4>W.H. Grattan Flood, Mus.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T09">IRISH METAL WORK</a></h3> +<h4>Diarmid Coffey</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T10">IRISH MANUSCRIPTS</a></h3> +<h4>Louis Ely O'Carroll, B.A., B.L.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T11">THE RUINS OF IRELAND</a></h3> +<h4>Francis J. Bigger, M.R.I.A.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T12">MODERN IRISH ART</a></h3> +<h4>D.J. O'Donoghue</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T13">IRELAND AT PLAY</a></h3> +<h4>Thomas E. Healy</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T14">THE FIGHTING RACE</a></h3> +<h4>Joseph I.C. Clarke</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T15">THE SORROWS OF IRELAND</a></h3> +<h4>John Jerome Rooney, A.M., LL.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T16">IRISH LEADERS</a></h3> +<h4>Shane Leslie</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T17">IRISH HEROINES</a></h3> +<h4>Alice Milligan</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T18">IRISH NATIONALITY</a></h3> +<h4>Lord Ashbourne</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T19">FAMOUS IRISH SOCIETIES</a></h3> +<h4>John O'Dea</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T20">THE IRISH IN THE UNITED STATES</a></h3> +<h4>Michael J. O'Brien</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T21">THE IRISH IN CANADA</a></h3> +<h4>James J. Walsh, M.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T22">THE IRISH IN SOUTH AMERICA</a></h3> +<h4>Marion Mulhall</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T23">THE IRISH IN AUSTRALASIA</a></h3> +<h4>Brother Leo, F.S.C., M.A.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T24">THE IRISH IN SOUTH AFRICA</a></h3> +<h4>A. Hilliard Atteridge</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T25">THE IRISH LANGUAGE AND LETTERS</a></h3> +<h4>Douglas Hyde, LL.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T26">NATIVE IRISH POETRY</a></h3> +<h4>Georges Dottin</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T27">IRISH HEROIC SAGAS</a></h3> +<h4>Eleanor Hull</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T28">IRISH PRECURSORS OF DANTE</a></h3> +<h4>Sidney Gunn, M.A.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T29">IRISH INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE</a></h3> +<h4>Edmund C. Quiggin, M.A.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T30">IRISH FOLK LORE</a></h3> +<h4>Alfred Perceval Graves</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T31">IRISH WIT AND HUMOR</a></h3> +<h4>Charles L. Graves</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T32">THE IRISH THEATRE</a></h3> +<h4>Joseph Holloway</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T33">IRISH JOURNALISTS</a></h3> +<h4>Michael MacDonagh</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T34">THE IRISH LITERARY REVIVAL</a></h3> +<h4>Horatio S. Krans, Ph.D.</h4> + +<h3><a href="#T35">IRISH WRITERS OF ENGLISH</a></h3> +<h4>P.J. Lennox, B.A., Litt. D.</h4> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h1>THE GLORIES OF IRELAND</h1> + +<h2><a name="T01"></a>THE ROMANCE OF IRISH HISTORY</h2> +<h4>By SIR ROGER CASEMENT, C.M.G.</h4> + +<p>The history of Ireland remains to be written, for the purpose of +Irishmen remains yet to be achieved. </p> + +<p>The struggle for national realization, begun so many centuries ago, +is not ended; and if the long story offers a so frequent record of +failure, it offers a continuous appeal to the highest motives and a +constant exhibition of a most pathetic patriotism linked with the +sternest courage.</p> + +<p>Irish wars, throughout all time, have been only against one enemy, +the invader, and, ending so often in material disaster, they have +conferred always a moral gain. Their memory uplifts the Irish heart; +for no nation, no people, can reproach Ireland with having wronged +them.</p> + +<p>When, at the dawn of the Christian era, we first hear of Ireland +from external sources, we learn of it as an island harboring free men, +whose indomitable love of freedom was hateful to the spirit of +imperial exploitation.</p> + +<p>Agricola's advice to the empire-builders of his day was that Rome +should "war down and take possession of Ireland, so that freedom might +be put out of sight."</p> + +<p>It was to meet this challenge of despotism that the Scotic clans of +Alba turned to their motherland for help, and the sea was "white with +the hurrying oars" of the men of Erin speeding to the call of their +Highland kinsmen, threatened with imperial servitude.</p> + +<p>The first external record we possess thus makes it clear that when +the early Irish went forth to carry war abroad, it was not to impose +their yoke on other peoples, or to found an empire, but to battle +against the Empire of the World in the threatened cause they held so +dear at home.</p> + +<p>In this early Roman reference to Ireland we get the keynote to all +later Irish history—a warring down on the one hand, so that +freedom might be put out of sight; an eternal resistance, on the +other, so that it might be upheld.</p> + +<p>It was this struggle that Ireland sought to maintain against every +form of attack, down through Danish, Norman, Tudor, Stuart, and +Cromwellian assault, to the larger imperialism of the nineteenth +century, when, as Thierry, the historian of the Norman Conquest, tells +us, it still remained the one "lost cause" of history that refused to +admit defeat. "This indomitable persistency, this faculty of +preserving through centuries of misery the remembrance of lost liberty +and of never despairing of a cause always defeated, always fatal to +those who dared to defend it, is perhaps the strangest and noblest +example ever given by any nation."</p> + +<p>The resources Ireland opposed to her invaders have been unequal to +the founding of a great state, but have preserved a great tradition. +The weakness of Ireland lay in the absence of a central organization, +a state machine that could mobilize the national resources to defend +the national life. That life had to depend for its existence, under +the stress of prolonged invasion, on the spontaneous patriotism and +courage of individuals. At times one clan alone, or two clans, +maintained the struggle. Arrayed against them were all the resources +of a mighty realm—shipping, arms, munitions of war, gold, +statecraft, a widespread and calculating diplomacy, the prestige of a +great Sovereign and a famous Court—and the Irish clan and its +chieftain, by the sheer courage of its members, by their bodily +strength and hardihood and feats of daring, for years kept the issue +in doubt.</p> + +<p>When Hugh O'Neill, leagued with Red Hugh O'Donnell, challenged the +might of Elizabeth, he had nothing to rely upon but the stout hearts +and arms of the men of Tir-owen and Tir-Conail. Arms and armaments +were far from Ulster. They could be procured only in Spain or +elsewhere on the continent. English shipping held the sea; the English +mint the coinage. The purse of England, compared to that of the Ulster +princes, was inexhaustible. Yet for nine years the courage, the +chivalry, the daring and skill of these northern clansmen, perhaps +20,000 men in all, held all the might of England at bay. Had the +Spanish king at any time during the contest made good his promise to +lend effective aid to the Irish princes, O'Neill would have driven +Elizabeth from Ireland, and a sovereign State would today be the +guardian of the freedom of the western seas for Europe and the world. +It took "the best army in Europe" and a vast treasure, as Sir John +Davies asserted, to conquer two Ulster clans three hundred years ago. +The naked valor of the Irishman excelled the armed might of Tudor +England; and the struggle that gave the empire of the seas to Britain +was won not in the essay of battle, but in the assay of the mint.</p> + +<p>It is this aspect of the Irish fight for freedom that dignifies an +otherwise lost cause. Ever defeated, yet undefeated, a +long-remembering race believes that these native qualities must in the +end prevail. The battle has been from the first one of manhood against +might. The State Papers, the official record of English rule in +Ireland, leave us rarely in doubt. We read in that record that, where +the appeal was to the strength or courage of the opposing men, the +Irish had nothing to fear from English arms.</p> + +<p>Thus the Earl of Essex, in a despatch to Elizabeth, explained the +failure of his great expedition in 1599 against O'Neill and O'Donnell. +"These rebels ... have (though I do unwillingly confess it) better +bodies and perfecter use of their arms than those men whom your +Majesty sends over." The flight of the Earls in 1607 left Ireland +leaderless, with nothing but the bodies and hearts of the people to +depend on. In 1613 we read, in the same records, a candid admission +that, although the clan system had been destroyed and the great chiefs +expropriated, converted, or driven to flight, the people still trusted +to their own stout arms and fearless hearts:</p> + +<p>"The next rebellion, whenever it shall happen, doth threaten more +danger to the State than any heretofore, when the cities and walled +towns were always faithful; (1) because they have the same bodies they +ever had and therein they had and have advantage of us; (2) from +infancy they have been and are exercised in the use of arms; (3) the +realm by reason of the long peace was never so full of youths; (4) +that they are better soldiers than heretofore their continental +employment in wars abroad assures us, and they do conceive that their +men are better than ours."</p> + +<p>And when that "next rebellion" came, the great uprising of the +outraged race in 1641, what do we find? Back from the continent sails +the nephew of the great O'Neill, who had left Ireland a little boy in +the flight of the Earls, and the dispossessed clansmen, robbed of all +but their strength of body and heart, gathered to the summons of Owen +Roe.</p> + +<p>Again it was the same issue: the courage and hardihood of the +Irishman to set against the superior arms, equipment, and wealth of a +united Britain. Irish valor won the battle; a great state organization +won the campaign. England and Scotland combined to lay low a resurgent +Ireland; and again the victory was not to the brave and skilled, but +to the longer purse and the implacable mind. Perhaps the most vivid +testimony to these innate qualities of the Irishman is to be found in +a typically Irish challenge issued in the course of this ten years' +war from 1641 to 1651. The document has a lasting interest, for it +displays not only the "better body" of the Irishman, but something of +his better heart and chivalry of soul.</p> + +<p>One Parsons, an English settler in Ireland, had written to a friend +to say, among other things, that the head of a colonel of an Irish +regiment then in the field against the English would not be allowed to +stick long on its shoulders. The letter was intercepted by the very +regiment itself, and a captain in it, Felim O'Molloy, wrote back to +Parsons:</p> + +<p>"I will doe this, if you please. I will pick out 60 men and fight +against 100 of your choise men, if you do but pitch your campe one +mile out of your towne, and then, if you have the victory, you may +threaten my colonel; otherwise do not reckon your chickens before they +be hatched."</p> + +<p>It was this same spirit of daring, this innate belief in his own +manhood, that for three hundred years made every Irishman the +custodian of his country's honor.</p> + +<p>An Irish state had not been born; that battle had still to be +fought; but the romantic effort to achieve it reveals ever an +unstained record of personal courage. Freedom has not come to Ireland; +it has been "warred down and kept out of sight"; but it has been kept +in the Irish heart, from Brian Boru to Robert Emmet, by a long tale of +blood shed always in the same cause. Freedom is kept alive in man's +blood only by the shedding of that blood. It was this they were +seeking, those splendid "scorners of death", the lads and young men of +Mayo, who awaited with a fearless joy the advance of the English army +fresh from the defeat of Humbert in 1798. Then, if ever, Irishmen +might have run from a victorious and pitiless enemy, who having +captured the French general and murdered, in cold blood, the hundreds +of Killala peasants who were with his colors, were now come to Killala +itself to wreak vengeance on the last stronghold of Irish +rebellion.</p> + +<p>The ill-led and half-armed peasants, the last Irishmen in Ireland +to stand in open, pitched fight for their country's freedom, went to +meet the army of General Lake, as the Protestant bishop who saw them +says, "running upon death with as little appearance of reflection or +concern as if they were hastening to a show."</p> + +<p>The influences that begot this reverence for freedom lie in the +island itself no less than in the remote ancestry of the people. +Whoever looks upon Ireland cannot conceive it as the parent of any but +freemen. Climate and soil here unite to tell man that brotherhood, and +not domination, constitutes the only nobility for those who call this +fair shore their motherland. The Irish struggle for liberty owes as +much, perhaps, to the continuing influence of the same lakes and +rivers and the same mountains as to the survival of any political +fragments of the past. Irish history is inseparably the history of the +land, rather than of a race; and in this it offers us a spectacle of a +continuing national unity that long-continuing disaster has not been +able wholly to efface or wholly to disrupt.</p> + +<p>To discover the Europe that existed before Rome we must turn to the +East, Greece, and to the West, Ireland.</p> + +<p>Ireland alone among western lands preserves the recorded tradition, +the native history, the continuity of mind, and, until yesterday, of +speech and song, that connect the half of Europe with its ancestral +past. For early Europe was very largely Celtic Europe, and nowhere can +we trace the continuous influence of Celtic culture and idealism, +coming down to us from a remote past, save in Ireland only.</p> + +<p>To understand the intellect of pre-Roman Gaul, of Spain, of +Portugal, and largely of Germany, and even of Italy, we must go to +Ireland. Whoever visits Spain or Portugal, to investigate the past of +those countries, will find that the record stops where Rome began. +Take England in further illustration. The first record the inhabitants +of England have of the past of their island comes from Roman invasion. +They know of Boadicea, of Cassivelaunus, the earliest figures in their +history, from what a foreign destroyer tells them in an alien +tongue.</p> + +<p>All the early life of Celtiberians and Lusitanians has passed away +from the record of human endeavor, save only where we find it recorded +by the Italian invaders in their own speech, and in such terms as +imperial exploitation ever prescribes for its own advancement and the +belittlement of those it assails. Ireland alone among all western +nations knows her own past, from the very dawn of history and before +the romance of Romulus began, down to the present day, in the tongue +of her own island people and in the light of her own native mind. +Early Irish history is not the record of the clan-strivings of a petty +and remote population, far from the centre of civilization. It is the +authentic story of all western civilization before the warm solvent of +Mediterranean blood and iron melted and moulded it into another and +rigid shape.</p> + +<p>The Irishman called O'Neill, O'Brien, O'Donnell, steps out of a +past well-nigh co-eval with the heroisms and tragedies that uplifted +Greece and laid Troy in ashes, and swept the Mediterranean with an +Odyssey of romance that still gives its name to each chief island, +cape, and promontory of the mother sea of Europe. Ireland, too, steps +out of a story just as old. Well nigh every hill or mountain, every +lake or river, bears the name today it bore a thousand, two thousand, +years ago, and one recording some dramatic human or semi-divine +event.</p> + +<p>The songs of the Munster and Connacht poets of the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries gave to every cottage in the land the ownership +as well as the tale of an heroic ancestry. They linked the Ireland of +yesterday with the Ireland of Finn and Oscar, of Diarmid and Grainne, +of Deirdre and the Sons of Usnech, of Cuchulainn the Hound of Ulster. +A people bred on such soul-stirring tales as these, linked by a +language "the most expressive of any spoken on earth" in thought and +verse and song with the very dawn of their history, wherein there +moved, as familiar figures, men with the attributes of +gods—great in battle, grand in danger, strong in loving, +vehement in death—such a people could never be vulgar, could +never be mean, but must repeat, in their own time and in their own +manhood, actions and efforts thus ascribed as a vital part of their +very origin. Hence the inspiration that gave the name of Fenian, in +the late nineteenth century, to a band of men who sought to achieve by +arms the freedom of Ireland. The law of the Fenian of the days of +Marcus Aurelius was the law of the Fenian in the reign of +Victoria—to give all—mind, body, and strength of +purpose—to the defense of his country, "to speak truth and +harbor no greed in his heart."</p> + +<p>Some there are who may deny to Finn and his Fenians of the second +and third centuries corporeal existence; yet nothing is surer than +that Ireland claims these ancestral embodiments of an heroic tradition +by a far surer title of native record than gives to the Germans +Arminius, to the Gauls, Ariovistus, to the British, Caractacus. This +conception of a national life, one with the land itself, was very +clear to the ancient Irish, just as it has been and is the foundation +of all later national effort.</p> + +<p>"If ever the idea of nationality becomes the subject of a thorough +and honest study, it will be seen that among all the peoples of +antiquity, not excluding the Hellenes and the Hebrews, the Irish held +the clearest and most conscious and constant grasp of that idea; and +that their political divisions, instead of disproving the existence of +the idea, in their case intensely strengthen the proof of its +existence and emphasize its power.</p> + +<p>In the same way the remarkable absence of insular exclusiveness, +notwithstanding their geographical position, serves to bring their +sense of nationality into higher relief.</p> + +<p>Though pride of race is evident in the dominant Gaelic stock, their +national sentiment centres not in the race, but altogether in the +country, which is constantly personified and made the object of a sort +of cult.</p> + +<p>It is worth noting that just as the Brehon Laws are the laws of +Ireland without distinction of province or district; as the language +of Irish literature is the language of Ireland without distinction of +dialects; as the Dindshenchus contains the topographical legends of +all parts of Ireland, and the Festilogies commemorate the saints of +all Ireland; so the Irish chronicles from first to last are histories +of the Irish nation. The true view of the Book of Invasions is that it +is the epic of Irish Nationality." (Professor Eoin MacNeill, in a +letter to Mrs. A.S. Green, January, 1914.)</p> + +<p>The "Book of Invasions", which Professor MacNeill here speaks of, +was compiled a thousand years ago. To write the history of later +Ireland is merely to prolong the "Book of Invasions", and thus bring +the epic of Irish resistance down to our own day. All Irish valor and +chivalry, whether of soul or of body, have been directed for a +thousand years to this same end. It was for this that Sarsfield died +at Landen no less than Brian at Clontarf. The monarch of Ireland at +the head of a great Irish army driving back the leagued invaders from +the shores of Dublin Bay in 1014, and the exiled leader in 1693, +heading the charge that routed King William's cause in the +Netherlands, fell on one and the same battlefield. They fought against +the invader of Ireland.</p> + +<p>We are proudly told that the sun never sets on the British Empire. +Wherever an Irishman has fought in the name of Ireland it has not been +to acquire fortune, land, or fame, but to give all, even life itself, +not to found an empire, but to strike a blow for an ancient land and +assert the cause of a swordless people. Wherever Irishmen have gone, +in exile or in fight, they have carried this image of Ireland with +them. The cause of Ireland has found a hundred fields of foreign fame, +where the dying Irishman might murmur with Sarsfield, "Would that this +blood were shed for Ireland", and history records the sacrifice as +made in no other cause.</p> + +<p>Ireland, too, owns an empire on which the sun never sets.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> +<p>Sigerson: Bards of the Gael and Gall; O'Callaghan: History of the +Irish Brigades; Mitchel: Life of Hugh O'Neill; Green: The Making of +Ireland and its Undoing, Irish Nationality, The Old Irish World; +Taylor: Life of Owen Roe O'Neill; Todhunter: Life of Patrick +Sarsfield; Hyde: Love Songs of Connacht, Religious Songs of Connacht; +O'Grady: Bog of Stars, Flight of the Eagle; Ferguson: Hibernian +Nights' Entertainment; Mitchel: History of Ireland, in continuation of +MacGeoghegan's History.</p> + +<hr class="break"> +<h2><a name="T02"></a>THE ISLAND OF SAINTS AND SCHOLARS</h2> +<h4>CANON D'ALTON, M.R.I.A., LL.D.</h4> + +<p>Unlike the natives of Britain and Scotland, the Irish in +pre-Christian times were not brought into contact with Roman +institutions or Roman culture. In consequence they created and +developed a civilization of their own that was in some respects +without equal. They were far advanced in the knowledge of metal-work +and shipbuilding; they engaged in commerce; they loved music and had +an acquaintance with letters; and when disputes arose among them, +these were settled in duly constituted courts of justice, presided +over by a trained lawyer, called a brehon, instead of being settled by +the stern arbitrament of force. Druidism was their pagan creed. They +believed in the immortality and in the transmigration of souls; they +worshipped the sun and moon, and they venerated mountains, rivers, and +wells; and it would be difficult to find any ministers of religion who +were held in greater awe than the Druids.</p> + +<p>Commerce and war brought the Irish into contact with Britain and +the continent, and thus was Christianity gradually introduced into the +island. Though its progress at first was not rapid, there were, by +431, several Christian churches in existence, and in that year +Palladius, a Briton and a bishop, was sent by Pope Celestine to the +Irish who already believed in Christ. Discouraged and a failure, +Palladius returned to Britain after a brief stay on his mission, and +then, in 432, the same Pope sent St. Patrick, who became the Apostle +of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Because of the great work he did, St. Patrick is one of the +prominent figures of history; and yet, to such an extent has the dust +of time settled down on his life and acts that the place and year of +his birth, the schools in which he was educated, and the year of his +death, are all matters of dispute. There is, however, no good reason +to depart from the traditional account, which is, that the Apostle was +born at Dumbarton in Scotland, in the year 372; that in 388 he was +captured by the Irish king Niall, who had gone on a plundering raid +into Scotland; that he was brought to Ireland and sold as a slave, and +that as such he served a pagan chief named Milcho who lived in what is +now the county of Antrim; that from Antrim he escaped and went back to +his own country; that he had many visions urging him to return to +Ireland and preach the Gospel there; that, believing these were from +God, he went to France, and there was educated and ordained priest, +and later consecrated bishop; and then, accompanied by several +ecclesiastics, he was sent to Ireland.</p> + +<p>From Wicklow, where he landed, he proceeded north and endeavored, +but in vain, to convert his old pagan master Milcho; thence he +proceeded south by Downpatrick and Dundalk to Slane in Meath, where, +in sight of Tara, the high-king's seat, he lighted the paschal fire. +At Tara he confounded the Druids in argument, baptized the high-king +and the chief poet; and then, turning north and west, he crossed the +Shannon into Connacht, where he spent seven years. From Connacht he +passed into Donegal, and thence through Tyrone and Antrim, after which +he entered Munster, and remained there seven years. Finally, he +returned to Armagh, which he made his episcopal see, and died at Saul, +near Downpatrick, in 493.</p> + +<p>St. Patrick wrote two short works, both of which have survived, his +<i>Confession</i> and his <i>Epistle to Coroticus</i>. In neither are +there any graces of style, and the Latin is certainly not that of +Cicero or Livy. But in the <i>Confession</i> the character of the +author himself is completely revealed—his piety, his zeal, his +self-sacrifice, his courage in face of every danger and every trial. +Not less remarkable was the skill with which he handled men and used +pagan institutions for the purposes of Christianity; and equally so +was the success with which his bloodless apostolate was crowned.</p> + +<p>One great difficulty which St. Patrick had was to provide the +people with a native ministry. At first he selected the chief +men—princes, brehons, bards—and these, with little +training and little education, he ordained. Thus, slenderly equipped +with knowledge, the priest, with his ritual, missal, and a catechism, +and the bishop, with his crozier and bell, went forth to do battle for +the Lord. This condition of things was soon ended. In 450 a college +was founded at Armagh, which in a short time grew to be a famous +school, and attracted students from afar. Other schools were founded +in the fifth century, at Noendrum, Louth, and Kildare. In the sixth +century arose the famous monastic schools of Clonfert, Clonard, +Clonmacnois, Arran, and Bangor; while the seventh century saw the rise +of Glendalough and Lismore.</p> + +<p>St. Patrick was educated in Gaul, at the monasteries of Marmoutier +and Lerins; and, perhaps as a result, the monastic character of the +early Irish church was one of its outstanding features; moreover it +was to the prevalence of the monastic spirit, the desire for solitude +and meditation, that so many of the great monastic establishments owed +their existence. Fleeing from society and its attractions, and wishing +only for solitude and austerity, some holy man sought out a lonely +retreat, and there lived a life of mortification and prayer. Others +came to share his poverty and vigils; a grant of land was then +obtained from the ruling chief, the holy man became abbot and his +followers his monks; and a religious community was formed destined +soon to acquire fame. It was thus that St. Finnian established Clonard +on the banks of the Boyne, and St. Kieran, Clonmacnois by the waters +of the Shannon; and thus did St. Enda make the wind-swept Isles of +Arran the home and the resting place of so many saints. Before the +close of the sixth century, 3,000 monks followed the rule of St. +Corngall at Bangor; and in the seventh century, St. Carthage made +Lismore famous and St. Kevin attracted pious men from afar to his +lonely retreat in the picturesque valley of Glendalough.</p> + +<p>And there were holy women as well as holy men in Ireland. St. +Brigid was held in such honor that she is often called the Mary of the +Gael. Even in St. Patrick's day, she had founded a convent at Kildare, +beside which was a monastery of which St. Conleth was superior; and +she founded many other convents in addition to that at Kildare. Her +example was followed by St. Ita, St. Fanchea, and many others; and if +at the close of the sixth century there were few districts which had +not monasteries and monks, there were few also which had not convents +and nuns.</p> + +<p>Nor was this all. Fired with missionary zeal, many men left Ireland +to plant the faith in distant lands. Thus did St. Columcille settle in +Iona, whence he converted the Picts. Under his successors, St. Aidan +and his friends went south to Lindisfarne to convert Northumbria in +England; and the ninth abbot of Iona was the saintly Adamnan, whose +biography of St. Columcille has been declared by competent authority +to be the best of its kind of which the whole Middle Ages can boast. +Nor must it be forgotten that the monasteries of Luxeuil and Bobbio +owed their origin to St. Columbanus; that St. Gall gave his name to a +town and canton in Switzerland; that St. Fridolin labored on the Rhine +and St. Fursey on the Marne; and that St. Cathaldus was Bishop of +Tarentum, and is still venerated as the patron of that Italian +see.</p> + +<p>And if we would know what was the character of the schools in which +these men were trained, we have only to remember that Colgu, who had +been educated at Clonmacnois, was the master of Alcuin; that Dicuil +the Geographer came from the same school; that Cummian, Abbot and +Bishop of Clonfert, combated the errors about the paschal computation +with an extent of learning and a wealth of knowledge amazing in a monk +of the seventh century; and that at the close of the eighth century +two Irishmen went to the court of Charlemagne and were described by a +monk of St. Gall as "men incomparably skilled in human learning". The +once pagan Ireland had by that time become a citadel of Christianity, +and was rightfully called the School of the West, the Island of Saints +and Scholars.</p> + +<p>With this state of progress and prosperity the Danes played sad +havoc. Animated with the fiercest pagan fanaticism, they turned with +fury against Christianity, and especially against monks and religious +foundations. Armagh, Clonmacnois, Bangor, Kildare, and many other +great monastic establishments thus fell before their fury. Ignorance, +neglect of religion, and corruption of manners followed, and from the +eighth to the twelfth century there was a noted falling off in the +number of Irish scholars. At home indeed were Cormac and Maelmurra, +O'Hartigan and O'Flynn, and abroad was John Scotus Erigena, whose +learning was so great that it excited astonishment even at Rome. The +love of learning and zeal for religion lived on through this long +period of accumulated disasters. After the triumph of Brian Boru at +Clontarf, there was a distinct revival of piety and learning; and, +when a century of turmoil followed Brian's fall and religion again +suffered, nothing was wanted to bring the people back to a sense of +their duty but the energy and reforming zeal of St. Malachy.</p> + +<p>Gerald Barry, the notorious Anglo-Norman, who visited Ireland +towards the close of the twelfth century, has been convicted out of +his own mouth when he states that Ireland was a barbarous nation when +his people came there. He forgot that a people who could illuminate +the Book of Kells and build Cormac's Chapel could not be called +savages, nor could a church be lost to a sense of decency and dignity +that numbered among its children such a man as St. Laurence O'Toole. +Abuses there were, it is true, consequent on long continued war, +though these abuses were increased rather than lessened by the coming +of the Anglo-Normans, and to such an extent that for more than two +centuries there is not a single great name among Irish scholars except +Duns Scotus.</p> + +<p>The fame of Duns Scotus was European, and the Subtle Doctor, as he +was called, became the great glory of the Franciscan, as his rival St. +Thomas was the great glory of the Dominican, order. But he left no +successor, and from his death, at the opening of the fourteenth +century, till the seventeenth century the number of Irish scholars or +recognized Irish saints was small. Yet, in the midst of disorders +within, and despite oppression from without, at no time did the love +of learning disappear in Ireland; nor was there ever in the Irish +church either heresy or schism.</p> + +<p>The attempted reformation by Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth +produced martyrs like O'Hurley and O'Hely; and there were many more +martyrs in the time of the Stuarts, and especially under the short but +sanguinary rule of Cromwell.</p> + +<p>Those were the days of the penal laws, when they who clung to the +old religion suffered much. But nothing could shake their faith; +neither the proclamations of Elizabeth and James, the massacres of +Cromwell, nor the ferocious proscriptions of the eighteenth century. +The priest said Mass, though his crime was punishable by death, and +the people heard Mass, though theirs also was a criminal offence; and +the schoolmaster, driven from the school, taught under a sheltering +hedge. The clerical student, denied education at home, crossed the +sea, to be educated at Louvain or Salamanca or Seville, and then, +perhaps loaded with academic honors, he returned home to face poverty +and persecution and even death. The Catholic masses, socially +ostracised, degraded, and impoverished, shut out from every avenue to +ambition or enterprise, deprived of every civil right, knowing nothing +of law except when it oppressed them and nothing of government except +when it struck them down, yet clung to the religion in which they were +born. And when, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the tide +turned and the first dawn of toleration appeared on the horizon, it +was found that the vast majority of the people were unchanged, and +that, after two centuries of the most relentless persecution since the +days of Diocletian, Ireland was, in faith and practice, a strongly +Catholic nation still.</p> + +<p>On a soil constantly wet with the blood and tears of its children, +it would be vain to expect that scholarship could flourish. And yet +the period had its distinguished Irish scholars both at home and +abroad. At Louvain, in the sixteenth century, were Lombard and Creagh, +who both became Archbishops of Armagh, and O'Hurley who became +Archbishop of Cashel. An even greater scholar than these was Luke +Wadding, the eminent Franciscan who founded the convent of St. Isidore +at Rome. At Louvain was John Colgan, a Franciscan like Wadding, a man +who did much for Irish ecclesiastical history. And at home in Ireland, +as parish priest of Tybrid in Tipperary, was the celebrated Dr. +Geoffrey Keating the historian, once a student at Salamanca. John +Lynch, the renowned opponent of Gerald Barry the Welshman, was +Archdeacon of Tuam. And in the ruined Franciscan monastery of Donegal, +the Four Masters, aided and encouraged by the Friars, labored long and +patiently, and finally completed the work which we all know as the +<i>Annals of the Four Masters</i>. This work, originally written in +Irish, remained in manuscript in Louvain till the middle of the +nineteenth century, when it was edited and translated into English by +John O'Donovan, one of Ireland's greatest Irish scholars, with an +ability and completeness quite worthy of the original.</p> + +<p>On the Anglo-Irish side there were also some great names, and +especially in the domain of history, notably Stanyhurst and Hammer, +Moryson and Campion and Davies, and, above all, Ussher and Ware. James +Ware died in 1666, and though a Protestant and an official of the +Protestant government, and living in Ireland in an intolerant age and +in an atmosphere charged with religious rancor, he was, to his credit +be it said, to a large extent free from bigotry. He dealt with history +and antiquities, and wrote in no party spirit, wishing only to be fair +and impartial, and to set out the truth as he found it. James Ussher, +Archbishop of Armagh, was a much abler man and a much greater scholar +than Ware. His capacity for research, his profound scholarship, the +variety and extent of his learning raised him far above his +co-religionists, and he has been rightly called the Great Luminary by +the Irish Protestant church. It is regrettable that his fine intellect +was darkened by bigotry and intolerance.</p> + +<p>Far different was the character of another Protestant bishop, the +great Berkeley, of Cloyne, a patriot, a philosopher, and a scholar, +who afterwards left money and books for a scholarship, which is still +in existence, at the then infant Yale College in New England. He lived +in the first half of the eighteenth century, when the whole machinery +of government was ruthlessly used to crush the Catholics. But Berkeley +had little sympathy with the penal laws; he had words of kindness for +the Catholics, and undoubtedly wished them well. Nor must Swift be +forgotten, for though he took little pride in being an Irishman, he +hated and despised those who oppressed Ireland, and is rightly +regarded as one of the greatest of her sons.</p> + +<p>The short period during which Grattan's parliament existed was one +of great prosperity. It was then that Maynooth College was established +for the education of the Irish priesthood. But Catholics, though free +to set up schools, were still shut out from the honors and emoluments +of Trinity College, the one university at that time in Ireland. Still, +Charles O'Connor, MacGeoghegan, and O'Flaherty were great Catholic +scholars in the latter part of the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>In the following century, while Protestant ascendancy was still +maintained, the Catholics had greater scope. Away back in the days of +Queen Elizabeth, Campion found Latin widely spoken among the +peasantry, and Father Mooney met country lads familiar with Virgil and +Homer. In 1670, Petty had a similar story to tell, in spite of all the +savageries of Cromwell and the ruin which necessarily followed. And in +the eighteenth century the schoolmaster, though a price was set on his +head, was still active. With an inherited love of learning, the Irish +in the nineteenth century would have made rapid progress had they been +rich. But their impoverishment by the penal laws made it impossible +for them to set up an effective system of primary education, and until +the national school system came into existence in 1831, they had to +rely on the hedge-schools. Secondary education fared better, for the +bishops, relying with confidence on the generosity of their flocks, +were soon able to establish diocesan colleges. And in higher +education, equally determined efforts were made by the establishment +of the Catholic University under Cardinal Newman. But in this field of +intellectual effort, in spite of the energy and zeal of the bishops, +in spite of the great generosity of the people, so many of whom were +poor, and in spite of the fame of Newman, it is failure rather than +success which the historian has to record.</p> + +<p>Nor has the love of the Irish for religion, any more than their +love of learning, been lessened or enfeebled by time. The mountain +side as the place for Mass in the penal days gradually gave way to the +rude stone church without steeple or bell; and when steeple and bell +ceased to be proscribed, and the people were left free to erect +suitable houses of sacrifice and prayer, the fine churches of the +nineteenth century began gradually to appear. The unfettered exercise +of freedom of religious worship, the untiring efforts of a zealous +clergy and episcopate, the unstinted support of a people, who out of +their poverty grudged nothing to God or to God's house, formed an +irresistible combination, and all over the country beautiful churches +are now to be found.</p> + +<p>In every diocese in Ireland, with scarcely an exception, there is +now a stately cathedral to perpetuate the renown of the patron saint +of that diocese, and even parish churches have been built not unworthy +to be the churches of an ancient see. At Armagh, a cathedral has been +built which does honor to Irish architecture, and worthily +commemorates the life and labors of St. Patrick, the founder of the +primatial see; at Thurles, a cathedral stands, the chief church of the +southern province, statelier far than any which ever stood on the Rock +of Cashel; at Tuam, a noble building, associated with the memory of +John MacHale, the Lion of the Fold of Judah, perpetuates the name of +St. Jarlath; at Queenstown, the traveller, going to America or +returning from it to the old land, has his attention attracted to the +splendid cathedral pile sacred to St. Colman, the patron saint of the +diocese of Cloyne; and if we would see how splendid even a parish +church may be, let us visit the beautiful church in Drogheda, +dedicated to the memory of Oliver Plunkett.</p> + +<p>Nor are these things the only evidence we have that zeal for +religion among the Irish has survived centuries of persecution. +Columbanus and Columcille have still their successors, eager and ready +as they were to bring the blessings of the Gospel to distant lands. In +recent years an Irish-born Archbishop of Sydney has been succeeded by +an Irish-born Archbishop; an Irishman rules the metropolitan see of +Adelaide; and an Irish-born Archbishop of Melbourne has as his +coadjutor a former president of the College of Maynooth. In South +Africa, the work of preaching and teaching and ruling the church is +largely the work of Irish-born men. In the great Republic of the West +the three cardinal-archbishops at the head of the Catholic Church have +the distinctively Irish names of Gibbons and Farley and O'Connell; and +in every diocese throughout the United States the proportion of +priests of Irish birth or descent is large.</p> + +<p>Nor must the poorer Irish be forgotten. How much does the Catholic +Church, both in Ireland and in America, owe to the generosity of +Irish-American laborers and servant girls! Out of their scanty and +hard-earned pay they have contributed much not only towards the +building of the plain wooden church in the rural parishes, but also of +the stately cathedrals of American cities. And many a church in old +Ireland owes its completion and its adornment to the dollars given by +the poor but generous Irish exiles.</p> + +<p>And if the zeal of the Irish for religion has thus survived to the +twentieth century, so also in an equally remarkable degree has their +zeal for learning. We have evidence of this in the numerous primary +schools in every parish, filled with eager pupils and presided over by +hard working teachers; in the colleges where the sciences and the +classics are studied with the same energy as in the ancient monastic +schools; and in Maynooth College, which is the foremost ecclesiastical +college in the world. And if there are now new universities, the +National and the Queen's, sturdy and vigorous in their youth, this +does not imply that Trinity College suffers from the decreptitude of +age. For among those whom she sent forth in recent times are Dowden +and Mahaffy and Lecky, to name but three, and these would do credit to +any university in Europe.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to find in any age of Irish history a greater +pulpit orator than the famous Dominican, Father Tom Burke, or a more +delightful essayist than Father Joseph Farrell; and who has depicted +Irish clerical life more faithfully than the late Canon Sheehan, whose +fame as a novelist has crossed continents and oceans? O'Connell was a +great orator as well as a great political leader, and Dr. Doyle and +Archbishop John MacHale were scholars as well as statesmen and +bishops. We have thus an unbroken chain of great names, a series of +Irishmen whom the succeeding ages have brought forth to enlighten and +instruct lesser men; and Ireland, in the twentieth century, is not +less attached to religion and learning than she was when Clonmacnois +flourished and the saintly Carthage ruled at Lismore.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> +<p>Joyce: Social History of Ancient Ireland (Dublin, 1903); Lanigan: +Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (Dublin, 1822); Healy: Ireland's +Ancient Schools and Scholars (Dublin, 1896), Life and Writings of St. +Patrick (Dublin, 1905); Bury: St. Patrick and his Place in History +(London, 1905); Ussher's Works (Dublin, 1847); Reeves: Adamnan's Life +of St. Columba (Dublin, 1851); Worsae: The Danes in Ireland (London, +1852); Moran: Essays on the Early Irish Church (Dublin, 1864); Stokes: +Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church (London, 1897); Mant: History of +the Church of Ireland (London, 1841); Bagwell: Ireland under the +Tudors (London, 1885-90); Moran: Persecutions under the Puritans +(Callan, 1903); Murphy: Our Martyrs (Dublin, 1896); Meehan: Franciscan +Monasteries of the Seventeenth Century (Dublin, 1870); Lecky: History +of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1902); O'Connell's +Correspondence (London, 1888); Wyse: History of the Catholic +Association (London, 1829); Doyle: Letters on the State of Ireland +(Dublin, 1826); O'Rorke: Irish Famine (Dublin, 1902); Gavan Duffy: +Young Ireland (London, 1880); Plunkett: Ireland in the New Century +(London, 1904); O'Riordan: Catholicity and Progress in Ireland +(London, 1905); MacCaffery: History of the Church in the Nineteenth +Century (Dublin, 1909); Healy: Centenary History of Maynooth College +(Dublin, 1905); D'Alton: History of Ireland (London, 1910).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T03"></a>IRISH MONKS IN EUROPE</h2> +<h4>By Rev. Columba Edmonds, O.S.B.</h4> + +<p>St. Patrick's work in Ireland was chiefly concerned with preaching +the faith and establishing monasteries which served as centres of +education. The great success that attended these efforts earned for +Ireland the double title of Island of Saints and a Second Thebaid.</p> + +<p>The monastic institutions organized by St. Patrick were +characterized from their commencement by an apostolic zeal that knew +no bounds. Sufficient scope was not to be found at home, so it was +impatient to diffuse itself abroad.</p> + +<p><b>SCOTLAND:</b> Hence in the year 563 St. Columcille, a Donegal +native of royal descent, accompanied by twelve companions, crossed the +sea in currachs of wickerwork and hides, and sought to land in +Caledonia. They reached the desolate Isle of Iona on the day preceding +Whitsunday.</p> + +<p>Many years before, colonies of Irishmen had settled along the +western parts of the present Scotland. The settlement north of the +Clyde received the name of the Kingdom of Dalriada. These Dalriadan +Irish were Christian at least in name, but their neighbors in the +Pictish Highlands were still pagans. Columcille's apostolate was to be +among both these peoples. Adamnan says that Columcille came to +Caledonia "for the love of Christ's name", and well did his after-life +prove the truth of this statement. He had attained his forty-fourth +year when King Conall, his kinsman, bestowed Iona upon him and his +brethren. The island, situated between the Dalriadans and the Picts of +the Highlands, was conveniently placed for missionary work. A numerous +community recruited from Ireland, with Columcille as its Abbot, soon +caused Iona to become a flourishing centre from which men could go +forth to preach Christianity. Monasteries and hermitages rapidly +sprang up in the adjacent islands and on the mainland. These, together +with the Columban foundations in Ireland, formed one great religious +federation, in which the Celtic apostles of the northern races were +formed under the influence of the holy founder.</p> + +<p>St. Columcille recognized the need of securing permanence for his +work by obtaining the conversion of the Pictish rulers, and thus he +did not hesitate to approach King Brude in his castle on the banks of +the River Ness. St. Comgall and St. Canice were Columcille's +companions on his journey through the great glen, now famous for the +Caledonian Canal. The royal convert Brude was baptized, and by degrees +the people followed the example set them. Opposition, however, was +keen and aggressive, and it came from the official representatives of +Pictish paganism—the Druids.</p> + +<p>Success, too, attended Columcille's ministrations among the +Dalriadans, and on the death of their king, Aidan Gabhran, who +succeeded to the throne, sought regal consecration from the hands of +Columcille. In 597 the saint died, but not before he had won a whole +kingdom to Christ and covered the land with churches and monasteries. +Today his name is held in honor not by Irishmen alone, but by the +Catholics and non-Catholics of the land of his adoption.</p> + +<p>There are other saints who either labored in person with Columcille +or perpetuated the work he accomplished in Caledonia; and their names +add to the glory of Ireland, their birth-land. Thus St. Moluag (592) +converted the people of Lismore, and afterwards died at Rosemarkie; +St. Drostan, St. Columcille's friend and disciple, established the +faith in Aberdeenshire and became abbot of Deer; St. Kieran (548) +evangelized Kintyre; St. Mun (635) labored in Argyleshire; St. Buite +(521) did the same in Pictland; St. Maelrubha (722) preached in +Ross-shire; St. Modan and St. Machar benefited the dwellers on the +western and eastern coasts respectively; and St. Fergus in the eighth +century became apostle of Forfar, Buchan, and Caithness.</p> + +<p><b>DISTANT ISLANDS:</b> But Irish monks were mariners as well as +apostles. Their hide-covered currachs were often launched in the hope +of discovering solitudes in the ocean. Adamnan records that Baitan set +out with others in search of a desert in the sea. St. Cormac sought a +similar retreat and arrived at the Orkneys. St. Molaise's holy isle +guards Lamlash Bay, off Arran. The island retreats of the Bass, +Inchkeith, May, and Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth, are associated +with the Irish saints Baldred, Adamnan, Adrian, and Columcille. St. +Maccaldus, a native of Down, became bishop of the Isle of Man.</p> + +<p>Remarkable, too, is the fact that Irish monks sailed by way of the +Faroe Islands to distant Iceland. These sailor-clerics, who settled on +the southeast of the island, were spoken of by later Norwegians as +"papar." After their departure—they were probably driven away by +Norwegian pagans—these Icelandic apostles "left behind them +Irish books, bells, and croziers, wherefrom one could understand they +were Irishmen."</p> + +<p>But St. Brendan, the voyager, is the most wonderful of the mariner +monks of Ireland. He accomplished apostolic work in both Wales and +Scotland, but his seafaring instincts urged him to make missionary +voyages to regions hitherto unknown. Some writers, not without reason, +have actually maintained that he and his followers traveled as far as +the American shore. Be this as it may, the tradition of the +discoveries of this Irish monk kept in mind the possibly existing +western land, and issued at last in the discovery of the great +continent of America by Columbus.</p> + +<p><b>NORTHUMBRIA:</b> Turn now to Northumbria. Adamnan writes that +St. Columcille's name was honored not only in Gaul, Spain, and Italy, +but in Rome itself. England, however, owes to it a special veneration, +because of the widespread apostolic work accomplished within her +borders by Columcille's Irish disciples. The facts are as follows: +Northumbrian Christianity was well-nigh exterminated through the +victory of Penda the pagan over Edwin the Christian, A.D. 633. St. +Paulinus, its local Roman apostle, was driven permanently from his +newly founded churches. Meanwhile Oswald and his brother Edwith sought +refuge among the Irish monks of lona, and received baptism at their +hands. Edwith died and Oswald became heir to the throne. A battle was +fought. The day before he met the pagan army, between the Tyne and the +Solway, Oswald beheld St. Columcille in vision saying to him: "Be +strong and of good faith; I will be with thee." The result of this +vision of the abbot of Iona was that a considerable part of England +received the true faith. Oswald was victorious; he united the kingdoms +of Deira and Bernicia, and became overlord of practically all England, +with the exception of Kent. There was evangelization to be done, and +St. Oswald turned to Iona. In response to his appeal, the Irish +bishop, St. Aidan, was sent with several companions. They were +established on the island of Lindisfarne, in sight of the royal +residence at Bamborough. These monks labored in union with, and even +seemed to exceed in zeal, the Roman missionaries in the south under +St. Augustine. However great the enthusiasm they had displayed for +conversions in Iona, they displayed still greater on the desolate isle +of Lindisfarne. In the first instance St. Aidan and his monks +evangelized Northumbria. Want of facility in preaching in the +Anglo-Saxon tongue was at first an obstacle, but it was speedily +overcome, for king Oswald himself, who knew both Gaelic and English, +came forward and acted as interpreter.</p> + +<p>When St. Aidan died in 651, Iona sent St. Finan, another Irish +bishop, to succeed him. Finan spread the faith beyond the borders of +Northumbria and succeeded so well that he himself baptized Penda, king +of the Mid-Angles, and Sigebert, king of the East Saxons. Diuma and +Cellach, Irish monks, assisted by three Anglo-Saxon disciples of St. +Aidan, consolidated the mission to the Mercians.</p> + +<p><b>ANGLIA:</b> While Christianity was thus being restored in +Northumbria, other Irish apostles were teaching it in East Anglia. St. +Fursey, accompanied by his brother St. Foillan and St. Ultan and the +priests Gobham and Dicuil, landed in England in 633, and began to +labor in the eastern portions of Anglia. In his monastery at +Burghcastle, in Suffolk, the convert king Sigebert made his monastic +profession, and in the same house many heavenly visions were +vouchsafed to its founder.</p> + +<p>The South Saxons had in Dicuil an apostle who founded the monastery +of Bosham in Sussex, whence originated the episcopal see of +Chichester. Another Irish monk named Maeldubh settled among the West +Saxons and became the founder of Malmesbury Abbey and the instructor +of the well-known St. Aldhelm.</p> + +<p>Thus did Irish monks contribute to the conversion of Great Britain +and its many distant islands. They built up the faith by their holy +lives, their preaching, and their enthusiasm, and wisely provided for +its perpetuation by educating a native clergy and by the founding of +monastic institutions.</p> + +<p>They were not yet satisfied, so they turned towards other lands to +bring to other peoples the glad tidings of salvation.</p> + +<p><b>GAUL:</b> In 590 St. Columbanus, a monk of Bangor in Ireland, +accompanied by twelve brethren, arrived in France, having passed +through Britain. After the example of St. Columcille in Caledonia, +they traveled to the court of Gontram, king of Burgundy, in order to +secure his help and protection. During the course of the journey they +preached to the people, and all were impressed with their modesty, +patience, and devotion. At that epoch Gaul was sadly in need of such +missionaries, for, owing partly to the invasion of barbarians and +partly to remissness on the part of the clergy, vice and impiety +everywhere prevailed. Columbanus, because of his zeal, sanctity, and +learning, was well fitted for the task that lay before him. One of his +early works in Burgundy was the founding of the monastery of Luxeuil, +which became the parent of many other monasteries founded either by +himself or by his disciples. Many holy men came from Ireland to join +the community, and so numerous did the monks of Luxeuil become that +separate choirs were formed to keep up perpetual praise—the +"laus perennis". But Columbanus did not remain at Luxeuil. In his +strict uncompromising preaching he spared not even kings, and he +preferred to leave his flourishing monastery rather than pass over in +silence the vices of the Merovingians. He escaped from the malice of +Brunehaut, and, being banished from Burgundy, made his way to +Neustria, and thence to Metz. Full of zeal, he resolved to preach the +faith to the pagans along the Rhine, and with this purpose set out +with a few of his followers. They proceeded as far as the Lake of +Zurich, and finally established themselves at Bregentz, on the Lake of +Constance.</p> + +<p>By this time his disciple St. Gall had learned the Alemannian +dialect, which enabled him to push forward the work of evangelization. +But Columbanus felt that he was called to labor in other lands while +vigor remained to him, so, bidding his favorite follower farewell, he +crossed the Alps and arrived at Milan in northern Italy. King Agilulph +and his queen, Theodelinda, gave the Irish abbot a reverent and kind +welcome. His zeal was still unspent, and he worked much for the +conversion of the Lombard Arians. Here he founded, between Milan and +Genoa, the monastery of Bobbio, which as a centre of knowledge and +piety was long the light of northern Italy. In this monastery he died +in the year 615, but not before the arrival of messengers from King +Clothaire, inviting him to return to Luxeuil, as his enemies were now +no more. But he could not go; all he asked was protection for his dear +monks at Luxeuil.</p> + +<p>It has been said most truly that Ireland never sent a greater son +to do God's work in foreign lands than Columbanus. The fruit of his +labors remained; and for centuries after his death his influence was +widely felt throughout Europe, especially in France and Italy. His +zeal for the interests of God was unbounded, and this was the secret +of his immense power. Some of his writings have come down to us, and +comprise his Rule for Monks, his Penitential, sixteen short sermons, +six letters, and several poems, all in Latin. His letters are of much +value as evidence of Ireland's ancient belief in papal supremacy.</p> + +<p><b>SWITZERLAND:</b> Gall, Columbanus's disciple, remained in +Switzerland. In a fertile valley, lying between two rivers and +surrounded by hills, he laid the beginnings of the great abbey which +afterwards bore his name and became one of the most famous monasteries +in Christendom. St. Gall spent thirty years of his life in Helvetia, +occupying himself in teaching, preaching, and prayer. He succeeded +where others had failed, and that which was denied to Columbanus was +reserved for Gall, his disciple, and the latter is entitled the +Apostle of Alemannia.</p> + +<p>Other districts had their Irish missionaries and apostles. Not far +from St. Gall, at Seckingen, near Basle, St. Fridolin was a pioneer in +the work of evangelization.</p> + +<p>Towards the close of the seventh century St. Kilian, an Irishman, +with his companions, Totnan and Colman, arrived in Franconia. He was +martyred in Würtzburg, where he is honored as patron and +apostle.</p> + +<p>Sigisbert, another Irish follower of St. Columbanus, spread the +faith among the half-pagan people of eastern Helvetia, and founded the +monastery of Dissentis in Rhaetia.</p> + +<p>St. Ursanne, a little town on the boundaries of Switzerland, took +its origin from another disciple of St. Columbanus.</p> + +<p><b>OTHER APOSTLES AND FOUNDERS:</b> Desire for solitary life drew +St. Fiacre to a hermitage near Meaux, where he transformed wooded +glades into gardens to provide vegetables for poor people. This +charity has earned for Fiacre the title of patron saint of +gardeners.</p> + +<p>St. Fursey, the illustrious apostle of East Anglia, crossed over to +France, where he travelled and preached continuously. He built a +monastery at Lagny-sur-Marne, and was about to return to East Anglia +when he died at Mézerolles, near Doullens. St. Gobham followed +his master's example, and like him evangelized and founded +monasteries. St. Etto (Zé) acted in like manner. St. Foillan +and St. Ultan, brothers of St. Fursey, became apostles in southern +Brabant.</p> + +<p>The monastery of Honau, on an island near Strasburg, and that of +Altomünster, in Bavaria, owe their foundation to the Irish monks +Tuban and Alto, respectively.</p> + +<p>Not far from Luxeuil was the Abbey of Lure, another great Irish +foundation, due to Deicolus (Desle, Dichuill), a brother of St. Gall +and a disciple of St. Columbanus. So important was this house +considered in later times that its abbot was numbered among the +princes of the Holy Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>Rouen, in Normandy, felt the influence of the Irish monks through +the instrumentality of St. Ouen; and the monasteries of Jouarre, +Rebais, Jumièges, Leuconaus, and St. Vandrille were due at +least indirectly to Columbanus or his disciples.</p> + +<p>Turning to Belgium, it is recorded that St. Romold preached the +faith in Mechlin, and St. Livinus in Ghent. Both came from +Ireland.</p> + +<p>St. Virgilius, a voluntary exile from Erin, "for the love of +Christ", established his monastery at Salzburg, in Austria. He became +bishop there, and died in 781.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the Celtic Rule of Columbanus was carried into Picardy by +St. Valery, St. Omer, St. Bertin, St. Mummolin, and St. Valdelenus; +but the Irish Caidoc and Fricor had already preceded them, their work +resulting in the foundation of the Abbey of St. Riquier.</p> + +<p><b>ITALY:</b> Something yet remains to be said of the monks of +Ireland in Italy. Anterior to St. Columbanus's migration, his fellow +countryman, St. Frigidian (or Fridian), had taken up his abode in +Italy at Monte Pisana, not far from the city of Lucca, where he became +famed for sanctity and wisdom. On the death of the bishop of Lucca, +Frigidian was compelled to occupy the vacant see. St. Gregory the +Great wrote of him that "he was a man of rare virtue". His teachings +and holy life not only influenced the lives of his own flock, but +brought to the faith many heretics and pagans. In Lucca this Celtic +apostle is still honored under the name of St. Frediano.</p> + +<p>St. Pellegrinus is another Irish saint who sought solitude at +Garfanana in the Apennines; and Cathaldus, a Waterford saint, in 680, +became Bishop of Taranto, which he governed for many years with zeal +and great wisdom. His co-worker was Donatus, his brother, who founded +the church at Lecce in the Kingdom of Naples.</p> + +<p>Of the two learned Irishmen, Clemens and Albinus, who resided in +France in the eighth century, Albinus was sent into Italy, where at +Pavia he was placed at the head of the school attached to St. +Augustine's monastery. Dungal, his compatriot, was a famous teacher in +the same city. Lothair thus ordained concerning him: "We desire that +at Pavia, and under the superintendence of Dungal, all students should +assemble from Milan, Brescia, Lodi, Bergamo, Novara, Vercelli, +Tortona, Acqui, Genoa, Asti, Como."</p> + +<p>It was this same Dungal who presented the Bangor psalter to Bobbio; +therefore it may be reasonably conjectured that he came from the very +monastery that produced Columbanus, Gall, and Comgall.</p> + +<p>Fiesole, in Tuscany, venerates two Irish eighth-century saints, +Donatus and Andrew. The former was educated at Iniscaltra, and Andrew +was his friend and disciple. After visiting Rome, they lingered at +Fiesole. Donatus was received with great honor by clergy and people +and was requested to fill their vacant bishopric. With much hesitation +he took upon himself ihe burden, which he bore for many years. His +biographer says of him that "he was liberal in almsgiving, sedulous in +watching, devout in prayer, excellent in doctrine, ready in speech, +holy in life." Andrew, who was his deacon, founded the church and +monastery of St. Martin in Mensola, and is known in Fiesole as St. +Andrew of Ireland, or St. Andrew the Scot, that is, the Irishman.</p> + +<p><b>HOSPITALIA:</b> Thus Irish monks were to be found in France, +Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, and even in Bulgaria. So +numerous were they and so frequent their travels through the different +countries of Europe that hospices were founded to befriend them. These +institutions were known as "Hospitalia Scottorum" ("Hospices for the +Irish"), and their benefactors were not only pious laymen but the +highest ecclesiastical authorities. Sometimes the hospices were +diverted to purposes other than those originally intended, and then +Church Councils would intervene in favor of the lawful inheritors. +Thus in 845 we read that the Council of Meaux ordered the hospices in +France to be restored to the dispossessed Irishmen. In the twelfth +century Ireland still continued to send forth a constant succession of +monk-pilgrims, renowned for faith, austerity, and piety.</p> + +<p><b>RATISBON:</b> Special monasteries were erected to be peopled by +the Irish. The most renowned of these dates from 1067, when Marianus +Scotus ("Marianus the Irishman"), with his companions, John and +Candidus, left his native land and arrived in Bavaria. These holy men +were welcomed at Ratisbon by the Bishop Otto; and on the advice of +Murcherat, an Irish recluse, took up their residence near St. Peter's +church at the outskirts of the city. Novices flocked from Ireland to +join them and a monastery was erected to receive the community. In a +short time this had to be replaced by a still larger one, which was +known to future ages as the Abbey of St. James's of the Scots (that +is, Irish) at Ratisbon. How prolific was this parent foundation is +evidenced from its many offshoots, the only surviving monasteries on +the continent for many centuries intended for Irish brethren. These, +besides St. James's at Erfurt and St. Peter's at Ratisbon, comprised +St. James's at Würtzburg, St. Giles's at Nuremberg, St. Mary's at +Vienna, St. James's at Constance, St. Nicholas's at Memmingen, Holy +Cross at Eichstatt, a Priory at Kelheim and another at Oels in +Silesia, all of which were founded during the twelfth or thirteenth +century, and formed a Benedictine congregation approved of by Pope +Innocent III., and presided over by the Abbot of Ratisbon. These Irish +houses, with their long lines of Celtic abbots, in the days of their +prosperity did much work that was excellent and civilizing, and +rightly deserve a remembrance in the achievements of Ireland's ancient +missionaries.</p> + +<p>Ratisbon and its dependent abbeys, as is set forth in the papal +briefs of 1218, possessed priories in Ireland, and, from these, +novices were usually obtained.</p> + +<p>But evil days came for the Congregation of St. James, and now it is +extinct. The subjugation of Ireland to England, says Wattenbach, +contributed no doubt to the rapid decline of the Scotic (that is, +Irish) monasteries. For from Ireland they had up till then been +continually receiving fresh supplies of strength. In this their +fatherland the root of their vitality was to be found. Loss of +independence involved loss of enterprise.</p> + +<p><b>SCHOLARSHIP AND INFLUENCE:</b> Irish monks were not only +apostles of souls, but also masters of intellectual life. Thus in the +seventh century the Celtic monastery of Luxeuil became the most +celebrated school in Christendom. Monks from other houses and sons of +the nobility crowded to it. The latter were clearly not intended for +the cloister, but destined for callings in the world.</p> + +<p>There were outstanding men among these missionaries from Ireland. +St. Virgilius of Salzburg in the eighth century taught the sphericity +of the earth and the existence of the Antipodes. It was this same +teaching that Copernicus and later astronomers formulated into the +system now in vogue.</p> + +<p>St. Columcille himself was a composer of Latin hymns and a penman +of no mean order, as the Book of Kells, if written by him, +sufficiently proves. In all the monasteries which he founded, +provision was made for the pursuit of sacred learning and the +multiplication of books by transcription. The students of his schools +were taught classics, mechanical arts, law, history, and physics. They +improved the methods of husbandry and gardening; supplied the people, +whom they helped to civilize, with implements of labor; and taught +them the use of the forge, an accomplishment belonging to almost every +Irish monk.</p> + +<p>The writings of Adamnan, who spent most of his life outside his +native land, show that he was familiar with the best Latin authors, +and had a knowledge of Greek as well. His "Vita S. Columbae" ("Life of +St. Columcille") has made his name immortal as a Latin writer. His +book "De Locis Sanctis" ("On the Holy Places") contains information he +received from the pilgrim bishop Arculfus, who had been driven by a +tempest to take refuge with the monks of Iona. On account of the +importance of the writings of Adamnan and because of his influence in +secular and ecclesiastical affairs of importance, few will question +his right to a distinguished place among the saintly scholars of the +West.</p> + +<p>Irish monks, abroad as well as at home, were pre-eminently students +and exponents of Holy Scripture. Sedulius wrote a commentary on the +Epistles of St. Paul; John Scotus Erigena composed a work, "De +Praedestinatione" ("Concerning Predestination"); Dungal was not only +an astronomer, but also an excellent theologian, as is clear from his +defence of Catholic teaching on the invocation of saints and the +veneration of their relics. His knowledge of Sacred Scripture and of +the Fathers is exceedingly remarkable.</p> + +<p>St. Columbanus, besides other works, is said to have composed an +exposition of the Psalms, which is mentioned in the catalogue of St. +Gall's library, but which cannot now be identified with certainty. The +writings of this abbot are said to have brought about a more frequent +use of confession both in the world and in monasteries; and his +legislation regarding the Blessed Sacrament fostered eucharistic +devotion.</p> + +<p>Marianus Scotus is the author of a commentary on the Psalms, so +precious that rarely was it allowed to pass beyond the walls of the +monastic library. His commentary on St. Paul's Epistles is regarded as +his most famous production. Herein he shows acquaintance with Saints +Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, and Leo, with Cassiodorus, Origen, Alcuin, +Cassian, and Peter the Deacon. He completed the work on the 17th May, +1079, and ends the volume by asking the reader to pray for the +salvation of his soul.</p> + +<p><b>TRANSCRIPTION:</b> In all the monasteries a vast number of +scribes were continually employed in multiplying copies of the Sacred +Scriptures. These masterpieces of calligraphy, written by Irish hands, +have been scattered throughout the libraries of Europe, and many +fragments remain to the present day. The beauty of these manuscripts +is praised by all, and the names of the best transcribers often find +mention in monastic annals. The work was irksome, but it was looked +upon as a privilege and meritorious.</p> + +<p>It remains to speak of that glorious monument of the Irish monks, +the abbey of St. Gall, in Switzerland. It was here that Celtic +influence was most felt and endured the longest. Within its walls for +centuries the sacred sciences were taught and classic authors studied. +Many of its monks excelled as musicians and poets, while others were +noted for their skill in calligraphy and the fine arts. The library +was only in its infancy in the eighth century, but gradually it grew, +and eventually became one of the largest and richest in the world. The +brethren were in correspondence with all the learned houses of France +and Italy, and there was constant mutual interchange of books, sacred +and scientific, between them.</p> + +<p>They manufactured their own parchment from the hides of the wild +beasts that roamed in the forests around them, and bound their books +in boards of wood clamped with iron or ivory.</p> + +<p>Such was the monastery of St. Gall, which owes its inception to the +journey through Europe of the great Columbanus and his +monk-companions—men whose lives, according to Bede, procured for +the religious habit great veneration, so that wherever they appeared +they were received with joy, as God's own servants. "And what will be +the reward," asks the biographer of Marianus Scotus, "of these +pilgrim-monks who left the sweet soil of their native land, its +mountains and hills, its valleys and its groves, its rivers and pure +fountains, and went like the children of Abraham without hesitation +into the land which God had pointed out to them?" He answers thus: +"They will dwell in the house of the Lord with the angels and +archangels of God forever; they will behold the God of gods in Sion, +to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever."</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> +<p>Lanigan: Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (Dublin, 1829); +Montalembert: Monks of the West (Edinburgh, 1861); Moran: Irish Saints +in Great Britain (Dublin, 1903); Dalgairns: Apostles of Europe +(London, 1876); Healy: Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars (Dublin, +1890); Barrett: A Calendar of Scottish Saints (Fort Augustus, 1904); +Stokes: Six Months in the Apennines (London, 1892), Three Months in +the Forests of France (London, 1895); Fowler: Vita S. Columbae +(Oxford, 1894); Wattenbach: Articles in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, +vol. 7 (Belfast, 1859); Gougaud: Les Chrétientés +celtiques (Paris, 1911); Hogan: Articles in Irish Ecclesiastical +Record, 1894, 1895; Drane: Christian Schools and Scholars (London, +1881).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T04"></a>THE IRISH AND THE SEA</h2> +<h4>By WILLIAM H. BABCOCK, LL.B.</h4> + +<p>The beginning of Irish navigation, like the beginning of everything +else, is hidden in the mist of antiquity. Vessels of some kind +obviously must have borne the successive waves of immigrants or +invaders to the island. Naturally they would remain in use afterwards +for trade, travel, exploration, and war. Irish ships may have been +among those of the Breton fleet that Cæsar dispersed at Vannes +after an obstinate struggle. Two or three centuries later we find +Niall of the Nine Hostages making nautical descents on the neighboring +shores, especially Britain: and there is every probability that ships +of the island conveyed some at least of the "Scots" (Irish) whom +Gildas in the sixth century describes as joining the Picts in +furiously storming the Roman wall.</p> + +<p>The equally adventurous but more pacific work of exploration went +on also, if we may judge by that extraordinary series of Irish +sea-sagas, the <i>Imrama</i>, comprising the Voyages of Bran, +Maelduin, the Hui Corra, and St. Brendan—the last-mentioned +deservedly the most famous. These vary in their literary merits and in +the merits of their several parts, for they have been successively +rewritten at different periods, receiving always something of the +color, belief, and adornment which belonged to the writer's time; but +under all may be dimly traced, as in a palimpsest, the remote pagan +original. At their best they embody a lofty and touching poetry very +subtle and significant, as when we read of Bran's summoning by a +visitant of supernatural beauty to the isles of undying delight, where +a thousand years are but as a day; his return with a companion who had +been overcome by longing for Ireland and home; the man's falling to +ashes at the first touch of the native soil, as though he had been +long dead; and the flight of Bran and his crew from the real living +world to the islands of the blessed. At least equally fine and +stirring is St. Brendan's interview with the exiled spirit of Heaven, +whose "sin was but little", so that he and his fellows were given only +the pleasing penance of singing delightfully, in the guise of +beautiful birds, the praises of the God who showed them mercy and +grace, amid the charms of an earthly paradise. "Then all the birds +sang evensong, so that it was an heavenly noise to hear."</p> + +<p>It is not very surprising that St. Brendan's legend, with such +qualities in prose and verse, made itself at home in many lands and +languages, and became for centuries a widespread popular favorite and +matter of general belief, also influencing the most permanent +literature of a high contemplative cast, which we might suppose to be +out of touch with it altogether. Certain of its more unusual incidents +are found even in Arab writings of romance founded on fact, as in +Edrisi's narrative of the Magrurin explorers of Lisbon and the +adventures of Sinbad related in the Arabian Nights; but perhaps here +we have a case of reciprocal borrowing such as may well occur when +ships' companies of different nations meet.</p> + +<p>The most conspicuous, insistent, and repeated feature of all these +<i>Imrama</i> is a belief in Atlantic islands fair enough or wonderful +enough to tempt the shore dwellers of Ireland far away and hold them +spell-bound for years. It is easy to ascribe these pictures to sunset +on the ocean, or the wonders of mirage; but all the time, within long +sailing distance, there actually were islands of delightful climate +and exceeding beauty. These had been occasionally reached from the +Mediterranean ever since early Carthaginian times, as classical +authors seem to tell us; why not also from Ireland, perhaps not quite +so distant? It is undoubted that the Canary Islands were never really +altogether forgotten, and the same is probably true of the Madeiras +and all three groups of Azores, though the knowledge that lingered in +Ireland was a distorted glimmering tradition of old voyages, +occasionally inciting to new ventures in the same field.</p> + +<p>Some have supposed, though without sufficient evidence, that Saint +Brendan even made his way to America, and parts of that shore line in +several different latitudes have been selected as the scene of the +exploit. His first entry into serious geography is in the fine maps of +Dulcert, 1339, and the Pizigani, 1367, both of which plainly label +Madeira, Porto Santo, and Las Desertas—"The Fortunate Islands of +St. Brandan." That there may be no possibility of misunderstanding, +the Pizigani brothers present a full-length portrait of the holy +navigator himself bending over these islands with hands of +benediction. The inscription, though not the picture, was common, thus +applied, on the maps of the next century or two, and no other +interpretation of his voyage found any place until a later time.</p> + +<p>Of course the fourteenth century was a long way from the sixth, +when the voyage was supposed to have been made, and we cannot take so +late a verdict as convincing proof of any fact. But it at least +exhibits the current interpretation of the written narrative among +geographers and mariners, the people best able to judge; and here the +interval was much less. The story itself seems to corroborate them in +a general way, if read naturally. One would say that it tells of a +voyage to the Canaries, of which one is unmistakably "the island under +Mount Atlas", and that this was undertaken by way of the Azores and +Madeira, with inevitable experience of great beauty in some islands +and volcanic terrors in others. Madeira may well have been pitched +upon by the interpreters as the suitable scene of a particularly long +tarrying by the way. Of course magic filled out all gaps of real +knowledge, and wonders grew with each new rewriting.</p> + +<p>Whatever Brendan did, there is no doubt that Irish mariner-monks, +incited by the great awakening which followed St. Patrick's mission, +covered many seas in their frail vessels during the next three or four +centuries. They set up a flourishing religious establishment in +Orkney, made stepping stones of the intervening islands, and reached +Iceland some time in the eighth century, if not earlier. The Norsemen, +following in their tracks as always, found them there, and the +earliest Icelandic writings record their departure, leaving behind +them books, bells, and other souvenirs on an islet off shore which +still bears their name.</p> + +<p>Did they keep before the Norsemen to America too? At least the +Norsemen thought so. For centuries the name Great Ireland or +Whitemen's Land was accepted in Norse geography as meaning a region +far west of Ireland, a parallel to Great Sweden (Russia), which lay +far east of Sweden. The saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni, first to attempt +colonizing America, makes it plain that his followers believed Great +Ireland to be somewhere in that region, and it is explicitly located +near Wineland by the twelfth century Landnamabok. Also there were +specific tales afloat of a distinguished Icelander lost at sea, who +was afterward found in a western region by an Irish vessel long driven +before the storm. The version most relied on came through one Rafn, +who had dwelt in Limerick; also through Thorfinn, earl of the +Orkneys.</p> + +<p>Brazil, the old Irish <i>Breasail</i>, was another name for land +west of Ireland—where there is none short of America—on +very many medieval maps, of which perhaps a dozen are older than the +year 1400, the earliest yet found being that of Dalorto, 1325. Usually +it appears as a nearly circular disc of land opposite Munster, at +first altogether too near the Irish coast, as indeed the perfectly +well-known Corvo was drawn much too near the coast of Spain, or as +even in the sixteenth century, when Newfoundland had been repeatedly +visited, that island was shifted by divers mapmakers eastward towards +Ireland, almost to the conventional station of Brazil. Also, not long +afterwards, the maps of Nicolay and Zaltieri adopted the reverse +treatment of transferring Brazil to Newfoundland waters, as if +recognizing past error and restoring its proper place.</p> + +<p>The name Brazil appears not to have been adopted by the Norsemen, +but there is one fifteenth century map, perhaps of 1480, preserved in +Milan, which shows this large disc-form "Brazil" just below Greenland +("Illa Verde"), in such relation that the mapmaker really must have +known of Labrador under the former name and believed that it could be +readily reached from that Norse colony.</p> + +<p>It seems altogether likely that "Brazil" was applied to the entire +outjutting region of America surrounding the Gulf of St. +Lawrence—that part of this continent which is by far the nearest +Ireland. Besides the facts above stated, certain coincidences of real +geography and of these old maps favor that belief, and they are quite +unlikely to have been guessed or invented. Thus certain maps, +beginning with 1375, while keeping the circular external outline of +Ireland, reduce the land area to a mere ring, enclosing an expanse of +water dotted with islands; and certain other maps show it still nearly +circular externally, and solid, but divided into two parts by a curved +channel nearly from north to south. The former exposition is possible +enough to one more concerned with the nearly enclosed Gulf of St. +Lawrence and its islands than with its two comparatively narrow +outlets; the second was afterward repeated approximately by Gastoldi's +map illustrating Ramusio when he was somehow moved to minimize the +width of the Gulf, though well remembering the straits of Belle Isle +and Cabot. There are some other coincidences, but it is unnecessary to +dwell on them. Land west of Ireland must be either pure fancy or the +very region in question, and it is hardly believable that fancy could +guess so accurately as to two different interpretations of real though +unusual geography and give them right latitude, with such an old Irish +name (Brazil) as might naturally have been conferred in the early +voyaging times. That an extensive region, chiefly mainland, should be +represented as an island is no objection, as anyone will see by +examining the maps which break up everything north of South America in +the years next following the achievements of Columbus and Cabot. There +was a natural tendency to expect nothing but islands short of +Asia.</p> + +<p>It seems likely, therefore, that America was actually reached by +the Irish even before the Norsemen and certainly long before all other +Europeans.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> +<p>Babcock: Early Norse Visits to North America, Smithsonian +Publication 2138 (1913); Baring-Gould: Curious Myths of the Middle +Ages; Beauvois: The Discovery of the New World by the Irish; Cantwell: +Pre-Columbian Discoveries of America; Daly: The Legend of St. Brandan, +Celtic Review, vol. I, A Sequel to the Voyage of St. Brandan, Celtic +Review, Jan. 13, 1909; Hardiman: The History of Galway; Hull: Irish +Episodes of Icelandic History; Joyce: The Voyage of Maelduin; Nutt: +The Voyage of Bran; Stokes: The Voyage of Maelduin (<i>Revue +Celtique</i>, vol. 9), Voyage of Snedgus (<i>Revue Celtique</i>, vol. +9), Voyage of the Hui Corra (<i>Revue Celtigue</i>, vol. 14); Moran: +Brendaniana.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T05"></a>IRISH LOVE OF LEARNING</h2> +<h4>By REV. P.S. DINNEEN, M.A., R.U.I.</h4> + +<p>"The distinguishing property of man," says Cicero, "is to search +for and follow after truth. Therefore, when disengaged from our +necessary cares and concerns, we desire to see, to hear, and to learn, +and we esteem knowledge of things obscure or wonderful as +indispensable to our happiness." (<i>De Officiis</i> I., 4).</p> + +<p>I claim for the Irish race that throughout their history they have +cut down their bodily necessities to the quick, in order to devote +time and energy to the pursuit of knowledge; that they have engaged in +intellectual pursuits, not infrequently of a high order, on a low +basis of material comfort; that they have persevered in the quest of +learning under unparalleled hardships and difficulties, even in the +dark night of "a nation's eclipse", when a school was an unlawful +assembly and school-teaching a crime. I claim, moreover, that, when +circumstances were favorable, no people have shown a more adventurous +spirit or a more chivalrous devotion in the advancement and spread of +learning.</p> + +<p>Love of learning implies more than a natural aptitude for acquiring +information. It connotes a zest for knowledge that is recondite and +attainable only at the expense of ease, of leisure, of the comforts +and luxuries of life, and a zeal for the cultivation of the mental +faculties. It is of the soul and not of the body; it refines, +elevates, adorns. It is allied to sensibility, to keenness of vision, +to the close observation of mental phenomena. Its possessor becomes a +citizen of the known world. His mind broadens; he compares, contrasts, +conciliates; he brings together the new and the old, the near and the +distant, the permanent and the transitory, and weaves from them all +the web of systematized human thought.</p> + +<p>I am not here concerned with the extent of Ireland's contribution +to the sum of human learning, nor with the career of her greatest +scholars; I am merely describing the love of learning which is +characteristic of the race, and which it seems best to present in a +brief study of distinct types drawn from various periods of Irish +history.</p> + +<p>In the pre-Christian period the Druid was the chief representative +of the learning of the race. He was the adviser of kings and princes, +and the instructor of their children. His knowledge was of the +recondite order and beyond the reach of ordinary persons. The esteem +in which he was held by all classes of the people proves their love +for the learning for which he stood.</p> + +<p>Patrick came: and with him came a wider horizon of learning and +greater facilities for the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge. +Monastic schools sprang up in all directions—at Clonard, Armagh, +Clonmacnois, Bangor, Lismore, Kildare, Innisfallen. These schools were +celebrated throughout Europe in the earlier middle ages, and from the +fifth to the ninth century Ireland led the nations of Europe in +learning and deserved the title of the "Island of Saints and +Scholars." Our type is the student in one of these monastic schools. +He goes out from his parents and settles down to study in the environs +of the monastery. He is not rich; he resides in a hut; his time is +divided between study, prayer, and manual labor. He becomes a monk, +only to increase in devotion to learning and to accentuate his +privations. He copies and illuminates manuscripts. He memorizes the +Psalms. He glosses the Vulgate Scriptures with vernacular notes. He +receives ordination, and, realizing that there are benighted countries +ten times as large as his native land beyond the seas, and, burning +with zeal for the spread of the Gospel and the advancement of +learning, sails for Britain, or passes into Gaul, or reaches the +slopes of the Apennines, or the outskirts of the Black Forest. The +rest of his life is devoted to the foundation of monasteries to which +schools are attached, to the building of churches, and to the +diffusion around him of every known branch of knowledge. He may have +taken books from Ireland over seas, and, of these, relics are now to +be found among the treasures of the ancient libraries of Europe. +Columcille, Columbanus, Adamnan, Gall, Virgilius occur to the mind in +dwelling on this type.</p> + +<p>The hereditary <i>seanchaidhe</i>, who treasured up the traditional +lore of the clan and its chief, was held in high honor and enjoyed +extraordinary privileges. He held a freehold. He was high in the +graces of the chief, and officiated at his inauguration.</p> + +<p>An important type is the Irish ecclesiastical student abroad in the +penal days. School teaching, unless at the sacrifice of Faith, was a +crime in Ireland, and the training required for the priesthood had to +be obtained on the continent. The Irish out of their poverty +established colleges in Rome (1628), Salamanca (1593), Seville (1612), +Alcala (1590), Lisbon (1593), Louvain (1634), Antwerp (1629), Douai +(1577), Lille (1610), Bordeaux (1603), Toulouse (1659), Paris (1605), +and elsewhere. As late as 1795 these colleges contained 478 students, +and some of them are still in existence. The young student in going +abroad risked everything. He often returned watched by spies, with his +life in danger. Yet the supply never failed; the colleges flourished; +and those who returned diffused around them not only learning but the +urbanity and refinement which were a striking fruit and mark of their +studies abroad.</p> + +<p>Another type is the Irish scribe. In the days of Ireland's fame and +prosperity and of the flood-tide of her native language, he was a +skilled craftsman, and the extant specimens of his work are +unsurpassed of their kind. But I prefer to look at him at a later +period, when he became our sole substitute for the printer and when +his diligence preserved for us all that remains of a fading +literature. He was miserably poor. He toiled through the day at the +spade or the plough, or guided the shuttle through the loom. At night, +by the flare of the turf-fire or the fitful light of a splinter of +bogwood, he made his copy of poem or tract or tale, which but for him +would have perished. The copies are often ill-spelt and ill-written, +but with all their faults they are as noble a monument to national +love of learning as any nation can boast of.</p> + +<p>In our gallery of types we must not forget the character whom +English writers contemptuously called the "hedge-schoolmaster." The +hedge-school in its most elemental state was an open-air daily +assemblage of youths in pursuit of knowledge. Inasmuch as the law had +refused learning a fitting temple in which to abide and be honored, +she was led by her votaries into the open, and there, beside the +fragrant hedge, if you will, with the green sward for benches, and the +canopy of heaven for dome, she was honored in Ireland, even as she had +been honored ages before in Greece, in Palestine, and by our +primordial Celtic ancestors themselves. The hedge-schoolmaster +conducted the rites, and the air resounded with the sonorous +hexameters of Virgil and the musical odes of Horace.</p> + +<p>In the Irish-speaking portions of the country the +hedge-schoolmaster was often also a poet who wrote mellifluous songs +in Irish, which were sung throughout the entire district and sometimes +earned him enduring fame. Eoghan Ruadh O'Sullivan and Andrew MacGrath, +called <i>An Mangaire Sugach</i> or "the Jolly Pedlar," are well-known +instances of this type.</p> + +<p>The poor scholar is another type that under varying forms and under +various circumstances has ever trod the stage of Irish history. From +an ancient Irish manuscript (See O'Curry, <i>Manners and Customs</i>, +II, 79, 80) we learn that Adamnan, the biographer of St. Columcille, +and some other youths studied at Clonard and were supported by the +neighborhood. The poor scholar more than any other type embodies the +love of learning of the Irish race. In the schools which preceded the +National, he appeared in a most interesting stage of development. He +came from a distance, attracted by the reputation of a good teacher +and the regularity of a well-conducted school. He came, avowedly poor. +His only claim on the generosity of his teacher and of the public was +a marked aptitude for learning and an ardent desire for study and +cultivation of mind. He did not look for luxuries. He was satisfied, +if his bodily wants were reasonably supplied, even with the +inconveniences of frequent change of abode. A welcome was extended to +him on all sides. His hosts and patrons honored his thirst for +knowledge and tenacity of purpose. He was expected to help the +students in the house where he found entertainment, and it may not +have been unpleasing to him on occasion to display his talents before +his host. When school was over, it was not unusual to find him +surrounded by a group of school-companions, each pressing his claim to +entertain him for the night.</p> + +<p>Despite the hospitality of his patrons, the poor scholar often felt +the bitterness of his dependent state, but he bore it with equanimity, +his hand ever eagerly stretched out for the prize of learning. What +did learning bring him? Why was he so eager to bear for its sake</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i10">"all the thousand aches</p> +<p>That patient merit of the unworthy takes"?</p> +</div> + +<p>Sometimes he became a priest; sometimes his life was purposeless +and void. But he was ever urged onward by the fascination of learning +and of the cultivation of the nobler part of his nature.</p> + +<p>As might have been expected, the Irish who have emigrated to the +American and Australian continents have given touching proof of their +devotion to the cause of learning. I have space only for a few +pathetic examples.</p> + +<p>An Irish workman in the United States, seeing my name in connection +with an Irish Dictionary, wrote to me a few years ago to ask how he +might procure one, as, he said, an Italian in the works had asked him +the meaning of <i>Erin go bragh</i>, and he felt ashamed to be unable +to explain it.</p> + +<p>A man who, at the age of three, had emigrated from Clare in the +famine time, wrote to me recently from Australia in the Irish language +and character.</p> + +<p>An old man named John O'Regan of New Zealand, who had been twelve +years in exile in the United States and forty-eight on the Australian +continent, with failing eyesight, in a letter that took him from +January to June of the year 1906 to write, endeavored to set down +scraps of Irish lore which he had carried with him from the old +country and which had clung to his memory to the last.</p> + +<p>"In my digging life in the quarries," he says, "books were not a +part of our swag (prayerbook excepted). In 1871, when I had a long +seat of work before me, I sent for McCurtin's Dictionary to Melbourne. +It is old and wanting in the introductory part, but for all was +splendid and I loved it as my life." (See <i>Gaelic Journal</i>, Dec., +1906.)</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> +<p>Joyce: A Social History of Ancient Ireland (2 vols., 2d ed., +Dublin, 1913); Healy: Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars (Dublin, +1890), Maynooth College Centenary History (Dublin, 1895); O'Curry: +Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, (3 vols., Dublin and London, +1873), Manuscript Materials of Irish History, reissue (Dublin, 1873); +Carleton: Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, especially vol. +3, The Poor Scholar; Montalembert: The Monks of the West, authorized +translation, (7 vols., London, 1861); Meyer: Learning in Ireland in +the Fifth Century (Dublin, 1913); Dinneen: Poems of Eoghan Ruadh +O'Sullivan, Introduction (Dublin, 1902), The Maigue Poets, +Introduction (Dublin, 1906); Boyle: The Irish College in Paris +1578-1901, with a brief sketch of the other Irish Colleges in France +(Dublin, 1901); Irish Ecclesiastical Record, new series, vol. VIII, +307, 465; 3rd series, vol. VII, 350, 437, 641.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T06"></a>IRISH MEN OF SCIENCE</h2> +<h4>By SIR BERTRAM C.A. WINDLE, Sc.D., M.D.,<br> +<i>President, University College, Cork</i>.</h4> + +<p>We may divide our survey of the debt owed to Ireland by science +into three periods: the earliest, the intermediate, and the +latest.</p> + +<p>In the earliest period the names which come before us are chiefly +those of compilers such as Augustin, a monk and an Irishman who wrote +at Carthage, in Africa, in the seventh century, a Latin treatise on +<i>The Wonderful Things of the Sacred Scripture</i>, still extant, in +which, in connection with Joshua's miracle, a very full account of the +astronomical knowledge of the period, Ptolemaic, but in many ways +remarkably accurate, is given. There are, however, three distinguished +names. Virgil the Geometer, <i>i.e.</i>, Fergil (O'Farrell), was Abbot +of Aghaboe, went to the continent in 741, and was afterwards Bishop of +Salzburg. He died in 785. He is remembered by his controversies with +St. Boniface, one of which is concerned with the question of the +Antipodes. Virgil is supposed to have been the first to teach that the +earth is spherical. So celebrated was he that it has been thought that +a part of the favor in which the author of the <i>Aeneid</i> was held +by medieval churchmen was due to a confusion between his name and that +of the geometer, sometimes spoken of as St. Virgil.</p> + +<p>Dicuil, also an Irish monk, was the author of a remarkable work on +geography, <i>De Mensura Provinciarum Orbis Terrae</i>, which was +written in 825, and contains interesting references to Iceland and +especially to the navigable canal which once connected the Nile with +the Red Sea. He wrote between 814 and 816 a work on astronomy which +has never been published. It is probable, but not certain, that he +belonged to Clonmacnois.</p> + +<p>Dungal, like the two others named above, was an astronomer. He +probably belonged to Bangor, and left his native land early in the +ninth century. In 811 he wrote a remarkable work, <i>Dungali Reclusi +Epistola de duplici solis eclipsi anno 810 ad Carolum Magnum</i>. This +letter, which is still extant, was written at the request of +Charlemagne, who considered its author to be the most learned +astronomer in existence and most likely to clear up the problem +submitted to him.</p> + +<p>Before passing to the next period, a word should be said as to the +medieval physicians, often if not usually belonging to families of +medical men, such as the Leahys and O'Hickeys, and attached +hereditarily to the greater clans. These men were chiefly compilers, +but such works of theirs as we have throw light upon the state of +medical knowledge in their day. Thus there is extant a treatise on +<i>Materia Medica</i> (1459); written by Cormac MacDuinntsleibhe +(Dunleavy), hereditary physician to the clan of O'Donnell in Ulster. A +more interesting work is the <i>Cursus Medicus</i>, consisting of six +books on Physiology, three on Pathology, and four on Semeiotica, +written in the reign of Charles I. of England by Nial O'Glacan, born +in Donegal, and at one time physician to the king of France.</p> + +<p>O'Glacan's name introduces us to the middle period, if indeed it +does not belong there. <i>Inter arma silent leges</i>, and it may be +added, scientific work. The troublous state of Ireland for many long +years fully explains the absence of men of science in any abundance +until the end of the eighteenth century. Still there are three names +which can never be forgotten, belonging to the period in question. Sir +Hans Sloane was born at Killileagh, in Ulster, in 1660. He studied +medicine abroad, went to London where he settled, and was made a +Fellow of the Royal Society. He published a work on the West Indies, +but his claim to undying memory is the fact that it was the bequest of +his most valuable and extensive collections to the nation which was +the beginning and foundation of the British Museum, perhaps the most +celebrated institution of its kind in the world. Sloane's collection, +it should be added, contained an immense number of valuable books and +manuscripts, as well as of objects more usually associated with the +idea of a museum. He died in 1753.</p> + +<p>The Hon. Robert Boyle was born at Lismore, in the county Waterford, +in 1627, being the fourteenth child of the first Earl of Cork. On his +tombstone he is described as "The Father of Chemistry and the Uncle of +the Earl of Cork", and, indeed, in his <i>Skyptical Chimist</i> +(1661), he assailed, and for the time overthrew, the idea of the +alchemists that there was a <i>materia prima</i>, asserting as he did +that theory of chemical "elements" which held good until the +discoveries in connection with radium led to a modification in +chemical teaching. This may be said of Boyle, that his writings +profoundly modified scientific opinion, and his name will always stand +in the forefront amongst those of chemists. He made important +improvements in the air-pump, was one of the earliest Fellows of the +Royal Society, and founded the "Boyle Lectures." He died in 1691.</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Molyneux was born in Dublin, in 1661, of a family which +had settled in Ireland about 1560-70. He practised as a physician in +his native city, was the first person to describe the Irish Elk and to +demonstrate the fact that the Giant's Causeway was a natural and not, +as had been previously supposed, an artificial production. He was the +author of many other scientific observations. He died in 1733.</p> + +<p>We may now turn to more recent times, and it will be convenient to +divide our subjects according to the branch of science in which they +were distinguished, and to commence with</p> + +<h4>MATHEMATICIANS,</h4> + +<p>of whom Ireland may boast of a most distinguished galaxy.</p> + +<p>Sir William Rowan Hamilton (b. in Dublin 1805, d. 1865), belonged +to a family, long settled in Ireland, but of Scottish extraction. He +was a most precocious child. He read Hebrew at the age of seven, and +at twelve, had studied Latin, Greek, and four leading continental +languages, as well as Persian, Syriac, Arabic, Sanscrit, and other +tongues. In 1819 he wrote a letter to the Persian ambassador in that +magnate's own language. After these linguistic contests, he early +turned to mathematics, in which he was apparently self-taught; yet, in +his seventeenth year he discovered an error in Laplace's +<i>Mécanique Céleste</i>. He entered Trinity College +where he won all kinds of distinctions, being famous not merely as a +mathematician, but as a poet, a scholar, and a metaphysician. He was +appointed Professor of Astronomy and Astronomer Royal whilst still an +undergraduate. He predicted "conical refraction," afterwards +experimentally proved by another Irishman, Humphrey Lloyd. He twice +received the Gold Medal of the Royal Society: (i) for optical +discoveries; (ii) for his theory of a general method of dynamics, +which resolves an extremely, abstruse problem relative to a system of +bodies in motion. He was the discoverer of a new calculus, that of +Quaternions, which attracted the attention of Professor Tait of +Edinburgh, and was by him made comprehensible to lesser +mathematicians. It is far too abstruse for description here.</p> + +<p>Sir George Gabriel Stokes (born in Sligo 1819, d. 1903) was, if not +the greatest mathematician, at least among the greatest, of the last +hundred years. He was educated in Cambridge, where he spent the rest +of his life, being appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in +1849, and celebrating the jubilee of that appointment in 1899. He was +member of parliament for his University, and for a time occupied the +presidential chair of the Royal Society. He devoted himself, <i>inter +alia</i>, to optical work, and is perhaps best known by those +researches which deal with the undulatory theory of light. It was on +this subject that he delivered the Burnett lectures in Aberdeen +(1883-1885).</p> + +<p>James McCullagh, the son of a poor farmer, was born in Tyrone in +1809, d. 1847. His early death, due to his own hand in a fit of +insanity, cut short his work, but enough remains to permit him to rank +amongst the great mathematicians of all time, his most important work +being his memoir on surfaces of the second order.</p> + +<p>Humphrey Lloyd (b. in Dublin 1800, d. 1881), F.R.S. His father was +Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, a position subsequently occupied +also by the son. Lloyd's work was chiefly concerned with optics and +magnetism, and it was in connection with the former that he carried +out what was probably the most important single piece of work of his +life, namely, the experimental proof of the phenomenon of conical +refraction which had been predicted by Sir William Hamilton. He was +responsible for the erection of the Magnetic Observatory in Dublin, +and the instruments used in it were constructed under his observation +and sometimes from his designs or modifications. He was also a +meteorologist of distinction.</p> + +<p>George Salmon (b. in Dublin 1819, d. 1904), like the last mentioned +subject, was, at the time of his death, Provost of Trinity College, +Dublin. Besides theological writings, he contributed much to +mathematical science, especially in the directions of conic sections, +analytic geometry, higher plane curves, and the geometry of three +dimensions. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and received the +Copley and Royal medals, as well as distinctions from many +universities and learned societies.</p> + +<p>John Casey (b. Kilkenny 1820, d. 1891), F.R.S., was educated at a +National School and became a teacher in one in later years. Entirely +self-taught as a mathematician, he raised himself from the humble +position which he occupied to be a university professor (in the +Catholic University of Ireland, and afterwards in the Royal +University), and earned the highest reputation as one of the greatest +authorities on plane geometry. He was a correspondent of eminent +mathematicians all over the world.</p> + +<p>Henry Hennessey (b. in Cork 1826, d. 1901), F.R.S., was also a +professor in the Catholic University of Ireland and afterwards in the +Royal College of Science in Dublin. He was a writer on mathematics, +terrestrial physics, and climatology.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Williamson (b. in Cork 1827), F.R.S., is a Senior Fellow +of Trinity College, Dublin, and a distinguished writer on mathematical +subjects, especially on the differential, integral, and infinitesimal +calculuses.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph Larmor (b. in Antrim 1857), F.R.S., was educated at +Queen's College, Belfast, and in Cambridge, in which last place he has +spent his life as a professor. He now represents the University in +parliament and is secretary to the Royal Society. He is well-known for +his writings on the ether and on other physical as well as +mathematical subjects.</p> + +<h4>ASTRONOMERS.</h4> + +<p>William Parsons, Earl of Rosse (b. in York 1800, d. 1867), F.R.S., +was a very distinguished astronomer who experimented in fluid lenses +and made great improvements in casting specula for reflecting +telescopes. From 1842-45 he was engaged upon the construction, in his +park at Parsonstown, of his great reflecting telescope 58 feet long. +This instrument, which cost £30,000, long remained the largest +in the world. He was president of the Royal Society from 1848 to +1854.</p> + +<p>Sir Howard Grubb (b. 1844), F.R.S., is known all over the world for +his telescopes and for the remarkable advances which he has made in +the construction of lenses for instruments of the largest size.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Ball (b. in Dublin 1840, d. 1913), F.R.S. Originally +Lord Rosse's astronomer at Parsonstown, he migrated as professor to +Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently became Lowndean Professor of +Astronomy at Cambridge. He was a great authority on the mathematical +theory of screws, and his popular works on astronomy have made him +known to a far wider circle of readers than those who can grapple with +his purely scientific treatises.</p> + +<p>William Edward Wilson (b. Co. Westmeath 1851, d. 1908), F.R.S. A +man of independent means, he erected, with the help of his father, an +astronomical observatory at his residence. In this well-equipped +building he made many photographic researches, especially into the +nature of nebulae. He also devoted himself to solar physics, and wrote +some remarkable papers on the sudden appearance in 1903 of the star +Nova Persei. He was the first to call attention to the probability +that radium plays a part in the maintenance of solar heat. In fact, +the science of radio-activity was engaging his keenest interest at the +time of his early death.</p> + +<p>A.A. Rambaut (b. Waterford 1859), F.R.S., formerly Astronomer Royal +for Ireland and now Radcliffe Observer at Oxford, is one of the +leading astronomers of the day.</p> + +<h4>PHYSICISTS.</h4> + +<p>Lord Kelvin, better known as Sir William Thompson (b. Belfast 1824, +d. 1907), F.R.S. Amongst the greatest physicists who have ever lived, +his name comes second only to that of Newton. He was educated at +Cambridge, became professor of natural philosophy in Glasgow +University in 1846, and celebrated the jubilee of his appointment in +1896. To the public his greatest achievement was the electric cabling +of the Atlantic Ocean, for which he was knighted in 1866. His +electrometers and electric meters, his sounding apparatus, and his +mariners' compass are all well-known and highly valued instruments. To +his scientific fellows, however, his greatest achievements were in the +field of pure science, especially in connection with his thermodynamic +researches, including the doctrine of the dissipation or degradation +of energy. To this brief statement may be added mention of his work in +connection with hydrodynamics and his magnetic and electric +discoveries. His papers in connection with wave and vortex movements +are also most remarkable. He was awarded the Royal and Copley medals +and was an original member of the Order of Merit. He received +distinctions from many universities and learned societies.</p> + +<p>George Francis Fitzgerald (b. Dublin 1851, d. 1901), F.R.S., was +fellow and professor of natural philosophy in Trinity College, Dublin, +where he was educated. He was the first person to call the attention +of the world to the importance of Hertz's experiment. Perhaps his most +important work, interrupted by his labors in connection with education +and terminated by his early death, was that in connection with the +nature of the ether.</p> + +<p>George Johnston Stoney (b. King's Co. 1826, d. 1911), F.R.S., after +being astronomer at Parsonstown and professor of natural philosophy at +Galway, became secretary to the Queen's University and occupied that +position until the dissolution of the university in 1882. He wrote +many papers on geometrical optics and on molecular physics, but his +great claim to remembrance is that he first suggested, "on the basis +of Faraday's law of Electrolysis, that an absolute unit of quantity of +electricity exists in that amount of it which attends each chemical +bond or valency and gave the name, now generally adopted, of electron +to this small quantity." He proposed the electronic theory of the +origin of the complex ether vibrations which proceed from a molecule +emitting light.</p> + +<p>John Tyndall (b. Leighlin Bridge, Co. Carlow, 1820, d. 1893), +F.R.S., professor at the Royal Institution and a fellow-worker in many +ways with Huxley, especially on the subject of glaciers. He wrote also +on heat as a mode of motion and was the author of many scientific +papers, but will, perhaps, be best remembered as the author of a +Presidential Address to the British Association in Belfast (1874), +which was the highwater mark of the mid-Victorian materialism at its +most triumphant moment.</p> + +<h4>CHEMISTS.</h4> + +<p>Richard Kirwan (b. Galway 1733, d. 1812), F.R.S. A man of +independent means, he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and +mineralogy and was awarded the Copley medal of the Royal Society. He +published works on mineralogy and on the analysis of mineral waters, +and was the first in Ireland to publish analyses of soils for +agricultural purposes, a research which laid the foundation of +scientific agriculture in Great Britain and Ireland.</p> + +<p>Maxwell Simpson (b. Armagh 1815, d. 1902), F.R.S., held the chair +of chemistry in Queen's College, Cork, for twenty years and published +a number of papers in connection with his subject and especially with +the behavior of cyanides, with the study of which compounds his name +is most associated.</p> + +<p>Cornelius O'Sullivan (b. Brandon, 1841, d. 1897), F.R.S., was for +many years chemist to the great firm of Bass & Co., brewers at +Burton-on-Trent, and in that capacity became one of the leading +exponents of the chemistry of fermentation in the world.</p> + +<p>James Emerson Reynolds (b. Dublin 1844), F.R.S., professor of +chemistry, Trinity College, Dublin, for many years, discovered the +primary thiocarbamide and a number of other chemical substances, +including a new class of colloids and several groups of organic and +other compounds of the element silicon.</p> + +<p>Among others only the names of the following can be +mentioned:—Sir Robert Kane (b. Dublin 1809, d. 1890), professor +of chemistry in Dublin and founder and first director of the Museum of +Industry, now the National Museum. He was president of Queen's +College, Cork, as was William K. Sullivan (b. Cork 1822, d. 1890), +formerly professor of chemistry in the Catholic University. Sir +William O'Shaughnessy Brooke, F.R.S. (b. Limerick 1809, d. 1889), +professor of chemistry and assay master in Calcutta, is better known +as the introducer of the telegraphic system into India and its first +superintendent.</p> + +<h4>BIOLOGISTS.</h4> + +<p>William Henry Harvey (b. Limerick 1814, d. 1866), F.R.S., was a +botanist of very great distinction. During a lengthy residence in +South Africa, he made a careful study of the flora of the Cape of Good +Hope and published <i>The Genera of South African Plants</i>. After +this he was made keeper of the Herbarium, Trinity College, Dublin, +but, obtaining leave of absence, travelled in North and South America, +exploring the coast from Halifax to the Keys of Florida, in order to +collect materials for his great work, <i>Nereis Boreali-Americana</i>, +published by the Smithsonian Institution. Subsequently he visited +Ceylon, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Friendly and Fiji +Islands, collecting algae. The results were published in his +<i>Phycologia Australis</i>. At the time of his death he was engaged +on his <i>Flora Capensis</i>, and was generally considered the first +authority on algae in the world.</p> + +<p>William Archer (b. Co. Down 1837, d. 1897), F.R.S., devoted his +life to the microscopic examination of freshwater organisms, +especially desmids and diatoms. He attained a very prominent place in +this branch of work among men of science. Perhaps his most remarkable +discovery was that of Chlamydomyxa labyrinthuloides (in 1868), "one of +the most remarkable and enigmatical of all known microscopic +organisms."</p> + +<p>George James Allman (b. Cork 1812, d. 1898), F.R.S., professor of +botany in Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwarls Regius Professor of +natural history in the University of Edinburgh, published many papers +on botanical and zoological subjects, but his great work was that on +the gymnoblastic Hydrozoa, "without doubt the most important +systematic work dealing with the group of Coelenterata that has ever +been produced."</p> + +<p>Amongst eminent living members of the class under consideration may +be mentioned Alexander Macalister (b. Dublin 1844), F.R.S., professor +of anatomy, first in Dublin and now in Cambridge, an eminent +morphologist and anthropologist, and Henry Horatio Dixon (b. Dublin), +F.R.S., professor of botany in Trinity College, an authority on +vegetable physiology, especially problems dealing with the sap.</p> + +<h4>GEOLOGISTS.</h4> + +<p>Samuel Haughton (b. Carlow 1821, d. 1897), F.R.S., after earning a +considerable reputation as a mathematician and a geologist, and taking +Anglican orders, determined to study medicine and entered the school +of that subject in Trinity College. After graduating he became the +reformer, it might even be said the re-founder, of that school. He +devoted ten years to the study of the mechanical principles of +muscular action, and published his <i>Animal Mechanism</i>, probably +his greatest work. He will long be remembered as the introducer of the +"long drop" as a method of capital execution. He might have been +placed in several of the categories which have been dealt with, but +that of geologist has been selected, since in the later part of his +most versatile career he was professor of geology in Trinity College, +Dublin.</p> + +<p>Valentine Ball (b. Dublin 1843, d. 1894), F.R.S., a brother of Sir +Robert, joined the Geological Survey of India, and in that capacity +became an authority not only on geology but also on ornithology and +anthropology. His best known work is <i>Jungle-Life in India</i>. In +later life he was director of the National Museum, Dublin.</p> + +<h4>MEDICAL SCIENCE.</h4> + +<p>Very brief note can be taken of the many shining lights in Irish +medical science. Robert James Graves (1796-1853), F.R.S., after whom +is named "Graves's Disease", was one of the greatest of clinical +physicians. His <i>System of Clinical Medicine</i> was a standard work +and was extolled by Trousseau, the greatest physician that France has +ever had, in the highest terms of appreciation.</p> + +<p>William Stokes (1804-1878), Regius Professor of Medicine in Trinity +College, and the author of a <i>Theory and Practice of Medicine</i>, +known all over the civilized world, was equally celebrated.</p> + +<p>To these must be added Sir Dominic Corrigan (1802-1880), the first +Catholic to occupy the position of President of the College of +Physicians in Dublin, an authority on heart disease, and the first +adequate describer of aortic patency, a form of ailment long called +"Corrigan's Disease". "Colles's Fracture" is a familiar term in the +mouths of surgeons. It derives its name from Abraham Colles +(1773-1843), the first surgeon in the world to tie the innominate +artery, as "Butcher's Saw", a well-known implement, does from another +eminent surgeon; Richard Butcher, Regius Professor in Trinity College +in the seventies of the last century.</p> + +<p>Sir Rupert Boyce (1863-1911), F.R.S., though born in London, had an +Irish father and mother. Entering the medical profession, he was +assistant professor of pathology at University College, London, and +subsequently professor of pathology in University College, Liverpool, +which he was largely instrumental in turning into the University of +Liverpool. He was foremost in launching and directing the Liverpool +School of Tropical Medicine, which has had such widespread results all +over the world in elucidating the problems and checking the ravages of +the diseases peculiar to hot countries. It was for his services in +this direction that he was knighted in 1906.</p> + +<p>Sir Richard Quain (b. Mallow 1816, d. 1898), F.R.S., spent most of +his life in London, where he was for years the most prominent +physician. He wrote on many subjects, but the <i>Dictionary of +Medicine</i>, which he edited and which bears his name, has made +itself and its editor known all over the world.</p> + +<p>Sir Almroth Wright (b. 1861), F.R.S., is the greatest living +authority on the important subject of vaccino-therapy, which, indeed, +may be said to owe its origin to his researches, as do the methods for +measuring the protective substances in the human blood. He was the +discoverer of the anti-typhoid injection which has done so much to +stay the ravages of that disease.</p> + +<h4>ENGINEERING.</h4> + +<p>Bindon Blood Stoney (1828-1909), F.R.S., made his reputation first +as an astronomer by discovering the spiral character of the great +nebula in Andromeda. Turning to engineering, he was responsible for +the construction of many important works, especially in connection +with the port of Dublin. He was brother of G. J. Stoney.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles Parsons (b. 1854), F.R.S., fourth son of the third Earl +of Rosse, is the engineer who developed the steam turbine system and +made it suitable for the generation of electricity, and for the +propulsion of war and mercantile vessels. If he has revolutionized +traffic on the water, so on the land has John Boyd Dunlop (still +living), who discovered the pneumatic tire with such wide-spread +results for motorcars, bicycles, and such means of locomotion.</p> + +<h4>MISCELLANEOUS.</h4> + +<p>Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock (b. Dundalk 1819, d. 1907), F.R.S., +was one of the great Arctic explorers, having spent eleven navigable +seasons and six winters in those regions. He was the chief leader and +organizer of the Franklin searches. From the scientific point of view +he made a valuable collection of miocene fossils from Greenland, and +enabled Haughton to prepare the geological map and memoir of the Parry +Archipelago.</p> + +<p>John Ball (b. Dublin 1818, d. 1889), F.R.S., educated at Oscott, +passed the examination for a high degree at Cambridge, but, being a +Catholic, was excluded from the degree itself and any other honors +which a Protestant might have attained to. He travelled widely and +published many works on the natural history of Europe and South +America from Panama to Tierra del Fuego. He was the first to suggest +the utilization of the electric telegraph for meteorological purposes +connected with storm warnings.</p> + +<p>Space ought to be found for a cursory mention of that strange +person, Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859), who by his <i>Lardner's +Cyclopaedia</i> in 132 vols., his <i>Cabinet Library</i>, and his +<i>Museum of Science and Art</i>, did much to popularize science in an +unscientific day.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>The principal sources of information are the National Dictionary of +Biography; the Obituary Notices of the Royal Society (passages in +inverted commas are from these); "Who's Who" (for living persons); +Healy: Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars; Hyde: Literary History +of Ireland; Joyce: Social History of Ancient Ireland; Moore: Medicine +in the British Isles.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T07"></a>LAW IN IRELAND</h2> +<h4>By LAURENCE GINNELL, B.L., M.P.</h4> + +<p><b>A DISTINCTION.</b> Ireland having been a self-ruled country for +a stretch of some two thousand years, then violently brought under +subjection to foreign rule, regaining legislative independence for a +brief period toward the close of the eighteenth century, then by +violence and corruption deprived of that independence and again +brought under the same foreign rule, to which it is still subject, the +expression "Law in Ireland" comprises the native and the foreign, the +laws devised by the Irish Nation for its own governance and the laws +imposed upon it from without: two sets, codes, or systems proper to +two entirely distinct social structures having no relation and but +little resemblance to each other. Whatever may be thought of either as +law, the former is Irish in every sense, and vastly the more +interesting historically, archaeologically, philologically, and in +many other ways; the latter being English law in Ireland, and not +truly Irish in any sense.</p> + +<p><b>ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF IRISH LAW.</b> <i>Seanchus agus +Féineachus na hEireann</i> == <i>Hiberniae Antiquitates et +Sanctiones Legales</i>—The Ancient Laws and Decisions of the +<i>Féini</i>, of Ireland. <i>Sen</i> or <i>sean</i> (pronounced +shan) == "old," differs from most Gaelic adjectives in preceding the +noun it qualifies. It also tends to coalesce and become a prefix. +<i>Seanchus</i> (shanech-us) == "ancient law." +<i>Féineachus</i> (fainech-us) == the law of the +<i>Féini</i>, who were the Milesian farmers, free members of +the clans, the most important class in the ancient Irish community. +Their laws were composed in their contemporary language, the <i>Bearla +Féini</i>, a distinct form of Gaelic. Several nations of the +Aryan race are known to have cast into metre or rhythmical prose their +laws and such other knowledge as they desired to communicate, +preserve, and transmit, before writing came into use. The Irish went +further and, for greater facility in committing to memory and +retaining there, put their laws into a kind of rhymed verse, of which +they may have been the inventors. By this device, aided by the +isolated geographical position of Ireland, the sanctity of age, and +the apprehension that any change of word or phrase might change the +law itself, these archaic laws, when subsequently committed to +writing, were largely preserved from the progressive changes to which +all spoken languages are subject, with the result that we have today, +embedded in the Gaelic text and commentaries of the <i>Senchus +Mór</i>, the <i>Book of Aicill</i>, and other law works, +available in English translations made under a Royal Commission +appointed by Government in 1852, and published, at intervals extending +over forty years, in six volumes of "Ancient Laws and Institutions of +Ireland," a mass of archaic words, phrases, law, literature, and +information on the habits and manners of the people, not equalled in +antiquity, quantity, or authenticity in any other Celtic source. In +English they are commonly called Brehon Laws, from the genitive case +singular of <i>Brethem</i> = "judge", genitive <i>Brethemain</i> +(pronounced brehun), as Erin is an oblique case of Eire, and as Latin +words are sometimes adopted in the genitive in modern languages which +themselves have no case distinctions. It is not to be inferred from +this name that the laws are judge-made. They are rather case law, in +parts possibly enacted by some of the various assemblies at which the +laws were promulgated or rehearsed, but for the most part simple +declarations of law originating in custom and moral justice, and +records of judgments based upon "the precedents and commentaries", in +the sort of cases common to agricultural communities of the time, many +of the provisions being as inapplicable to modern life as modern laws +would be to ancient life. A reader is impressed by the extraordinary +number and variety of cases with their still more numerous details and +circumstances accumulated in the course of long ages, the manner in +which the laws are inextricably interwoven with the interlocking clan +system, and the absence of scientific arrangement or guiding principle +except those of moral justice, clemency, and the good of the +community. This defect in arrangement is natural in writings intended, +as these were, for the use of judges and professors, experts in the +subjects with which they deal, but makes the task of presenting a +concise statement of them difficult and uncertain.</p> + +<p><b>SOCIETY LAW.</b> The law and the social system were inseparable +parts of a complicated whole, mutually cause and consequence of each +other. <i>Tuath, clann, cinel, cine</i>, and <i>fine</i> (pronounced +thooah, clong, kinnel, kineh, and fin-yeh) were terms used to denote a +tribe or set of relatives, in reality or by adoption, claiming descent +from a common ancestor, forming a community occupying and owning a +given territory. <i>Tuath</i> in course of time came to be applied +indifferently to the people and to their territory. <i>Fine</i>, +sometimes designating a whole tribe, more frequently meant a part of +it, occupying a distinct portion of the territory, a potential +microcosm or nucleus of a clan, having limited autonomy in the conduct +of its own immediate affairs. The constitution of this organism, +whether as contemplated by the law or in the less perfect actual +practice, is alike elusive, and underwent changes. For the purpose of +illustration, the <i>fine</i> may be said to consist, theoretically, +of the "seventeen men" frequently mentioned throughout the laws, +namely, the <i>flaithfine</i> = chief of the <i>fine</i>; the +<i>geilfine</i> = his four fullgrown sons or other nearest male +relatives; the <i>deirbhfine, tarfine</i>, and <i>innfine</i>, each +consisting of four heads of families in wider concentric circles of +kinship, say first, second, and third cousins of the +<i>flaithfine</i>. The <i>fine</i> was liable, in measure determined +by those circles, for contracts, fines, and damages incurred by any of +its members so far as his own property was insufficient, and was in +the same degree entitled to share advantages of a like kind accruing. +Intermarriage within this <i>fine</i> was prohibited. The modern term +"sept" is applied sometimes to this group and sometimes to a wider +group united under a <i>flaith</i> (flah) = "chief", elected by the +<i>flaithfines</i> and provided, for his public services, with free +land proportionate to the area of the district and the number of +clansmen in it. <i>Clann</i> might mean the whole Irish nation, or an +intermediate homogeneous group of <i>fines</i> having for wider +purposes a <i>flaith</i> or <i>ri-tuatha</i> = king of one +<i>tuath</i>, elected by the <i>flaiths</i> and <i>flaithfines</i>, +subject to elaborate qualifications as to person, character, and +training, which limited their choice, and provided with a larger +portion of free land. This was the lowest chief to whom the title +<i>ri, righ</i> (both pr. ree) = <i>rex</i>, or "king", was applied. A +group of these kinglets connected by blood or territory or policy, and +their <i>flaiths</i>, elected, from a still narrower circle of +specially trained men within their own rank, the +<i>ri-mor-tuatha</i>—king of the territory so composed, to whose +office a still larger area of free land was attached. In turn, kings +of this class, with their respective sub-kings and <i>flaiths</i>, +elected from among the <i>riogh-dhamhna</i> (ree-uch-dhowna) += <i>materia principum</i> or "king-timber", a royal <i>fine</i> +specially educated and trained, a <i>rì-cuighidh</i> (ree +coo-ee-hee) supreme over five <i>ri-mor-tuathas</i>—roughly, a +fourth of Ireland. These, with their respective principal supporters, +elected the ard-ri—"supreme king", of Ireland, who for ages held +his court and national assemblies at Tara and enjoyed the kingdom of +Meath for his mensal land. Usually the election was not direct to the +kingship, but to the position of <i>tanaiste</i>—"second" (in +authority), heir-apparent to the kingship. This was also the rule in +the learned professions and "noble" arts, which were similarly endowed +with free land. The most competent among those specially trained, +whether son or outsider, should succeed to the position and land. All +such land was legally indivisible and inalienable and descended in its +entirety to the successor, who might, or might not, be a relative of +the occupant. The beneficiaries were, however, free to retain any land +that belonged to them as private individuals.</p> + +<p>Membership of the clan was an essential qualification for every +position; but occasionally two clans amalgamated, or a small +<i>fine</i>, or desirable individual, was co-opted into the +clan—in other words, naturalized. The rules of kinship +determined <i>eineachlann</i> (ain-yach-long)—"honor value", the +assessed value of status, with its correlative rights, obligations, +and liabilities in connection with all matters civil and criminal; +largely supplied the place of contract; endowed members of the clan +with birthrights; and bound them into a compact social, political, and +mutual insurance copartnership, self-controlled and self-reliant. +<i>Eineachlann</i> rested on the two-fold basis of kinship and +property, expanding as a clansman by acquisition of property and +effluxion of time progressed upward from one grade to another; +diminishing if he sank; vanishing if for crime he was expelled from +the clan.</p> + +<p><b>FOSTERAGE.</b> To our minds, one of the most curious customs +prevalent among the ancient Irish was that of <i>iarrad</i>, called +also <i>altar</i> = "fosterage"—curious in itself and in the +fact that in all the abundance of law and literature relating to it no +logically valid reason is given why wealthy parents normally put out +their children, from one year old to fifteen in the case of a daughter +and to seventeen in the case of a son, to be reared in another family, +while perhaps receiving and rearing children of other parents sent to +them. As modern life does not comprise either the custom or a reason +for it, we may assume that fosterage was a consequence of the clan +system, and that its practice strengthened the ties of kinship and +sympathy. This conjecture is corroborated by the numerous instances in +history and in story of fosterage affection proving, when tested, +stronger than the natural affection of relatives by birth. What is +more, long after the dissolution of the clans, fosterage has continued +stealthily in certain districts in which the old race of chiefs and +clansmen contrived to cling together to the old sod; and the affection +generated by it has been demonstrated, down to the middle of the +nineteenth century. The present writer has heard it spoken of +lovingly, in half-Irish, by simple old people, whom to question would +be cruel and irreverent.</p> + +<p><b>LAND LAW.</b> The entire territory was originally, and always +continued to be, the absolute property of the entire clan. Not even +the private residence of a clansman, with its <i>maighin digona</i> = +little lawn or precinct of sanctuary, within which himself and his +family and property were inviolable, could be sold to an outsider. +Private ownership, though rather favored in the administration of the +law, was prevented from becoming general by the fundamental ownership +of the clan and the birthright of every free-born clansman to a +sufficiency of the land of his native territory for his subsistence. +The land officially held as described was not, until the population +became numerous, a serious encroachment upon this right. What remained +outside this and the residential patches of private land was +classified as cultivable and uncultivable. The former was the common +property of the clansmen, but was held and used in severalty for the +time being, subject to <i>gabhail-cine</i> +(gowal-kinneh)—clan-resumption and redistribution by authority +of an assembly of the clan or <i>fine</i> at intervals of from one to +three years, according to local customs and circumstances, for the +purpose of satisfying the rights of young clansmen and dealing with +any land left derelict by death or forfeiture, compensation being paid +for any unexhausted improvements. The clansmen, being owners in this +limited sense, and the only owners, had no rent to pay. They paid +tribute for public purposes, such as the making of roads, to the +<i>flaith</i> as a public officer, as they were bound to render, or +had the privilege of rendering—according to how they regarded +it—military service when required, not to the <i>flaith</i> as a +feudal lord, which he was not, but to the clan, of which the +<i>flaith</i> was head and representative.</p> + +<p>The uncultivable, unreclaimed forest, mountain, and bog-land was +common property in the wider sense that there was no several +appropriation of it even temporarily by individuals. It was used +promiscuously by the clansmen for grazing stock, procuring fuel, +pursuing game, or any other advantage yielded by it in its natural +state.</p> + +<p>Kings and <i>flaiths</i> were great stock-owners, and were allowed +to let for short terms portions of their official lands. What they +more usually let to clansmen was cattle to graze either on private +land or on a specified part of the official land, not measured, but +calculated according to the number of beasts it was able to support. A +<i>flaith</i> whose stock for letting ran short hired some from a king +and sublet them to his own people. A <i>féine, aithech</i>, or +<i>ceile</i> (kailyeh), as a farmer was generally called, might hire +stock in one of two distinct ways: <i>saer</i>—"free", which was +regulated by the law, left his status unimpaired, could not be +terminated arbitrarily or unjustly, under which he paid one-third of +the value of the stock yearly for seven years, at the end of which +time what remained of the stock became his property, and in any +dispute relating to which he was competent to sue or defend even +though the <i>flaith</i> gave evidence; or <i>daer</i>—"bond", +which was matter of bargain and not of law, was subject to onerous +conditions and contingencies, including maintenance of kings, +<i>flaiths</i>, or brehons, with their retinues, on visitations, of +disbanded soldiers, etc., under which the stock always remained the +property of the <i>flaith</i>, regarding which the +<i>ceile</i> could not give evidence against that of the +<i>flaith</i>, which degraded the <i>ceile</i> and his <i>fine</i> and +impaired their status; a bargain therefore which could not be entered +into without the sanction of the <i>fine</i>. This prohibition was +rendered operative by the legal provision that in case of default the +<i>flaith</i> could not recover from the <i>fine</i> unless their +consent had been obtained. The letting of stock, especially of +<i>daer</i>-stock, increased the <i>flaith's</i> power as a lender +over borrowers, subject, however, to the check that his rank and +<i>eineachlann</i> depended on the number of independent clansmen in +his district.</p> + +<p>Though workers in precious metals, as their ornaments show, the +ancient Irish did not coin or use money. Sales were by barter. All +payments, tribute, rent, fulfilment of contract, fine, damages, wages, +or however else arising, were made in kind—horses, cows, store +cattle, sheep, pigs, corn, meal, malt, bacon, salt beef, geese, +butter, honey, wool, flax, yarn, cloth, dye-plants, leather, +manufactured articles of use or ornament, gold, and +silver—whatever one party could spare and the other find a use +for.</p> + +<p>Tributes and rent, being alike paid in kind and to the same person, +were easily confused. This tempted the <i>flaith</i>, as the system +relaxed, to extend his official power in the direction of ownership; +but never to the extent of enabling him to evict a clansman. For a +crime a clansman might be expelled from clan and territory; but, apart +from crime, the idea of eviction from one's homestead was +inconceivable. Not even when a <i>daer-ceile</i>, or "unfree peasant", +failed to make the stipulated payments could the <i>flaith</i> do more +than sue as for any other debt; and, if successful, he was bound, in +seizing, to leave the family food-material and implements necessary +for living and recovering.</p> + +<p><b>LAW OF DISTRAINING.</b> <i>Athgabail</i> (ăh-gowil) = +"distress", was the universal legal mode of obtaining anything due, or +justice or redress in any matter, whether civil or criminal, contract +or tort. Every command or prohibition of the law, if not obeyed, was +enforced by <i>athgabail</i>. The brehons reduced all liabilities of +whatsoever origin to material value to be recovered by this means. +Hence its great importance, the vast amount of space devoted to it in +the laws, and the fact that the law of distress deals incidentally +with every other branch of law and reveals best the customs, habits, +and character of the people. A claimant in a civil case might either +summon his debtor before a brehon, get a judgment, and seize the +amount adjudged, or, by distraining first at his own risk, force the +defendant either to pay or stop the seizure by submitting the matter +in dispute to trial before a brehon, whom he then could choose. There +was no officer corresponding to a sheriff to distrain and realize the +amount adjudged; the person entitled had to do it himself, accompanied +by a law-agent and witnesses, after, in "distress with time", +elaborate notices at intervals of time sufficient to allow the +defendant to consider his position and find means of satisfying the +claim if he could. In a proper case his hands were strengthened by +very explicit provisions of the law. "If a man who is sued evades +justice, knowing the debt to be due of him, double the debt is payable +by him." In urgent cases "immediate distress" was allowed. In either +case the property seized—usually cattle—was not taken to +the plaintiff's home, but put into a pound, and by similar easy stages +became his property to the amount of the debt. The costs were paid out +of what remained, and any ultimate remainder was returned. On a +<i>fuidir</i> (foodyir) = serf or other unfree person resident in the +territory incurring liability to a clansman, the latter might proceed +against the <i>flaith</i> on whose land the defendant lived, or might +seize immediately any property the defendant owned, and if he owned +none, might seize him and make him work off the debt in slavery.</p> + +<p>Seizure of property of a person of higher rank than the plaintiff +had to be preceded by <i>troscead</i> (truscah) = fasting upon him. +This consisted in waiting at the door of the defendant's residence +without food until the debt was paid or a pledge given. The laws +contained no process more strongly enforced than this. A defendant who +allowed a plaintiff properly fasting to die of hunger was held by law +and by public opinion guilty of murder, and completely lost his +<i>eineachlann</i>. Both text and commentary declare that whoever +refuses to cede a just demand when fasted upon shall pay double that +amount. If the faster, having accepted a pledge, did not in due course +receive satisfaction of his claim, he forthwith distrained, taking and +keeping double the amount of the debt. The law did not allow those +whom it at first respected to trifle with justice.</p> + +<p><i>Troscead</i> is believed to have been of druidical origin, and +it retained throughout, even in Christian times, a sort of +supernatural significance. Whoever disregarded it became an outcast +and incurred risks and dangers too grave to be lightly faced. Besides +being a legal process, it was resorted to as a species of elaborate +prayer, or curse,—a kind of magic for achieving some difficult +purpose. This mysterious character enhanced its value in a legal +system deficient in executive power.</p> + +<p><b>NON-CITIZENS.</b> From what precedes it will be understood that +there were in ancient Ireland from prehistoric times people not +comprised in the clan organization, and therefore not enjoying its +rights and advantages or entitled to any of its land, some of whom +were otherwise free within certain areas, while some were serfs and +some slaves. Those outsiders are conjectured to have originated in the +earlier colonists subdued by the Milesians and reduced to an inferior +condition. But the distinction did not wholly follow racial lines. +Persons of pre-Milesian race are known to have risen to eminence, +while Milesians are known to have sunk, from crime or other causes, to +the lowest rank of the unfree. Here and there a <i>daer-tuath</i> = +"bond community", of an earlier race held together down to the Middle +Ages in districts in which conquest had left them and to which they +were restricted. Beyond that restriction, exclusion from the clan and +its power, some peculiarities of dialect, dress, and manners, and a +tradition of inferiority such as still exists in certain parishes, +they were not molested, provided they paid tribute, which may have +been heavy.</p> + +<p>There were also <i>bothachs</i> = cottiers, and <i>sen-cleithes</i> += old adherents of a <i>flaith</i>, accustomed to serve him and obtain +benefits from him. If they had resided in the territory for three +generations, and been industrious, thrifty, and orderly, on a few of +them joining their property together to the number of one hundred head +of cattle, they could emancipate themselves by appointing a +<i>flaithfine</i> and getting admitted to the clan. Till this was +done, they could neither sue nor defend nor inherit, and the +<i>flaith</i> was answerable for their conduct.</p> + +<p>There being no prisons or convict settlements, any person of +whatever race convicted of grave crime, or of cowardice on the field +of battle, and unable to pay the fines imposed, captives taken in +foreign wars, fugitives from other clans, and tramps, fell into the +lowest ranks of the <i>fuidre</i>—"serfs." It was as a captive +that Saint Patrick was brought in his youth to Ireland. The law +allowed, rather than entitled, a <i>flaith</i> to keep unfree people +for servile occupations and the performance of unskilled labor for the +public benefit. In reality they worked for his personal profit, +oftentimes at the expense of the clan. They lived on his land, and he +was responsible for their conduct. By analogy, the distinctions +<i>saer</i> and <i>daer</i> were recognized among them, according to +origin, character, and means. Where these elements continued to be +favorable for three generations, progress upward was made; and +ultimately a number of them could club together, appoint a +<i>flaithfine</i>, and apply to be admitted to the clan.</p> + +<p>A <i>mog</i> was a slave in the strict sense, usually purchased as +such from abroad, and legally and socially lower than the lowest +<i>fuidir</i>. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing towards the close of the +twelfth century, tells us that English parents then frequently sold +their surplus children and other persons to the Irish as slaves. The +Church repeatedly intervened for the release of captives and +mitigation of their condition. The whole institution of slavery was +strongly condemned as un-Christian by the Synod held in Armagh in +1171.</p> + +<p><b>CRIMINAL LAW.</b> Though there are numerous laws relating to +crime, to be found chiefly in the <i>Book of Aicill</i>, criminal law +in the sense of a code of punishment there was none. The law took +cognizance of crime and wrong of every description against person, +character, and property; and its function was to prevent and restrict +crime, and when committed to determine, according to the facts of the +case and the respective ranks of the parties, the value of the +compensation or reparation that should be made. It treated crime as a +mode of incurring liability; entitled the sufferer, or, if he was +murdered, his <i>fine</i>, to bring the matter before a brehon, who, +on hearing the case, made the complicated calculations and adjustments +rendered necessary by the facts proved and by the grades to which the +respective parties belonged, arrived at and gave judgment for the +amount of the compensation, armed with which judgment, the plaintiff +could immediately distrain for that amount the property of the +criminal, and, in his default, that of his <i>fine</i>. The +<i>fine</i> could escape part of its liability by arresting and giving +up the convict, or by expelling him and giving substantial security +against his future misdeeds.</p> + +<p>From the number of elements that entered into the calculation of a +fine, it necessarily resulted that like fines by no means followed +like crimes. Fines, like all other payments, were adjudged and paid in +kind, being, in some cases of the destruction of property, +generic—a quantity of that kind of property. Large fines were +usually adjudged to be paid in three species, one-third in each, the +plaintiff taking care to inform correctly the brehon of the kinds of +property the defendant possessed, because he could seize only that +named, and if the defendant did not possess it, the judgment was "a +blind nut." Crime against the State or community, such as wilful +disturbance of an assembly, was punished severely. These were the only +cases to which the law attached a sentence of death or other corporal +punishment. For nothing whatsoever between parties did the law +recognize any duty of revenge, retaliation, or the infliction of +personal punishment, but only the payment of compensation. Personal +punishment was regarded as the commission of a second crime on account +of a first. There was no duty to do this; but the right to do it was +tacitly recognized if a criminal resisted or evaded payment of an +adjudged compensation. Criminal were distinguished from civil cases +only by the moral element, the sufferer's right in all cases to choose +a brehon, the loss of <i>eineachlann</i>, partial or whole according +to the magnitude of the crime, the elements used in calculating the +amount of fine, and the technical terms employed. <i>Dire</i> +(djeereh) was a general name for a fine, and there were specific names +for classes of fines. <i>Eric</i> = reparation, redemption, was the +fine for killing a human being, the amount being affected by the +distinction between murder and manslaughter and by other +circumstances; but in no case was a violent death, however innocent, +allowed to pass without reparation being made. A fine was awarded out +of the property of the convict or of his <i>fine</i> to the +<i>fine</i> of the person slain, in the proportions in which they were +entitled to inherit his property, that being also according to their +degrees of kinship and the degrees in which they were really +sufferers. This gave every clan and every clansman, in addition to +their moral interest, a direct monetary interest in the prevention and +suppression of crime. Hence the whole public feeling of the country +was entirely in support of the law, the honor and interest of +community and individual being involved in its maintenance. The +injured person or <i>fine</i>, if unable to recover the fine, might, +in capital cases, seize and enslave, or even kill, the convict. +Probably restrained by the fact that, there being no officers of +criminal law, they had to inflict punishment themselves, they +sometimes imprisoned a convict in a small island, or sent him adrift +on the sea in a <i>currach</i> or boat of hide. Law supported by +public opinion, powerful because so inspired, powerful because +unanimous, was difficult to evade or resist. It so strongly armed an +injured person, and so utterly paralyzed a criminal, that escape from +justice was hardly possible. The only way in which it was possible was +by flight, leaving all one's property behind, and sinking into slavery +in a strange place; and this in effect was a severe punishment rather +than an escape.</p> + +<p><b>FOREIGN LAW.</b> The Danes and other Norsemen were the +buccaneers of northwestern Europe from the eighth to the eleventh +century. They conquered and settled permanently in Neustria, from them +called Normandy, and conquered and ruled for a considerable time +England and part of Scotland and the Isles. In Ireland they were +little more than marauders, having permanent colonies only round the +coast; always subject, nominally at least, to the <i>ard-ri</i> or to +the local chief; paying him tribute when he was strong, raiding his +territory when he was weak, and fomenting recurrent disorder highly +prejudicial to law, religion, and civilization. They never made any +pretence of extending their laws to Ireland, and their attempt to +conquer the country was finally frustrated at Clontarf in 1014.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Norman invaders also seized the seaports. The earlier of +them who went inland partially adopted in the second generation the +Gaelic language, laws, and customs; as many non-Celtic Lowlanders of +Scotland about the same period adopted the Gaelic language, laws, and +customs of the Highlanders. Hence they did not make much impression on +the Gaelic system, beyond the disintegrating effect of their imperfect +adoption of it.</p> + +<p>Into the eastern parts of Ireland, however, a fresh stream of +English adventurers continued to flow, as aggressive and covetous as +their means and prudence permitted; calling so much of the country as +they were able to wrench from the Irish "the English Pale", which +fluctuated in extent with their fortunes; and, when compelled to pay +tribute to Irish chiefs, calling it "black rent", to indicate how they +regarded it. Their greatest difficulty was to counteract the tendency +of the earlier colonists to become Hibernicized—a most unwilling +tribute to the superiority of the Irish race. They, and still more +those in England who supported them, knew nothing of the Irish +language, laws, and institutions but that they should all be +impartially hated, uprooted, and supplanted by English people and +everything English as soon as means enabled this to be done. This was +the amiable purpose of the pompously-named "Statute of Kilkenny", +passed by about a score of these colonists in 1367. Presuming to speak +in the name of Ireland, the statute prohibited the English colonists +from becoming Irish in the numerous ways they were accustomed to do, +and excluded all Irish priests from preferment in the Church, partly +because their superior virtue would by contrast amount to a censure. +The purpose was not completely successful even within the Pale. +Outside that precinct, the mass of the Irish were wholly unconscious +of the existence of the "Statute of Kilkenny." But expressing, as the +statute did correctly, the views of fresh adventurers, it became, in +arrogance and in the pretension to speak for the whole of Ireland, a +model for their future legislation and policy.</p> + +<p>Under King Henry VI. of England, Richard, Duke of York, being Lord +Deputy, the Parliament of the Pale, assembled in Dublin, repudiated +the authority of the English Parliament in Ireland, established a +mint, and assumed an attitude of almost complete independence. On the +other hand, in 1494, under Henry VII., the Parliament of the Pale, +assembled at Drogheda, passed Poyning's Act, extending all English +laws to Ireland and subjecting all laws passed in Ireland to revision +by the English Council. This, extended to the whole of Ireland as +English power extended, remained in force until 1782. Henry VIII. was +the first English sovereign to take practical measures for the pacific +and diplomatic conquest of the whole of Ireland and the substitution +of English for Irish institutions and methods. His daughter, Queen +Elizabeth, continued and completed the conquest; but it was by +drenching the country in blood, by more than decimating the Irish +people, and by reducing the remnant to something like the condition of +the ancient <i>fuidre</i>. Her policy prepared the ground for her +successor, James I., to exterminate the Irish from large tracts, in +which he planted Englishmen and Scotchmen, and to extend all English +laws to Ireland and abolish all other laws. James's English +attorney-general in Ireland, Sir John Davies, in his work, <i>A +Discoverie of the True Causes, etc.</i>, says:</p> + +<p>"For there is no nation of people under the sunne that doth love +equall and indifferent [= impartial] justice better than the Irish; or +will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it bee +against themselves; so as they may have the protection and benefit of +the law, when uppon just cause they do desire it."</p> + +<p>The ancient Irish loved their laws and took pride in obeying and +enforcing them. The different attitude of the modern Irish towards +foreign laws and administration is amply explained by the morally +indefensible character of those laws and that administration, to be +read in English statutes and ordinances and in the history of English +rule in Ireland—a subject too vast and harrowing, and in every +sense foreign to what has gone before, to be entered upon here. Though +the Parliament of 1782-1800 was little more than a Pale Parliament, in +which the mass of the Irish people had no representation whatever, one +of its Acts, to its credit be it said, was an attempt to mitigate the +Penal Laws and emancipate the oppressed Gaelic and Catholic population +of Ireland. With the partial exception of that brief interval, law in +Ireland has, during the last 360 years, meant English laws specially +enacted for the destruction of any Irish trade or industry that +entered into competition with a corresponding English trade or +industry. In later times those crude barbarities have been gradually +superseded by the more defensible laws now in force in Ireland, all of +which can be studied in statutes passed by the Parliament, since the +Union with Scotland, called British.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Pending the desirable work of a more competent Brehon Law +Commission and translators, the subject must be studied in the six +volumes of <i>Ancient Laws of Ireland</i>, produced by the first +Commission, from 1865 to 1901, ignoring the long introductions and +many of the notes. Whitley Stokes: Criticism of Atkinson's Glossary +(London, 1903); R. Dareste: Etudes d'histoire de droit (Paris, 1889); +d'Arbois de Jubainville and Paul Collinet: Etudes sur le droit +celtique, 2 vols. (Paris, 1895); Joyce: Social History of Ancient +Ireland, 2 vols. (London, 1913); Laurence Ginnell: The Brehon Laws +(London, 1894).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T08"></a>IRISH MUSIC</h2> +<h4>By W.H. GRATTAN FLOOD, Mus. D., M.R.I.A., K.S.G.</h4> + +<p>Perhaps nothing so strikingly brings home the association of +Ireland with music as the fact that the harp is emblazoned on the +national arms. Ireland, "the mother of sweet singers", as Pope writes; +Ireland, "where", according to St. Columcille, "the clerics sing like +the birds"; Ireland can proudly point to a musical history of over +2,000 years. The Milesians, the De Dananns, and other pre-Christian +colonists were musical. Hecataeus (B.C. 540-475) describes the Celts +of Ireland as singing songs to the harp in praise of Apollo, and +Aethicus of Istria, a Christian philosopher of the early fourth +century, describes the culture of the Irish. Certain it is that, even +before the coming of St. Patrick, the Irish were a highly cultured +nation, and the national Apostle utilized music and song in his work +of conversion. In the early Lives of the Irish Saints musical +references abound, and the Irish school of music attracted foreign +scholars from the sixth to the ninth century.</p> + +<p>Hymnologists are familiar with the hymns written by early Irish +saints and laics, <i>e.g.</i>, St. Sechnall, St. Columcille, St. +Molaise, St. Cuchuimne, St. Columbanus, St. Ultan, St. Colman, St. +Cummain, St. Aengus, Dungal, Sedulius, Moengal, and others. Who has +not heard of the great music school of San Gallen, founded by St. +Gall, "the wonder and delight of Europe," whither flocked German +students? One of the Irish monks, Tuathal (Tutilo), composed numerous +sacred pieces, including the famous farced Kyrie, "Fons bonitatis", +included in the Vatican edition of the <i>Kyriale</i> (1906). Not +alone did Irish monks propagate sacred and secular music throughout +France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and the far North, but +they made their influence felt In Lindisfarne, Malmesbury, +Glastonbury, and other cities in England, as also in Scotland. St. +Aldhelm, one of the pupils of St. Maeldubh, tells us that at the close +of the seventh century, "Ireland, synonymous with learning, literally +blazed like the stars of the firmament with the glory of her +scholars."</p> + +<p>During the ninth century we meet with twelve different forms of +instruments in use by the Irish, namely:—the <i>Cruit</i> and +<i>Clairseach</i> (small and large harp); <i>Timpan</i> (<i>Rotta</i> +or bowed <i>cruit</i>); <i>Buinne</i> (oboe or bassoon); +<i>Bennbuabhal</i> and <i>Corn</i> (horn); <i>Cuisleanna</i> and +<i>Piob</i> (bagpipes); <i>Feadan</i> (flute or fife); +<i>Guthbuinne</i> (bass horn); <i>Stoc</i> and <i>Sturgan</i> +(trumpet); <i>Pipai</i> (single and double pipes); +<i>Craoibh cuil</i> and <i>Crann cuil</i> (cymbalum); <i>Cnamha</i> +(castanet); and <i>Fidil</i> (fiddle). The so-called "Brian Boru's +Harp" really dates from the thirteenth century, and is now in Trinity +College, Dublin, but there are numerous sculptured harps of the ninth +and tenth centuries on the crosses at Graig, Ullard, Clonmacnois, +Durrow, and Monasterboice.</p> + +<p>Donnchadh, an Irish bishop of the ninth century, who died as abbot +of St. Remigius, wrote a commentary on Martianus Capella, a well-known +musical text book. Towering above all his fellows, John Scotus +Erigena, in 867, wrote a tract <i>De Divisione Naturae</i>, in which +he expounds <i>organum</i> or discant, nearly a hundred years before +the appearance of the <i>Scholia Enchiriadis</i> and the <i>Musica +Enchiriadis</i>. He also wrote a commentary on Martianus Capella, now +in a Paris MS. of the ninth century.</p> + +<p>The eulogy of Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald Barry, who came to +Ireland in 1183, on Irish harpers and minstrels is too well known to +be repeated, but Brompton and John of Salisbury are equally +enthusiastic. Ground bass, or pedal point, and singing in parts, as +well as bands of harpers and pipers, were in vogue in Ireland before +the coming of the English. Dante, quoted by Galilei, testifies to the +fact that Italy received the harp from Ireland; and, it may be added, +the Irish harp suggested the pianoforte. In the Anglo-Norman ballad, +"The Entrenchment of New Ross"—in 1265—allusion is made to +pipes and flutes, and carols and dancing. Another poem, dating from +about 1320, refers to Irish dances in a flattering manner.</p> + +<p>John Garland (1190-1264) wrote a treatise on <i>Organum</i>, and +outlined a scheme of dividing the interval, which developed into +ornamentation, passing notes, and grace notes. The Dublin +<i>Troper</i> of the thirteenth century has a number of farced Kyries +and Glorias, also a collection of Sequences. A Dublin +<i>Processionale</i> of the fourteenth century contains the most +elaborate form of the <i>Officium Sepulchri</i>, with musical notation +on a four-line stave—the foundation of the Miracle Play of the +Resurrection. Another Dublin <i>Troper</i> dates from 1360 and was +used in St. Patrick's Cathedral. It contains the hymn, "Angelus ad +Virginem", alluded to by Chaucer. The Christ Church Psaltery, about +1370, has musical notation and is exquisitely illuminated. Lionel +Power, an Anglo-Irishman, wrote the first English treatise on music in +1395. Exactly a century later, in 1495, a music school was founded in +Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.</p> + +<p>The Irish Annals of the thirteenth to the fifteenth century have +numerous references to distinguished harpers and singers, and there +are still sung many beautiful airs of this period, including "The +Coulin" and "Eibhlin a ruin." John Lawless was a famous Irish +organ-builder of the second half of the fifteenth century, and his +successor, James Dempsey, built many fine organs between the years +1530 and 1565.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the many penal enactments against Irish minstrels, +all the great Anglo-Irish nobles of the Pale retained an Irish harper +and piper in their service. Under date of 1480, we find Chief Justice +Bermingham having an Irish harper to teach his family, as also "to +harp and to dance." A century later "Blind Cruise, the +harper"—Richard Cruise—composed a lamentation song on the +fall of the Baron of Slane, the air of which is still popular. It is +to the credit of the Irishman, William Bathe (who subsequently became +a Jesuit), that he wrote the first printed English treatise on music, +published in 1584—thus ante-dating by thirteen years Morley's +work. Bathe wrote a second musical treatise in 1587, and he was the +first to call measures by the name of bars. He also formulated methods +of transposition and sight reading that may still be studied with +profit.</p> + +<p>Thomas Campion, the poet and composer, was born in Dublin in 1567, +but spent nearly all his life in England. Other Irish composers, to +mention only the most distinguished, were William Costello +(madrigalist), Richard Gillie, Edward Shergold, and Walter Kennedy. +Strange as it may seem, Queen Elizabeth retained in her service an +Irish harper, Cormac MacDermot, from 1591 to 1603, and on the death of +the queen he was given an annual pension of £46 10s. +10d.—nearly £500 a year of our present money.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare refers to eleven Irish tunes, of which the famous +"Callino Casturame" (<i>Cailin og a stuir me</i>) is still fresh. +Irish dances were extremely popular at the English court from 1600 to +1603 and were introduced into the Masks. Shakespeare's "intrinsic +friend," John Dowland of Dublin, was one of the greatest lutenists in +Europe from 1590 to 1626. In the dedication of a song "to my loving +countryman, Mr. John Foster the Younger, merchant of Dublin in +Ireland," Dowland sufficiently indicates his nationality, and his +compositions betray all the charm and grace of Irish melody. It is of +interest to add that the earliest printed "Irish Dance" is in +<i>Parthenia Inviolata</i>, of which work, published in 1613-4, there +is only one copy known—now in the New York Public Library. From +1600-1602, Charles O'Reilly was harpist to the court of Denmark at 200 +thalers a year. His successor was Donal <i>Dubh</i> ("the black") +O'Cahill (1602-1610), who followed Anne of Denmark to the English +court. Walter Quin of Dublin was music master to King James's eldest +son, Prince Henry, from 1608 to 1611. Other noted harpers of the first +half of the seventeenth century are: Rory <i>dall</i> ("the blind") +O'Cahan; Nicholas <i>dall</i> Pierce; Tadhg MacRory; John, Rory, and +Henry Scott; Owen MacKeenan; Owen MacDermot; Tadhg O'Coffey; and +Father Robert Nugent, S.J. Darby Scott was harper to the Danish Court +from 1621 till his death, at Copenhagen, on December 19, 1634. Pierce +Ferriter, a "gentleman harper", was executed at Killarney in 1652. +Myles O'Reilly and the two Connellans were famous harpers between the +years 1660-1680. Evelyn, the English diarist, in 1668, praises the +excellent performance on the harp of Sir Edward Sutton, who, in the +following year, was granted by King Charles II. the lands of Confey, +Co. Kildare. Two beautiful harps of this period are still +preserved—the Fitzgerald Harp and the Fogarty Harp.</p> + +<p>There are many exquisite airs of the seventeenth century, some of +which have been incorporated in Moore's <i>Irish Melodies</i>. The +titles of several airs of this epoch are of historical interest, +<i>e.g.</i>, "Sarsfield's Lament," "Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill," +"MacAlistrum's March," "Ned of the Hill," "The Breach of Aughrim," +"Limerick's Lamentation," "Lilliburlero," "Ballinamona," "The Boyne +Water," and "The Wild Geese." Irish tunes abound in the various +editions of Playford's <i>Country Dances</i> from 1651 to 1720.</p> + +<p>Turlogh O'Carolan (1670-1738), who has been styled "the last of the +Irish bards", wrote and composed innumerable songs, also Planxties, +Plearacas, and Lamentations. It is here merely necessary to note that +twenty-six of O'Carolan's airs are included in Moore's <i>Irish +Melodies</i>, although his claim to them has only recently been proved +by the present writer. Goldsmith's eulogy of O'Carolan is well +known.</p> + +<p>The Jacobite period from 1710 to 1750 considerably influenced Irish +minstrelsy, and some of the most delightful airs were adapted to +Jacobite lyrics. "Seaghan buidhe," "An Sean duine," "Lament for +Kilcash," "Ormonde's Lament," "Morin ni Chullenain," "All the Way to +Galway" (the air of "Yankee Doodle"), "Caitlin ni Houlihan," "Balance +a straw" ("The Wearing of the Green"), "St. Patrick's Day," "Plancam +Peirbhig," are amongst the tunes in vogue at this period.</p> + +<p>As early as 1685 the Hibernian Catch Club was established and still +flourishes. Cecilian celebrations were held from 1727 to 1732, and a +Dublin Academy of Music was founded in 1728. The Charitable and +Musical Society (founded in 1723) built the Fishamble Street Music +Hall in 1741, and assisted at the first performance of <i>The +Messiah</i>, conducted by Handel himself, on 13th April, 1742. Kitty +Clive, Peg Woffington, and Daniel Sullivan were noted Irish singers of +this epoch, while John Clegg, Dr. Murphy, and Burke Thumoth were +famous instrumentalists. In 1741 Richard Pockrich invented the Musical +Glasses, for which Gluck wrote some pieces: it was afterwards improved +by Benjamin Franklin. On the continent, Henry Madden was music +director of the Chapel Royal at Versailles in 1744 (in succession to +Campra), and was also canon of St. Quentin.</p> + +<p>In 1764 the Earl of Mornington, Mus. D., was appointed first +professor of music in Dublin University. A few years later Charles +Clagget invented the valve-horn. Michael Kelly of Dublin was specially +selected by Mozart to create the parts of Basilio and Don Curzio at +the first performance of the opera of <i>Figaro</i>, on May 1st, 1786. +Kane O'Hara, Samuel Lee, Owenson, Neale, Baron Dillon, Dr. Doyle, T.A. +Geary, Mahon, and the Earl of Westmeath were distinguished +musicians—while the fame of Carter, Mountain, Moorehead, and Dr. +Cogan was not confined to Ireland.</p> + +<p>Among native minstrels, Jerome Duigenan, Dominic Mongan, Denis +Hempson, Charles Byrne, James Duncan, Arthur Victory, and Arthur +O'Neill were celebrated as harpers. The Belfast meeting of 1792 +revived the vogue of the national instrument. Nor was the bagpipe +neglected. Even in America, in 1778, Lord Rawdon had a band of pipers, +with Barney Thomson as Pipe Major. At home, Sterling, Jackson, +MacDonnell, Moorehead, Kennedy, and Macklin sustained the reputation +of this ancient instrument.</p> + +<p>Ere the close of the eighteenth century John Field of Dublin was a +distinguished pianist. He subsequently (1814) invented the nocturne, +developed by Chopin. Sir John Stevenson (the arranger of the <i>Irish +Melodies</i>), Tom Cooke, William Southwell (inventor of the damper +action for pianofortes), Henry Mountain, Andrew Ashe (flautist), +Barton, Rooke, and Bunting were world-famed.</p> + +<p>Among the Irish musicians of the last century the following names +are typical: Thomas Moore, J. A. Wade, Balle (<i>Bohemian Girl</i>), +Wallace (<i>Maritana</i>), Osborne, Sir Frederick Ouseley, Scotson +Clarke, Howard Glover, Horncastle, J. W. Glover, Sir Robert Stewart, +Augusta Holmes, R. M. Levey, Joseph Robinson, Forde, Lover, Kearns, +Allen, Barker, Torrance, Molloy, Guernsey, Gilmore, Thunder, Harvey, +Goodman, Sir Arthur Sullivan (<i>Pinafore, Mikado</i>), Miss Davis, +Halliday (inventor of the Kent bugle), Latham, Duggan, Gaskin, Lacy, +Pontet (Piccolomini), Hudson, Pigot, Horan, Marks, and W. C. Levey. +Famous vocalists like Catherine Hayes, Mrs. Scott Fennell, Signer Foli +(Foley), Barton McGuckin, Denis O'Sullivan, and William Ludwig deserve +inclusion.</p> + +<p>In our own day, it is only necessary to mention composers like Sir +Charles Villiers Stanford, Dr. C. Woods, Victor Herbert, Mrs. Needham, +Dr. Sinclair, Norman O'Neill, and Arthur O'Leary; singers like Egan, +Burke, Plunket Greene, John MacCormack, P. O'Shea, Charles Manners, +and Joseph O'Mara; violinists like Maud McCarthy, Emily Keady, Arthur +Darley, and Patrick Delaney; organists like Dr. Charles Marchant, +Brendan Rogers, Dr. Jozé, and Professor Buck; writers like Mrs. +Curwen, Dr. Annie Patterson, Mrs. Milligan Fox, Professor Mahaffy, +A.P. Graves, Dr. Collison, and G.B. Shaw; and conductors like Hamilton +Harty and James Glover.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Walker: Irish Bards (1786); O'Curry: Lectures (1870); Hardiman: +Irish Mistrelsy (2 vols., 1834); The Complete Petrie Collection (3 +vols., 1902-1904); Grattan Flood: History of Irish Music (3rd ed., +1913), Story of the Harp (1906), Story of the Bagpipe (1911); Mrs. +Milligan Fox: Annals of the Irish Harpers (1911); Mason: Song Lore of +Ireland (1910); Armstrong: Musical Instruments (2 vols., 1904-1908); +O'Neill: Irish Folk Music (1911), Irish Minstrels and Musicians +(1913).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T09"></a>IRISH METAL WORK</h2> +<h4>By DIARMID GOFFEY.</h4> + +<p>From the earliest times in the history of western Europe Ireland +has been renowned for her work in metal. The first metal used was +copper, and copper weapons are found in Ireland dating from 2,000 +B.C., or even earlier, the beautiful designs of which show that the +early inhabitants of the country were skilled workers in metal. Fields +of copper exist all along the southern seaboard of Ireland. Numbers of +flat copper celts, or axes, have been found modelled on the still +earlier stone implements. By degrees the influence of the early stone +axe disappears and axes of a true metal type are developed. Primitive +copper knives and awls are also abundant. The fineness of the early +Irish copper work is seen at its best in the numerous copper halberd +blades found in Ireland. These blades, varying from nine to sixteen +inches in length, were fastened at right angles by rivets into wooden +shafts. The blades show a slight sickle-like curve and are of the +highest workmanship. Halberds somewhat similar in type have been found +in Spain, North Germany, and Scandinavia.</p> + +<p>Between the years 2000 and 1800 B.C. the primitive metalworkers +discovered that bronze, a mixture of tin and copper, was a more +suitable metal than pure copper for the manufacture of weapons; and +the first period of the bronze age may be dated from 1800 to 1500 B.C. +The bronze celts at first differed little from those made of copper, +but gradually the type developed from the plain wedge-shaped celt to +the beautiful socketed celt, which appears on the scene in the last, +or fifth, division of the bronze age (900-350 B.C.). It was during the +age of bronze that spears came into general use, as did the sword and +rapier. The early spear-heads were simply knife-shaped bronze weapons +riveted to the ends of shafts, but by degrees the graceful socketed +spear-heads of the late bronze age were developed.</p> + +<p>Stone moulds for casting the early forms of weapons have been +found, but, as the art of metalworking became perfected, the use of +sand moulds was discovered, with the result that there are no extant +examples of moulds for casting the more developed forms of weapons. +The bronze weapons—celts, swords, and spear-heads—are +often highly decorated. In these decorations can be traced the +connection between the early Irish civilization and that of the +eastern Mediterranean. The bronze age civilization in Europe spread +westward from the eastern Mediterranean either by the southern route +of Italy, Spain, France, and thence to Ireland, or, as seems more +probable, up the river Danube, then down the Elbe, and so to +Scandinavia, whence traders by the north of Scotland introduced the +motives and patterns of the Aegean into Ireland. Whichever way the +eastern civilization penetrated into Ireland, it left England +practically untouched in her primitive barbarity.</p> + +<p>Of gold work, for which Ireland is especially famous, the principal +feature in the bronze age was the lunula, a crescent-shaped flat gold +ornament generally decorated at the ends of the crescent. These +lunulae are found in profusion all over Ireland. A few have been found +in Cornwall and Brittany, and a few in Scotland and Denmark. One has +been found in Luxemburg and one in Hanover.</p> + +<p>Gold collars are numerous in Ireland and also date from the bronze +age. The earliest form of collar is the "torc" of twisted gold. +Another type, later in date than the torc, is the gold ring-shaped +collar. Two splendid examples of this latter type were found at +Clonmacnois, the decoration of which, in <i>La Tène</i>, or +trumpet, pattern, shows the connection between the Irish and +continental designs.</p> + +<p>A find of prehistoric gold ornaments in county Clare should be +mentioned. An immense number was there discovered in 1854 hidden +together in a cist, the value of the whole being estimated at over +£3,000.</p> + +<p>After the bronze age comes the iron age. The introduction of iron +wrought a great change in metalworking, but, as iron is a metal very +subject to oxidization, comparatively few early iron remains are +found. There are some swords of an early pattern in the National +Museum at Dublin.</p> + +<p>It has been shown that the pre-Christian metalwork of Ireland is +well worthy of attention, but it is to the early Christian +metalworkers that Ireland owes her pre-eminent fame in this field. In +early Christian Ireland metalworking was brought to a pitch rarely +equalled and never excelled. The remains found, such as the Tara +Brooch, the Cross of Cong, and the Ardagh Chalice, are among the most +beautiful metalwork in the world. The wonderful interlaced patterns, +which are typically Celtic, bewildering in their intricacy, and +fascinating in the freedom and boldness of their execution, lend +themselves readily to metal work.</p> + +<p>The connecting link between the metalwork of the late pagan period +and that of early Christian times is chiefly exemplified by the +penannular brooches, of which great numbers have been found in +Ireland. Examples of this characteristically Celtic ornament may be +seen in all Celtic countries.</p> + +<p>In its earliest form this brooch is simply a ring, with a gap in +it, to which a pin is loosely attached by a smaller ring. Gradually +the open ends of the ring, which need some enlargement in order to +prevent the pin slipping off, became larger and ornamented. In time +these became regular trumpet-shaped ends, generally ornamented with +characteristic "trumpet" patterns. The next stage was to close the +gap, leaving a ring with a crescent-shaped disc at one side. Space +does not permit of the description of the numerous brooches found. It +will be sufficient to describe the Tara Brooch, which is the crowning +glory not only of the Irish but of any metalworker's art.</p> + +<p>The Tara Brooch, whose only connection with Tara is its name, was +found near Drogheda; it is about seven inches in diameter and the pin +about fifteen inches long. It is made of bronze covered with the most +elaborate interlaced ornament in gold. The fineness of the interlaced +work may be compared with, and is quite equal to, that of the best +illuminated manuscripts; the freedom of its execution is amazing. +Besides panels of ribbon ornament, which include spirals, plaited +work, human heads, and animal forms, the front of the brooch is +decorated with enamel and settings of amber and colored glass. The +back of the brooch is, as is often the case in Irish work, decorated +in a bolder manner than the front, and the "trumpet" pattern is there +very marked. The head of the pin is also elaborately decorated. The +minute and intricate style of the work is strikingly shown by the fact +that, even after prolonged study, some patterns escaped notice and +have only lately been discovered. Further, each of the gold lines is +made of tiny gold balls, so small as only to be seen by means of a +magnifying glass.</p> + +<p>With the introduction of Christianity, the attention of artificers +was turned to the manufacture of church vessels and shrines. Of these +perhaps the most beautiful are the Ardagh Chalice, the Cross of Cong, +and the Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell, though great numbers of other +sacred ornaments, such as the Shrine of St. Lactan's Arm and the +numerous bell shrines, are also fine examples of the work of an +unsurpassed school of metalworkers.</p> + +<p>The date of the Tara Brooch is not easy to determine, but it may +probably be placed in the eighth century of our era. The Ardagh +Chalice belongs probably to about the same date. It was found in a +rath at Ardagh, county Limerick, in 1868. It measures 7 inches in +height and 9-1/2 in diameter. Around the cup is a band of fine +filigree interlaced ornament in the form of panels divided by half +beads of enamel. Below this are the names of the twelve Apostles in +faint Celtic lettering. The two handles are beautifully decorated with +panels of interwoven ornament, and on the sides are two circular discs +divided into ornamented panels. The under side of the foot of the +Chalice is also very beautifully decorated.</p> + +<p>The shrines of the bells of the Irish saints are interesting +examples of Irish metal work. As is fitting, the finest of these is +the Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell. This was made by order of King +Domnall O'Lachlainn between the years 1091 and 1105 to contain St. +Patrick's Bell, a square iron bell made of two plates of sheet iron +riveted together. The shrine is made of bronze plates, to which gold +filigree work and stones are riveted. The top of the shrine, curved to +receive the handle of the bell, is of silver elaborately decorated. +The back is overlaid with a plate of silver cut in cruciform pattern. +Around the margin of the back is engraved the following inscription in +Irish: "A prayer for Domnall Ua Lachlainn, by whom this bell [shrine] +was made, and for Domnall, successor of Patrick, by whom it was made, +and for Cathalan Ua Maelchallann, the keeper of the bell, and for +Cudulig Ua Inmainen with his sons, who fashioned it." The whole is +executed in a very fine manner and is the most beautiful object of its +kind in existence. Another beautiful shrine, known as the Cross of +Cong, made to enshrine a piece of the true cross presented by the pope +in 1123, was made for King Turlogh O'Conor at about that date. It is 2 +feet 6 inches high and 1 foot 6-3/4 inches wide. It is made of oak +cased with copper and enriched with ornaments of gilded bronze. The +ornamentation is of the typical Irish type, as on the Ardagh Chalice +and the Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell. A quartz crystal set in the +centre of the front of the cross probably held the relic.</p> + +<p>It is clear from the succession of beautiful work executed from the +eighth to the twelfth century, that there must have existed in Ireland +during that period a school of workers in metal such as has seldom +been equalled by any individual worker or guild before or since, and +never excelled. The examples described are only the more famous of the +remains of early Irish Christian art in metal, but they are surrounded +by numerous examples of pins, brooches, and shrines, each worthy to +rank with the finest productions of the metalworker. The Shrine of St. +Moedoc (date uncertain) ought perhaps to be mentioned. On it are found +several figures, including three nuns, men with books, sceptres, and +swords, and a lifelike figure of a harper.</p> + +<p>Besides articles of ornament, articles of use, such as bits for +horses and household utensils, have been found, which show that the +Irish smiths were as well able to produce articles for every-day use +as the artificers were to create works of art in metal.</p> + +<p>With the landing of the English in 1169 the arts and sciences in +Ireland declined. Indeed, from that time on and for long afterwards, +almost the only metalworkers needed were makers of arms and weapons of +offense and defense.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>British Museum, Bronze Age Guide; Coffey: Bronze Age in Ireland; +Allen: Celtic Art; Abercrombie: Bronze Age Pottery; Wilde: Catalogue +of the Royal Irish Academy's Collection; Allen: Christian Symbolism; +Stokes: Christian Art in Ireland; Petrie: Ecclesiastical Architecture +in Ireland; Coffey: Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian +Period perserved in the National Museum, Dublin; Kane: Industrial +Resources of Ireland; O'Curry: Manners and Customs of the Ancient +Irish; Coffey: New Grange and other incised Tumuli in Ireland; +Dechelette: Manuel d'Archéologie pré-historique; +Ridgeway: Origin of Currency and Weight Standards.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T10"></a>IRISH MANUSCRIPTS</h2> +<h4>By LOUIS ELY O'CARROLL, B.A., B.L.</h4> + +<p>In the dark ages of Europe, whilst new civilizations were in the +making and all was unrest, art and religion, like the lamp of the +sanctuary, burned brightly and steadily in Ireland, and their rays +penetrated the outer gloom. Scattered through the libraries of Europe +are the priceless manuscripts limned by Irish scribes. The earliest +missionaries to the continent, disciples of St. Columbanus and St. +Gall, doubtless brought with them into exile beautiful books which +they or their brothers of the parent monastery had wrought in a labor +of love; or mayhap many a monk crossed the seas bearing the treasured +volumes into hiding from the spoiling hands of the Dane. Yet, +fortunately, in the island home where their beauty was born the most +superb volumes still remain.</p> + +<p>From almost prehistoric times the Irish were skilled artificers in +gold and bronze, and, at the advent of Christianity, had already +evolved and perfected that unique system of geometrical ornament which +is known as Celtic design. The original and essential features of this +system consisted in the use of spirals and interlacing strapwork, but +later on this type was developed by transforming the geometrical fret +into a scheme of imaginary or nondescript animals, portions of which, +such as the tails and ears, were prolonged and woven in exquisite +fancy through the border. The artistic features of Celtic book +decoration consist chiefly of initial letters of this nature +embellished with color. Amongst the ancient Irish there was a keen +knowledge of color and an exceptional appreciation of color values. +Thus it was that in the early centuries of Christian Ireland the +learned monks, transcribing the Gospels and longing to make the book +beautiful, were able to bring to their task an artistic skill which +was hereditary and almost instinctive. The colors which they used were +mostly derived from mineral substances and the black was carbon, made, +it is conjectured, from charred fish-bones; but with them was combined +some gummy material which made them cling softly to the vellum and has +held for us their lustre for more than a thousand years. It is +noteworthy that neither gold nor silver was used for book decoration, +and this would appear to be a deliberate avoidance of the glitter and +glare which distinguish eastern art.</p> + +<p><i>The Book of Durrow</i>(in the Library of Trinity College, +Dublin) is the oldest specimen of Celtic illumination and, if not the +work of St. Columcille, is certainly of as early a date. Each of the +Gospels opens with a beautiful initial succeeded by letters of +gradually diminishing size, and there are full page decorations +embodying such subjects as the symbols of the Evangelists. The colors +are rich and vivid and all the designs are of the purest and most +Celtic character.</p> + +<p><i>The Gospels of MacRegol</i>(now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) +is the work of an Abbot of Birr who died A.D. 820. It is a volume of +unusually large size, copiously ornamented with masterly designs and +containing illuminated portraits of Saints Mark, Luke, and John. The +first part of the book with the portrait of St. Matthew is +missing.</p> + +<p><i>The Book of Kells</i>(in the Library of T.C.D.) is the +all-surpassing masterpiece of Celtic illuminative art and is +acknowledged to be the most beautiful book in the world. This copy of +the four Gospels was long deemed to have been made by the saintly +hands of Columcille, though it probably belongs to the eighth century. +Into its pages are woven such a wealth of ornament, such an ecstasy of +art, and such a miracle of design that the book is today not only one +of Ireland's greatest glories but one of the world's wonders. After +twelve centuries the ink is as black and lustrous and the colors are +as fresh and soft as though but the work of yesterday. The whole range +of colors is there—green, blue, crimson, scarlet, yellow, +purple, violet—and the same color is at times varied in tone and +depth and shade, thereby achieving a more exquisite combination and +effect. In addition to the numerous decorative pages and marvellous +initials, there are portraits of the Evangelists and full-page +miniatures of the Temptation of Christ, His Seizure by the Jews, and +the Madonna and Child surrounded by Angels with censers. Exceptionally +beautiful are these angels and other angelic figures throughout the +book, their wings shining with glowing colors amid woven patterns of +graceful design. The portraits and miniatures and the numerous faces +centred in initial letters are not to be adjudged by the standard of +anatomical drawing and delineation of the human figure, but rather by +their effect as part of a scheme of ornamentation; for the Celtic +illuminator was imaginative rather than realistic, and aimed +altogether at achieving beauty by means of color and design. The Book +of Kells is the Mecca of the illuminative artist, but it is the +despair of the copyist. The patience and skill of the olden scribe +have baffled the imitator; for, on an examination with a magnifying +glass, it has been found that, in a space of a quarter of an inch, +there are no fewer than a hundred and fifty-eight interlacements of a +ribbon pattern of white lines edged by black ones on a black ground. +Surely this is the manuscript which was shown to Giraldus Cambrensis +towards the close of the twelfth century and of whose illuminations he +speaks with glowing enthusiasm; "they were," he says, "supposed to +have been produced by the direction of an angel at the prayer of St. +Brigid."</p> + +<p><i>The Gospels of MacDurnan</i>(now in the Archbishop's Library at +Lambeth) is a small and beautiful volume which was executed by an +abbot of Armagh who died in the year 891. A full-page picture of the +Evangelist precedes each Gospel, and a composite border frames each +miniature in a bewildering pattern of intertwining strapwork and +wonderful designs of imaginary beasts. Ornamental capitals and rich +borders give a special beauty to the initial pages of the Gospels.</p> + +<p><i>The Book of Armagh</i>(in the Library of T.C.D.) was carefully +guarded and specially venerated through the ages in the erroneous +belief that it was in part the handiwork of St. Patrick. It was +written about the year 800, and would appear to have been copied from +documents actually written by the patron saint of Ireland. The book is +exceptionally interesting by reason of the fact that it contains St. +Patrick's Confession, that beautiful story of how he found his +mission, how the captive grew to love his captors, and how, after his +escape, he came back to them bearing the lamp of Holy Faith. Although +the ornamentation of the manuscript is infrequent, there are +occasional beautiful examples which compare in richness with those in +the Book of Kells.</p> + +<p><i>The Liber Hymnorum</i>(in the Franciscan Monastery, Dublin) +contains a number of hymns associated with the names of Irish saints. +The ornamentation consists of colored initials, designed with a +striking use of fanciful animal figures interlaced and twined with +delightful freedom around the main structural body.</p> + +<p>The <i>Garland of Howth</i> and the <i>Stowe Missal</i> (both in +Trinity College Library) belong to the eighth century and are +beautiful examples of early illuminative art. The former, which is +very incomplete, has only two ornamental pages left, each containing +figure-representations inserted in the decorative work.</p> + +<p>The <i>Gospels of St. Chad</i> (in the Cathedral Library at +Lichfield) and the <i>Gospels of Lindisfarne</i>, which are "the glory +of the British Museum", form striking examples of the influence of +Celtic art. St. Chad was educated in Ireland in the school of St. +Finian, where he acquired his training in book decoration. The Gospels +of Lindisfarne were produced by the monks of Iona, where St. +Columcille founded his great school of religion, art, and learning. +This latter manuscript is second only to the Book of Kells in its +glory of illuminative design, and, from its distinctive scheme of +colors, the tones of which are light and bright and gay, it forms a +contrast to the quieter shades and the solemn dignity of the more +famous volume.</p> + +<p><i>The Book of the Dun Cow, The Book of Leinster</i>, and the other +great manuscripts of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries +are interesting as literature rather than as art, for they tell the +history of ancient Erin and have garnered her olden legends and +romantic tales. It is only the Gospels and other manuscripts of +religious subjects that are illuminated. In the apparel of the ancient +Irish, the number of colors marked the social rank: the king might +wear seven colors, poets and learned men six; five colors were +permitted in the clothes of chieftains, and thus grading down to the +servant, who might wear but one. All this the scribe knew well. We can +picture the humble servant of God, clad in a coarse robe of a single +color, deep in his chosen labor of recording the life and teachings of +his Master, and striving to endow this record with the glory of the +seven colors which were rightly due to a King alone. As we gaze on his +work today its beauty is instinct with life, and the patient love that +gave it birth seems to cling to it still. The white magic of the +artist's holy hands has bridged the span of a thousand years.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>O'Curry: Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish +History (Dublin, 1861); Brunn: An Enquiry into the Art of the +Illuminated Manuscripts of the Middle Ages, Part I, Celtic Illuminated +Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1897); Robinson: Celtic Illuminative Art in +the Gospels of Durrow, Lindisfarne, and Kells (Dublin, 1908); +Westwood: The Book of Kells, a lecture given in Oxford, November, 1886 +(Dublin, 1887); Gougaud: Répertoire des fac-similés des +manuscripts irlandais (Paris, 1913).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T11"></a>THE RUINS OF IRELAND</h2> +<h4>By FRANCIS JOSEPH BIGGER, M.R.I.A.</h4> + +<p>The ruins of Ireland are her proudest monuments. They stand as a +lasting revelation to all mankind—a distinct and definite +proclamation that the Irish people, century after century, were able +to raise and adorn some of the finest buildings in stone that western +civilization has seen or known. It is recognized the world over that +Irish art has a beauty and distinction all its own, in its own Irish +setting unrivalled, throned in its own land, in its own natural +surroundings. The shrines and gospels, the reliquaries and missals, +the crosses and bells that are still existent, many in Ireland, others +in every country in the world, attest beyond any dispute that Irish +art-workers held a preëminent place in the early middle ages, and +that works of Irish art are still treasured as unique in their day and +time. No country has been plundered and desolated as Ireland has been. +Dane, Norman, English—each in turn swept across the fair face of +Ireland, carrying destruction in their train, yet withal Ireland has +her art treasures and her ruins that bear favorable comparison with +those of other civilizations.</p> + +<p>In Dublin and in many private Irish collections can be found +hand-written books of parchment, illuminated with glowing colors that +time has scarce affected or the years caused to fade. On one page +alone of the Book of Kells, ornament and writing can be seen penned +and painted in lines too numerous even to count. They are there by the +thousand: a magnifying glass is required to reveal even a fragment of +them. Ireland produced these in endless number—every great +library or collection in Europe possesses one or more examples.</p> + +<p>As with books, so with reliquaries, crosses, and bells. When the +Island of Saints and Scholars could produce books, it could make +shrines and everything necessary to stimulate and hand down the piety +and the patient skill of a people steeped in art-craft and religious +feeling. What they could do on parchment—like the Books of Kells +and Durrow—what they could produce in bronze and precious +metals—like the Cross of Cong, the Shrine of Saint Patrick's +Bell, the Tara Brooch, and the Chalice of Ardagh—not to write of +the numberless bronze and gold articles of an age centuries long +preceding their production—they could certainly vie with in +stone.</p> + +<p>Of this earlier work a word must go down. In Ireland still at the +present day, after all the years of plunder she has undergone, more +ancient gold art-treasures remain than in any other country, museum, +or collection, most of them pre-Christian, and what the other +countries do possess are largely Irish or of Celtic origin. We must +have this borne into the minds of every one of Irish birth or origin, +that this great treasure was battered into shape by Irish hands on +Irish anvils, designed in Irish studios, ornamented with Irish skill +for Irish use.</p> + +<p>With such workmen, having such instincts and training, what of the +housing and surroundings to contain them and give them a fit and +suitable setting? The earliest stone structures in Ireland still +remaining are the great stone cashels or circular walls enclosing +large spaces—walls of great thickness, unmortared, in which +there are vast quantities of masonry. Around their summits a chariot +might be driven, inside their spaces horse races might be run. As a +few examples, there are Staigue, in Kerry; Dun Angus, in Aran, off +Galway; Aileach, above the walls of Derry. Of the earliest churches, +cyclopean in construction and primitive in character, built of stone, +with thick sloping walls from foundation to ridge, Gallerus still +remains, and the Skelligs, those wondrous sea-girt rocks, preserve +both church and cell almost perfect. There are many other examples, +some of a later date, such as Temple Cronan and Maghera and Banagher +in Derry, St. Finan's oratory in county Cork, St. Fechin's at Fore, +and St. Molaise's at Devenish.</p> + +<p>From the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, there are +innumerable examples of oratories, some with stone roofs, others with +roofs not so permanent, but all having the common features of an altar +window facing the east, through which the sun fell at the beginning of +the day to tell the early missioner that his hour of devotion had +arrived, and a west door, through which the rays of the declining sun +fell across the altar steps, speaking of a day that was closing. A +south window was added close to the east end, and it, too, was a +sun-dial; it told the hour of angelus, the mid-day, when the bell was +rung and a calm reverence fell on all within its hearing. Such +churches can still be seen at Aran and Inismurray, on the islands of +Lough Derg, Lough Ri, and in many other places.</p> + +<p>A few years later these oratories were too small for the growing +faith, and larger churches were built, some using the older structure +as chancels. Where the west door was built a circular arch was made +and the new and old united. This can well be seen at Inis-na-ghoill in +Lough Corrib, on the Aran Islands off Galway, at Glendalough, at +Inis-cleraun in Lough Ri, at Clonmacnois, at Iniscaltra, and on many +another island and promontory of the south and west.</p> + +<p>During this time, and after, we find the most elaborate carvings on +door and arch and window, equal in skill to what is found in book or +metal work.</p> + +<p>It must have been at this time that the Galls, or strangers, first +invaded Ireland, bearing havoc in their train, for then it was that +the <i>cloicteach</i>, or Round Towers, were built. It is now admitted +by all Irish authorities of any repute, and that beyond dispute, that +the Round Towers, the glory of Ireland, were built by Irish people as +Christian monuments from which the bells might be rung, and as places +of strength for the preservation of the valued articles used in +Christian worship; here they might be safely stored. They were also +used for the preservation of life in case of sudden attack and +onslaught by unexpected enemies. All the towers are on ecclesiastical +sites, many are incorporated in church buildings, such as those of +Glendalough in Wicklow and Clonmacnois on the Shannon, The records of +the construction of some of them in the tenth and eleventh centuries +are still extant, and this is conclusive. There are today about +seventy Round Towers in Ireland, and many have been destroyed.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="p">The pillar towers of Ireland, how wondrously they stand</p> +<p class="p">By the lakes and rushing rivers through the valleys of our +land;</p> +<p class="p">In mystic file, through the isle, they lift their heads +sublime,</p> +<p class="p">These gray old pillar temples—these conquerors of time.</p> +<br> +<p class="p">Here was placed the holy chalice that held the sacred wine,</p> +<p class="p">And the gold cross from the altar, and the relics from the +shrine,</p> +<p class="p">And the mitre shining brighter with its diamonds than the +east,</p> +<p class="p">And the crozier of the pontiff, and the vestments of the +priest.</p> +</div> +<p><i>D.F. MacCarthy</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p>This was the time when the High Crosses of Ireland were carved and +set up. They vie with the Round Towers in interest and in the display +of skill. What the towers have in perfection, masonry and +construction, the crosses have in artistic carving and symbolic +design. No two crosses are alike; they are as varied as the clouds in +an Irish sky or the pebbles on the beach or the flowers in a garden. +They were carved in reverence by those who knew and esteemed their +art, and lavished all their skill and knowledge on what they most +valued and treasured. They were not set up as grave-marks +merely—theirs was a higher and loftier mission. They were raised +in places where some great event or period was to be +commemorated—they were erected where some early disciple of the +Cross could stand beside one of them and from any panel could tell the +foundation of the Faith, for there in stone was story after story, +from the Old Testament and the New, that gave him his text, and so, as +at the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnois, a missioner could +preach on every recurring holy day from Christmas to Christmas, with +ever his text in stone before him. Many a broken and mutilated cross +has been set up in Ireland in recent years, proving that the heart of +the Gael, no matter how rent and broken, is still inclined to bind up +the broken wounds of her past glories.</p> + +<p>With the religious orders there came to Ireland a widespread desire +to add something to the older sanctuaries of the Gael, to widen their +borders and strengthen their cords, and so the abbeys were founded. +Here and there we find them still—by winding rivers, on rich +meadows, in glens and glades, by the sea margin, or on the slopes of +the rugged mountain. Their crumbling walls and broken windows can +still be traced, their towers are still to be seen over tree tops and +in the centre of many a slumbering town. By the shores of Donegal Bay +the old Franciscan house, where the Four Masters compiled what is +perhaps the most remarkable record possessed by any nation, is still +clothed in ivy. At Kilconnell, in Galway, their old place is almost as +they left it, but roofless, with the tears of the friars upon the +altar steps. Clare Galway has a tower worth travelling half a +continent to see. By the Boniet River, at Drumahaire, on the banks of +Lough Gill, are the mason marks of the cloister builders, and the +figure of St. Francis talking to the birds is still there. The abbey +is roofless and empty, and so the birds of the air are his constant +companions.</p> + +<p>Space forbids, or endless abbeys might be described. The Black +Abbey at Kilkenny, with its long row of Butler effigies, or the +Cathedral of Saint Canice, still perfect, with its soaring round tower +beside it, or the mystical seven light window of the Franciscan friary +by the Nore, with the old mill-weirs running free to this day. How +long could we ponder by the east window of Kilcooley, with tracery +like a spider's web, and listen to the mystical bells, or gaze at the +beautiful oriel at Feenagh, or stand at Jerpoint, with its spacious +cloisters and stone-groined choir, with Saint Christopher in Irish +marble beside us.</p> + +<p>Cashel, one of the wonders of the world, grows up suddenly into +sight on a high rock rising from level land crowned with buildings. A +great abbey dominates; beside it clings that carved gem of a +stone-roofed church, Cormac's Chapel. Round Tower and Cross are there, +and many a sculptured tomb.</p> + +<p>Not far from Cashel is the Abbey of Holy Cross, with its lovely +mitred windows, shadowed in the river passing at its feet. The +circular pillars and arches of Boyle Abbey are splendidly +proportioned, whilst the cloisters of Sligo display in their long, +shadowy recesses and ornamented pillars great dignity and beauty. The +windows and monuments of Ennis Friary, founded by the O'Briens, are of +unusual interest, the carving of figure-subjects being equal to the +best of their age.</p> + +<p>We have Thomastown and Callan, Dunbrody and Tintern, all having an +individual charm and interest that not only dim the eye and make the +blood course freely in every one of Irish stock when he looks upon +what is and thinks of what was, but even in the coldest light give +food for thought to every one desirous of knowing something of the +growth and civilization of a great people.</p> + +<p>Of the many castles and stout Irish strongholds it is hard to write +in such a short paper as this. Those on the Boyne, such as Trim, for +strong building and extent, excel in many ways. Carlingford, +Carrickfergus, and Dunluce have by their size and picturesque +situations ever appealed to visitors. They are each built on rocks +jutting into the sea, Dunluce on a great perpendicular height, the +Atlantic dashing below. Dunamace, near Maryborough, in the O'More +country, appears like Cashel, but is entirely military. The famed +walled cities of Kells, in Kilkenny, and Fore, in Westmeath, are +remarkable. Each has an abbey, many towers, gates, and stout bastions. +The great keeps of the midland lords, the towers of Granuaile on the +west coast, and the traders' towers on the east coast, especially +those of Down, afford ample material for a study of the early +colonizing efforts of different invaders, as well as providing +incidents of heroism and romance. These square battlemented towers can +be seen here and there in every district.</p> + +<p>Every portion of Ireland has its ruins. Earthworks, stone forts, +prehistoric monuments, circular stone huts, early churches, abbeys, +crosses, round towers, castles of every size and shape are to be found +in every county, some one in every parish, all over Ireland. It is +almost invidious to name any in particular where the number is so +great.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy (Dublin); Proceedings of Society +of Antiquaries (Dublin); Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Old Series and +New Series, edited by F.J. Bigger, Belfast; Wakeman: Handbook of Irish +Antiquities (Dublin, 1891); Stokes: Early Christian Art in Ireland +(Dublin, 1887); Petrie: Round Towers and Ancient Architecture of +Ireland (Dublin, 1845).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T12"></a>MODERN IRISH ART</h2> +<h4>By D.J. O'DONOGHUE,<br> +<i>Librarian, University College, Dublin</i>.</h4> + +<p>It would be difficult to dispute, in view of her innumerable and +excellent artists, that there has always been in modern times an art +consciousness in Ireland, but it is impossible to assert that there +has been any artistic unity in her people. She has produced no school, +but merely a great number of brilliant painters, sculptors, and +engravers, chiefly for export. With all our acknowledged artistic +capacity, we have not, except in one notable instance, produced a +cumulative art effect. The history of Irish art is almost uniformly a +depressing narrative. During a comparatively brief period in the +eighteenth century—significantly enough, it was while the +country enjoyed a short spell of national life—there was +something like a national patronage of the artist, and the result is +visible in the noble public buildings and beautiful houses of the +Irish capital, with their universally admired mantelpieces, doors, +ceilings, fanlights, ironwork, and carvings. In short, while Ireland +had even a partly unfettered control of her own concerns, the arts +were generously encouraged by her government and by the wealthy +individual. When other European capitals were mere congeries of +rookeries, Dublin, the centre of Irish political life, possessed +splendid streets, grandly planned. But there was little solidarity +among the artistic fraternity. Various associations of artists were +formed, which held together fairly well until the flight of the +resident town gentry after the Union, and many admirable artists were +trained in the schools of the Royal Dublin Society, but, since the +opening of the nineteenth century, there has been almost no visible +art effort in Dublin. True, there have been many fine artists, who +have made a struggle to fix themselves in Dublin, but, as with the +Royal Hibernian Academy, of which the best of them were members, the +struggle has been a painful agony. Usually the artist migrated to +London to join the large group of Irishmen working there; a few others +went to America and obtained an honored place in her art annals. Those +who went to England secured in many cases the highest rewards of the +profession. Several, like Barry, Hone, Barrett, and Cotes, were +founders or early members of the Royal Academy; one, Sir Martin Shee, +became its President. Nevertheless, many distinguished artists +remained in Dublin, where the arts of portrait-painting and engraving +were carried to a high pitch of excellence.</p> + +<p>This record must necessarily be of a chronological character, and +can only take note of those whose works have actual value and +interest, historical or other. Edward Luttrell (1650-1710) did some +excellent work in crayon or pastel, while Garrett Murphy (fl. +1650-1716), Stephen Slaughter (d. 1765), Francis Bindon (d. 1765), and +James Latham (1696-1747), have each left us notable portraits of the +great Irish personages of their day. To fellow countrymen in London, +Charles Jervas (1675?-1739), Thomas Hickey (d. 1816?), and Francis +Cotes, R.A. (1725-1770), we owe presentments of other famous people. +George Barrett, R.A. (1728-1784), one of the greatest landscapists of +his time; Nathaniel Hone, R.A. (1718-1784), an eccentric but gifted +painter, with an individuality displayed in all his portraits; James +Barry, R.A. (1741-1806), still more eccentric, with grand conceptions +imperfectly carried out in his great historical and allegorical +pictures:—these, with Henry Tresham, R.A. (1749?-1814), and +Matthew Peters, R.A. (1742-1814), historical painters of considerable +merit, upheld the Irish claim to a high place in English eighteenth +century art. A little later, miniaturists such as Horace Hone, A.R.A. +(1756-1825), George Chinnery (1774-1852), and Adam Buck (1759-1844), +also worked with remarkable success in London. Among resident Irish +artists, the highest praise can be given to the miniature painters, +John Comerford (1770?-1832) and Charles Robertson (1760-1821), and to +the portrait-painters, Robert Hunter (fl. 1750-1803) and (especially) +Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1739-1808), of whose work Ireland possesses +many distinguished examples. Some day Hamilton's pictures will appeal +to a far wider public than his countrymen can provide. One must omit +the names of many clever Irish artists like the Wests, Francis and +Robert, who were the most successful teachers of perhaps any time in +Ireland, and come at once to that branch of art in which Ireland +stands second to none—mezzotint-engraving.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest engravers in this style was Edward Luttrell, +already named as a painter, but it was John Brooks (fl. 1730-1756) who +is justly considered the real founder of that remarkable group of +Irish engravers whose work may be more correctly described as +belonging to a school than any other of the period. For many years in +Dublin, and afterwards in London, a succession of first-rate artists +of Irish birth produced work which remains and always must remain one +of the glories of Ireland. Limits of space allow only the bare mention +of the names of James McArdell (1728?-1765), Charles Spooner (d. +1767), Thomas Beard (fl. 1728), Thomas Frye (1710-1762), Edward Fisher +(1722-1785?), Michael Ford (d. 1765), John Dixon (1740?-1811), Richard +Purcell (fl. 1746-1766), Richard Houston (1721?-1775), John Murphy +(1748?-1820), Thomas Burke (1749-1815), Charles Exshaw (fl. +1747-1771), and Luke Sullivan (1705-1771)—artists of whom any +country might be proud, and whose works have in most cases outlasted +the remembrance of the persons whose likenesses they sought to +reproduce. Separate monographs might be justifiably written on most of +the gifted artists here enumerated, and one can only regret not being +able in short space to compare and estimate their various qualities. +Thomas Chambers, A.R.A. (1724?-1784), William Nelson Gardiner +(1766-1814), James Egan (1799-1842), and William Humphreys (1794-1865) +are other Irish engravers who cannot be overlooked in a survey of the +art of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>Contemporaneously with the remarkable development of the art of +engraving arose a group of Irish architects. Rather earlier in point +of time was Sir Edward Lovat Pearce (d. 1733), who was one of the +chief architects of the Irish Parliament House, and Thomas Burgh (d. +1730), to whom we owe the Library of Trinity College, Dublin; but +Thomas Cooley (1740-1784), designer of the handsome Royal Exchange of +that city; Richard Castle (d. 1751), a foreigner who settled in +Ireland and built a number of beautiful Irish residences; Francis +Johnston (1761-1829), an excellent architect whose chief claim to +remembrance, however, is as founder of the Royal Hibernian Academy; +and, above all, James Gandon (1743-1823), whose superb Custom House, +Four Courts, and part of the Irish Parliament House will perpetuate +his name in Dublin while that city lasts—each helped to make the +capital, even in its decay, one of the most interesting in Europe. Nor +should we forget Thomas Ivory (d. 1786), whose Foundling Hospital is +another of Dublin's many graceful edifices; nor Sir Richard Morrison +(1767-1849) and his son William (1794-1838), much of whose work +remains to testify to their skill and ingenuity.</p> + +<p>Ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland is indebted to Patrick Byrne +(fl. 1840), James J. McCarthy (d. 1882), J.B. Keane (d. 1859), and +James Murray (1831-1863), for many well designed churches and chapels +throughout Ireland; but the great names in modern Irish architecture +are those of Benjamin Woodward (1815-1861), whose premature death was +a serious loss to Irish art; Sir Thomas Deane (1792-1871); and his +son, Sir Thomas Newenham Deane (1828-1899). The elder Deane was, with +Woodward, the architect of the Oxford Museum and of the splendid +Engineering Hall of Trinity College, Dublin, buildings which have +elicited enthusiastic praise from John Ruskin and other eminent +critics. Deserving of respectful mention, too, to come down to our own +days, are Sir Thomas Drew (1838-1910) and William H. Lynn, who is +still living.</p> + +<p>In sculpture, again, Ireland has done memorable work. In the +eighteenth century she gave us admirable craftsmen like Edward Smyth +(1749-1812), John Hickey (1756-1795), and Christopher Hewitson (fl. +1772-1794), whose dignified monument of Bishop Baldwin is one of the +most distinguished pieces of sculpture in Trinity College, Dublin. But +it was not till the appearance of a later group of sculptors, +including John Hogan (1800-1858), John Edward Carew (1785-1868), John +Henry Foley, R.A. (1818-1874), and Patrick MacDowell, R.A. +(1799-1870), that Irish sculpture obtained more than local renown. +Fortunately, most of the best work of Hogan and Foley remains in +Ireland; that of Carew and MacDowell is chiefly to be found in the +Houses of Parliament and other institutions in London. The +incomparable "Goldsmith," "Burke," "Grattan," and other statues by +Foley, together with an almost complete collection of casts of his +other works, are in his native country. Hogan is represented in Dublin +by his "Thomas Davis" and his "Dead Christ," to name but two of his +principal works. The names at least of James Heffernan (1785-1847), of +John Edward Jones (1806-1872), of Terence Farrell (1798-1876), of +Samuel F. Lynn (1834-1876), and perhaps of Christopher Moore +(1790-1863), an excellent sculptor of busts, may be set down here. Sir +Thomas Farrell (1827-1900) and the living sculptors, John Hughes, +Oliver Sheppard, and Albert Bruce Joy, are responsible for some of the +more admirable of the public monuments of Dublin. It is much to be +deplored that of the work of one of the greatest of Dublin-born +artists, Augustus Saint Gaudens, we have only one example—the +statue of Parnell. Ireland may surely claim him as one of her most +gifted sons. And perhaps a word might be said in this place of some of +the other Irishmen who made their home in America: of Hoban the +architect who designed the White House at Washington, modelling it +after Leinster House in Dublin; of painters like Charles Ingham, W.G. +Wall, William Magrath, the Morans, James Hamilton, and Thomas +Hovenden; and of sculptors like John Donoghue, John Flanagan, Andrew +O'Connor, John F. Kelly, Jerome Connor, John J. Boyle, and Martin +Milmore. But they belong rather to the history of American art than to +that of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Before leaving the subject of Irish sculpture, the work of the +medallists, an allied branch of the art in which Irishmen did much +valued work, should not be overlooked. The medals of William Mossop +(1751-1805), of his son, William Stephen Mossop (1788-1827), and of +John Woodhouse (1835-1892), to mention only three of its chief +representatives in Ireland, are greatly prized by collectors.</p> + +<p>Most modern Irish art of high importance has been largely produced +out of Ireland, which has been perforce abandoned by those artists who +have learned how little encouragement is to be met with at home. One +can blame neither the artist nor the Irish public for this unfortunate +result; there is sufficient reason in the political and economic +condition of Ireland since the Union to explain the fact. But for this +cause men like Daniel Maclise, R.A. (1806-1870), William Mulready, +R.A. (1786-1863), Francis Danby, A.R.A. (1793-1861), and Alfred +Elmore, R.A. (1815-1881), might have endeavored to emulate the spirit +of James O'Connor (1792-1841), the landscapist, Richard Rothwell +(1800-1868), a charming subject painter, and Sir Frederic W. Burton +(1816-1900), one of the most distinguished artists of his time, who at +least spent some of their active working career in their native land. +The same words apply to artists who succeeded in other branches of the +profession, men like John Doyle (1797-1868), a caricaturist with all +the power, without the coarseness, of his predecessors; his son, +Richard Doyle (1824-1883), a refined and delicate artist; John Leech +(1817-1864), the humorist, a member of an Irish Catholic family; Paul +Gray (1842-1866), who died before his powers had fully matured; and +Matthew James Lawless (1837-1864), who also died too early. William +Collins, R.A. (1788-1847) and Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. (1793-1867), +both eminent representatives of English art, though of Irish +extraction, more properly belong to England than to Ireland.</p> + +<p>Not discouraged by the melancholy history of many gifted Irish +artists, Ireland still produces men who are not unworthy of +association with the best who have gone before. Our most recent losses +have been heavy—notably those of Walter F. Osborne (1859-1903) +and Patrick Vincent Duffy (1832-1909), but we still have artists of +genius in the persons of Nathaniel Hone, a direct descendant of his +famous namesake; John Butler Yeats; John Lavery, A.R.A.; and William +Orpen, A.R.A. Many other names might be given, but already this +attempt at a survey suffers by its enumeration of artists, who, +however, could hardly be neglected in such a record.</p> + +<p>Crowded as the list may be, it is a careful selection, and it +demonstrates that, notwithstanding all the disadvantages under which +Ireland suffers, the country has an almost unlimited capacity for fine +achievement, and that, with prosperity and contentment, she may be +expected to rival the most illustrious of art centres. It is only +within living memory that any attempt has been made to direct the +known artistic skill of the Irish people to industrial effort. But the +remarkable success achieved in the modern designs for Irish lace in +the English art competitions is an instance of what might be done +generally in the applied arts. Though they are in their infancy, the +new carpet and stained glass industries in Ireland also hold out +considerable hope for the future. But one can only barely indicate +what has been and might be done in the furtherance of Irish art. If we +only had under one roof a judiciously made collection of all the best +work done by Irish artists of all styles and periods, it would more +eloquently justify our claim than endless columns of praise.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Anthony Pasquin [John Williams]: History of Professors of Painting +in Ireland (1795); T.J. Mulvany: Life of James Gandon; John O'Keeffe: +Reminiscences, vol. I; Taft: American Sculpture; W.G. Strickland: +Dictionary of Irish Artists (2 vols., 1913).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T13"></a>IRELAND AT PLAY</h2> +<h4>By THOMAS E. HEALY,<br> +<i>Editor of "Sport," Dublin</i>.</h4> + +<p>On the face of the earth there is no nation in which the love of +clean and wholesome sport is more strongly developed than in the +Irish. Against us it cannot be urged that we take our pleasures sadly. +We enter into them with entire self-abandon, whole-hearted enthusiasm, +and genuine exuberance of spirit. There is nothing counterfeit about +the Irishman in his play. His one keen desire is to win, be the +contest what it may; and towards the achievement of that end he will +strain nerve and muscle even to the point of utter exhaustion. And how +the onlookers applaud at the spectacle of a desperately contested +race, whether between horses, men, motorcars, bicycles, or boats, or +of a match between football, hurling, or cricket teams! It matters not +which horse, man, car, cycle, boat, or team is successful: the sport +is the thing that counts; the strenuousness of the contest is what +stimulates and evokes the rapturous applause. At such a moment it is +good to be alive. Scenes similar to those hinted at may be witnessed +on any sports-field or racetrack in our dear little Emerald Isle +almost any day of the year. All is good fellowship; all is in the +cause of sport.</p> + +<p>No one can question that in some departments of horse-racing +Ireland is today supreme. The Irish devotion to the horse is of no +recent growth. Everybody knows how, in the dim and distant days when +King Conor macNessa ruled at Emain, the war-steeds of the Ultonians +neighed loudly in their stalls on the first dramatic appearance of +Cuchulainn of Muirthemne at the northern court. Cuchulainn's own two +steeds, Liath Macha, "the Roan of Macha", and Dub Sainglenn, "Black +Sanglan", are celebrated in story and song:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>Never hoofs like them shall ring,</p> +<p>Rapid as the winds of spring.</p> +</div> + +<p>To read of the performances of Cuchulainn and his war-horses and +his charioteer and friend, Laeg macRiangahra, at the famous battle of +Rosnaree, and again at the last fight between the Red Branch Knights +and the forces of Queen Medb of Connacht, does truly, in the words +used by Sir Philip Sidney in another connection, stir the heart like +the sound of a trumpet.</p> + +<p>As time went on, the Irish war-horse became more and more famous, +and always carried his rider in gallant style. Stout was the steed +that, bestridden by Godfrey O'Donnell at the battle of Credan-Kille, +withstood the shock of Lord Maurice Fitzgerald's desperate onslaught, +and by his steadiness enabled the Tyrconnell chieftain to strike +senseless and unhorse his fierce Norman foe. More celebrated still was +the high-spirited animal which Art MacMurrogh rode in 1399 to his +ineffectual parley with King Richard the Second's representative, the +Earl of Gloucester. The French chronicler who was a witness of that +historic scene tells us that a horse more exquisitely beautiful, more +marvellously fleet, he had never seen. "In coming down," he says, "it +galloped so hard that, in my opinion, I never saw hare, deer, sheep, +or any other animal, I declare to you for a certainty, run with such +speed as it did." Edmund Spenser, the poet of <i>The Faerie +Queene</i>, writing in 1596, bears this striking testimony to the +Irish horse-soldier and inferentially to the Irish horse: "I have +hearde some greate warriours say, that, in all the services which they +had seene abroade in forrayne countreys, they never sawe a more comely +horseman than the Irish man, nor that cometh on more bravely in his +charge." The feats performed at the Battle of the Boyne, in 1690, by +the Irish horse-soldiers under Hamilton and Berwick were really +wonderful, and well-nigh turned disaster into victory on that +memorable day which decided the fate of nations as well as of +dynasties. And surely those were fleet and stout-hearted steeds that, +on August 12, 1690, carried Sarsfield and his chosen five hundred on +their dare-devil midnight ride from the Keeper Hills to Ballyneety, +where in the dim morning twilight they captured and destroyed William +of Orange's wonderful siege-train, and thereby heartened the defenders +of beleaguered Limerick.</p> + +<p>Writing in 1809, Lawrence, in his <i>History and Delineation of the +Horse</i>, said: "From Ireland alone we import [into England] many +saddle horses, as many perhaps as 1,500 in a year; upwards in some +years. The Irish are the highest and steadiest leapers in the world. +Ireland has bred some good racers, and the generality of Irish horses +are, it appears, warmer tempered than our own; and, to use the +expression, sharper and more frigate-built."</p> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at therefore if in such a country there +developed an ardent love of the noble sport of horse-racing. The +Curragh of Kildare, the long-standing headquarters of the Irish Turf +Club, was celebrated far back in the eighteenth century as the venue +of some great equine contests; and to this day, with its five +important fixtures every year, it still holds pride of place. There +are numerous other race-courses all over the country, from +Punchestown, Leopardstown, Phoenix Park, and Baldoyle in the east to +Galway in the west, and from The Maze in the north to rebel Cork in +the south. Horse-racing has not inappropriately been termed the +national pastime of Ireland. The number of people now giving their +attention to it has called for a notable increase in the number of +race-meetings, and stake-money is being put up on a more generous +scale than at any previous time in the history of the sport. For +example, the Irish Derby, run at the Curragh, was in 1914 worth +£2,500; and there are besides several stakes of £1,500 and +£1,000. The result of this forward policy is that increasing +numbers come to our race-meetings and that the turf has never been +more popular than it is today. Men and women of wealth and position +find in the national pastime a pleasant method of employing their +leisure, and in expending their surplus wealth in its pursuit and in +the raising of horses of the highest class they realize that they +confer a real benefit on the country.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, now universally known that Ireland has an +international reputation as a country eminently fitted for +horse-breeding. If proof were needed, it would be found in the +extensive purchases effected by English, French, Italian, German, +Russian, and American buyers at the great Dublin Horse Show held in +August every year. Horses bought in Ireland have seldom failed to +realize their promise. The English classic races and many of the +principal handicaps on the flat have been often won by Irish-bred +horses, such as Galtee More, Ard Patrick, Orby, Kilwarlin, Barcaldine, +Umpire, Master Kildare, Kilsallaghan, Bendigo, Philomel, The Rejected, +Comedy, Winkfield's Pride, Bellevin, Royal Flush, Victor Wild, +Bachelor's Button, Irish Ivy, and Hackler's Pride. If only a few of +the star performers are here set down, it is not from lack of means to +continue, but merely from a desire to avoid the compilation of a mere +string of names. In France, too, the Irish racer has made his mark. It +is, however, in the four-and-a-half miles' Liverpool Grand National +Steeplechase, the greatest cross-country race in the world, the +supreme test of the leaper, galloper, and stayer, that Irish-bred +horses have made perhaps the most wonderful record. The list of +winners of that great event demonstrates in an unmistakable manner +that we are second to none in the art of breeding steeplechase horses. +Among many other noted Irish-bred winners of this race there stand +boldly forth the names of The Lamb, Empress, Woodbrook, Frigate, Come +Away, Cloister, Wild Man from Borneo, and Manifesto. In fact, it is +the exception when another than an Irish-bred horse annexes the blue +riband of steeplechasing.</p> + +<p>Closely allied to horse-racing is fox-hunting, and fox-hunting, as +well as the hunting of the stag and of the hare, has flourished +exceedingly in Ireland for a long time past. A great deal of needed +employment is one of the results. Dogs are specially bred and trained +for each of these branches of sport. Irish foxhounds, staghounds, +harriers, and beagles have a high reputation. More native to the soil, +and so interwoven with the history of the country that it is often +used as one of its symbols, is the Irish wolfhound. This is probably +the animal to which Aurelius Symmachus, a Roman consul in Britain, +referred when, writing to his brother in Ireland in A.D. 391, he +acknowledged the receipt of seven Irish hounds. The wolfhound played a +sinister part in the Irish history of the eighteenth century, for, as +Davis says in his poem, "The Penal Days":</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="p">Their dogs were taught alike to run</p> +<p class="p">Upon the scent of wolf and friar.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Irish wolfhound is now very scarce, and a genuine specimen is a +valued and highly coveted possession. The greyhound, too, figures +prominently in present-day sport, and in many parts of the country are +held coursing meetings, which frequently result in several spirited +contests. A famous Irish greyhound was Lord Lurgan's black and white +dog, Master McGrath. Master McGrath achieved the rare distinction of +winning the Waterloo Cup three times, in 1868, 1869, and 1871. When it +is remembered that the Waterloo Cup is to coursing what the Liverpool +Grand National is to steeplechasing, or the Epsom Derby to flat +racing, the merit of this triple performance will at once be +apparent.</p> + +<p>Compared with the sports in which horse and hound participate, all +other outdoor pastimes in Ireland take rather a minor place. Still, +the Irishman's love of sport is diversified. Few there are who have +not many inclinations, and as a nation our taste in sport is catholic. +We take part in nearly every pastime; in many we excel. The prize ring +has fallen from its high estate, nor is it the intention here to try +to cast any glamour over it. The subject is introduced, in a passing +way, for the sole purpose of showing that, in what at least used to be +the manly art of self-defense, Ireland in days gone by as well as at +the present time has more than held her own. The most conspicuous of +the representatives of her race in this department are perhaps Heenan, +Ryan, Sullivan, Corbett, Maher, McAuliffe, McFarland, and McGoorty. +There is one other prize-fighter, Dan Donnelly by name, who became a +sort of national hero, of whom all Irishmen of his day were not a +little proud, because he laid the English champion low, and whose +performance, now haloed by the antiquity of more than a hundred years, +we may with equanimity, as without offense, contemplate, with perhaps +a sigh for the good old times. The famous encounter between Donnelly +and Cooper took place on the Curragh, and after eleven rounds of +scientific boxing Donnelly knocked his opponent over the ropes and won +the world's championship for the Emerald Isle. The spot where the +battle came off has ever since been known as Donnelly's Hollow, and a +neat monument there erected commemorates the Dublin man's pluck and +skill. A ballad recounting the incidents of the fight and, as ballads +go, not badly composed, had a wonderful vogue, and was sung at fair +and market and other meeting place within the memory of men who are +not now more than middle-aged.</p> + +<p>A search in other domains of sport will be by no means barren of +results. Take running, for instance. Who has not heard of the wondrous +little Thomas Conneff from the short-grass county of Kildare? Who does +not know of his brilliant performances on the track? We in Ireland, +who had seen him defeat Carter, the great Canadian, over the four-mile +course at Ballsbridge one summer's eve now nearly twenty golden years +ago, knew his worth before he crossed the broad Atlantic to show to +thousands of admiring spectators in America that Ireland was the +breeder of fleet-footed sons, who lacked neither the courage, nor the +thews and sinews, nor the staying power, to carry them at high speed +over any distance of ground. May the earth lie light on Conneff, for +in a small body he had a great heart! Then there was the mighty +runner, James J. Daly, a true hero from Galway, the idol of the crowd +in his native land as well as in the United States. Daly was the +champion long distance cross-country runner of his day at home, and he +showed before various nationalities in the Greater Ireland beyond the +seas that he could successfully compete with the best from all +countries.</p> + +<p>In high jumping, Patrick Davin, P. Leahy, and Peter O'Connor were +for long in the foremost rank; Daniel Ahearne was famous for his +hop-step-and-jump performance; Maurice Davin, Matthew McGrath, and +Patrick Ryan have, each in his own day, thrown the 16-pound hammer to +record distance; in shot-putting there are Sheridan, Horgan, John +Flanagan, and others bearing true Irish names, who are right in front; +and before their time we had a redoubted champion in W.J.M. Barry. All +previous performances in the shot-putting line have, however, been +recently eclipsed by Patrick J. McDonald, of the Irish-American Club, +who at Celtic Park, Long Island, on May 30, 1914, made a new world's +record by putting the 18-pound shot 46 feet 2-3/4 inches. The climax +of achievement was reached when T.F. Kiely won the all-round +championship of the world at New York. The distinguished part taken by +Irishmen or sons of Irishmen in all departments of the Olympic games +is so recent and so well known as to call for no comment. Ireland is +far indeed from being degenerate in her athletes.</p> + +<p>In international strife with England, Scotland, Wales, and France +at Rugby football, Ireland has likewise won her spurs. She has never +been beaten by the representatives of Gaul; and though for long enough +she had invariably to succumb in competition with the other three +countries, such is not the case nowadays, nor has it been for many +years past. The Irish team has ever to be reckoned with. In +Association football, too, Ireland is coming into her own. This branch +of the game has developed enormously within a comparatively few +seasons. The people flock in their thousands to witness matches for +the principal league contests or cup ties. But the greatest crowds of +all go to see Gaelic football, the national game; and to hurling, also +distinctively Irish, they foregather in serried masses. Since the +Gaelic Athletic Association was founded both football and hurling have +prospered exceedingly. They are essentially popular forms of sport, +and the muscular manhood of city and country finds in them a natural +outlet for their characteristic Celtic vigor. The Gaelic Association +has fostered and developed these sports, and has organized them on so +sound a basis that interest in them is not confined to any particular +district but spreads throughout the length and breadth of Ireland.</p> + +<p>When the America Cup was to be challenged for, into the breach +stepped the Earl of Dunraven and flung his gage to the holders of the +trophy. This distinguished Irish nobleman furnished a contender in his +Valkyrie II. in the fall of 1893, and his patriotic spirit in doing so +stirred the sport-loving Irish nation to the greatest enthusiasm. His +lordship was not successful, but he was not disheartened. He tried +again with Valkyrie III., but again he was only second best, for, +though his yacht sailed to victory in home waters, she proved unequal +to the task of lifting the cup. No Englishman was prepared to tempt +fortune, but not so that sterling Irishman, Sir Thomas Lipton, who, +win or lose, would not have it laid to the charge of Ireland that an +attempt should not be made. His Shamrock, Shamrock II., and Shamrock +III.—surely a deep sense of patriotism prompted nomenclature +such as that—each in succession went down to defeat; but Sir +Thomas has not done yet. Like King Bruce, he is going to try again, +and Shamrock IV. is to do battle with the best that America can range +against her. All honor to Lord Dunraven and to Sir Thomas Lipton for +their persistent efforts to engage in generous rivalry with the +yachtsmen across the sea.</p> + +<p>Lawn-tennis, cricket, and golf we play, and play well; to rowing +many of us are enthusiastically devoted; and at handball our young +men—and some not so young—are signally expert. The +champion handball player has always been of Irish blood. Baseball we +invented—and called it rounders. It is significant that the +great American ball game is still played according to a code which is +scarcely modified from that which may be seen in force any summer day +on an Irish school field or village green. Perhaps something of +hereditary instinct is to be traced in the fact that many of the best +exponents of American baseball are the bearers of fine old Irish +names.</p> + +<p>This brief and cursory review of Ireland at Play must now conclude. +It is scarcely more than a glossary, and not a complete one at that. +It may, however, serve to show that Ireland's record in sport, like +her record in so many other things set forth in this book, is great +and glorious enough to warrant the insertion of this short chapter +among those which tell of old achievements and feats of high +emprize.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Racing—Irish Racing Calendar: 1790-1914, 124 vols. (Dublin, +Brindley and Son); The Racing Calendar: 1774-1914 (London, Weatherby +and Sons). Breeding—The General Stud Book: 1908-1913, 22 vols. +(London, Weatherby and Sons). Racing and Breeding Generally—Cox: +Notes on the History of the Irish Horse (Dublin, 1897). Boxing and +Athletics—Files of <i>Sport</i> and <i>Freeman's Journal</i>.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T14"></a>THE FIGHTING RACE</h2> +<h4>By JOSEPH I.C. CLARKE,<br> +<i>President, American Irish Historical Society</i>.</h4> + +<h4>I.—THE FIGHTING RACE AT HOME.</h4> + +<p>"War was the ruling passion of this people," says MacGeoghegan, +meaning the Milesians who were the latest of the peoples that overran +ancient Ireland up to the coming of Christ. How many races had +preceded them remains an enigma of history not profitable to examine +here, but whoever they were, or in what succession they arrived, they +must, like all migrating people, have been prepared to establish +themselves at the point of the spear and the edge of the sword. Two +races certainly were mingled in the ancient Irish, the fair or auburn +haired with blue eyes, and the dark haired with eyes of gray or brown. +The Milesians appear to have reached Ireland through Spain. They came +swiftly to power, more than a thousand years before our Lord, and +divided the country into four provinces or kingdoms, with an +<i>ard-ri</i>, or high-king, ruling all in a loose way as to service, +taxes, and allegiance. The economic life was almost entirely pastoral. +Riches were counted in herds of cattle. "Robustness of frame, +vehemence of passion, elevated imagination," Dr. Leland says, +signalized this people. Robust, they became athletic and vigorous and +excelled in the use of deadly weapons; passionate, they easily went +from litigation to blows; imaginative, they leaned toward poetry and +song and were strong for whatever religion they practised. The latter +was a polytheism brought close to the people through the Druids. Some +stone weapons were doubtless still used; they had also brazen or +bronze swords, and spears, axes, and maces of various alloys of copper +and tin. Socially they remained tribal. Heads of tribes were petty +kings, each with his stronghold of a primitive character, each with +his tribal warriors, bards, harpers, and druids, and the whole male +population more or less ready to take part in war.</p> + +<p>The great heroes whose names have come down to us, such as Finn, +son of Cumhal, and Cuchulainn, were reared in a school of arms. +Bravery was the sign of true manhood. A law of chivalry moderated the +excess of combat. A trained militia, the Fianna, gave character to an +era; the Knights of the Red Branch were the distinguishing order of +chevaliers. The songs of the bards were songs of battle; the great +Irish epic of antiquity was the Táin Bó Cúalnge, +or Cooley Cattle-raid, and it is full of combats and feats of strength +and prowess. High character meant high pride, always ready to give +account of itself and strike for its ideals: "Irritable and bold", as +one historian has it. They were jealous and quick to anger, but +light-hearted laughter came easily to the lips of the ancient Irish. +They worked cheerfully, prayed fervently to their gods, loved their +women and children devotedly, clung passionately to their clan, and +fought at the call with alacrity.</p> + +<p>Nothing, it will be seen, could be further from the minds of such a +people than submission to what they deemed injustice. The habit of a +proud freedom was ingrained. Their little island of 32,000 square +miles in the Atlantic Ocean, the outpost of Europe, lay isolated save +for occasional forays to and from the coasts of Scotland and England. +The Roman invasions of western Europe never reached it. England the +Romans overran, but never Scotland or Ireland. Self-contained, Ireland +developed a civilization peculiarly its own, the product of an +intense, imaginative, fighting race. War was not constant among them +by any means, and occupied only small portions of the island at a +time, but, since the bards' best work was war songs and war histories, +with much braggadocio doubtless intermixed, a different impression +might prevail. Half of their kings may have been killed in broil or +battle, and yet great wars were few. If is undoubted that Scotic, that +is, Irish, invasion and immigration peopled the western shores of +Scotland and gave a name to the country. In the first centuries of the +Christian era they were the men who with the Picts fought the Romans +at the wall of Severus. The Britons, it will be remembered, enervated +by Roman dominance, had failed to defend their "border" when Rome +first withdrew her legions.</p> + +<p>At this time, too, began the first appearance of Ireland as a power +on the sea. In the fourth century the high-king, Niall of the +Hostages, commanding a large fleet of war galleys, invaded Scotland, +ravaged the English coasts, and conquered Armorica (Brittany), +penetrating as far as the banks of the Loire, where, according to the +legend, he was slain by an arrow shot by one of his own men. One of +the captives he brought from abroad on one of his early expeditions +was a youth named Patrick, afterwards to be the Apostle of Ireland. +Niall's nephew, Dathi, also ard-ri, was a great sea king. He invaded +England, crossed to Gaul, and marched as far as the Alps, where he was +killed by lightning. He was the last pagan king of Ireland. In perhaps +a score of years after the death of Dathi, all Ireland had been +converted to Christianity, and its old religion of a thousand years +buried so deep that scholars find the greatest difficulty in +recovering anything about it. This conservative, obstinate, jealous +people overturned its pagan altars in a night, and, ever since, has +never put into anything else the devotion, soul and body, of its +sacrifices for religion. Christianity profoundly modified Irish life, +softened manners, and stimulated learning. Not that the fighting +propensities were obliterated. There were indeed many long and +peaceful reigns, but the historians record neat little wars, seductive +forays and "hostings", to use the new-old word, to the heart's +content. The Irish character remained fixed in its essentials, but, +under the influence of religious enthusiasm, Ireland progressed and +prospered in the arts of peace. It would undoubtedly have shared the +full progress of western Europe from this time on, but for its +insularity. Hitherto its protection, it was now to be its downfall. A +hostile power was growing of which it knew nothing.</p> + +<p>The Norsemen—the hardy vikings of Norway, Sweden, and +Denmark—had become a nation of pirates. Undaunted fighters and +able mariners, they built their shapely long ships and galleys of the +northern pine and oak, and swept hardily down on the coasts of +England, Ireland, France, Spain, and Italy, and the lands of the +Levant, surprising, massacring, plundering. In France (Normandy), in +England, and lastly in Ireland they planted colonies. Their greatest +success was in England, which they conquered, Canute becoming king. +Their greatest battles and final defeat were in Ireland. From the end +of the eighth century to the beginning of the eleventh the four shores +of Erin were attacked in turn, and sometimes all together, by +successive fleets of the Norsemen. The waters that had been Ireland's +protection now became the high roads of the invaders. By the river +Shannon they pushed their conquests into the heart of the country. +Dublin Bay, Waterford Harbor, Belfast Lough, and the Cove of Cork +offered shelter to their vessels. They established themselves in +Dublin and raided the country around. Churches and monasteries were +sacked and burned. To the end these Norsemen were robbers rather than +settlers. To these onslaughts by the myriad wasps of the northern +seas, again and again renewed, the Irish responded manfully. In 812 +they drove off the invaders with great slaughter, only to find fresh +hordes descending a year or two later. In the tenth century, +Turgesius, the Danish leader, called himself monarch of Ireland, but +he was driven out by the Irish king, Malachi. The great effort which +really broke the Danish power forever in Ireland was at the battle of +Clontarf, on Dublin Bay, Good Friday, 1014, when King Brian Boru, at +the head of 30,000 men, utterly defeated the Danes of Dublin and the +Danes of oversea. Fragments of the Northmen remained all over Ireland, +but henceforth they gradually merged with the Irish people, adding a +notable element to it's blood. One of the most grievous chapters of +Irish history, the period of Norse invasion, literally shines with +Irish valor and tenacity, undimmed through six fighting generations. +As Plowden says:</p> + +<p>"Ireland stands conspicuous among the nations of the universe, a +solitary instance in which neither the destructive hand of time, nor +the devastating arm of oppression, nor the widest variety of changes +in the political system of government could alter or subdue, much less +wholly extinguish, the national genius, spirit, and character of its +inhabitants." This is true not only of the Danish wars which ended +nine hundred years ago, but of many a dreadful century since and to +this very day.</p> + +<p>Now followed a troubled period, Ireland weakened by loss of blood +and treasure, its government failing of authority through the defects +of its virtues. It was inevitable, sooner or later, that England, as +it became consolidated after its conquest by William the Norman, +should turn greedy eyes on the fair land across the Irish sea. It was +in 1169 that "Strongbow"—Richard, earl of Pembroke—came +from England at the invitation of a discontented Irish chieftain and +began the conquest of Ireland. Three years later came Henry II. with +more troops and a Papal bull. After a campaign in Leinster, he set +himself up as overlord of Ireland, and then returned to London. It was +the beginning only. An English Lord Deputy ruled the "Pale", or +portion of Ireland that England held more or less securely, and from +that vantage ground made spasmodic war upon the rest of Ireland, and +was forever warred on, in large attacks and small, by Irish +chieftains.</p> + +<p>The Irish were the fighting race now if ever. Without hope of +outside assistance, facing a foe ever reinforced from a stronger, +richer, more fully organized country, nothing but their stubborn +character and their fighting genius kept them in the field. And +century out and century in, they stayed, holding back the foreign foe +four hundred years. It is worthy of note that it was the Norman +English, racial cousins, as it were, of the Norsemen, who first +wrought at the English conquest of Ireland. When some of these were +seated in Irish places of pride, when a Butler was made Earl of Ormond +and a Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, it was soon seen that they were +merging rapidly in the Irish mass, becoming, as it was said, "more +Irish than the Irish themselves." Many were the individual heroic +efforts to strike down the English power. Here and there small Irish +chiefs accepted the English rule, offsetting the Norman Irish families +who at times were "loyal" and at times "rebel." The state of war +became continuous and internecine, but three-fourths of Ireland +remained unconquered. The idea of a united Ireland against England +had, however, been lost except in a few exalted and a few desperate +breasts. A gleam of hope came in 1316, when, two years after the great +defeat of England by the Scotch under Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, +Edward, the victor-king's brother, came at the invitation of the +northern Irish to Ireland with 6,000 Scots, landing near +Carrickfergus. He was proclaimed king of Ireland by the Irish who +joined him. Battle after battle was won by the allies. Edward was a +brilliant soldier, lacking, however, the prudence of his great +brother, Robert. The story of his two years of fighting, ravaging, and +slaying, is hard at this distance to reconcile with intelligible +strategy. In the end, in 1318, the gallant Scot fell in battle near +Dundalk, losing at the same time two-thirds of his army. For two years +Scot and Irish had fought victoriously side by side. That is the fact +of moment that comes out of this dark period.</p> + +<p>The following century, like that which had gone before, was full of +fighting. In 1399, on Richard II.'s second visit to Ireland, he met +fierce opposition from the Irish septs. MacMorrough, fighting, +harassing the king's army from the shelter of the Wicklow woods, +fairly drove the king to Dublin. The sanguinary "Wars of the +Roses"—that thirty years' struggle for the crown of England +between the royal houses of York and Lancaster, 1455 to +1485—gave Ireland a long opportunity, which, however, she was +too weak to turn to advantage; but fighting between Irish and English +went on just the same, now in one province, now in another.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Henry VIII. a revolt against England started within +the Pale itself, when Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, known as Silken Thomas, +went before the Council in Dublin and publicly renounced his +allegiance. He took the field—a brave, striking figure—in +protest against the king's bad faith in dealing with his father, the +Earl of Kildare. At one time it looked as if the rebellion (it was the +first real Irish rebellion) would prosper. Lord Thomas made +combinations with Irish chieftains in the north and west, and was +victor in several engagements. He finally surrendered with assurances +of pardon, but, as in many similar cases, was treacherously sent a +prisoner to London, where he was executed.</p> + +<p>Queen Mary's reign was one of comparative quiet in Ireland. Her +policy towards the Catholics was held to be of good augury for +Ireland. The English garrison was reduced with impunity to 500 foot +and a few horse: but another and darker day came with Elizabeth. Her +coming to the throne, together with her fanatic devotion to the +Reformation and an equal hatred of the old religion and all who clung +to it, ushered in for Ireland two and a half centuries of almost +unbroken misfortune. You cannot make people over. Some may take their +opinions with their interest; others prefer to die rather than +surrender theirs, and glory in the sacrifice. The proclamations of +Elizabeth had no persuasion in them for the Irish. Her proscriptions +were only another English sword at Ireland's throat. The disdain of +the Irish maddened her. During her long reign one campaign after +another was launched against them. Always fresh soldier hordes came +pouring in under able commanders and marched forth from the Pale, +generally to return shattered and worn down by constant harrying, +sometimes utterly defeated with great slaughter. So of Henry Sidney's +campaign, and so of the ill-fated Essex. Ulster, the stronghold of the +O'Neills and the O'Donnells, remained unconquered down to the last +years of Elizabeth's reign, although most of the greater battles were +fought there. In Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and "Red" Hugh +O'Donnell, prince of Tyrconnell, Ireland had two really great soldiers +on her side. The bravery, generalship, prudence, and strategy of +O'Neill were worthy of all praise, and Red Hugh fell little short of +his great compatriot. In battle after battle for twenty years they +defeated the English with slaughter. Ireland, if more and more +devastated by campaigns and forays, became the grave of tens of +thousands of English soldiers and scores of high reputations. Writing +from Cork, the Earl of Essex, after a disastrous march through +Leinster and Munster, says:</p> + +<p>"I am confined in Cork ... but still I have been unsuccessful; my +undertakings have been attended with misfortune.... The Irish are +stronger and handle their arms with more skill than our people; they +differ from us also in point of discipline. They likewise avoid +pitched battles where order must be observed, and prefer skirmishes +and petty warfare ... and are obstinately opposed to the English +government."</p> + +<p>They did not like attacking or defending fortified places, he also +believed. It was only his experience. The campaigns of Shane O'Neill, +a bold but ill-balanced warrior, were full of such attacks, but one +potent cause for Irish reluctance to make sieges a strong point of +their strategy was that the strongest fortresses were on the sea. An +inexhaustible, powerful enemy who held the sea was not in the end to +be denied on sea or land, but the Irish in stubborn despair or supreme +indifference to fate fought on. Religious rancor was added to racial +hate. Most of the English settlers, or "garrison," as they came to be +called, had become Protestants at the royal order. Ruin perched upon +Ireland's hills and made a wilderness of her fertile valleys. The +Irish chieftains with their faithful followers moved from place to +place in woods and hollows of the hills. English colonists were +settled on confiscated lands, and were harried by those who had been +driven from their homes. It was war among graves. At last O'Neill made +composition with the government when all was lost in the field, but +the passionate Irish resolve never to submit still stalked like a +ghost, as if it could not perish.</p> + +<p>When Elizabeth died it was thought that better things were coming +to Ireland with James I., the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. Nothing of +the kind. That curiously minded creature at once made an ingenuous +proclamation:</p> + +<p>"Whereas his Majesty was informed that his subjects of Ireland had +been deceived by <i>a false report that his Majesty was disposed to +allow them liberty of conscience</i> and the free choice of religion, +now, etc." Fresh "transplanting" of English and Scotch settlers on the +lands of the Irish was the gist of his answer to the "false reports." +So again the war of surprise, ambush, raid, and foray went on in a +hundred places at once, but the result was that the English power was +even more firmly seated than before.</p> + +<p>In the time of Charles I. there were terrible slaughters both of +Protestants and Catholics. Patriotism and loyalty as moving causes had +disappeared, but religion fiercely took their place. With Cromwell, +the religious persecution took on an apocalyptic note of massacre, but +the Irish were still showing that they were there with arms in their +hands. The names of Owen Roe O'Neill and his splendid victory, in +1646, at Benburb over the English and Scotch, where he slew more than +3,000 men, and of another Hugh O'Neill, who made such a brilliant +defense at Clonmel against Cromwell, shine brightly out of the +darkness. But Ireland, parcelled out among the victors, was always the +weaker after every campaign. Waves of war swept over her. She became +mixed up in the rivalries of the English royal families, religion +playing the most important part in the differences. It had armed Henry +and Elizabeth, James and Charles against her. It gave edge to +Cromwell's sword, and it led her into a great effort on behalf of +James II. When William of Orange crossed the Boyne, all that followed +for a century was symbolized. Athlone, Aughrim, Limerick, all places +of great and fierce contests, were decided against her. French support +of a kind had James, but not enough. Bravery and enthusiasm may win +battles, but they do not carry through great campaigns. Once again God +marched with the heaviest, best-fed, best-armed battalions. The great +Tyrone dying in exile at Rome, Red Hugh O'Donnell perishing in Spain +in the early days of the seventeenth century, were to prefigure the +fighting and dying of half a million Irish warriors on continental +soil for a hundred years after the fall of Limerick as the seventeenth +century neared its close.</p> + +<p>During that period the scattered bands of the Rapparees, half +patriots, half robbers, hiding in mountain fastnesses, dispersing, +reassembling, descending on the English estates for rapine or the +killing of "objectionables," represented the only armed resistance of +the Irish. It was generally futile although picturesque.</p> + +<p>After the close of the Revolutionary War in America, Ireland +received a new stimulation. The success of the patriots of the Irish +parliament under Grattan, backed as they were by 100,000 volunteers +and 130 pieces of cannon, in freeing Irish industry and commerce from +their trammels, evoked the utmost malignity in England. Ireland almost +at once sprang to prosperity, but it was destined to be short lived. A +great conspiracy, which did not at first show above the surface, was +set on foot to destroy the Irish parliament. This is not the place to +follow the sinister machinations of the English, save to note that +they forced both the Presbyterians and the Catholics of the north into +preparations for revolt. The Society of United Irishmen was formed, +and drew many of the brightest and most cultivated men in Ireland into +its councils. It numbered over 70,000 adherents in Ulster alone. The +government was alarmed, and began a systematic persecution of the +peasantry all over Ireland. English regiments were put at "free +quarters," that is, they forced themselves under order into the houses +and cabins of the people with demands for bed and board. The hapless +people were driven to fury. Brutal murders and barbarous tortures of +men and women by the soldiers, savage revenges by the peasantry, and +every form of violent crime all at once prevailed in the lately +peaceful valleys. Prosecutions of United Irishmen and executions were +many. It was all done deliberately to provoke revolt. In 1798 the +revolt came. In the greater part of Ulster and Munster the uprising +failed, but a great insurrection of the peasantry of Wexford shocked +the country. Poorly armed, utterly undisciplined, without munitions of +war, but 40,000 strong, they literally flung themselves pike in hand +on the English regiments, sweeping everything before them for a time. +Father John Murphy, a priest and patriot, was one of their leaders, +but Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey was soon their commander-in-chief. At one +time the "rebels" dominated the entire county save for a fort in the +harbor and a small town or two, but it was natural that the +commissariat should soon be in difficulties and their ammunition give +out. The British general, Lake, with an army of 20,000 men and a +moving column of 13,000, attacked the rebels on Vinegar Hill, and +although the fight was heroic and bloody while it lasted, it was soon +over and the British army was victorious. The rest was retreat, +dispersal, and widespread cruelties and burnings and a long succession +of murders. The "Boys of Wexford" funder great difficulties had given +a great account of themselves. Dark as was that page of history, it +has been a glowing lamp to Irish disaffection ever since. It is the +soul of the effort that counts, and the disasters do not discredit '98 +in Irish eyes.</p> + +<p>Voltaire, in his <i>Century of Louis XIV.</i>, made his reflection +on the Irish soldier out of his limited knowledge of the Williamite +war in Ireland. He says, "The Irish, whom we have seen such good +soldiers in France and Spain, have always fought poorly at home"! They +had not fought poorly at home. It took four hundred years of English +effort to complete, merely on its face, the conquest of Ireland, and +all of that long sweep of the sword of Time was a time of battle. The +Irish were fought with every appliance of war, backed by the riches of +a prospering, strongly organized country, and impelled persistently by +the greed of land and love of mastery; but there was not a mountain +pass in Ireland, not a square mile of plain, not a river-ford, scarce +a hill that had not been piled high with English dead in that four +hundred years at the hands of the Irish wielders of sword and spear +and pike.</p> + +<p>The Irish had not made their environment or their natures, and no +power on earth could change them. Over greater England had swept the +Romans, the Jutes, the Saxons, the Angles, the Norsemen, and the +Normans. All found lodgment and all went to the making of England. +Well, one might say, it had been for Ireland if she had developed that +assimilating power which made her successive conquerors in process of +time the feeders of her greatness, but the Irish would not and could +not. Instead, they developed the pride of race that no momentary +defeat could down. They became inured to battle and dreamt of battle +when the peace of an hour was given them. When the four kings of +Ireland were feasted in Dublin by King Richard II. of England, an +English chronicler remarked, "Never were men of ruder manners"; but +neither the silken array and golden glitter of Richard's peripatetic +court nor the brave display of his thousand knights and thirty +thousand archers filled them with longing for the one or fear of the +other. They went back to their Irish hills and plains and fastnesses +as obstinately Irish as ever.</p> + +<p>They fought well at home, if unfortunately, the wonder being that +they continued to fight. The heavens and the earth seemed combined +against them.</p> + +<h4>II.—THE FIGHTING RACE ABROAD.</h4> + +<p>We next see Irish soldiers fighting abroad. The blood they had shed +so freely for the Stuarts at the Boyne, at Athlone, at Aughrim, at +Limerick was in vain. The king of France, if he sent armies to +Ireland, demanded Irish troops in return. The transports that brought +the French regiments over in May, 1690, took back over five thousand +officers and men from Ireland, who formed the first Irish Brigade in +the service of France. This, remember, was before the battle of the +Boyne. The men were formed on their arrival in France into three +regiments, those of Mountcashel, O'Brien, and Dillon, named after +their commanders, and were sent to Savoy. The French aid to James in +Ireland helped best in giving confidence to the raw Irish levies, but +it was more than offset by the German troops brought over by William. +The weakness, indecision, or worse, of James before Derry, his +chicken-hearted failure to overwhelm Schomberg when he lay at his +mercy before the arrival of William, ruined his chances. Remember that +the Irish army, if defeated at the Boyne, was not broken, and was +strong enough, when pursued by William, to repulse him with 500 killed +and 1,000 wounded and to compel him to raise the siege of Limerick. +The dash and skill of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, backed by +Irish desperation, won the day. The French troops sailed home after +William's retreat. In the next year's campaign occurred the crowning +disasters of the war, but in any other country or with any other +people than the English the terms of capitulation at Limerick, which +were formulated by Ginkel and showed a soldier's respect for a brave +and still powerful foe, would have ushered in an era of peace.</p> + +<p>The Irish soldiers' distrust of the conquerors was shown in the +fact that, since the stipulations allowed the free departure of the +garrison with honors of war, 19,059 officers and men took service with +France, and sailed in October, 1691, on the French fleet, which by the +irony of fate had arrived in the Shannon too late, on the very day +after the signing of the treaty of Limerick. Never in the whole course +of the history of nations has more hideous treachery been shown than +in the immediate breaking of that treaty; and dearly has England paid +for it ever since, although, for the hundred years that followed, +Ireland sank to the very depths under the penal laws, with her trade +ruined, her lands stolen, her religion persecuted, and all education +and enlightenment forbidden by abominable, drastic laws.</p> + +<p>If, as has been computed, 450,000 Irish fought and died in the +service of France between 1690 and 1745, a further 30,000 are to be +added down to 1793. A French writer estimates the whole Irish +contingent at 750,000, but, for a roster of seekers of glory from an +impoverished people, the more reasonable half-million should surely +suffice.</p> + +<p>Long would be the story to follow the fighting fortunes of the +Irish Brigades. Officered by Irish gentlemen and drilled to +perfection, they soon came to hold in the French service the esteem +that later was given to Irish regiments in the service of England. +King Louis welcomed them heartily and paid them a higher wage than his +native soldiers. No duty was too arduous or too dangerous for the +Irish Brigades. Seldom were they left to rust in idleness. Europe was +a caldron of wars of high ambitions.</p> + +<p>The Irish regiments fought through the war in Flanders. At Landen, +July 29, 1693, the French under the duke of Luxembourg defeated the +English under William III. with a slaughter of 10,473 men, losing +8,000 men themselves. In the retreat, Ginkel, William's general in the +Irish campaign, was almost drowned in the river Greete. The Irish +Royal Regiment of Footguards, that of Dorrington, was the first corps +to break through the English intrenchments, its gallant leader, +Colonel Barrett, falling as he headed the charge. Here also was +stricken Lieutenant-Colonel Nugent of Sheldon's Irish Regiment. Here +also fell—saddest loss of all—Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of +Lucan, brave, resourceful, a true unfaltering-soldier and lover of his +country. The legend of his life blood flowing before his eyes and his +utterance, "Would it had been shed for Ireland", may and should be +true, although he lived three days after the battle. Would, indeed, it +had been shed for Ireland—after such a day!</p> + +<p>It was in 1703 that the celebrated defence of Cremona lifted Irish +renown to great heights throughout Europe. There were but 600 Irish +troopers all told in that long day's work, and from the break of day +till nightfall they held at bay Prince Eugene's army of 10,000 men. +The two battalions of Bourke and Dillon were surprised at early morn +to learn that the Austrians—and there were Irish officers among +them—were in the town. Major O'Mahony and his men ran from their +beds to the gates, and neither the foes without nor the foes within +could make them budge. Terribly they suffered under concentrated +attacks, but a withering fire from the Irish met every assault. It was +nightfall before relief came, and then the sons of Ireland who had +held Cremona for the French were acclaimed by all, but of their 600 +they had lost nearly 350. Small wonder that the honor list that day +was long. In Bourke's battalion the specially distinguished were +Captains Wauchop, Plunkett, Donnellan, MacAuliffe, Carrin, Power, +Nugent, and Ivers; in Dillon's, Major O'Mahony, Captains Dillon, +Lynch, MacDonough, and Magee, and Lieutenants Dillon and Gibbon, John +Bourke and Thomas Dillon. Major O'Mahony was sent to Paris to carry +the news of the victory to the king, who presented him with a purse of +1,000 louis d'or, a pension of 1,000 livres, and the brevet of +colonel.</p> + +<p>So the history proceeds, the Irish regiments lost in the array of +the French forces, but showing here and there a glint of charging +bayonets, captured trenches, and gushes of Irish blood. In 1703 the +brigade regiments fought in Italy and Germany under the Duc de +Vendome. We hear of the regiments of Berwick, Bourke, Dillon, Galmoy, +and Fitzgerald vigorously engaged. In Germany the story is of +Sheldon's Horse and two battalions of the regiments of Dorrington and +Clare. At the first battle of Blenheim, September 20, 1703, the +regiment of Clare lost one of its colors, rallied, charged with the +bayonet and recovered it, taking two colors from the enemy. This was a +French victory. Not so the great battle of Blenheim, August, 1704, +when Marlborough and Prince Eugene severely defeated the French and +Bavarians. Three Irish battalions shared in the disaster. In 1705 at +Cassano in Italy an Irish regiment, finding itself badly galled by +artillery fire from the opposite bank of the Adda, declared they could +stand it no longer, and thereupon jumped in, swam the river, and +captured the battery. In 1705 Colonel O'Mahony of Cremona fame +distinguished himself in Spain. In the next year at the battle of +Ramillies, in which Marlborough with the Dutch defeated the French +under Villeroi, Lord Clare's regiment captured the colors of the +English Churchill regiment and of the Scottish regiment in the Dutch +service. In the same year and the next, the Irish Brigade fought many +battles in Spain. One cannot pursue the details of the engagements. +Regiments ever decimated were ever recruited by the "Wild Geese" from +Ireland—the adventurous Catholic youth of the country who sought +congenial outlet for their love of adventure and glory. Many Irish +also joined the French army after deserting from the English forces in +Flanders.</p> + +<p>It was, however, at Fontenoy, May 11, 1745, that the Irish Brigade +rendered their most signal service to France. The English under the +Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., with 55,000 men including a +large German and Dutch auxiliary, met the French under Marshal Saxe, +and in the presence of the French king Louis XV., near Tournai in +Belgium. Saxe had 40,000 men in action and 24,000 around Tournai, +which town was the objective of the English advance. Among the troops +on the field were the six Irish regiments of Clare, Dillon, Bulkeley, +Roth, Berwick, and Lally, all under Charles O'Brien, Viscount Clare, +afterwards Marshal Thomond of France. After fierce cannonading on both +sides and a check to the allies on their right and left, a great +column of English veterans advanced on the French centre, breaking +through with sheer force. They had thus reached high ground when some +cannonading halted them. It was at this moment of gravest peril to the +French that the Irish regiments with unshotted guns charged headlong +up the slope on their ancient enemies, crying, "Remember Limerick and +British Faith!" The great English column, already roughly handled by +the cannon, broke and fled in wild disorder before that irresistible +onslaught, and France had won a priceless victory, but the six Irish +regiments lost one-third of their gallant men by a single volley as +they followed their steel into the English lines.</p> + +<p>When Charles Edward, the Stuart Pretender, landed in Scotland in +1745, he was followed by a small French force, including 500 Irishmen +from the Brigade. Colonel John O'Sullivan was much relied on by the +prince in his extraordinary campaign. Sir Thomas Sheridan also +distinguished himself. There were 475 Irish at the battle of Culloden, +that foredoomed defeat of the Stuart cause, and two days later a score +of Irish officers were among those who surrendered at Inverness.</p> + +<p>In Spain at the beginning of the 18th century there were hundreds +of Irish officers in the military service, and eight Irish regiments. +Among the officers were thirteen Kellys, thirteen Burkes, and four +Sheas. It seemed that Ireland had soldiers for the world. Don +Patricio, Don Miguel, Don Carlos, Don Tadeo took the place of Patrick, +Michael, Charles, and Thadeus. O'Hart gives a list of sixty +descendants of the "Wild Geese" in places of honor in Spain. General +Prim was a descendant of the Princes of Inisnage in Kilkenny. An +O'Donnell was Duke of Tetuan and field marshal of Spain. Ambrose +O'Higgins, born in county Meath, Ireland, was the foremost Spanish +soldier in Chile and Peru; Admiral Patricio Lynch was one of its most +distinguished sailors; and James McKenna its greatest military +engineer. The son of O'Higgins was foremost among those who fought for +Chilean independence and gained it, and one of his ablest lieutenants +was Colonel Charles Patrick O'Madden of Maryland.</p> + +<p>In Austria the Irish soldiers were particularly welcome. They count +forty-one field-marshals, major-generals, generals of cavalry, and +masters of ordnance of Irish birth in the Austrian service. +O'Callaghan relates that on March 17, 1766, His Excellency Count +Mahony (son of the O'Mahony of Cremona), ambassador from Spain to the +court of Vienna, gave a grand entertainment in honor of St. Patrick, +to which he invited all persons of condition who were of Irish +descent. Among many others, there were present Count Lacy, President +of the Council at War, the generals O'Donnell, McGuire, O'Kelly, +Browne, Plunkett, and MacElligot, four chiefs of the Grand Cross, two +governors, several knights military, six staff officers, and four +privy councillors, with the principal officers of State. All wore +Patrick's crosses in honor of the Irish nation, as did the whole court +that day. Emperor Francis I. said: "The more Irish officers in the +Austrian service the better; bravery will not be wanting; our troops +will always be well disciplined." The Austrian O'Reillys and Taaffes +were famous. It was the dragoon regiment of Count O'Reilly that by a +splendid charge saved the remnant of the Austrian army at +Austerlitz.</p> + +<p>In the American war of the Revolution, General Charles Geoghegan of +the Irish Brigade made the campaigns of Rochambeau and Lafayette. He +received the order of the Cincinnati from Washington and was ever +proud of it. Lieutenant General O'Moran also served in America. He was +afterwards executed in the French Revolution, for the "Brigade" +remained royalist to the end. General Arthur Dillon, who served in the +Brigade, was also guillotined in 1794, crying, "Vive le roi!" At the +foot of the scaffold a woman, probably Mme. Hébert, also +condemned, stood beside him. The executioner told her to mount the +steps. "Oh, Monsieur Dillon," she said, "pray go first." "Anything to +oblige a lady," he answered gaily, and so faced his God.</p> + +<p>Lord Macaulay, commenting upon these things and deploring the +policies that brought them about, says with great significance:</p> + +<p>"There were Irish Catholics of great ability, but they were to be +found everywhere except in Ireland—at Versailles, at St. +Ildefonso, in the armies of Frederic, in the armies of Maria Theresa. +One exile (Lord Clare) became a marshal of France, another (General +Wall) became Prime Minister of Spain.... Scattered all over Europe +were to be found brave Irish generals, dexterous Irish diplomatists, +Irish counts, Irish barons, Irish knights of St. Louis and St. +Leopold, of the White Eagle, and of the Golden Fleece, who if they +remained in the house of bondage, could not have been ensigns of +marching regiments or freemen of petty corporations."</p> + +<p>The old Irish brigades ended with the French monarchy. Battalions +of the regiments of Dillon and Walsh were with the French fleet in the +West Indies at Grenada and St. Eustache, also at Savannah, and under +Rochambeau at Yorktown, but, except as to the officers, the surviving +regiments of Berwick, Dillon, and Walsh were largely French. With the +better times under Grattan's Parliament in Ireland, the soldier +emigration to France had all but ceased. The Irish Volunteers of 1782 +numbered 100,000 men, of whom an appreciable proportion were +Catholics. Many Irish went into the English army and navy, but there +was another stream of fighting emigrants, that which flocked to the +standard of revolt against England in America, of which much was to be +heard thereafter.</p> + +<p>In the American colonies before the Revolution there were thousands +of descendants of the Catholic Irish who had settled in Maryland and +Pennsylvania during the seventeenth century, as well as hardy Irish +Presbyterians from Ulster, who came in great multitudes during the +first half of the eighteenth century. They had suffered persecution in +Ireland for conscience sake from their fellow-Protestants. In Maine, +New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas they +constituted entire communities. The emigration of the Catholic or +purely Celtic Irish to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries was often compulsory. At any rate, after the middle of the +eighteenth century it was large and became continuous—a true +drift. Catholics and Presbyterians alike brought hostility to the +English government with them, and their voices fed the storm of +discontent. The Irish schoolmasters, of whom there were hundreds, were +especially efficient in this. They came in every ship to the colonies. +They had no love for England, for they had experienced in Ireland the +tyranny of English law, and they would be more than human if they did +not imbue the minds of the American children under their care with +their own hatred of oppression and wrong and English domination. The +log schoolhouse of the Irish teacher became the nursery of revolution. +They were a very important factor, therefore, in the making of the +Revolution, and many of them took an active part as soldiers in the +field.</p> + +<p>The Irish, both Catholics and Protestants, poured into the patriot +ranks once the standard of revolt was raised in 1775. The Pennsylvania +line, which General Lee called "the line of Ireland," was almost +entirely Irish, and the rosters of several of the Maryland and +Virginia regiments contain a remarkably large proportion of Irish +names, in some cases running as high as 60 per cent. It is computed +that the Irish furnished not less than a third of the whole American +forces. A common cause blotted out all old religious prejudices +between Irishmen in the American service. It was John Sullivan, of New +Hampshire, son of a Limerick schoolmaster, who began the revolt by +seizing the fort of William and Mary and its storehouses filled with +that powder which charged the guns at Bunker Hill in the following +year. It was Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, with his brothers, who made the +first sea attack on the British off Machias, Maine, in May, 1775, an +engagement which Fenimore Cooper calls "the Lexington of the Seas." +There were fifteen Celtic Irish names among the Minute Men at the +Battle of Lexington. Colonel Barrett, who commanded at Concord, was +Irish. There were 258 Celtic Irish names on the rosters of the +American forces at the battle of Bunker Hill. John Sullivan had been +made a major-general, thereafter to be a notable figure in the war at +Princeton, Trenton, Newport, and in his Indian campaign. The +Connecticut line was thick with Irish names. Around Washington himself +was a circle of brilliant Irishmen: Adjutant-General Edward Hand +leading his rifles, Stephen Moylan his dragoons, General Henry Knox +and Colonel Proctor at the head of his artillery, John Dunlop his +body-guard, Andrew Lewis his brigadier-general, Ephraim Elaine his +quartermaster, all of Irish birth or ancestry. Commodore John Barry, +born in Wexford in 1739 and bred to the sea, was a ship captain in his +early twenties, trading from Philadelphia. When the Continental +Congress met, he at once volunteered, and was given command of the +<i>Lexington</i>, the first American ship to capture a British war +vessel. Later, after gallant fighting on sea and land, he was given +command of the U.S. frigate <i>Alliance</i>, in which he crossed the +Atlantic to France, and fought and captured in a rattling battle two +British warships, the <i>Atlanta</i> and the <i>Trepasay</i>. He was +the Father of the American navy, holding captain's certificate No. 1, +signed by Washington himself—the highest rank then issued.</p> + +<p>General Richard Montgomery, the brave and able soldier who fell at +Quebec as he charged the heights, was an Irishman. General George +Clinton, son of an Irishman, was a brigadier-general, governor of New +York and twice Vice-President of the United States. Fifty-seven +officers of New York regiments in the Revolution were Irish, and a +large number of the officers in the Southern regiments of the line, as +well as of the militia, were native Irish or of Irish descent. The +rosters of the enlisted Irishmen of the New York regiments run into +the thousands. Hundreds of Irish soldiers suffered in the prison ships +of New York, the horrors of which served so conspicuously to stimulate +American determination to carry the war to the only rightful +conclusion. Washington always recognized America's debt to the Irish. +"St. Patrick" he made the watchword in the patriot lines the night +before the English evacuated Boston forever on the memorable 17th of +March, 1776. After the war he was made, with his own consent, an +honorary member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. Major-General +Richard Butler and his four brothers, all officers, and +Brigadier-Generals John Armstrong, William Irvine, William Thompson, +James Smith, and Griffith Rutherford all fought with distinction. All +of these officers were Irish-born. It was in truth an Irish war, so +far as Irish sentiment and whole-hearted service could make it. The +record of Irish soldiers' names alone would fill volumes.</p> + +<p>The thirst of the Irish race for the glory of war is shown in the +large enlistments in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and +since, in the English army and navy. Grattan, in pleading for Ireland, +claimed that a large percentage of the British forces were Irish. +Wolfe Tone avers that there were 210 Irishmen out of 220 in the crew +of a British frigate that overhauled his ship on its way to America. +Bonaparte had in his armies an Irish Legion that did good service in +Holland, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Marshal Clarke, Duke of Feltre, +French Minister of War in 1809, was Irish. Up and down the Spanish +Peninsula, Irish blood was shed in abundance in the armies of +Wellington. Never was more brilliant fighting done than that which +stands to Irish credit from the lines of Torres Vedras to Badajos and +Toulouse. Of the Waterloo campaign volumes have been written in praise +of Irish valor. As Maxwell says in his <i>Tales of +Waterloo</i>:—"The victors of Marengo and Austerlitz reeled +before the charge of the Connaught Rangers." Wellington himself was +Irish, as in the later wars of England Lord Gough, Lord Wolseley, Lord +Roberts, Lord Kitchener, and General French came from Ireland. The +Irish soldiers in the English service by a pitiful irony of fate +helped materially to fasten the chains of English domination on the +peoples of India in a long series of wars.</p> + +<p>In America, the War of 1812 once more gave opportunity to the +Fighting Race. The commanding figure of the war, which opened so +inauspiciously for the United States, was General Andrew Jackson, the +hero of the battle of New Orleans, and afterwards twice elected +President of the United States. "Old Hickory", as he came to be +lovingly called, was proud of his Irish father, and sympathized with +the national longings of the Irish people. He was a splendid soldier, +and his defeat of the English general, Pakenham, on January 8, 1815, +which meant the control of the mouths of the Mississippi, as well as +safeguarding the city of New Orleans, reflected the highest credit on +his skill and unflagging energy. The English had superior numbers, +between 8,000 and 9,000 men, against a scant 6,000 under Jackson, and +their force was made up of veterans of the European wars. In command +of the left of his line Jackson placed the gallant general William +Carroll, born in Philadelphia, but of Irish blood, who was afterwards +twice governor of Tennessee. The British general made the mistake of +despising the soldier value of his enemy, yet before evening of that +day he saw his artillery silenced and his lines broken, as he died of +a wound on the field. The battle was actually fought after the signing +of the treaty of peace at Ghent; it annihilated British pretensions in +this part of the world, anyway.</p> + +<p>After Commodore Perry, the victor in the battle of Lake Erie, and +himself the son of an Irish mother, the northern naval glory of the +War of 1812 falls to Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough, of Irish descent, +whose victory on Lake Champlain over the British squadron was almost +as important as Perry's. Admiral Charles L. Stewart ("Old Ironsides"), +who commanded the frigate <i>Constitution</i> when she captured the +<i>Cyane</i> and the <i>Levant</i>, fighting them by moonlight, was a +great and renowned figure. His parents came from Ireland, and Charles +Stewart Parnell's mother was the great sea-fighter's daughter. +Lieutenant Stephen Cassin commanded the <i>Ticonderoga</i> and fought +her well. Captain Johnston Blakely, who was born in Ireland, captured +in the <i>Wasp</i> of 18 guns the much larger British <i>Reindeer</i> +of 20 guns and 175 men in a splendid fight, and later sank the +<i>Avon</i>, an 18-gun brig. After capturing a great prize, which he +sent to Savannah, he sailed for the Spanish main and was never heard +of more. Captain Boyle, in the privateer <i>Comet</i> of Baltimore, +fought the <i>Hibernia</i>, of 18 guns, and later in the +<i>Chasseur</i>, known as the phantom ship, so fast she sailed, took +eighty prizes on the high seas. General A.E. Maccomb, who commanded +victoriously at Plattsburg, was of Irish descent, and Colonel Robert +Carr, who distinguished himself in the same campaign, was born in +Ireland. Major George Croghan of Kentucky, the hero of Fort +Stephenson, was the son of an Irish father who had been a soldier in +the Revolution. Colonel Hugh Brady, of the 22nd Infantry, commanded at +Niagara. He remained in the army and fought in Mexico. William McRee, +of Irish descent, was General Browne's chief engineer in laying out +the military works of the American army at Niagara.</p> + +<p>Let it not be forgotten that in this memorable company brave Mrs. +Doyle has a place. Her husband, Patrick Doyle, an Irish artilleryman, +had been taken prisoner by the British in the affair at Queenston and +had been refused a parole. Accordingly, when the guns were trained on +the English lines before Fort Niagara, Mary, emulating the example of +her countrywoman, "Molly" Pitcher, at Monmouth, determined to take her +husband's place, and, regardless of flying British balls, tended a +blacksmith's bellows all day, providing red-hot shot for the American +gun battery, and sending a prayer with every shot into the British +lines.</p> + +<p>After the Queenston affair, it is well to note, the English +doctrine of perpetual allegiance was abated. Twenty-three Irish-born +men were among the captives of the English in that engagement. They +were manacled to be sent to Ireland to be tried for treason, not as +enemies taken in the field. Winfield Scott, then lieutenant-colonel, +was also a prisoner with them. He protested loudly against this +infamous course. Upon his release he laid aside twenty-three British +prisoners to be treated like the Irishmen, eye for eye and tooth for +tooth. As a result, the Irish prisoners were exchanged.</p> + +<p>Colonel John Allen, who fell at the head of the First Regiment of +Kentucky Riflemen at the battle of the river Raisin on January 21, +1813, was one of the Irish Allens of Kentucky. His father and mother +were natives of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The Mexican War (1846-48) again showed Irish valor at the front. It +was not a great war, though brilliantly fought and rich in territorial +accessions. The campaigning comprised the work of two main expeditions +and a subsidiary movement in California. One column, under General +Zachary Taylor, penetrated northern Mexico and fought the battles of +Matamoras, Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma, in May, 1846, with a +force of 2,200 men; forced the evacuation of Monterey in September, +his army swelled to 5,000; and defeated Santa Anna at Buena Vista in +February, 1847. General Winfield Scott, with a naval expediton, +attacked Vera Cruz from the sea in March, 1847, and took up the march, +13,000 strong, to Mexico City, fighting the battles of Cerro Gordo, +Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec, and entered +Mexico City on September 14. General James Shields, born in Tyrone, +Ireland, in 1810, was in command with his brigade under Scott. A +brilliant soldier, he was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo and again at +Chapultepec. He served as United States Senator after the war and +again took the field in the Civil War, his forces defeating Stonewall +Jackson at the first battle of Winchester in 1862. The glamour of +chivalry lights the name of Phil Kearney. Here was a born soldier. He +was a volunteer with the French in Algiers in 1839-40. He also +commanded under Scott with brilliant bravery, and was brevetted major +on the field for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the battles of +Contreras and Churubusco. In the French war with Austria in 1859-60, +Kearney fought with the French, distinguishing himself at the decisive +and bloody battle of Solferino. In the Civil War he was +brigadier-general of New Jersey troops in 1861 and major-general in +1863, taking distinguished part in the battles of the Peninsula and +second Bull Run, and was killed while reconnoitring at Chantilly. +General Stephen W. Kearney, with the Army of the West, by dint of long +marches, secured California among the fruits of the war. General +Bennet Riley, born in Maryland of Irish ancestry, commanded a brigade +at Contreras, making a wonderful charge, and also fought brilliantly +at Cerro Gordo and Churubusco, and was brevetted brigadier-general. He +attained the army rank in 1858. Major-General William O. Butler, under +Zachary Taylor, was one of the heroes of Monterey. Born in Kentucky, +son of Percival Butler of Kilkenny, who was one of the famous five +Butler brothers of the Revolutionary War whom Washington once toasted +as "The Butlers and their five sons," General Butler succeeded General +Scott in command of the entire American army in Mexico in February, +1848. Another of clear Irish descent who fought under Zachary Taylor +was Major-General George Croghan, whose father, born in Sligo, +Ireland, had fought in the Revolution. He himself took part, as we +have seen, in the War of 1812, and now was at the front before +Monterey. Once, when a Tennessee regiment wavered under a hot +converging fire, Croghan rushed to the front and, taking off his hat, +shouted, "Men of Tennessee, your fathers conquered with Jackson at New +Orleans. Come, follow me!" and they followed in a successful assault. +Major-General Robert Paterson, who was born at Strabane, Ireland, and +was the son of a '98 man, saw service in 1812, and became +major-general of militia in Pennsylvania, whence he went to the +Mexican War. He also lived to serve in the War of the States.</p> + +<p>Among Irish-named officers mentioned honorably in official +despatches are Major Edward H. Fitzgerald, Major Patrick J. O'Brien; +Captain Casey, chosen to lead the first storming party at Chapultepec; +Captains Hogan, Byrne, Kane, McElvin, McGill, Burke, Barny, +O'Sullivan, McCarthy, McGarry, and McKeon. Captain Mayne Reid, the +novelist, a native of Ireland, was in the storming of Chapultepec. +Theodore O'Hara, the poet, served with the Kentucky troops and was +brevetted major for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, while on +the staff of General Franklin Pierce (afterwards President of the +United States). O'Hara's magnificent poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead," +has made his name immortal. It was written on the occasion of the +interment at Frankfort, Ky., of the Kentucky dead of the Mexican War, +where</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="p">"Glory guards with solemn round</p> +<p class="p">The bivouac of the dead."</p> +</div> + +<p>Irwin C. McDowell, who was brevetted captain at Buena Vista, +commanded a corps in the Civil War. George A. McCall, brevetted +lieutenant-colonel at Palo Alto, was a major-general in the Civil War. +Francis T. Bryan was a hero of Buena Vista. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas +P. Moore and Captain James Hogan both won fame in the 3rd Dragoons. +Lieutenant Thomas Claiborn of the Mounted Rifles became a colonel in +the Confederate Army. Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Geary fought brilliantly +and was to be heard from later with renown.</p> + +<p>Colonel John F. Reynolds of the 3rd Artillery lived to be +major-general in the Civil War, and to fall gloriously at Gettysburg. +Nor must we forget Major Folliot Lally's bravery at Cerro Gordo; +Second Lieutenant Thomas W. Sweeny, a brigadier-general of the Civil +War and the planner of the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866; +Lieutenant Henry B. Kelly of the 2nd Infantry, afterwards a +Confederate colonel; Captain Martin Burke of the 1st Artillery, killed +at Churubusco; nor Lieutenant William F. Barry of the 2nd Artillery, a +brigadier-general in the Civil War. There were scores of other Irish +named officers. In the whole American force of 30,000 engaged, the +Irish born and Irish descended troops of all arms were numbered by +thousands.</p> + +<p>It was, however, in the Civil War that the flood of Irish valor and +loyalty to the American Republic was at its height. The 2,800,000 +enlistments on the Northern side stood probably for 1,800,000 +individual soldiers serving during the four years of the war. Not less +than 40 per cent, of these were Irish born or of Irish descent. Of the +337,800 men furnished by the State of New York, 51,206 were natives of +Ireland out of the total of 134,178 foreign born, or 38 per cent, of +the latter, while not less than 80,000 of Irish descent figured among +the 203,600 native born soldiers. Of the 2,261 engagements in the war, +few there were that saw no Irishmen in arms, and certainly, in every +one of the 519 engagements that made Virginia a great graveyard, the +Irish figured largely. Of the 1,000,516 mustered out in 1865, not less +than 150,000 were natives of Ireland, while those of Irish descent +numbered hundreds of thousands. They fought well everywhere, and it +would require volumes to give the names and deeds of those who +distinguished themselves more than their fellows.</p> + +<p>One name, however, shines with a great blaze above them all, the +name of Philip H. Sheridan, one of the three supreme soldiers of the +Union, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman being the others. +Had Ireland furnished only Sheridan to the Union cause, her service +would be beyond reward. He was born in Albany, N.Y., in March, 1831, +the year after his parents, John and Mary Sheridan, arrived there from +the Co. Cavan, in Ireland. The family moved to Somerset, Perry Co., +Ohio, the following year. There Philip began village life. How he +gained the beginning of an education; worked in a grocery store; +became a bookkeeper; longed for a West Point nomination and got it; +how he worked through the Academy in 1853; served as lieutenant on the +frontier, in Texas, California, and Oregon, until the outbreak of the +Civil War, when he was promoted captain and ordered east, can be +quickly told. His history until the fall of the Confederacy would need +many long chapters. His military genius included all the requirements +of a great captain, and his opportunties of exhibiting all his +qualities in action came in rapid succession. In every service from +quartermaster to army commander his talents shone. His tremendous +vigor, incredible mental alertness, and genius for detail, added to +his skill and outreach, continually set him forward. He stood 5 feet 5 +inches high, but somehow looked taller, owing to his erect, splendid +bearing. There was something in the full chest, the thick muscular +neck, the heavy head, the dark blazing eyes, and the quick bodily +movements that arrested attention. His name has come down to this +generation mainly as a great cavalry leader, but he was a natural +commander of all arms, a great tactician, a born strategist. His +campaign of the Shenandoah Valley was a whirlwind of success. His +great battles around Richmond were wonderful. General Grant's opinion +of Sheridan, given thirteen years after the war, sums up the man. It +is here quoted from J.R. Young's book, <i>Around the World with +General Grant</i>. It runs, in part, as follows:</p> + +<p>"As a soldier, as a commander of troops, as a man capable of doing +all that is possible with any number of men, there is no man living +greater than Sheridan. He belongs to the very first rank of soldiers, +not only of our country but of the world. I rank Sheridan with +Napoleon and Frederick and the great commanders in history. No man +ever had such a faculty of finding things out as Sheridan, of knowing +all about the enemy. He was always the best informed of his command as +to the enemy. Then he had that magnetic quality of swaying men, which +I wish I had, a rare quality in a general. I don't think anyone can +give Sheridan too high praise."</p> + +<p>Praise from U.S. Grant is praise indeed. A peculiar feature of the +Civil War was the growth of the generals: Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, +Thomas, Meade, all conspicuously experienced it. With Sheridan, +however, one point is notable, namely, that He triumphed in every +branch in each successive extension of the field of his duties, and he +went from captain to major-general in three years of the regular army. +His care for his men was constant. His troops were always the best +fed, best clothed, best rested in the armies en either side, but on no +troops was there more constant call for endeavor, and they were never +found to fail him. In action he is described as severe, peremptory, +dominating, but his determinations were mighty things, not to be +interfered with. He wanted things done and done at once. His men of +all grades soon conceded that he knew best what to do, and set about +doing it accordingly. Out of action he was joyous of spirit, but, in +fight or out of it, his alertness and his lightning-like decisions +marked him apart from every other commander. His career in the +Tennessee campaign was meteoric. Of his score and more of great +conflicts, the most picturesque was his wonderful battle at Cedar +Creek, to fight which he rode at breakneck speed "from Winchester +twenty miles away" through the dust and debris of a broken army to the +extreme front, rallying the scattered regiments and turning a defeat +into a crushing victory, which recovered all that had been lost, +taking 25 cannon and 1,200 prisoners, and driving for miles the lately +victorious enemy under Early. Captain P.J. O'Keefe was one of the two +who made the ride beside him. The battles of Waynesboro, Five Forks, +and Sailor's Creek showed the same brilliant generalship on the part +of Sheridan. His hold on the affection of the army and the admiration +of the people continued to the day of his death, August 5, 1888, when +he held the headship of the United States army as general in +succession to the great Sherman.</p> + +<p>General Sheridan, towards the end of the war, had a soldier's +difference with Major-General George G. Meade, commander of the Army +of the Potomac, but that did not blind "Little Phil" to the real merit +of the victor in the tremendous three days' battle of Gettysburg, +handling an army new to his hand against Robert E. Lee. The Meade +family is of Irish descent. George Meade, the grandfather, came from +Dublin and was a patriot in the American Revolutionary War. General +Meade commanded a division at Antietam and a corps at Fredericksburg, +and held command of the Army of the Potomac to the end of the war. He +was a fine soldier and gentleman. Of quiet manners at most times, he +was most irascible in the hour of battle, but his temper did not +becloud his judgment. General James Shields and General Irwin +McDowell, both fine Irish soldiers, have already been mentioned.</p> + +<p>It would be hard to compass in a brief article even the names of +the general officers of Irish blood in the Civil War. General John +Logan, who fought with the western armies, is worthy of high and +honorable mention, as is General Thomas Francis Meagher, a patriot in +Ireland, a prisoner in Australia, a soldier of dash in the Civil War. +Meagher's Irish Brigade left a record of valor unsurpassed: their +charge at Fredericksburg up Marye's Heights alone should give them +full meed of fame. General Michael Corcoran, a native of Ireland, +commanded the wholly Irish 69th Regiment when it departed for the war +in 1861, and after his exchange from a Confederate prison raised and +organized the Corcoran Legion. Major-General McDowell McCook commanded +brilliantly in the western campaigns. Who has not heard of the +Fighting McCooks?—a family of splendid men and hardy warriors. +Brigadier-General Thomas C. Devin was a superb cavalry commander, who +led the first division of Sheridan's Shenandoah army through all its +great operations. General James Mulligan of Illinois was of the true +fighting breed. Colonel Timothy O'Meara led his superb Irish Legion +from Illinois up Missionary Ridge. Brigadier-General C.C. Sullivan of +western army fame was one of the five generals, headed by Rosecrans, +who recommended Phil Sheridan for promotion to brigadier-general after +the battle of Booneville as "worth his weight in gold." General +Brannan was a gallant division commander in the Middle Tennessee +campaign. Colonel William P. Carlin made a name at Stone River. +General James T. Boyle, of the Army of the Ohio under Buell, was the +brave man whose promotion to division commander left a vacancy for +"Little Phil", that was to be an immediate stepping stone to higher +opportunity. Brigadier-General McMillan, who commanded the second +brigide at Cedar Creek; Colonel Thomas W. Cahill, 9th Connecticut; +Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Neafie of the 156th New York; Captain +Charles McCarthy of the 175th New York; Lieutenant-Colonel Alex. J. +Kenny of the 8th Indiana; Lieutenant Terrence Reilly of the Horse +Artillery, all won distinction in the Shenandoah Valley. Such splendid +fighters as General James R. O'Beirne, Colonel Guiney, Colonel +Cavanagh, Colonel John P. Byron, Colonel Patrick Gleason, General +Denis F. Burke, wrote their names red over a score of battle fields, +but one cannot hope to cover more than a fraction of the brilliant men +of Irish blood who led and bled in the long, hard, and strenuous +struggle. The 69th New York Regiment was the mother of a dozen Irish +regiments, including the Irish Brigade of Meagher and the Corcoran +Legion. The 9th, 28th, and 29th regiments of Massachusetts were all +Irish. A gallant Irishman, born at Fermoy, was Brigadier-General +Thomas Smyth, who made a name and died in the battles around Richmond. +There was not a regiment from the middle western and western States +that did not hold its quota of Irishmen and sons of the Irish. After +the names of Porter and Farragut in the Navy stands next highest in +honor that of Vice-Admiral Stephen C. Rowan, born in Dublin, of the +famous family that produced Hamilton Rowan, one of the foremost of the +United Irishmen. It was the son of the vice-admiral, a lieutenant in +the army, who carried "the message to Garcia" from the United States +War Department to the Cuban commander in the eastern jungle of Cuba, +before the outbreak of the war with Spain, and did it so well and +bravely through such difficulties and dangers that his name will stand +for "the faithful messenger" forever.</p> + +<p>As a consequence of their stand with the American people in the +Civil War, the position of the whole mass of the Irish and +Irish-American people was vastly uplifted in American eyes. The +unlettered poverty of scores of thousands of Irish immigrants, who +came in multitudes from 1846 on, had made an unfavorable and false +impression; their red blood on the battle field washed it out.</p> + +<p>On the southern side as well, Irish valor shone. While the great +flood of the mid-century Irish immigration had spread itself mainly +north, east, and west, the larger cities of the South also received a +share. The slave system precluded the entry of free labor into the +cotton, corn, lumber, and sugar lands of the South, but such cities as +New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston, Savannah, Vicksburg, and Richmond +gave varied employment to many of the Irish who made their homes in +the Southland, and so they came to furnish thousands of recruits to +the local Confederate levies. The "Louisiana Tigers", who fought so +valiantly at Gettysburg on the Southern side, included many Irish. The +Georgia brigade, that held the Confederate line atop of Marye's +Heights at Fredericksburg, up which the Irish brigade so heroically +charged, had whole companies of Irish. There were scores of Irish in +many of the regiments that made Pickett's memorable charge at +Gettysburg. All through the Confederate armies were valiant +descendants of the earlier Irish immigration that settled the uplands +of the Carolinas and Virginia and the blue grass region of Kentucky. +Most famous, most glorious of these was "Stonewall" +Jackson—Lieutenant-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson—next to +Robert E. Lee the greatest soldier on the southern side. No more +splendid soldier-figure rises out of the contest. Educated at West +Point, serving in Mexico, then a professor of philosophy—and +artillery—next a volunteer with his State when Virginia took +arms against the Union, his long and brilliant service included a +large share in the victories at Bull Run, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, +Cedar Mountain, Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and +Chancellorsville, where he was accidentally wounded by his own men. He +was once defeated by General Shields, as has been noted. The piety and +purity of his life belie the supposed necessity for the coarser traits +that are thought to go with the terrible trade. General Patrick R. +Cleburne was born in 1828, near Cork, Ireland. He was in the English +army three years, and, coming to the United States, became a lawyer at +Helena, Ark. He enlisted in the Confederate army as a private, rose +rapidly to the command of a brigade, and made a great name at Shiloh. +As major-general he led divisions at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, and +was thanked by the Confederate Congress. He fell at the battle of +Franklin—a soldier of commanding presence, skill, and daring, +beloved by the whole Army of the West. The gallant colonel Thomas +Claiborne was a striking cavalryman. It was Lieutenant Thomas A. +Claiborne of the 1st South Carolina who, with Corporal B. Brannan, +lashed the broken flagstaff on Fort Sumter in June, 1864, when, under +a withering fire, the flag of the Confederacy had been shot away. The +fighting of Major-General Gary of South Carolina around Richmond was +desperate. He was the last to leave the city when it fell, as told by +Captain Sullivan: "He galloped at night through the burning city, and +at the bridge over the James cried out, 'We are the rear guard. It is +all over; blow the bridge to h—l!' and went on into the +night"</p> + +<p>The story of the Civil War is a mine of honor to the Irish, and +Irishmen should set it forth at length. Here it can be merely glanced +at.</p> + +<p>The war of 1898 with Spain—that great patriotic +efflorescence—was brief in its campaigning. Immediately provoked +by the blowing up of the U.S.S. <i>Maine</i> in Havana harbor on +February 15, war was declared on April 19. Admiral Dewey sank the +Spanish fleet in Manila Harbor, May 1. The first troops landed on +Cuban soil June 1. The first—and last—real land battle +before Santiago occurred on July 1-2, with 13,500 troops on the +American side against an available Spanish force somewhat less in +number, but holding strongly fortified and entrenched positions around +the town. The advance and charges uphill necessary to capture El Caney +and the steep heights of San Juan called for desperate courage. It was +there, however, and the Irish in the army exhibited dash and +persistence, as duty demanded. In the second day's fighting the +Spanish assaults on the American positions were repelled, and the land +fighting was over. The Americans in the two days lost over 10 per cent +killed and wounded. The destruction of Cervera's fleet on its attempt +to escape from Santiago on July 3 ended the struggle. With the +regiment of Rough Riders, under Theodore Roosevelt—who says he +reckons "an O'Brien, a Redmond, and a man from Ulster" among his +for-bears—were many gallant Irishmen—Kellys, Murphys, +Burkes, and Doyles, for instance. His favorite captain, "Bucky" +O'Neill of Arizona, fell at the foot of San Juan. The white regiments +of the regular army had their quota of Irish, as had most of the +volunteers. The 9th Massachusetts was all Irish. The 69th New York, +all Irish, never reached the front in the war, but shared the fate of +the 150,000 troops cantoned through the Southern States, their only +effective enemies being dysentery, typhoid, and malaria.</p> + +<p>A little splash of Irish blood came with the Fenian dash into +Canada on June 1, 1866. There had been active preparations for a real +invasion by some 50,000 Irish-born or Irish-fathered soldiers who had +served in the Civil War. The American government, using its army +force, intervened to prevent the bellicose movement, not, however, +before Colonel John O'Neill, who had served in the cavalry with +Sherman on his march to the sea, with Captain Starr, one of +Kilpatrick's cavalry, Captain O'Brien, and about 700 well-armed men, +all Civil War veterans, had slipped across the Niagara River at Fort +Erie. They made short work of all in sight, threw out a couple of +hundred men who burned a bridge and tore up the railroad tracks. Their +scouts fired on a small British detachment, which ran. On the morning +of June 2 news came of a larger Canadian force advancing, and O'Neill +went out to meet them. Deploying his men in a field near the high road +at a place called Ridgway, he sent his pickets forward. They found +heavy ground in front and about three-quarters of a mile away some +1,400 men of the "Queen's Own" of Toronto and the Hamilton Volunteers +advancing rapidly in line. O'Neill, after a few rounds, withdrew his +pickets, and the Canadians, taking the movement for flight, came +briskly on. As soon as they were clear of cover, O'Neill, firing a +volley, gave orders for a charge. At it they went with a cheer, and +the whole Canadian line gave way. They ran as fast as their legs could +carry them, leaving some fifty killed and wounded. After chasing them +for two miles, O'Neill halted his men and brought them back to Fort +Erie, where they intrenched. The Canadians did not stop until they +reached Colburne, eighteen miles away. The Fenian loss was +twenty-five. In the night O'Neill learned that no help was coming from +the United States' side, while news reached him that a force of 5,000 +Canadian and British regulars was advancing on Fort Erie. Accordingly, +at 2 a.m. on June 3, he surrendered to the United States forces with +400 of his men, who were detained for a few days on the U.S.S. +<i>Michigan</i> and then let go. The balance of his force, about 250 +men, escaped in groups across the river. There was another little +victorious skirmish with the Canadians lower down under Captain Spear, +who also slipped back over the border unpursued. What fighting took +place was workmanlike and creditable.</p> + +<p>There was a flicker of Irish fighting spirit in the Boer War. Many +thousands, no doubt, were in the English army of 250,000 men brought +against the 30,000 Boers, but there was a small "Irish Brigade" that +fought on the Boer side, and was notably engaged at Spion Kop, where +the English were driven so sweepingly from their position by desperate +charges.</p> + +<p>In the War of 1870, between France and Prussia, the good wishes of +the Irish went with France, for the sake of the old friendship, +largely helped, no doubt, by the fact that at the summit of army +command was Marshal MacMahon, a descendant of a warrior of the old +Irish Brigade. His service in Algiers; his skill and daring in the +Crimean War before Sebastopol, where he led the division which stormed +the Malakoff; his victories in the Italian War of 1859 against +Austria, including the great battle of Magenta, all made him a +striking, romantic figure. He failed in 1870 against the Prussians at +Worth, and was made prisoner with his army at Sedan, but he suppressed +the Commune after the war and was President of France from 1873 to +1879. The device by which 300 Irishmen took part on the French side in +the war with Germany has a grim humor. They went as aides in an +ambulance corps fitted out in Dublin by subscription, but, once on +French soil, enlisted in the army. "Maybe we can kill as well as we +can cure," said one of them. The <i>Compagnie irlandaise</i>, as it +was called, did creditable work, and was in the last combat with the +Prussians at Montbellard. Their captain, M.W. Kirwan, was offered a +Cross of the Legion of Honor, but for some reason declined it. Dr. +Constantine J. McGuire, who won the decoration for bravery before +Paris during the siege of the Commune, did, however, accept it, +receiving the cross from the hands of Marshal MacMahon, and, hale and +hearty, wears the red ribbon on occasion in New York today.</p> + +<p>Even as this chronicle of daring deeds and daring doers is being +penned, in the ranks and as commanding officers on the side of the +allies in the far-flung battle lines of the great European war, are +men of Irish birth, and, let it not be forgotten, not a few of the +opposing side are the descendants of the Irish military geniuses who, +in days gone by, fought so gallantly across the continent "from +Dunkirk to Belgrade". They are all, every man of them, bearing +bravely, as of yore, their own part amid the dangers and chances of +the fray.</p> + +<p>If the inspiring story is of necessity here barely sketched in +outline, it nevertheless clearly indicates that, as it has been for +two thousand years of Irish history, so it will be to the end of the +human chapter—the Irish race is the Fighting Race, and willing, +even eager, to risk life itself for vital issues.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Keating's, MacGeoghegan's, Mitchel's Histories of Ireland; J.C. +O'Callaghan: The Irish Brigades in the Service of France, The Green +Book; Lossing: Field Book of the Revolution, Field Book of the War of +1812; Several Mexican War Histories; Battles and Leaders of the Civil +War; The Irish at Home and Abroad (New York, 1856); Canon O'Hanlon: +Irish-American History of the United States; O'Hart; Irish Pedigrees; +Martin I. Griffin: Life of Commodore Barry; John D. Crimmins: Irish +Miscellany; Joseph Denieffe: Fenian Recollections; Plowden: Historical +Review of the State of Ireland (London, 1803); Hays: History of the +Irish (1798) Rebellion; Macaulay: History of England; J. R. Young: +Around the World with General Grant; several valuable articles and +records of research by Michael J. O'Brien of New York.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T15"></a>THE SORROWS OF IRELAND</h2> +<h4>By JOHN JEROME ROONEY, A.M., LL.D.</h4> + +<p>"The sorrows of Ireland"! What a vision of woe the words conjure +up. The late Goldwin Smith, himself an Englishman and a Unionist, in +his <i>Irish History and the Irish Question</i>, finds that "of all +histories, the history of Ireland is the saddest. For nearly seven +centuries it was a course of strife between races, bloodshed, +massacre, misgovernment, civil war, oppression, and misery."</p> + +<p>The first of the great scourges of Erin was the coming of the +Danes, the bloodthirsty and conquest-loving Vikings of the North, the +worshipers of Thor and Odin, the gods of thunder and of strife. These +warriors, in never-ending invasions, had for four hundred years +overrun Britain and finally conquered the northern provinces of Gaul. +Until the end of the eighth century Ireland had been free from the +Scandinavian scourge. About this time the invaders made lodgments +along the caasts, passed inward through the island, burned and looted +religious houses and schools of learning, levied tribute upon the +inhabitants, and at length established themselves firmly at Limerick, +Waterford, Dublin, Wexford, and Carlingford. Fortified towns were +built, trading communications with Britain and the continent were set +up, and the Northman, though not in actual possession of the interior +of the island, was apparently in substantial control of its destinies. +Brian Borumha, or Boru, brother of the king of Munster, of the +Dalcassian race of O'Brien, refused to submit, roused his brother, +fought the Danes of Limerick at Sulchoid (A.D. 968), and captured +Limerick. Brian later succeeded his brother, became sovereign of all +Ireland (A.D. 1001), and, on Good Friday, A.D. 1014, joined battle +with the Danes upon the famous field of Clontarf. Here the power of +the Northmen was forever broken, Brian falling at the moment of +victory, while in his tent, by the hand of a fugitive Dane.</p> + +<p>With the death of Brian the united government dissolved. The +provincial kings, or princes, resumed separate authority and a +struggle arose among them, with varying success, for the national +sovereignty. The central government never had been strong, as the +nation was organized on a tribal or family basis. In this weakened +condition Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster, abducted the wife of +O'Rourke, prince of Breffni, while the latter was on a pilgrimage. +MacMurrough was compelled to fly to England. He sought the protection +of the Angevin English king, Henry Plantagenet. As a result of this +appeal, a small expedition, headed by Strongbow (A.D. 1169), was sent +to Ireland, and Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin were taken. Then came +Henry himself, in 1171, with a fleet of 240 ships, 400 knights, and +4,000 men, landing at Waterford. This expedition was the beginning of +the English attempted conquest of Ireland—a proceeding that, +through all the ruin and bloodshed of 800 years, is not yet +accomplished. Henry's first act was to introduce the feudal system +into that southern half of the island which he controlled; he seized +great tracts of land, which he in turn granted to his followers under +feudal customs; he introduced the offices of the English feudal system +and the English laws, and placed his followers in all the positions of +power, holding their lands and authority under the feudal conditions +of rendering him homage and military service.</p> + +<p>This was the root of the alien "landlordism" and foreign political +control of future times which became the chief curses of Ireland, the +prolific source of innumerable woes. The succeeding years till the +reign of Henry VIII. witnessed the extension, and at times the +decline, of the Anglo-Norman rule. When Henry VII. became king of +England the Anglo-Norman colony or "Pale" had shrunk to two counties +and a half around Dublin, defended by a ditch. Many of the original +Norman knights had become "more Irish than the Irish themselves." Such +was the great family of the Geraldines or Fitzgerald—the most +powerful, with the O'Neills of the North, in Ireland. A united attack +at this time would most certainly have driven out the invader; for it +must be remembered that Dublin, the "Pale"—"the Castle +government" of later times—was the citadel of the English +foreign power, and before a united nation would most certainly have +succumbed.</p> + +<p>When Henry VIII. ascended the throne of England, the policy of +peace in Ireland was continued during the early portion of his reign. +Then came Henry's break with the Pope over the royal divorce. The +Irish beyond the Pale, and many within it, were loyal to the Church of +their fathers, to the faith of Patrick, the faith of the Roman See. To +Henry and his daughter Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who +displaced Henry's lawful wife, this was treason. Henceforth, to the +bitterness of race hatred and the pride of the conqueror were to be +added the blackest of religious feuds, the most cruel of religious +persecutions in the history of the world. Again let Goldwin Smith, the +English Unionist, describe the result: "Of all the wars waged by a +civilized on a barbarous <i>(sic)</i> and despised race these wars +waged by the English on the Irish seem to have been the most hideous. +No quarter was given by the invader to man, woman, or child. The +butchering of women and children is repeatedly and brutally avowed. +Nothing can be more horrible than the cool satisfaction with which +English commanders report their massacres." Famine was deliberately +added to the other horrors. What was called law was more cruel than +war: it was death without the opportunity for defense and with the +hypocrisy of the forms of justice added.</p> + +<p>Out of this situation came the infamous Penal Code, which, by the +period of William the Third, about 1692, became a finished system. +This is the "Irish Code" of which Lord Brougham said: "It was so +ingeniously contrived that an Irish Catholic could not lift his hand +without breaking it." And Edmund Burke said: "The wit of man never +devised a machine to disgrace a realm or destroy a kingdom so perfect +as this." Montesquieu, the great French jurist-philosopher, the author +of the epoch-making <i>Spirit of the Laws</i>, commented: "It must +have been contrived by devils; it ought to have been written in blood; +and the only place to register it is in hell." Yet for two hundred +years this code of death, national and individual, was the supreme law +of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Wendell Phillips, the great American orator, in his lecture on +"Daniel O'Connell," summed up this Penal Code in words that will not +soon be forgotten by the world. His reference to Mr. Froude is to +James Anthony Froude, the English historian. He says:</p> + +<p>"You know that, under it, an Irish Catholic could not sit in the +House of Commons; he could not hold any commission from the Crown, +either civil or military; he could be a common soldier—nothing +more. He could neither vote, nor sit on a jury, nor stand on a witness +stand, nor bring a suit, nor be a doctor, nor be a lawyer, nor travel +five miles from his own home without a permit from a justice of the +peace. The nearest approach that ever was made to him was a South +Carolina negro before the war. He had no rights that a Protestant +needed to respect. If he was a land-holder, if all his children were +Catholics, he was obliged to divide the land equally between them. +This was the English plan for eliminating the Catholic tenure of the +land and letting it slip out of their hands. Then, if any of the +children, during their father's life, concluded to become Protestants, +in such case they took the whole estate; or, indeed, they might compel +the father to put his estate in trust for their benefit. So, if the +Catholic wife would not go to an Episcopalian church once a +month—which she deemed it a sin to do—she forfeited her +dower. But if she went regularly, she could have all the estate. If a +Catholic had a lease, and it rose one-quarter in value, any Protestant +could take it from him by bringing that fact to the notice of a +justice of the peace. Three justices of the peace might summon any +Catholic before them, and oblige him to give up his faith, or quit the +realm. Four justices could oblige him to abjure his faith or sell his +estates. If a Protestant paid one dollar tax, the Catholic paid two. +If a Protestant lost a ship, when at war with a Catholic +power—and at the time there was only <i>one</i> Protestant power +in Europe, besides Great Britain; that was Holland: so that the +chances were nine to one that, in case of war, Great Britain would be +at war with a Catholic power—in such a case, if a Protestant +lost a ship, he went home and assessed the value on his Catholic +neighbors, and was reimbursed. So, of education. We fret a great deal +on account of a class of Irishmen who come to our shores and are +lacking in education, in culture, and refinement. But you must +remember the bad laws, you must remember the malignant legislation, +that sentenced them to a life of ignorance, and made education a +felony in Catholic Ireland. If an Irishman sent his child to a +Protestant schoolmaster, all right; but if the parent would not do so, +and sent him to a Catholic school, the father was fined ten pounds a +week; and the schoolmaster was fined five pounds a week; and for the +third offense he was hung! But, if the father determined that his +child should be educated, and sent him across the Channel to France, +the boy forfeited his citizenship and became an alien; and, if +discovered, the father was fined one hundred pounds; and anybody, +except the father, who harbored him, forfeited all civil +rights—that is, he could not sue in a court of law, nor could he +vote. Indeed, a Catholic could not marry! If he married a Protestant, +the marriage was void; the children were illegitimate. And, if one +Catholic married another, it required the presence of a priest, and if +a priest landed in Ireland for twenty minutes, it was death! To this +ferocious 'Code', Sir Robert Peel, in our own day, added the climax, +that no Catholic should quit his dwelling between the hours of sunset +and sunrise, an exaggeration of the 'Curfew Law' of William the +Conqueror. Now, you will hardly believe that this was enacted as a +law. But Mr. Froude alludes to this code. Yes; he was very honest; he +would paint England as black as she deserved. He said of Queen +Elizabeth that she failed in her duty as a magistrate; she failed +towards Ireland in her capability of being a great ruler. And then he +proceeded, after passing sentence, to give us the history of her +reign, and showed that, in very many cases, she could not have done +any different. For instance—oh! it is the saddest, blackest, +most horrible statement of all history; it makes you doubt the very +possibility of human nature—when you read that Spenser, the +poet, who had the most ardent, most perfect ideas in English +poetry—Spenser sat at the council board that ordered the +wholesale butchery of a Spanish regiment captured in Ireland, and, to +execute the order, he chose Sir Walter Raleigh, the scholar, the +gentleman, the poet, the author, and the most splendid Englishman of +his age! And Norris, a captain under Sidney, in whose veins flowed the +blood of Sir Philip, writing home to Elizabeth, begs and persuades her +to believe in O'Neill's crimes, and asks for leave to send a hired man +to poison him! And the Virgin Queen makes no objection! Mr. Froude +quotes a letter from Captain Norris, in which he states that he found +himself in an island where five hundred Irish (all women and children; +not a man among them) had taken refuge from the war; and he +deliberately butchered every living soul! And Queen Elizabeth, in a +letter still extant, answers by saying: 'Tell my good servant that I +will not forget his good services.' He tells us that 'The English +nobility and gentry would take a gun as unhesitatingly as a fowler, +and go out to shoot an Irishman as an Indian would a buffalo.' Then he +tells us, with amazement, that you never could make an Irishman +respect an Englishman! He points to some unhappy Kildare, the sole +relic of a noble house, whose four uncles were slaughtered in cold +blood—that is the only word for this kind of execution, +<i>slaughtered</i>—and he, left alone, a boy, grows up +characterless and kills an archbishop. Every impetuous, impatient act +is dragged before the prejudiced mind. But when Mr. Froude is painting +Sir Walter and Spenser, blind no longer, he says: 'I regret—it +is very sad to think—that such things should ever have +been!'"</p> + +<p>Such was the cup from which Ireland drank even into the days of men +now living. Nor was this all. The rise of English manufactures brought +a new chapter of woes to Ireland. The Irish cattle trade had been +killed by an Act of Charles II. for the benefit of English farmers. +The Irish then took up the raising of wool and woolen manufactures. A +flourishing trade grew up. An English law destroyed it. In succession +the same greed killed the cotton, the glovemaking, the glassmaking, +and the brewing trades. These were reserved for the English maker and +merchant. These crimes upon Irish industry surpassed a thousand-fold +the later English attempts upon the industries of the American +colonies.</p> + +<p>Under the Code, and through the extreme poverty produced thereby, +substantially all the land of Ireland passed out of the hands of the +people. They became mere serfs upon the soil. Their tribute was paid +through a rapacious agent to a foreign landlord. The improvement of +the land by the labor of the tenant brought increase of rent. There +was no fixity of tenure of the land. It was held at the will of the +agent, reflecting the rapacity of the non-resident landlord. Upon +these holdings the principal crop was the potato. A failure of this +crop was a failure to pay rent, eviction on the roadside, and +starvation. The results, after the enactment of the Penal Code, and +during the greater part of the eighteenth century, are thus described +by Goldwin Smith: "On such a scene of misery as the abodes of the +Irish cotters the sun has rarely looked down. Their homes were the +most miserable hovels, chimneyless, filthy. Of decent clothing they +were destitute. Their food was the potato; sometimes they bled their +cattle and mixed the blood with sorrel. The old and sick were +everywhere dying by cold and hunger, and rotting amidst filth and +vermin. When the potato failed, as it often did, came famine, with +disease in its train. Want and misery were in every face, the roads +were spread with dead and dying, there was sometimes none to bear the +dead to the grave, and they were buried in the fields and ditches +where they perished. Fluxes and malignant fevers followed, laying +these villages waste. 'I have seen,' says a contemporaneous witness, +'the laborer endeavoring to work at his spade, but fainting for want +of food and forced to quit it. I have seen the helpless orphan exposed +on the dunghill, and none to take him in for fear of infection. And I +have seen the hungry infant sucking at the breast of the already +expired parent.'"</p> + +<p>All these are not only the horrors of a hundred or two hundred +years ago; they were repeated in ten thousand forms in the awful +famine days of 1847. In 1841 the population of Ireland was 8,796,545 +persons. In 1851, after four years of famine, the population was +6,551,970, leaving 2,244,575 persons to be accounted for, and taking +no account of the natural increase of the population during the ten +years. Not less than a million and a half of these died of starvation +and the fevers brought on by famine. The remainder emigrated to +foreign lands.</p> + +<p>In this account of the Sorrows of Ireland nothing has been said of +the vast emigrations, thousands upon thousands of persons in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries leaving Ireland under forced +deportations, in a practical selling into slavery. The sum total of +this loss to Ireland cannot be less than 5,000,000 souls. The earlier +deportations were carried out under the most atrocious circumstances. +Families were broken up and scattered to distant and separate +colonies, such as Barbados, the New England States, and later to the +South Pacific.</p> + +<p>This is but a glance at some of the wrongs to Ireland's religious, +intellectual, and material welfare, wrongs that have plunged her into +an age-long poverty. But one of the greatest of all her sorrows has +been the denial of her national life, the attempt to strangle her +rightful aspirations as a free people. Her autonomy was taken from +her; her smallest legislative act was the act of a stranger; in fine, +every mark of political slavery was put upon her. A foreign soldiery +was, and still is, quartered upon her soil. The control of her +revenues, of the system of taxation, was wrested from her. These +became the function of a hateful resident oligarchy, alien in +everything to the Irish people, and of the English parliament, to +which she was not admitted until the days of Daniel O'Connell. And +then she was admitted only through fear of revolution.</p> + +<p>The dawn has come. The dark night is almost past; the heroic +struggle of Ireland is about to close in triumph. Her loyalty to her +ideals of freedom and religion is to meet its reward. The epitaph of +Robert Emmet will soon be written, for at last Ireland is certain of +"taking her place among the nations of the earth."</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>D'Alton: History of Ireland; J.P. Prendergast: Cromwellian +Settlement; Barrington: Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation; McNevin: +Confiscation of Ulster; R.R. Madden: History of the Penal Laws; +Murphy: Cromwell in Ireland; T.A. Emmet: Ireland under English Rule, 2 +vols.; Mrs. J.R. Green: Irish Nationality; Walpole: A Short History of +the Kingdom of Ireland; A.M. Sullivan: Story of Ireland; Thomas Moore: +History of Ireland; Edmund Spenser: View of the State of Ireland; C. +Gavan Duffy: Four Years of Irish History, 1845-49; Isaac Butt: Land +Tenure in Ireland; Justin McCarthy: History of our own Times; Johnston +and Spencer: Ireland's Story; MacGeoghegan's History of Ireland and +its continuation by John Mitchel; William Sampson: Memoirs of an Irish +Exile, 1832; John Curry: A Historical and Critical Review of the Civil +Wars in Ireland (1775); John Boyle: The Battlefields of Ireland +(1879); Speeches of Edmund Burke, Daniel O'Connell, Henry Grattan; +Wendell Phillips's Speech on Daniel O'Connell; Father Tom Burke: +Lectures on Ireland.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T16"></a>IRISH LEADERS</h2> +<h4>By SHANE LESLIE.</h4> + +<p>Irish leaders have proved far-famed but not long-lived. Their short +and strenuous careers have burnt out in their prime, and their ends +have been such as attend conflagrations. More often they have left a +pall than a light in the heavens, for the most brilliant lives in +Irish history have led to the most tragic deaths. The Destiny which +allotted them impossible tasks has given them immortality on the +scenes of their glorious failure.</p> + +<p>They differ from leaders of other countries, who divide the average +pittances of success or ill success on the road to honored retirement. +Few of the heroes among modern nations have left such vivid and +lasting memory as "the strong men of Ireland." During the nineteenth +century their lore and cult have traversed the whole world in the wake +of the great emigrations. Whether they failed or succeeded in wresting +the independence and ideals of Ireland for a while from the fell +clutch of circumstance, they live with their race forever.</p> + +<p>Under Plantagenet and Tudor rule, the Irish leaders presented a +sullen but armed resistance. A never completed invasion was met by +sporadic raids and successive risings. A race of military outlaws was +fashioned, which accounts for much in Irish character today. +Previously the Irish, like all Celtic civilization, was founded on the +arts, on speech, and on law, rather than on war and feudalism.</p> + +<p>Even Irish militancy was crushed in the Williamite wars, and the +race, deprived of its original subsistence as well as of its acquired +defense, sank into the stupor of penal times. Those who should have +been leaders of Ireland became marshals of Austria and France.</p> + +<p>Gradually it was learnt that the pen is mightier than the sword and +the human voice more potent than the sound of cannon—and the +constitutional struggle developed, not without relapse and reverse. To +Dean Swift must be attributed the change in the national weapon and +the initiation of a leadership of resistance within the law, which has +lasted into modern times. Accident made Swift an Irishman, and a +chance attempt to circulate debased coins in Ireland for the benefit +of a debased but royal favorite made him a patriot. Swift drove out +Wood's halfpence at the pen-point. He shamed the government, he +checked the all-powerful Walpole, and he roused the manhood of Ireland +towards independence in legislation. He never realized what a position +history would give him. To himself he seemed a gloomy failure, to his +contemporaries a popular pamphleteer, but to posterity he is the +creator of public conscience in Ireland. He was the father of +patriotic journalism, and the first to defend Ireland's rights through +literature. Though his popularity was quenched in lunacy, his impress +upon Irish politics remains as powerful and lasting as upon English +literature.</p> + +<p>Within the so-called Irish parliament sprang forth the first of a +long line of orators, Henry Flood. He was the first to study the +Constitution for purposes of opposition. He attacked vice-regal +government in its own audit-house. Pension and corruption he laid +bare, and upon the people he breathed a spirit of independence. +Unfortunately he was not content with personal prominence. He accepted +office, hoping thereby to benefit Ireland. His voice became lost to +the higher cause, and another man rose in his stead, Henry Grattan. +The American war tested the rival champions of Liberty. Flood favored +sending Irish troops, "armed negotiators" he called them, to deal with +the revolted colonists. Grattan nobly reviled him for +standing—"with a metaphor in his mouth and a bribe in his +pocket, a champion against the rights of America, the only hope of +Ireland and the only refuge of the liberties of mankind." Flood +collapsed under his ignoble honors. He was not restored by returning +to patriotic opposition. Grattan's leadership proved permanent +politically and historically. His name connotes the high water-mark of +Irish statesmanship. The parliament which he created and whose rights +he defined became a standard, and his name a talisman and a challenge +to succeeding generations. The comparative oratory of Grattan and +Flood is still debated. Both after a manner were unique and +unsurpassed. Flood possessed staying power in sheer invective and +sustained reasoning. Grattan was fluent in epigram and most inspiring +when condensed, and he had an immense moral advantage. The parliament +which made him a grant was independent, but it was from one of +subservience that Flood drew his salary. Henceforth Grattan was +haunted by the jealous and discredited herald of himself. A great +genius, Flood lacked the keen judgment and careless magnanimity +without which leadership in Ireland brings misunderstanding and +disaster. In the English House he achieved total failure. Grattan +followed him after the Union, but retained the attention if not the +power of Dublin days. Neither influenced English affairs, and their +eloquence curiously was considered cold and sententious. Their +rhapsody appeared artificial, and their exposition labored. The +failure of these men was no stigma. What is called "Irish oratory" +arose with the inclusion of the Celtic under strata in politics.</p> + +<p>Burke's speeches were delivered to an empty house. Though he lived +out of Ireland and never became an Irish leader in Ireland, Burke had +an influence in England greater than that of any Irishman before or +since. The beauty and diction of his speech fostered future +parliamentary speaking. Macaulay, Gladstone, Peel, and Brougham were +suckled on him. His farthest reaching achievement was his treatment of +the French Revolution. His single voice rolled back that storm in +Europe. But no words could retard revolution in Ireland herself. Venal +government made the noblest conservative thinking seem treason to the +highest interests of the country. The temporary success of Grattan's +parliament had been largely won by the Volunteers. They had been +drilled, ostensibly against foreign invasion, but virtually to secure +reforms at home. Their power became one with which England had to +reckon, and which she never forgave. Lord Charlemont, their president, +was an estimable country gentleman, but not a national leader. A more +dashing figure appeared in the singular Earl of Bristol. Though an +Irish bishop and an English peer, he set himself in the front rank of +the movement, assuming with general consent the demeanor and trappings +of royalty. He would not have hesitated to plunge Ireland into war, +had he obtained Charlemont's position. But it was not so fated.</p> + +<p>After forcing parliamentary independence the Volunteers meekly +disbanded, and the United Irishmen took their place. The brilliancy of +Grattan's parliament never fulfilled national aspirations. Bristol was +succeeded by another recruit from the aristocracy—Lord Edward +Fitzgerald. With Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet he has become legendary. +All three attained popular canonization, for all three sealed their +brief leadership with death.</p> + +<p>Lord Edward was a dreamer, an Irish Bayard, too chivalrous to +conspire successfully and too frankly courageous to match a government +of guile. Tone was far more dangerous. He realized that foreign +invasion was necessary to successful rebellion, and he allowed no +scruple or obstacle in his path. He washed his hands of law and +politics entirely. To divert Napoleon to Ireland was his object and +the total separation of Ireland his ambition. The United Irishmen +favored the invasion, which the Volunteers had been formed to repel. +The feud between moral and physical force broke out. The failure of +the sterner policy in 1798 did not daunt Emmet from his ill-starred +attempt in 1803. He combined Lord Edward's chivalry with some +abilities worthy of Tone, but he failed. The failure he redeemed by a +swan-song from the dock and a demeanor on the scaffold which have +become part of Irish tradition.</p> + +<p>After the Union, Irish leaders sprang up in the English House, +which Pitt had unwittingly made the cockpit of the racial struggle. +Far from absorbing the Irish element, the Commons found themselves +forced to resist, rally, and finally succumb.</p> + +<p>The Irish House cannot be dismissed without mention of Curran. He +was a brilliant enemy of corruption and servility. O'Connell said +"there was never so honest an Irishman," which may account for his +greater success as a lawyer than a politician. To be an Irish leader +and a successful lawyer is given to no man. For the former the +sacrifice of a great career is needed. This sacrifice Daniel O'Connell +was prepared to make. His place in history will never be estimated, +for few have been so loved or hated, or for stronger reasons. Never +did a tribune rising to power lift his people to such sudden hope and +success. Never did a champion leave his followers at his death and +decline to more terrible despair. Friend and foe admit his immensity. +He was the greatest Irishman that ever lived or seemingly could live. +In his own person he contained the whole genius of the Celt. Ireland +could not hold his emotions, which overflowed into the world for +expression. He rose on the crest of a religious agitation, but, +Emancipation won, he had the foresight to associate the Irish cause +with the advent of Reform and Liberalism throughout Europe. He sounded +the notes of free-trade and anti-slavery. What he said in parliament +one day, Ireland re-echoed the next. To her he was all in all, her +hero and her prophet, her Messias and her strong deliverer. On the +continent he roughly personified Christian Democracy.</p> + +<p>In public oratory O'Connell introduced a new style. Torrential and +overwhelming as Flood and Grattan had never been, he proved more +successful if less polished. The exaggerations of Gaelic speech found +outburst in his English. Peel's smile was "the silver plate on a +coffin", Wellington "a stunted corporal", and Disraeli "the lineal +descendant of the impenitent thief."</p> + +<p>It sounds bombastic, but in those feudal forties it rang more +magnificent than war. Single-voiced he overawed the host of bigots, +dullards, and reactionaries. Unhappily, he let his people abandon +their native tongue, while teaching them how to balance the rival +parties in England, the latter a policy that has proved Ireland's +fortune since. He loosed the spirit of sectarianism in the tithe war, +and he crushed the Young Ireland movement, which bred Fenianism in its +death agony. But he made the Catholic a citizen. Results stupendous as +far-reaching sprang from his steps every way.</p> + +<p>The finest pen-sketch of O'Connell is by Mitchel, who says, +"besides superhuman and subterhuman passions, yet withal, a boundless +fund of masterly affectation and consummate histrionism, hating and +loving heartily, outrageous in his merriment and passionate in his +lamentation, he had the power to make other men hate or love, laugh or +weep, at his good pleasure."</p> + +<p>Yet during his lifetime there lived others worthy of national +leadership. O'Brien, Duffy, and Davis played their part in England as +well as in Ireland. Father Mathew founded the Temperance, as Feargus +O'Conor the Chartist, movement. And there was an orator who fascinated +Gladstone—Sheil.</p> + +<p>Father Mathew succeeded in keeping many millions of men sober +during the forties until the great Famine engulfed his work as it did +O'Connell's. To him is due, as a feature of Irish life, the brass band +with banners, which he originally organized as a +counter-intoxicant.</p> + +<p>Feargus O'Conor founded Radical Socialism in England. As the Lion +of Freedom, he enjoyed a popularity with English workmen approaching +that of O'Connell in Ireland. He ended in lunacy, but he had the +credit of forwarding peasant proprietorship far in advance of his +times.</p> + +<p>Sheil was a tragic orator—"an iambic rhapsodist", O'Connell +called him—who might have been leader, did not a greater +tragedian occupy the stage. And Sheil was content to be O'Connell's +organizer. Without O'Connell's voice or presence, he was his +rhetorical superior, excelling in irony and the by-plays of speech for +which O'Connell was too exuberant. Shell's speeches touch exquisite +though not the deep notes of O'Connell, whom he criticized for +"throwing out broods of sturdy young ideas upon the world without a +rag to cover them." He discredited his master and his cause by taking +office. The fruits of Emancipation were tempting to those who had +borne the heat of the day, but there was a rising school of patriots +who refused acquiescence to anything less than total freedom.</p> + +<p>The Young Irelanders reincarnated the men of "ninety-eight." They +were neither too late nor too soon. They snatched the sacred torch of +Liberty from the dying hands of O'Connell, who summoned in vain old +Ireland against his young rivals. But men like Davis and Duffy +appealed to types O'Connell never swayed. He could carry the mob, but +poet, journalist, and idealist were enrolled with Young Ireland. For +this reason the history of their failure is brighter in literature +than the tale of O'Connell's triumphs. To read Duffy's "Young Ireland" +and Mitchel's "Jail Journal", with draughts from the <i>Spirit of the +Nation</i>. is to relive the period. Without the Young Irelanders, +Irish Nationalism might not have survived the Famine.</p> + +<p>Mitchel, as open advocate of physical force, became father to +Fenianism. An honest conspirator and brilliant writer, he proved that +the pen of journalism was sharper than the Irish pike. Carlyle +described him as "a fine elastic-spirited young fellow, whom I grieved +to see rushing on destruction palpable, by attack of windmills." +Destruction came surely, but coupled with immortality. He was +transported as a felon before the insurrection, while his writings +sprang up in angry but unarmed men.</p> + +<p>Mitchel and O'Connell both sought the liberation of Ireland, but +their viewpoint differed. Mitchel thought only of Liberty; O'Connell +not unnaturally considered the "Liberator." His refusal to allow a +drop of blood to be shed caused Young Ireland to secede. Only when +death removed his influence could the pent-up feelings of the country +break out under Smith O'Brien. If Mitchel was an Irish Robespierre, +O'Brien was their Lafayette. His advance from the level of dead +aristocracy had been rapid. From defending Whigs in Parliament he +passed to opposition and "contempt of the House." He resigned from the +Bench from which O'Connell had been dismissed, became a Repealer, +adding the words "no compromise," and finally gloried in his treason +before the House. His next step brought a price upon his head.</p> + +<p>Grave and frigid, but inwardly warmhearted and passionate, O'Brien +had little aptitude for rebellion. But the death penalty (commuted to +transportation) which he incurred went far to redeem his forlorn +failure. Mitchel, who shared his Australian imprisonment, left a fine +picture of "this noblest of Irishmen, thrust in among the +off-scourings of England's gaols, with his home desolated and his +hopes ruined, and defeated life falling into the sere and yellow leaf. +A man, who cannot be crushed, or bowed, or broken; anchored immovably +upon his own brave heart within; his clear eye and soul open as ever +to all the melodies and splendors of heaven and earth, and calmly +waiting for the angel, Death."</p> + +<p>The Irish cause was not revived until the Fenian movement. Disgust +with the politicians drove the noblest into their ranks. In Stephens +they found an organizing chief, in Boyle O'Reilly a poet, and in John +O'Leary a political thinker, men who under other conditions had +achieved mundane success. The Fenians were defended by Isaac Butt, a +big-hearted, broad-minded lawyer, who afterwards organized a party to +convince Englishmen that Repeal was innocuous, when called "Home +Rule." The people stood his patient ways patiently, but when a more +desperate leader arrived they transferred allegiance, and Butt died of +a broken heart.</p> + +<p>Parnell took his place and began to marshal the broken forces of +Irish democracy against his own class. Butt had been a polite +parliamentarian, reverencing the courtesy of debate and at heart +loving the British Constitution. Parnell felt that his mission lay in +breaking rather than interpreting the law. The well-bred House stared +and protested when he defied their chosen six hundred. Parnell faced +them with their own marble callousness. He outdid them in political +cynicism and out-bowed them in frigid courtesy, while maintaining a +policy before which tradition melted and a time-honored system +collapsed. In one stormy decade he tore the cloak from the Mother of +Parliaments, reducing her to a plain-speaking democratic machine. +Through the breach he made, the English labor party has since +entered.</p> + +<p>He united priest and peasant, physical and moral force, under him. +He could lay Ireland under storm or lull at his pleasure. His +achievement equalled his self-confidence. He reversed the Irish land +system and threw English politics out of gear. With the balance of +power in his hand, he made Tory and Radical outbid each other for his +support. He was no organizer or orator, but he fascinated able men to +conduct his schemes, as Napoleon used his marshals. On a pregnant day +he equaled the achievement of St. Paul and converted Gladstone, who +had once been his gaoler. Gladstone became a Home Ruler, and +henceforth English politics knew no peace.</p> + +<p>Parnell stood for the fall and rise of many. Under his banner Irish +peasants became human beings with human rights. He felled the feudal +class in Ireland and undermined them in England. Incalculable forces +were set to destroy him. A forged letter in the <i>Times</i> classed +him with assassins, while an legal Commission was sent to try his +whole movement. It is history that his triumphant vindication was +followed by a greater fall. The happiness of Ireland was sucked into +the maelstrom of his ruin. He refused to retire from leadership at +Gladstone's bidding, and Ireland staggered into civil war. The end is +known—Parnell died as he had lived. Of his moral fault there is +no palliation, but it may be said he held his country's honor dearer +than his own, for he could not bear to see her win even independence +by obeying the word of an Englishman.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Lecky: Leaders of Irish Opinion; Mitchel: Jail Journal; Duffy: +Young Ireland; O'Brien: Life of Parnell; D'Alton: History of +Ireland.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T17"></a>IRISH HEROINES</h2> +<h4>By ALICE MILLIGAN</h4> + +<p>The worth and glory of a nation may well be measured and adjudged +by the typical character of its womanhood: not so much, I would say, +by the eminence attained to by rarely gifted, exceptionally developed +individuals, as by the prevalence of noble types at every period, and +amongst all classes of the community, and by their recurrence from age +to age under varying circumstances of national fortune.</p> + +<p>Judged by such a standard, Ireland emerges triumphant and points to +the roll of her chequered history, the story of her ancient race, with +confidence and pride. Gaze into the farthest vistas of her legendary +past, into the remotest eras of which tradition preserves a misty +memory, and the figure of some fair, noble woman stands forth +glimmering like a white statue against the gloom. At every period of +stern endeavor, through all the generations of recorded time, the +pages of our annals are inscribed with the names of mothers, sisters, +wives, not unworthy to stand there beside those of the world-renowned +heroes of the Gael.</p> + +<p>In the ancient tales of Ireland we read of great female physicians +and distinguished female lawyers and judges. There were +<i>ban-file</i>, or women-poets, who, like the <i>file</i>, were at +the same time soothsayers and poetesses, and there are other evidences +of the high esteem in which women were held. There can be no doubt, to +judge by the elaborate descriptions of garments in the saga-texts, +that the women were very skilful in weaving and needlework. The Irish +peasant girls of today inherit from them not a little of their gift +for lace-making and linen-embroidery. Ladies of the highest rank +practiced needlework as an accomplishment and a recreation. Some of +the scissors and shears they used have come to light in +excavations.</p> + +<p>In the stories of the loves of the ancient Irish, whether immortals +or mortals, the woman's role is the more accentuated, while in +Teutonic tradition man plays the chief part. Again, it has often been +remarked that the feminine interest is absent from the earlier heroic +forms of some literatures. Not so, however, in the earliest saga-texts +of the Irish. Many are the famous women to whom the old tales +introduce us and who stand out and compel attention like the +characters of the Greek drama. Everyone knows of the faithful Deirdre, +the heroine of the touching story of the "Exile of the Sons of +Usnech", and of her death; of the proud and selfish Medb. the +ambitious queen of Connacht, the most warlike and most expert in the +use of weapons of the women of the Gael—far superior in combat +and counsel to her husband, Ailill; of Emer, the faithful wife of +Cuchulainn; of Etain of the Horses (that was her name in Fairyland); +and of many others too numerous to mention.</p> + +<p>It is with the introduction of Christianity into Ireland that the +Irish woman came into her rightful place, and attained the +preponderating influence which she, ever since, has held among the +Celtic people. In the period which followed the evangelization of the +island many were the "women of worth" who upheld the honor and glory +of "Inisfail the Fair", and women were neither the less numerous nor +the less ardent who hung upon the lips of the Apostle of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Amid the galaxy of the saints, how lustrous, how divinely fair, +shines the star of Brigid, the shepherd maiden of Faughard, the +disciple of Patrick the Apostle, the guardian of the holy light that +burned beneath the oak-trees of Kildare! Over all Ireland and through +the Hebridean Isles, she is renowned above any other. We think of her, +moreover, not alone, but as the centre of a great company of +cloistered maidens, the refuge and helper of the sinful and sorrowful, +who found in the gospel that Patrick preached a message of consolation +and deliverance. Let it be remembered that the shroud of Patrick is +deemed to have been woven by Brigid's hand; that when she died, in +525, Columcille, the future apostle of Scotland, was a child of four. +So she stands midmost of that trilogy of saints whose dust is said to +rest in Down.</p> + +<p>Who that hears of Columcille will forget how He won that name, +"dove of the Church", because of his early piety, and that surely +bespeaks a mother's guiding care. Ethne, mother of Columcille, remains +a vague but picturesque figure, seen against the background of the +rugged heath-clad hills of Tir-Conal by the bright blue waters of +Gartan's triple lake. Her hearth-stone or couch is shown there to this +day, where once in slumber, before the birth of her son, she saw in a +glorious visionary dream a symbol of his future greatness. A vast veil +woven of sunshine and flowers seemed to float down upon her from +heaven: an exquisitely poetic thought, which gives us warrant to +believe that Columcille's poetic skill was inherited from his +mother.</p> + +<p>Ronnat, the mother of his biographer, St. Adamnan, plays a more +notable part in history, for, according to an ancient Gaelic text +recently published, it was to her that the women of Ireland owed the +royal decree which liberated them from military service. The story +goes that once, as she walked beside the Boyne, after some sanguinary +conflict, she came upon the bodies of two women who had fallen in +battle. One grasped a reaping hook, the other a sword, and dreadful +wounds disfigured them. Horrified at the sight, she brought strong +pressure to bear upon her son, and his influence in the councils of +the land availed to bring about the promulgation of the decree which +freed women from war-service.</p> + +<p>Our warrior kings had noble queens to rule their households, and of +these none stands out so distinctly after long lapse of time as +Gormlai, the daughter of Flann Siona, and wife of Nial Glondubh. Her +story has in it that element of romance which touches the heart and +wins the sympathy of all who hear it.</p> + +<p>Her father was king of the Meathan branch of the Clan Nial, and +<i>ard-ri</i> of Ireland for thirty-seven years. Nial Glondubh was +king of Tir-Eoghain, and heir of Flann in the high kingship, for at +that era it was the custom for the kings of Meath and of Tyrone to +hold the supreme power alternately. In order to knit north and south, +Flann betrothed his beautiful daughter to Cormac macCuillenan, king of +Cashel, an ideal husband, one would have thought, for a poetess like +Gormlai, for Cormac was the foremost scholar of the day; but his mind +was so set on learning and religion that he took holy orders and +became bishop-king of Cashel, repudiating his destined bride. Gormlai +was then given as wife to Cearbhail, king of Leinster, and war was +waged against Cormac who was killed in the battle of Ballymoon. Coming +home wounded, Cearbhail lay on his couch, and while tended by Gormlai +and her ladies told the story of the battle and boasted of having +insulted the dead body of King Cormac. Gormlai reproached him for his +ignoble conduct in such terms that his anger and jealousy flamed up, +and striking her with his fist he hurled her to the ground.</p> + +<p>Gormlai rose indignant and left his house forever, returning to the +palace of King Flann, and on Cearbhail's death she at last found a +true lover and worthy mate in Nial Glondubh, who brought her northward +to rule over the famous palace of Aileach. In 916 Nial became high +king, but the place of honor was also the place of danger, and soon he +led the mustered hosts of the north against the pagan foreigners, who +held Dublin and Fingal, and he fell in battle at Rathfarnham.</p> + +<p>A poem, preserved for us ever since, tells us that Gormlai was +present at his burial and chanted a funeral ode. Her long widowhood +was a period of disconsolate mourning. At length it is said she had a +dream or vision, in which King Nial appeared to her in such life-like +shape that she spread her arms to embrace him, and thus wounded her +breast against the carven head-post of her couch, and of that wound +she died.</p> + +<p>Many saintly, many noble, many hospitable and learned women +lightened the darkness that fell over Ireland after the coming of the +Normans.</p> + +<p>I pass to the time when a sovereign lady filled the throne of +England, "the spacious days of great Elizabeth," which were also the +period of Ireland's greatest, sternest struggle against a policy of +extermination towards her nobles and suppression of her ancient faith. +Amid all the heroes and leaders of that wondrous age in Ireland, there +appears, like a reincarnation of legendary Medb, a warlike queen in +Connacht, Grace O'Malley, "Granuaile" of the ballads. Instead of a +chariot, she mounts to the prow of a swift-sailing galley, and sweeps +over the wild Atlantic billows, from isle to isle, from coast to +coast, taking tribute (or is it plunder?) from the clans. First an +O'Flaherty is her husband, then a Norman Burke. In Clare Island they +show her castle tower, with a hole in the wall, through which they say +she tied a cable from her ship, ready by day or night for a summons +from her seamen. She voyaged as far as London town, and stood face to +face with the ruffed and hooped Elizabeth, meeting her offer of an +English title with the assertion that she was a princess in her own +land.</p> + +<p>The mother of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Ineen-dubh, though daughter of +the Scottish Lord of the Isles, was none the less of the old Irish +stock. Her character is finely sketched for us by the Franciscan +chronicler who wrote the story of the captivity and mighty deeds of +her son. When the clans of Tir-Conal assembled to elect the youthful +chieftain, he writes: "It was an advantage that she came to the +gathering, for she was the head of the advice and counsel of the +Cinel-Conail, and, though she was slow and deliberate and much praised +for her womanly qualities, she had the heart of a hero and the soul of +a soldier." Her daughter, Nuala, is the "woman of the piercing wail" +in Mangan's translation of the bard's lament for the death of the +Ulster chieftains in Rome.</p> + +<p>Modern critics like to interpret the "Dark Rosaleen" poem as an +expression of Red Hugh's devotion to Ireland, but I think that Rose, +O'Doherty's daughter, wife of the peerless Owen Roe, deserves +recognition as she whose</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="p">"Holy delicate white hands should girdle him with steel."</p> +</div> + +<p>The record has come down to us that she prompted and encouraged her +husband to return from the low-countries and a position of dignity in +a foreign court to command the war in Ireland, and in her first +letter, ere she followed him over sea, she asked eagerly: "How stands +Tir-Conal?" True daughter of Ulster was Owen's wife, so let us +henceforth acknowledge her as the <i>Roisin</i> dubh, "dark Rosaleen", +of the sublimest of all patriot songs.</p> + +<p>In the Cromwellian and Williamite wars, we see the mournful mothers +and daughters of the Gaeldom passing in sad procession to Connacht, or +wailing on Shannon banks for the flight of the "Wild Geese." But what +of Limerick wall, what of the valorous rush of the women of the +beleaguered city to stem the inroads of the besiegers and rally the +defenders to the breach? The decree of St. Adamnan was quite forgotten +then, and when manly courage for a moment was daunted, woman's +fortitude replaced and reinspired it.</p> + +<p>And fortitude was sorely needed through the black years that +followed—the penal days, when Ireland, crushed in the dust, +bereft of arms, achieved a sublimer victory than did even King Brian +himself, champion of the Cross, against the last muster of European +heathendom.</p> + +<p>Yes, her women have done their share in making Ireland what she is, +a heroic land, unconquered by long centuries of wrath and wrong, a +land that has not abandoned its Faith through stress of direst +persecution or bartered it for the lure of worldly dominion; +no—nor ever yielded to despair in face of repeated national +disaster.</p> + +<p>It was this fidelity to principle on the part of the Irish Catholic +people which won for them the alliance of all that were worthiest +among the Protestants of north and south in the days of the Volunteers +and the United Irishmen. What interesting and pathetic portraits of +Irishwomen are added to our roll at this period! None is more tenderly +mournful than that of Sarah Curran, the beloved of Robert Emmet. The +graceful prose of Washington Irving, the poignant verses of Moore, +have enshrined the memory of her, weeping for him in the shadow of the +scaffold, dying of heart-break at last in a far-off land. No more need +be said of her, for whom the pity of the whole world has been awakened +by song allied to sweetest, saddest music. What of Anne Devlin, +Emmet's faithful servant, helping in his preparations for +insurrection, aiding his flight, shielding him in hiding, even when +tortured, scourged, half-hanged by a brutal soldiery, with stern-shut +lips refusing to utter a word to compromise her "Master Robert"?</p> + +<p>What of the sister of Henry Joy McCracken, Mary, the friend and +fellow-worker with the Belfast United Irishmen? An independent, +self-reliant business woman, she earned the money which she gave so +liberally in the good cause, or to help the poor and distressed, +through the whole period of a long life. Some still living have seen +Mary passing along the streets of Belfast, an aged woman, clad in +sombre gown, to whom Catholic artisans raised their caps reverently, +remembering how in '98 she had walked hand in hand with her brother to +the steps of the scaffold, and how, in 1803, she had aided Thomas +Russell in his escape from the north after Emmet's failure, had bribed +his captors after arrest, provided for his defence, and preserved for +futurity a record of his dying words. Madden's <i>History of the +United Irishmen</i>, as far as it tells of the north, is mainly the +record that she kept as a sacred trust in letters, papers, +long-treasured memories of the men who fought and died to make Ireland +a united nation.</p> + +<p>And now a scene in America comes last to my mind. Wolfe Tone, a +political fugitive who has served Ireland well and come through danger +to safety, is busy laying the foundations of a happy and prosperous +future, with a beloved wife and sister and young children to brighten +his home. An estate near Princeton, New Jersey, has been all but +bought, possibilities of a career in the new republic open before him, +when a letter comes from Belfast, asking him to return to the post of +danger, to undertake a mission to France for the sake of Ireland. Let +his own pen describe what happened: "I handed the letter to my wife +and sister and desired their opinion.... My wife especially, whose +courage and whose zeal for my honor and interest were not in the least +abated by all her past sufferings, supplicated me to let no +consideration of her or our children stand for a moment in the way of +my duty to our country, adding that she would answer for our family +during my absence and that the same Providence which had so often, as +it were, miraculously preserved us would not desert us now."</p> + +<p>Inspired by the fortitude of this noble woman, Tone went forth on +his perilous mission, and similarly the Young Ireland leaders, Mitchel +and Smith O'Brien, were sustained by the courage of their nearest and +dearest. "Eva," the poetess of the <i>Nation</i>, gave her +troth-plight to one who had prison and exile to face ere he could +claim her hand. Other names recur to me—"Speranza", with her +lyric fire; Ellen O'Leary, fervent and still patient and wise; Fanny +Parnell and her sister.</p> + +<p>And what of the women of Ireland today? Shall they come short of +the high ideal of the past, falter and fail, if devotion and sacrifice +are required of them? Never: whilst they keep in memory and honor the +illustrious ones of whom I have written. The name of Irishwoman today +stands for steadfast virtue, for hospitality, for simple piety, for +cheerful endurance, and in a changing world let us trust it is the +will of God that in this there will be no change.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>On Ethne, mother of St. Columcille: The Visions, Miracles, and +Prophecies of St. Columba (Clarendon Press Series). On Ronnat: S. Mac +an Bhaird, Life (in Irish) of Adamnan (Letterkenny); Reeves, St. +Adamnan's Life of St. Columba; The Mother of St. Adamnan, an old +Gaelic text, ed. by Kuno Meyer (Berlin). On Gormlai: Thomas Concannon, +Gormflath (in Irish; The Gaelic League, Dublin). On Granuaile: +Elizabethan State Papers (Record Office Series); William O'Brien, A +Queen of Men. On Ineen-Dubh: O'Clery's Life of Red Hugh +(contemporary), ed. by Denis Murphy, S. J. (Dublin, 1894); Standish +O'Grady, The Flight of the Eagle, or Red Hugh's Captivity. On Rose, +wife of Owen Roe O'Neill, see references in Father Meehan's The Flight +of the Earls, and in Sir John Gilbert's History of the Confederate War +(Dublin, 1885). On the wife of Wolfe Tone, see Wolfe Tone's +Autobiography, ed. by R. Barry O'Brien (London, 1894). The American +edition has a fuller account of Tone's wife, her courage and devotion +in educating her son, and her interviews with Napoleon, and life in +America. The women of the United Irish period are fully dealt with in +K. R. Madden's Lives and Times of the United Irishmen. On Mary +McCracken, see Mrs. Milligan Fox, The Annals of the Irish Harpers. On +the women of the Young Ireland period, see C. Gavan Duffy's Young +Ireland (Dublin), and John O'Leary's Fenians and Fenianism. On the +women of Limerick, see Rev. James Dowd, Limerick and its Sieges +(Limerick, 1890). For the women under Cromwellian Plantation +persecutions and the Penal Laws, see Prendergast's Cromwellian +Settlement, Rev. Denis Murphy's Cromwell in Ireland, and R. R. +Madden's History of the Penal Laws.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T18"></a>IRISH NATIONALITY</h2> +<h4>By LORD ASHBOURNE</h4> + +<p> [NOTE.—This chapter was written by Lord Ashbourne in French, +because he is so strong an Irishman that he objects to write in +English. The translation has been made by the Editors.]</p> + +<p>To those of us who are interested in the future of our country +there is at this very moment presented a really serious problem. The +political struggle of the last century has been so intense that many +of our people have come to have none but a political solution in view. +For them the whole question is one of politics, and they will continue +to believe that Ireland will have found salvation the moment we get +Home Rule or something like it. Such an attitude seems natural enough +when we remember what our people have suffered in the past. +Nevertheless, on a little reflection, this error—for error it +is, and an enormous one, too—will be quickly dissipated. In the +first place, the political struggle of today is only the continuation +of a conflict which has lasted seven hundred years, and in point of +fact we have a right to be proud that after so many trials there still +remains to us anything of our national inheritance. We find ourselves +indeed on the battlefield somewhat seriously bruised, but we can +console ourselves with the thought that our opponent is in equally +doleful case, that he is beginning to suffer from a fatal weariness, +and that he is anxious to make peace with us.</p> + +<p>In order to place the present political situation in its true light +and to take into account its comparatively limited importance, we must +not lose sight of the fundamental fact that what Home Rule connotes is +rather a tender of peace on the part of Ireland than a gift which +England presents us of her own free will. In fact, our neighbor across +the Channel has as much interest as ourselves, and perhaps even more, +in bringing the struggle to an end. Through us, England has already +lost much prestige, and that famous British Constitution, which in +times past everyone admired while trying in vain to imitate it, has +lost caste considerably. I am not now speaking of the danger which an +Ireland discontented, and even hostile, and having nothing to lose, +would constitute for England in case of war. It is especially from our +neighbor's point of view that we can cry up Home Rule or any other +solution that will bring peace. But let us leave to Great Britain the +task of getting out of trouble as best she may. On our side, what +shall we say of it?</p> + +<p>In our conflict with the English we are not wearied; rather are we +hardened for the fray. We have acquired the habit of fighting, and +many of us can now scarcely regulate our conduct in a manner suitable +to a state of peace with England. Nevertheless, as I have already +said, we have not emerged unscathed from this war of the centuries. +National sentiment remains with us, no doubt, and our traditions are +not wholly lost, especially among the country people of the West. But +our commerce is almost ruined and the national language is no longer +spoken throughout the greater part of the country. It is true that a +continuation of the hitherto existing state of war cannot do us much +more harm; that for purposes of mere destruction all the advantages +are on our side; and that on the other hand we can begin a +reconstruction at home without waiting for a treaty of peace to be +signed. But we have some things to do for which a home government +would be useful to us, and further, in the absence of such a +government, it would be difficult to imagine what means could be +employed to turn the people away from their too exclusive absorption +in Anglo-Irish politics.</p> + +<p>It is, then, from a practical point of view that we wish for peace. +But, we may lawfully ask, will not this peace bring with it a special +danger, against which we ought to take precautions? As a matter of +fact, there is such a danger, and it lies in the fact that the people +have been to so great an extent obsessed by the political struggle +that they run the risk, once their end is attained, of collapsing and +of losing interest in the national question. Let us not forget that +that question is to save our language and our civilization; without +that, it is all over with our nationality. Let us endeavor to turn our +parliament to account in order to work seriously on the reconstruction +of our national life, and it is certain that Ireland will find therein +her salvation.</p> + +<p>We can, therefore, take advantage either of England's prolonged +resistance or of peace. If England decides to continue the contest, +she will suffer more from it than we. Her empire, her institutions, +her safety, will be more and more impaired, while, as for us, there +will result a strong growth in patriotism and in anti-British +bitterness. What we have to do, right now, is to take our bearings in +such a way that, no matter what happens to England, our own future +shall be assured. We can do it if we wish it: the question is, shall +we wish it?</p> + +<p>Here it may be objected, <i>Cui bono</i> The English language is +quite enough for us. We have it now and we speak it, sometimes, even +better than the English people themselves. We are proud of using the +same language as Sheridan, Burke, and Grattan used. Such an opinion +has its modicum of truth, though less now than a hundred years ago. +Formerly there was in Ireland, and especially around Dublin, a little +colony of Anglo-Irish. The members of this colony spoke a very pure +and classic English, and this fact is largely responsible for the +place which Ireland at one time held in English literature. But during +the last century the remains of this colony have been swamped beneath +a flood of half-Anglicized people, of Irishmen from the country +districts, who were formerly excluded, and who brought with them such +a mixture of expressions and of phonetic tendencies derived from the +Gaelic that the language of Grattan, Sheridan, and Burke has well-nigh +gone out of existence. The reason of this is that since the date of +Catholic emancipation, most careers are open to everybody. The result +has been that the newly enfranchised majority has ultimately absorbed +the minority, and that the atmosphere of culture, of which we have +just spoken, has disappeared. We thus reach an Ireland which, in a +sense, has neither culture nor language, a country in which the Gaelic +spoken by a people humiliated and deeply demoralized by an +anti-Catholic legislation, which was both savage and degrading, tended +to coalesce with an English already condemned to death. It is from the +moment when the Catholics had finally triumphed over persecution that +we must date the beginning of that political struggle with which we +are familiar, a struggle which has resulted in absorbing all the +energies of a great part of the population. That is why this +tremendous problem presents itself to us, at the very time when we +should be justified in feeling ourselves elated by triumph because of +our victories in parliament. And let not England rejoice too much at +our dilemma. If we are doomed to die, she will die with us, for before +disappearing we shall prove to be a great destructive force, and out +of the ruins of the British power we shall raise such a monument that +future generations will know what it costs to murder a nation.</p> + +<p>But, if possible, we must live and let live. The elements of +reconstruction are always at hand. Anglo-Irish culture is indeed dead, +but Gaelic culture is only seriously sick, and on that side there is +always room for hope. Sooth to say, its sickness consists above all in +the fact that the Irish language is no longer spoken in a great part +of the country. But, on the other hand, where it is preserved, that +same language is spoken in all its purity. By going there to find it +all Ireland will gradually become Gaelic.</p> + +<p>But, it will be objected, what a loss of time and energy! If it is +a question of languages, why not learn one of the more useful ones? To +this we may reply that, while English deforms the mouth and makes it +incapable of pronouncing any language which is not spoken from the tip +of the lips, Gaelic, on the contrary, so exercises the organs of +speech that it renders easy the acquisition and the practice of most +European idioms. Let us add, by way of example, that French, which is +usually difficult for strangers, is much more within the compass of +Irishmen who speak Irish, no less because of certain linguistic +customs than from the original relationship between the two +languages.</p> + +<p>This remark brings us to another objection which is often lodged +against our movement. It is urged that Ireland is already isolated +enough, and that by making it a Gaelic-speaking nation, we shall make +that state of affairs still worse. English, say the objectors, is +spoken more or less everywhere, while Gaelic will never be able to +claim the position of a quasi-universal language. To this line of +reasoning it might be answered, for one thing, that no one can tell +how far Gaelic will go, in case our movement is a success, and that +many a language formerly "universal" is today as dead as a door-nail. +But we must look at the question from another point of view. John +Bull's language is spread everywhere, while he himself retains the +most exclusive insularity. He travels to every land and there finds +his own language and his own customs. Now it goes without saying that +from this very universalization his language is corrupted and becomes +vulgarized. The idiom of Shakespeare and Milton gives place gradually +to the idiom of the seaports. Furthermore, far from isolating us, +Gaelic will tend to put us in touch with the civilization of the West. +As a people Anglicised, and badly Anglicised at that, we share, and +even exaggerate, the faults which I have just described. It is +Anglo-Saxon speech which isolates us, and we wish on this ground to +break with it and to hold out our hand to our brothers of the +continent.</p> + +<p>But, it may be said, what a pity to dig yet another abyss between +Ireland and Great Britain, for it is with the latter that our +geographical position will always link us for common defense. For, +while it is true that history does not show us a single case of an +empire which has not sooner or later fallen to pieces, nevertheless, +whatever happens, the two islands will be necessarily forced to +co-operate for the common good. Well, let us take it that things will +so fall out, and let us suppose an Anglicised Ireland called upon to +face such a situation. It would be a revolutionary Ireland, a restless +Ireland, an Ireland seeking vaguely for revenge on someone, deprived +of really national character, and, in a general way, suspecting +England of responsibility for the disappearance from our country of +everything that constitutes the idea of nationality. And let us remark +that we are no longer living in those good old times when entire +nations allowed themselves to be absorbed by their conquerors. The art +of printing has changed all that. Today a "suppressed" nation is one +that will sooner or later have its revenge. Thus let us suppose that +we are destined to make political peace with England and to enter of +our own accord into a Hiberno-Britannic confederation. From our point +of view, what would be the result of that arrangement? The result +would be strange. Here again, as in the case of Home Rule, it is +rather we who offer advantages to England than she who offers them to +us. Only, in this latter case, the result depends on ourselves alone. +If we die, it will be because we have wished it. Our language is not +dead; on the contrary, although not widely spread, it is in itself +much more alive than English, which as a literary language is in full +decay. We may congratulate ourselves that our idiom is intact. Our +civilization is old, but it has not yet lived its full life. If we +wish, the future is ours. And let us truly believe that that is worth +while, for the race which has produced epics like those of Ossian and +all that magnificent literature which has been preserved for us +through the ages, the race that gave to Europe that great impulse of +missionary activity which is associated with the names of Columcille, +Brendan, Columbanus, and Gall, not to mention men like the famous +Scotus Erigena—that race is certainly called upon to play an +important part in the modern world. But—let us repeat +it—it must have the wish.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T19"></a>FAMOUS IRISH SOCIETIES</h2> +<h4>By JOHN O'DEA,<br> +<i>National Historian, A.O.H.</i></h4> + +<p>In the social organization of no nation of antiquity were societies +of greater influence than in pagan Ireland. During many centuries +these societies, composed of the bards, ollamhs, brehons, druids, and +knights, contended for precedence. In no country did the literary +societies display greater vigor and exercise a more beneficent power +than in pagan Ireland. Although the Hebrews and other Asiatic nations +had societies organized from among the professions, yet in Ireland +alone these societies seem to have been constructed with a patriotic +purpose, and in Ireland alone they seem to have had ceremonies of +initiation, with constitutions and laws. These societies existed from +the earliest times until after the coming of St. Patrick. Traces of +them are visible during all the centuries from the conversion of +Ireland down to the Anglo-Norman epoch, and it is apparent that the +clan system and the introduction of the feudal system by the English +failed to eliminate completely their influence.</p> + +<p>When the Irish emigration flowed towards the American colonies in +the eighteenth century, the social instinct early found expression in +societies. One of the earliest of these was founded in Boston, where, +in 1737, twenty-six "gentlemen merchants and others, natives of +Ireland or of Irish extraction", organized the Charitable Irish +Society. In Pennsylvania, where the Irish emigration had been larger +than in any other colony, the Hibernian Fire Company was organized in +1751. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick was founded in Philadelphia in +1771, and about that time societies bearing this name were founded in +Boston and New York, as convivial clubs welcoming Irish emigrants to +their festive boards. These societies were formed upon the model of +the Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick, which had existed in Dublin and +other Irish cities a generation before, and was well and favorably +known throughout Ireland.</p> + +<p>The Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in Philadelphia +contained some of the most prominent merchants and leading citizens of +the city, and in 1780 they subscribed £103,000, or one-third of +the sum collected, to supply the Continental army with food. Among its +members were Commodore Barry, the Father of the American Navy; General +Stephen Moylan; General Anthony Wayne; and the great merchants, Blair +McClenachan, Thomas Fitzsimons, and Robert Morris. Washington, who was +an honorary member, described it "as a society distinguished for the +firm adherence of its members to the glorious cause in which we are +embarked." Whether upon the field or upon the sea, in council or in +the sacrifice of their wealth, their names are foremost in the crisis +of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland was +founded in Philadelphia on March 3, 1790. Other Hibernian Societies, +with the same title and organized for the same purpose, were founded +in other cities along the Atlantic coast in the early years of the +nineteenth century, but the Philadelphia Hibernian Society was, from +the character of its members, the extent of its beneficence, and the +length of its existence, the most famous. The emigrants from Ireland +during the eighteenth century had pushed on to the frontier, or, in +some instances, remained in the cities and engaged successfully in +mercantile pursuits. The emigration which came after the Revolution +was, however, in great part composed of families almost without means. +Unable to subsist while clearing farms in the virgin forest, thousands +were congested in the cities. The Hibernian Society extended a ready +and strong hand to these helpless people, and not only aided the +emigrants with gifts of money, but also secured for them employment, +disseminated among them useful information, and provided them with +medical attendance. While the Hibernian Society was regarded as the +successor of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, yet the two societies, +which contained largely a membership roll bearing the same names, +flourished, in the work of patriotism, side by side. The first +officers of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from +Ireland were: President, Chief Justice Thomas McKean; Vice-President, +General Walter Stewart; Secretary, Matthew Carey, the historian; +Treasurer, John Taylor. It was said that no other society in America +contained so many men distinguished in civil, military, and official +life as the Hibernian Society. In almost every city where the Friendly +Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society for the Relief of +Emigrants were found, there was a close and intimate connection +between them, which ultimately resulted in amalgamation.</p> + +<p>The Ancient Order of Hibernians traces its origin to those orders +which flourished in pagan Ireland, and which exercised so potent an +influence upon the history of the Celtic race. The order of knighthood +was the first of these orders to be founded. It existed from the +earliest times, and is visible in the annals of the nation, until the +Anglo-Normans invaded the land in the twelfth century. In pagan +Ireland the knightly orders became provincial standing armies, and +there are many glorious pages describing the feats of the Clanna +Deagha of Munster, the Clanna Morna of Connacht, the Feni of Leinster, +and the Knights of the Red Branch of Ulster. When the island was +Christianized, these knightly orders were among the staunchest +supporters of the missionary priests, and were consecrated to the +service of the church in the sixth century, assuming the cross as +their distinctive emblem, and becoming the defenders of religion.</p> + +<p>Among the names which are upon the rolls of the ancient orders of +knighthood are those of most of the kings, bards, saints, and +statesmen, and in the long list there was no family of greater renown +than that of Roderick the Great, to which belonged Conall Cearnach and +Lugaidh, who, according to MacGeoghegan and others, were the direct +ancestors of the O'Mores of Leix. In this family the ancient splendor +of the knightly orders was a tradition which survived for centuries, +and they were in almost continual rebellion against the English, from +the siege of Dublin by Roderick O'Connor until the rebellion against +Queen Elizabeth, led by Rory Oge O'More and his son Owen in the latter +part of the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century. A nephew of +Rory Oge, the sagacious and statesmanlike Rory O'More, revived the +ancient orders in the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny in 1642. A +grandson of Rory O'More, Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, was the +most distinguished commander of Irish armies who opposed, in Ireland, +the forces of William of Orange.</p> + +<p>There is no stranger story in all history than the intimate +connection of the O'More family with the annals of the Ancient Order +of Hibernians. The lineage of this family furnishes the links +connecting the ancient orders of pagan Ireland through the centuries +with the Ancient Order in modern times. Under the names of Rapparees, +Whiteboys, Defenders, Ribbonmen, etc., the Confederation of Kilkenny +was carried on through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until +the nineteenth. At various times the duties of these organizations +were subject to local conditions. Thus the Defenders were occupied in +protecting themselves and their priests against the hostility of the +Penal Laws, engaging in armed conflict with the Orangemen in the +north, while the Whiteboys were waging war against the atrocities of +landlordism in the south. Between these two organizations there was a +secret code, which operated until they were combined, under the name +of Ribbonmen, in the early nineteenth century. The contentions of the +Whiteboys regarding Irish landlordism have since been acknowledged to +be just, and have been enacted into statutes. The Defenders joined +with Wolfe Tone in the formation of the United Irishmen.</p> + +<p>About 1825 the Ribbonmen changed their name to St. Patrick's +Fraternal Society, and branches were established in England and +Scotland under the name of the Hibernian Funeral Society. In 1836 a +charter was received by members in New York City, and in Schuylkill +County, Pennsylvania. The headquarters were for some years in +Pennsylvania, but in 1851 a charter was granted to the New York +Divisions under the name of "The Ancient Order of Hibernians." New +York thus became the American headquarters. National conventions were +held there until 1878, since which year they have been held in many +other cities biennially. Many of the most distinguished leaders of the +Irish race in America have been members of the Order, and from a +humble beginning, with a few emigrants gathered together in a strange +land, the membership has grown to nearly 200,000. General Thomas +Francis Meagher, Colonel Michael Doheny, General Michael Corcoran, and +Colonel John O'Mahony were among the members in the late '50's.</p> + +<p>Among the organizations which have sprung from the ranks of the +A.O.H. were the powerful Fenian Brotherhood, the Emmet Monument +Association, and scores of smaller associations in all sections of the +United States and Canada. During the Know Nothing riots, the Order +furnished armed defenders for the Catholic churches in New York, +Philadelphia, and Charleston, and it has ever been foremost in +preserving its position as the hereditary defender of the faith. In +1894, the Ladies' Auxiliary was founded, and this body of women +numbered in 1914 over 63,000, and had donated great sums to charity, +education, and religion. The A.O.H. had, in 1914, assets of +$2,230,000. It pays annually, for charity, sick and death benefits, +and maintenance, over $1,000,000, and during its existence in America +has donated nearly $20,000,000 to works of beneficence. One of the +most celebrated of the gifts of the Order was the endowment of the +Chair of Celtic in the Catholic University of America, and one of its +greatest gifts to charity was its contribution of $40,000 to the +sufferers from the San Francisco earthquake.</p> + +<p>The Clan-na-Gael is a society organized to secure the independence +of Ireland by armed revolution. Its organization is secret and it is +the successor of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, called in +America the Fenian Brotherhood, which promoted many daring raids and +risings in Ireland in 1867. The I.R.B. was perfected by James Stephens +in Ireland, and by John O'Mahony in America, from 1857 to 1867. An +invasion of Canada was made in great force under the general direction +of Colonel William R. Roberts, president of the Fenian Brotherhood, +but was unsuccessful owing to the attitude of the United States +Government, which declared that the Fenians were violating the +principles of neutrality. After the disorganization of the Fenian +Brotherhood, the idea of revolution languished until revived by the +founding of the Clan-na-Gael by Jerome J. Collins in 1869, and the +membership during the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 included almost +fifty thousand of the flower of the men of Irish blood in America. The +principle of revolution was first given organized public expression in +America through the formation in 1848 of the Irish Republican Union, +which was succeeded by the Emmet Monument Association, these societies +influencing the creation of the Sixty-Ninth and Seventy-Fifth +Regiments of the New York State Militia, and the Ninth Massachusetts, +which became so famous for valor during the Civil War. Although not +putting forth all its strength, so as to allow full scope to the +parliamentary efforts to ameliorate the state of the Irish people, the +Clan-na-Gael is as vigorous a section as ever of the forces organized +for the service of patriotism.</p> + +<p>The Land League, founded in Ireland in 1879, was transplanted to +America in 1880, when the first branch was established in New York +City through the efforts of Patrick Ford, John Boyle O'Reilly, John +Devoy, and others. Michael Davitt soon after came to America and +travelled through the country founding branches of the League. In a +few years the whole American continent was organized, and in this +organization Michael Davitt declared that the members of the Ancient +Order of Hibernians and the Clan-na-Gael were everywhere foremost. To +the enormous sums collected by the League in this country, and to the +magnificent labors of Parnell, Davitt, Redmond, Ferguson, Dillon, +Kettle, Webb, and others in Ireland, is due in a large measure the +present improved state of the people, resulting from the sacrifices +made by those who supported this greatest of leagues devoted to the +amelioration of unbearable economic conditions. A Ladies' Auxiliary to +the Land League was established by the sisters of Parnell, and was for +some years a brilliant vindication of the power and justice of +feminine participation in public questions.</p> + +<p>The Land League, the name of which was changed to the Irish +National League in the early '80's, having prepared the path to +eventual victory, declined in potency after the political movement was +divided into Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites in 1890. The elements +composing these rival parties were, through the initiative of William +O'Brien, M.P., and in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary +of the United Irishmen of Wolfe Tone's day, joined in 1898 under the +name of the United Irish League, John E. Redmond becoming the first +president, and also the chairman of the Parliamentary Party which it +had been instrumental in uniting. This organization is now a living, +vital force in the affairs of Ireland on both sides of the Atlantic, +Mr. Redmond being still its head, with Michael J. Ryan, of +Philadelphia, as president of the American Branch.</p> + +<p>The Knights of Columbus were organized in 1881 by Rev. Michael +McGivney, in New Haven, Connecticut, and a charter was granted by the +Connecticut Legislature on March 29,1882. At first the activity of the +organization was confined to Connecticut, but the time was ripe for +its mission, and it soon spread rapidly throughout New England. In +1896 it began to attract the attention of Catholic young men in other +parts of the nation, and during the next few years its appeal was made +irresistibly in almost every State. It now exists in all the States of +the Union, the Dominion of Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Panama, +Porto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, and the Philippine Islands, with a total +membership of 328,000, of whom 108,000 are insurance members and +220,000 associate members. Its mortuary reserve fund is $4,500,000, +being over $1,000,000 more than is required by law. It is one of the +most successful fraternal societies ever organized, and the +Irish-American Catholics have given to it the full strength of their +enthusiasm and purpose.</p> + +<p>The temperance movement among Catholics was, from the visit of +Father Mathew in 1849, largely Irish. The societies first formed were +united by no bond until 1871, when the Connecticut societies formed a +State Union. Other States formed unions and a national convention in +Baltimore in 1872 created a National Union. In 1878 there were 90,000 +priests, laymen, women, and children in the Catholic Total Abstinence +Benevolent Union. In 1883 the Union was introduced into Canada, and in +1895 there were 150,000 members on the American continent. From the +C.T.A.B.U. were formed the Knights of Father Mathew, a total +abstinence and semi-military body, first instituted in St. Louis in +1872.</p> + +<p>The Catholic Knights of America, with a membership chiefly +Irish-American, were organized in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1877, and the +advantages offered for insurance soon attracted 20,000 members. The +decade of the '70's was prolific of Irish Catholic associations. The +Catholic Benevolent Legion was founded in 1873, shortly followed by +the Catholic Mutual Benevolent Association, the Catholic Order of +Foresters (which started in Massachusetts and spread to other States), +the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, and the Society of the Holy Name, +which latter, although tracing its origin to Lisbon in 1432, is yet +dominantly Irish in America.</p> + +<p>In the large industrial centres there are scores of Irish county +and other societies composed of Irishmen and Irish-Americans, +organized for the service of country and faith, beneficence and +education, and all dedicated to the uplifting of humanity and to the +progress of civilization. The ancient genius for organization has not +been lost, the spirit of brotherhood pulsates strongly in the Irish +heart, and through its powerful societies the race retains its place +in the advance of mankind.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>John M. Campbell: History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and +Hibernian Society; Maguire: The Irish in America; McGee: Irish +Settlers in America; John O'Dea: History of the Ancient Order of +Hibernians and Ladies' Auxiliary in America; Michael Davitt: The Fall +of Feudalism in Ireland; Cashman: Life of Michael Davitt; T.P. +O'Connor: The Parnell Movement; Joseph Denieffe: Recollections of the +Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood; Articles in the Catholic +Encyclopedia; Report of the Knights of Columbus, 1914; The Tidings, +Los Angeles, 7th annual edition.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T20"></a>THE IRISH IN THE UNITED STATES</h2> +<h4>By MICHAEL J. O'BRIEN,<br> +<i>Historiographer, American Irish Historical Society</i>.</h4> + +<p>Students of early American history will find in the Colonial +records abundant evidence to justify the statement of Ramsay, the +historian of South Carolina, when he wrote in 1789, that:</p> + +<p>"The Colonies which now form the United States may be considered as +Europe transplanted. Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Germany, +Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, and Italy furnished the original +stock of the present population, and are generally supposed to have +contributed to it in the order named. For the last seventy or eighty +years, no nation has contributed so much to the population of America +as Ireland."</p> + +<p>It will be astonishing to one who looks into the question to find +that, in face of all the evidence that abounds in American annals, +showing that our people were here on this soil fighting the battles of +the colonists, and in a later day of the infant Republic, thus proving +our claim to the gratitude of this nation, America has produced men so +ignoble and disingenuous as to say that the Irish who were here in +Revolutionary days "were for the most part heartily loyal," that "the +combatants were of the same race and blood", and that the great +uprising became, in fact, "a contest between brothers"!</p> + +<p>Although many writers have made inquiries into this subject, nearly +all have confined themselves to the period of the Revolution. We are +of "the fighting race", and in our enthusiasm for the fighting man the +fact seems to have been overlooked that in other noble fields of +endeavor, and in some respects infinitely more important, men of Irish +blood have occupied prominent places in American history, for which +they have received but scant recognition. The pioneers before whose +hands the primeval forests fell prostrate; the builders, by whose +magic touch have sprung into existence flourishing towns and cities, +where once no sounds were heard save those of nature and her wildest +offspring; the orators who roused the colonists into activity and +showed them the way to achieve their independence; the schoolmasters +who imparted to the American youth their first lessons in +intellectuality and patriotism; all have their place in history, and +of these we can claim that Ireland furnished her full quota to the +American colonies.</p> + +<p>It must now be accepted as an indisputable fact that a very large +proportion of the earliest settlers in the American colonies were of +Irish blood, for the Irish have been coming here since the beginning +of the English colonization. It has been estimated by competent +authorities that in the middle of the seventeenth century the +English-speaking colonists numbered 50,000. Sir William Petty, the +English statistician, tells us that during the decade from 1649 to +1659 the annual emigration from Ireland to the western continent was +upwards of 6000, thus making, in that space of time, 60,000 souls, or +about one-half of what the whole population must have been in 1659. +And from 1659 to 1672 there emigrated from Ireland to America the +yearly number of 3000 (Dobbs, on Irish Trade, Dublin, 1729). +Prendergast, another noted authority, in the <i>Cromwellian Settlement +of Ireland</i>, furnishes ample verification of this by the statistics +which he quotes from the English records. Richard Hakluyt, the +chronicler of the first Virginia expeditions, in his <i>Voyages, +Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation</i> +(London, 1600), shows that Irishmen came with Raleigh to Virginia in +1587 and, in fact, the ubiquitous Celts were with Sir John Hawkins in +his voyage to the Gulf of Mexico twenty years earlier. The famous work +of John Camden Hotten, entitled "The Original Lists of Persons of +Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men +sold for a term of years," etc., who were brought to the Virginia +plantations between 1600 and 1700, as well as his "List of the Livinge +and the Dead in Virginia in 1623," contains numerous Celtic names, and +further evidence of these continuous migrations of the Irish is +contained in "A Booke of Entrie for Passengers passing beyond the +Seas", in the year 1632. The Virginia records also show that as early +as 1621 a colony of Irish people sailed from Cork in the +<i>Flying Harte</i> under the patronage of Sir William Newce and +located at what is now Newport News, and some few years later Daniel +Gookin, a merchant of Cork, transported hither "great multitudes of +people and cattle" from England and Ireland.</p> + +<p>In the "William and Mary College Quarterly," in the transcripts of +the original records published by the Virginia Historical Society, and +in all County histories of Virginia, there are numerous references to +the Irish "redemptioners" who were brought to that colony during the +seventeenth century. But the redemptioners were not the only class who +came, for the colonial records also contain many references to +Irishmen of good birth and education who received grants of land in +the colony and who, in turn, induced many of their countrymen to +emigrate. Planters named McCarty, Lynch, O'Neill, Sullivan, Farrell, +McDonnell, O'Brien, and others denoting an ancient Irish lineage +appear frequently in the early records. Much that is romantic is found +in the lives of these men and their descendants. Some of them served +in the Council chamber and the field, their sons and daughters were +educated to hold place, with elegance and dignity, with the foremost +of the Cavaliers, and when in after years the great conflict with +England began, Virginians of Irish blood were among the first and the +most eager to answer the call. Those historians who claim that the +South was exclusively an "Anglo-Saxon" heritage would be completely +disillusioned were they to examine the lists of Colonial and +Revolutionary troops of Celtic name who held the Indians and the +British at bay, and who helped in those "troublous times" to lay the +foundations of a great Republic.</p> + +<p>There is no portion of the Atlantic seaboard that did not profit by +the Irish immigrations of the seventeenth century. We learn from the +"Irish State Papers" of the year 1595 that ships were regularly plying +between Ireland and Newfoundland, and so important was the trade +between Ireland and the far-distant fishing banks that "all English +ships bound out always made provisions that the convoy out should +remain 48 hours in Cork." In some of Lord Baltimore's accounts of his +voyages to Newfoundland he refers to his having "sailed from Ireland" +and to his "return to Ireland," and so it is highly probable that he +settled Irishmen on his Avalon plantations. After Baltimore's +departure, Lord Falkland also sent out a number of Irish colonists, +and "at a later date they were so largely reinforced by settlers from +Ireland that the Celtic part of the population at this day is not far +short of equality in numbers with the Saxon portion"—(Hatton and +Harvey, <i>History of Newfoundland</i>, page 32). Pedley attributes +the large proportion of Irishmen and the influence of the Catholics in +Newfoundland to Lord Falkland's company, and Prowse, in his History +(pp. 200-201), refers to "the large number of Irishmen" in that colony +who fled from Waterford and Cork "during the troubled times" which +preceded the Williamite war (1688). Many of these in after years are +known to have settled in New England.</p> + +<p>But it was to Maryland and Pennsylvania that the greatest flow of +Irish immigration directed its course. In the celebrated "Account of +the Voyage to Maryland," written in the year 1634 by Mutius +Vitellestis, the general of the Jesuit Order, it is related that when +the <i>Arke</i> and the <i>Dove</i> arrived in the West Indies in that +year, they found "the island of Montserrat inhabited by a colony of +Irishmen who had been banished from Virginia on account of their +professing the Catholic faith." It is known also that there were many +families in Ireland of substance and good social standing who, at +their own expense, took venture in the enterprise of Lord Baltimore +and afterwards in that of William Penn, and who applied for and +received grants of land, which, as the deeds on record show, were +afterwards divided into farms bought and settled by O'Briens, +McCarthys, O'Connors, and many others of the ancient Gaelic race, the +descendants of those heroic men whose passion for liberty, while +causing their ruin, inspired and impelled their sons to follow +westward "the star of empire."</p> + +<p>After the first English colonies in Maryland were founded, we find +in all the proclamations concerning these settlements by the +proprietary government, that they were limited to "persons of British +or Irish descent." The religious liberty established in Maryland was +the magnet which attracted Irish Catholics to that Province, and so +they came in large numbers in search of peace and comfort and freedom +from the turmoil produced by religious animosities in their native +land. The major part of this Irish immigration seems to have come in +through the ports of Philadelphia and Charleston and a portion through +Chesapeake Bay, whence they passed on to Pennsylvania and the southern +colonies.</p> + +<p>The "Certificates of Land Grants" in Maryland show that it was +customary for those Irish colonists to name their lands after places +in their native country, and I find that there is hardly a town or +city in the old Gaelic strongholds in Ireland that is not represented +in the nomenclature of the early Maryland grants. One entire section +of the Province, named the "County of New Ireland" by proclamation of +Lord Baltimore in the year 1684, was occupied wholly by Irish +families. This section is now embraced in Cecil and Harford Counties. +New Ireland County was divided into three parts, known as New +Connaught, New Munster, and New Leinster. New Connaught was founded by +George Talbot from Roscommon, who was surveyor-general of the +Province; New Munster, by Edward O'Dwyer from Tipperary; and New +Leinster, by Bryan O'Daly from Wicklow, all of whom were in Maryland +prior to 1683. Among the prominent men in the Province may be +mentioned Charles O'Carroll, who was secretary to the proprietor; John +Hart from county Cavan, who was governor of Maryland from 1714 to +1720; Phillip Conner from Kerry, known in history as the "Last +Commander of Old Kent"; Daniel Dulany of the O'Delaney family from +Queen's County, one of the most famous lawyers in the American +Colonies; Michael Tawney or Taney, ancestor of the celebrated judge, +Roger Brooke Taney; the Courseys from Cork, one of the oldest families +in the State; the Kings from Dublin; and many others.</p> + +<p>The only place in the State bearing a genuine Irish name which has +reached any prominence is Baltimore. Not alone has the "Monumental +City" received its name from Ireland, but the tract of land on which +the city is now situate was originally named (in 1695) "Ely +O'Carroll," after the barony of that name in King's and Tipperary +counties, the ancient home of the Clan O'Carroll. To subdivisions of +the tract were given such names as Dublin, Waterford, Tralee, Raphoe, +Tramore, Mallow, Kinsale, Lurgan, Coleraine, Tipperary, Antrim, +Belfast, Derry, Kildare, Enniskillen, Wexford, Letterkenny, Lifford, +Birr, Galway, Limerick, and so on, all indicating the nationality of +the patentees, as well as the places from which they came.</p> + +<p>From such sources is the evidence available of the coming of the +Irish to Maryland in large numbers, and so it is that we are not +surprised to find on the rosters of the Maryland Revolutionary +regiments 4633 distinctive Irish names, exclusive of the large numbers +who joined the navy and the militia, as well as those who were held to +guard the frontier from Indian raids, whose names are not on record. +However, it is not possible now to determine the proportion of the +Revolutionary soldiers who were of Irish birth or descent, for where +the nationality is not stated in the rosters all non-Irish names must +be left out of the reckoning. The first census of Maryland (1790), +published by the United States Government, enumerates the names of all +"Heads of Families" and the number of persons in each family. A count +of the Irish names shows approximately 21,000 persons. This does not +take into account the great number of people who could not be recorded +under that head, as it is known there were many thousand Irish +"redemptioners" in Maryland prior to the taking of the census, and +while no precise data exist to indicate the number of Irish immigrants +who settled in Maryland, I estimate that the number of people of Irish +descent in the State in 1790 was not far short of 40,000.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>The Land Records and Council Journals of Georgia of the last half +of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century afford +like testimony to the presence of the Irish, who crossed the sea and +colonized the waste places of that wild territory, and whose +descendants in after years contributed much of the strength of the +patriot forces who confronted the armed cohorts of Carleton and +Cornwallis. From the Colonial Records of Georgia, published under the +auspices of the State Legislature, I have extracted a long list of +people of Irish name and blood who received grants of land in that +colony. They came with Oglethorpe as early as 1735 and continued to +arrive for many years. It was an Irishman named Mitchell who laid out +the site of Atlanta, the metropolis of the South; an O'Brien founded +the city of Augusta; and a McCormick named the city of Dublin, +Georgia.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>From the records of the Carolinas we obtain similar data, many of +an absorbingly interesting character, and the number of places in that +section bearing names of a decidedly Celtic flavor is striking +evidence of the presence of Irish people, the line of whose +settlements across the whole State of North Carolina may be traced on +the high roads leading from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Hawk, one of +the historians of North Carolina, refers to the "Irish Romanists" who +were resident in that Province as early as 1700, and Williamson says +that "the most numerous settlers in the northwestern part of the +Province during the first half of the eighteenth century were from +Ireland." The manuscript records in the office of the Secretary of +State refer to "a ship load of immigrants" who, in the year 1761, came +to the Carolinas from Dublin. The names of the Irish pioneers in the +Carolinas are found in every conceivable connection, in the parochial +and court records, in the will books, in the minutes of the general +Assembly, in the quaint old records of the Land and Registers' +offices, in the patents granted by the colonial Government, and in +sundry other official records. In public affairs they seem to have had +the same adaptability for politics which, among other things, has in +later days brought their countrymen into prominence. Florence +O'Sullivan from Kerry was surveyor-general of South Carolina in 1671. +James Moore, a native of Ireland and a descendant of the famous Irish +chieftain, Rory O'More, was governor of South Carolina in 1700; +Matthew Rowan from Carrickfergus was president of the North Carolina +Council during the term of office of his townsman, Governor Arthur +Dobbs (1754 to 1764); John Connor was attorney-general of the Province +in 1730, and was succeeded in turn by David O'Sheall and Thomas +McGuire. Cornelius Hartnett, Hugh Waddell, and Terence Sweeny, all +Irishmen, were members of the Court, and among the members of the +provincial assembly I find such names as Murphy, Leary, Kearney, +McLewean, Dunn, Keenan, McManus, Ryan, Bourke, Logan, and others +showing an Irish origin. And, in this connection, we must not overlook +Thomas Burke, a native of "the City of the Tribes", distinguished as +lawyer, soldier, and statesman, who became governor of North Carolina +in 1781, as did his cousin Aedanus Burke, also from Galway, who was +judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina in 1778. John Rutledge, +son of Dr. John Rutledge from Ireland, was governor of South Carolina +in 1776 and his brother Edward became governor of the State in +1788.</p> + +<p>But there were Irishmen in the Carolinas long before the advent of +these, and indeed Irish names are found occasionally as far back as +the records of those colonies reach. They are scattered profusely +through the will books and records of deeds as early as 1676 and down +to the end of the century, and in a list of immigrants from Barbados +in the year 1678, quoted by John Camden Hotten in the work already +alluded to, we find about 120 persons of Irish name who settled in the +Carolinas in that year. In 1719, 500 persons from Ireland transported +themselves to Carolina to take the benefit of an Act passed by the +Assembly by which the lands of the Yemmassee Indians were thrown open +to settlers, and Ramsay (<i>History of South Carolina</i>, vol. I, +page 20) says: "Of all countries none has furnished the Province with +so many inhabitants as Ireland."</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>In the Pennsylvania records one is also struck with the very +frequent mention of Irish names. William Penn had lived in Ireland for +several years and was acquainted with the sturdy character of its +people, and when he arrived on board <i>The Welcome</i> in 1682 he had +with him a number of Irishmen, who are described as "people of +property and people of consequence." In 1699 he brought over a +brilliant young Irishman, James Logan from Lurgan, who for nearly half +a century occupied a leading position in the Province and for some +time was its governor. But the first Irish immigration to Pennsylvania +of any numerical importance came in the year 1717. They settled in +Lancaster County. "They and their descendants," says Rupp, an +impartial historian, "have always been justly regarded as among the +most intelligent people in the County and their progress will be found +to be but little behind the boasted efforts of the Colony of +Plymouth." In 1727, as the records show, 1155 Irish people arrived in +Philadelphia and in 1728 the number reached the high total of 5600. +"It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants hither," wrote +Secretary Logan to the provincial proprietors in 1729, "for last week +not less than six ships arrived. The common fear is that if they +continue to come they will make themselves proprietors of the +Province" (Rupp's <i>History of Dauphin County</i>).</p> + +<p>The continuous stream of Irish immigration was viewed with so much +alarm by the Legislature, that in 1728 a law was passed "against these +crowds of Irish papists and convicts who are yearly powr'd upon +us"—(the "convicts" being the political refugees who fled from +the persecutions of the English Government!). But the operations of +this statute were wholly nullified by the captains of the vessels +landing their passengers at Newcastle, Del., and Burlington, N, J., +and, as one instance of this, I find in the Philadelphia <i>American +Weekly Mercury</i> of August 14, 1729, a statement to this effect: "It +is reported from Newcastle that there arrived there this last week +about 2000 Irish and an abundance more daily expected." This +expectation was realized, for according to "An Account of Passengers +and Servants landed in Philadelphia between December 25, 1728, and +December 25, 1729", which I find in the <i>New England Weekly +Journal</i> for March 30, 1730, the number of Irish who came in via +the Delaware river in that year was 5655, while the total number of +all other Europeans who arrived during the same period was only 553. +Holmes, in his <i>Annals of America</i>, corroborates this. The +Philadelphia newspapers down to the year 1741 also contained many +similar references, indicating that the flood of Irish immigration was +unceasing and that it was at all times in excess of that from other +European countries. Later issues of the <i>Mercury</i> also published +accounts of the number of ships from Ireland which arrived in the +Delaware, and from these it appears that from 1735 to 1738 "66 vessels +entered Philadelphia from Ireland and 50 cleared thereto." And in the +<i>New York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy</i> of the years 1750 to 1752, +I find under the caption, "Vessels Registered at the Philadelphia +Custom House," a total of 183 ships destined from or to Ireland, or an +average of five sailings per month between Irish ports and the port of +Philadelphia alone. A careful search fails to disclose any record of +the number of persons who came in these ships, but, from the fact that +it is stated that all carried passengers as well as merchandise from +Irish ports, we may safely assume that the "human freight" must have +been very large.</p> + +<p>Spencer, in his <i>History of the United States</i>, says: "In the +years 1771 and 1772 the number of emigrants to America from Ireland +was 17,350, almost all of whom emigrated at their own expense. A great +majority of them consisted of persons employed in the linen +manufacture or farmers possessed of some property, which they +converted into money and brought with them. Within the first fortnight +of August, 1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 3500 immigrants from +Ireland. As most of the emigrants, particularly those from Ireland and +Scotland, were personally discontent with their treatment in Europe, +their accession to the colonial population, it might reasonably be +supposed, had no tendency to diminish or counteract the hostile +sentiments toward Britain which were daily gathering force in +America." Marmion, in his <i>Ancient and Modern History of the +Maritime Ports of Ireland</i>, verifies this. He says that the number +of Irish who came during the years 1771, 1772, and 1773 was 25,000. +The bulk of these came in by way of Philadelphia and settled in +Pennsylvania and the Virginias.</p> + +<p>The Irish were arriving in the Province in such great numbers +during this period as to be the cause of considerable jealousy on the +part of other settlers from continental Europe. They were a vigorous +and aggressive element. Eager for that freedom which was denied them +at home, large numbers of them went out on the frontier. While the +war-whoop of the savage still echoed within the surrounding valleys +and his council fires blazed upon the hills, those daring adventurers +penetrated the hitherto pathless wilderness and passed through +unexampled hardships with heroic endurance. They opened up the roads, +bridged the streams, and cut down the forests, turning the wilderness +into a place fit for man's abode. With their sturdy sons, they +constituted the skirmish line of civilization, standing as a bulwark +against Indian incursions into the more prosperous and populous +settlements between them and the coast. From 1740 down to the period +of the Revolution, hardly a year passed without a fresh infusion of +Irish blood into the existing population, and, as an indication that +they distributed themselves all over the Province, I find, in every +Town and County history of Pennsylvania and in the land records of +every section, Irish names in the greatest profusion. They settled in +great numbers chiefly along the Susquehanna and its tributaries; they +laid out many prosperous settlements in the wilderness of western +Pennsylvania, and in these sections Irishmen are seen occupying some +of the foremost and most coveted positions, and their sons in after +years contributed much to the power and commercial greatness of the +Commonwealth. They are mentioned prominently as manufacturers, +merchants, and farmers, and in the professions they occupied a place +second to none among the natives of the State. In several sections, +they were numerous enough to establish their own independent +settlements, to which they gave the names of their Irish home places, +several of which are preserved to this day. It is not to be wondered +at then that General Harry Lee named the Pennsylvania line of the +Continental army, "the Line of Ireland"!</p> + +<p>Ireland gave many eminent men to the Commonwealth, among whom may +be mentioned: John Burns, its first governor after the adoption of the +Constitution, who was born in Dublin; George Bryan, also a native of +Dublin, who was its governor in 1788; James O'Hara, one of the +founders of Pittsburgh; Thomas FitzSimmons, a native of Limerick, +member of the first Congress under the Constitution which began the +United States Government and father of the policy of protection to +American industries; Matthew Carey from Dublin, the famous political +economist; and many others who were prominent as nation-builders in +the early days of the "Keystone State."</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>While the historians usually give all the credit to England and to +Englishmen for the early colonization of New England, whose results +have been attended with such important consequences to America and the +civilized world, Ireland and her sons can also claim a large part in +the development of this territory, as is evidenced by the town, land, +church, and other colonial records, and the names of the pioneers, as +well as the names given to several of the early settlements. That the +Irish had been coming to New England almost from the beginning of the +English colonization is indicated by an "Order" entered in the +Massachusetts record under date of September 25, 1634, granting +liberty to "the Scottishe and Irishe gentlemen who intend to come +hither, to sitt down in any place upp Merimacke river." This, +doubtless, referred to a Scotch and Irish company which, about that +time, had announced its intention of founding a settlement on the +Merrimac. It comprised in all 140 passengers, who embarked in the +<i>Eagle Wing</i>, from Carrickfergus in September, 1636, bringing +with them a considerable quantity of equipment and merchandise to meet +the exigencies of their settlement in the new country. The vessel, +however, never reached its destination and was obliged to return to +Ireland on account of the Atlantic storms, and there is no record of a +renewal of the attempt. In the Massachusetts records of the year 1640 +(vol. I, p. 295) is another entry relating to "the persons come from +Ireland," and in the Town Books of Boston may be seen references to +Irishmen who were residents of the town in that year.</p> + +<p>From local histories, which in many cases are but verbatim copies +of the original entries in the Town Books, we get occasional glimpses +of the Irish who were in the colony of Massachusetts Bay between this +period and the end of the century. For example, between 1640 and 1660, +such names as O'Neill, Sexton, Gibbons, Lynch, Keeney, Kelly, and +Hogan appear on the Town records of Hartford, and one of the first +schoolmasters who taught the children of the Puritans in New Haven was +an Irishman named William Collins, who, in the year 1640, came there +with a number of Irish refugees from Barbados Island. An Irishman +named Joseph Collins with his wife and family came to Lynn, Mass., in +1635. Richard Duffy and Matthias Curran were at Ipswich in 1633. John +Kelly came to Newbury in 1635 with the first English settlers of the +town. David O'Killia (or O'Kelly) was a resident of Old Yarmouth in +1657, and I find on various records of that section a great number of +people named Kelley, who probably were descended from David O'Killia. +Peter O'Kelly and his family are mentioned as of Dorchester in 1696. +At Springfield in 1656 there were families named Riley and O'Dea; and +Richard Burke, said to be of the Mayo family of that name, is +mentioned prominently in Middlesex County as early as 1670. The first +legal instrument of record in Hampden County was a deed of conveyance +in the year 1683 to one Patrick Riley of lands in Chicopee. With a +number of his countrymen, Riley located in this vicinity and gave the +name of "Ireland Parish" to their settlement. John Molooney and Daniel +MacGuinnes were at Woburn in 1676, and Michael Bacon, "an Irishman", +of Woburn, fought in King Philip's war in 1675. John Joyce was at Lynn +in 1637, and I find the names of Willyam Heally, William Reyle, +William Barrett, and Roger Burke signed to a petition to the General +Court of Massachusetts on August 17, 1664. Such names as Maccarty, +Gleason, Coggan, Lawler, Kelly, Hurley, MackQuade, and McCleary also +appear on the Cambridge Church records down to 1690. These are but +desultory instances of the first comers among the Irish to +Massachusetts, selected from a great mass of similar data.</p> + +<p>In the early history of every town in Massachusetts, without +exception, I find mention of Irish people, and while the majority came +originally as "poor redemptioners", yet, in course of time and despite +Puritanical prejudices, not a few of them rose to positions of worth +and independence. Perhaps the most noted of these was Matthew Lyon of +Vermont, known as "the Hampden of Congress," who, on his arrival in +New York in 1765, was sold as a "redemptioner" to pay his +passage-money. This distinguished American was a native of county +Wicklow. Other notable examples of Irish redemptioners who attained +eminence in America were George Taylor, a native of Dublin, one of +Pennsylvania's signers of the Declaration of Independence; Charles +Thompson, a native of county Tyrone, "the perennial Secretary of the +Continental Congress", and William Killen, who became chief justice +and chancellor of Delaware. Some of the descendants of the Irish +redemptioners in Massachusetts are found among the prominent New +Englanders of the past hundred years. The Puritans of Massachusetts +extended no welcoming hand to the Irish who had the temerity to come +among them, yet, as an historical writer has truly said, "by one of +those strange transformations which time occasionally works, it has +come to pass that Massachusetts today contains more people of Irish +blood in proportion to the total population than any other State in +the Union."</p> + +<p>So great and so continuous was Irish immigration to Massachusetts +during the early part of the eighteenth century that on Saint +Patrick's Day in the year 1737 a number of merchants, who described +themselves as "of the Irish Nation residing in Boston," formed the +Charitable Irish Society, an organization which exists even to the +present day. It was provided that the officers should be "natives of +Ireland or of Irish extraction," and they announced that the Society +was organized "in an affectionate and Compassionate concern for their +countrymen in these Parts who may be reduced by Sickness, Shipwrack, +Old Age, and other Infirmities and unforeseen Accidents." I have +copied from the Town Books, as reproduced by the City of Boston, 1600 +Irish names of persons who were married or had declared their +intentions of marriage in Boston between the years 1710 and 1790, +exclusive of 956 other Irish names which appear on the minutes between +1720 and 1775.</p> + +<p>In 1718, one of the largest single colonies of Irish arrived in +Boston. It consisted of one hundred families, who settled at different +places in Massachusetts. One contingent, headed by Edward Fitzgerald, +located at Worcester and another at Palmer under the leadership of +Robert Farrell, while a number went to the already established +settlement at Londonderry, N.H. About the same time a colony of +fishermen from the west coast of Ireland settled on the Cape Cod +peninsula, and I find a number of them recorded on the marriage +registers of the towns in this vicinity between 1719 and 1743. In +1720, a number of families from county Tyrone came to Shrewsbury, and +eight years later another large contingent came to Leicester County +from the same neighborhood, who gave the name of Dublin to the section +where they located. The annals of Leicester County are rich in Irish +names. On the Town Books of various places in this vicinity and on the +rosters of the troops enrolled for the Indian war, Irishmen are +recorded, and we learn from the records that not a few of them were +important and useful men, active in the development of the +settlements, and often chosen as selectmen or representatives. On the +minutes of the meetings of the selectmen of Pelham, Spencer, Sutton, +Charlestown, Canton, Scituate, Stoughton, Salem, Amesbury, Stoneham, +and other Massachusetts towns, Irish names are recorded many years +before the Revolution. In local histories these people are usually +called "Scotch-Irish," a racial misnomer that has been very much +overworked by a certain class of historical writers who seem to be +unable to understand that a non-Catholic native of Ireland can be an +Irishman. In an exhaustive study of American history, I cannot find +any other race where such a distinction is drawn as in the case of the +non-Catholic, or so-called "Scotch," Irish. In many instances, this +hybrid racial designation obviously springs from prejudice and a +desire to withhold from Ireland any credit that may belong to her, +although, in some cases, the writers are genuinely mistaken in their +belief that the Scotch as a race are the antithesis of the Irish and +that whatever commendable qualities the non-Catholic Irish are +possessed of naturally spring from the Scotch.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>The first recorded Irish settlement in Maine was made by families +named Kelly and Haley from Galway, who located on the Isles of Shoals +about the year 1653. In 1692, Roger Kelly was a representative from +the Isles to the General Court of Massachusetts, and is described in +local annals as "King of the Isles." The large number of islands, +bays, and promontories on the Maine coast bearing distinctive Celtic +names attests the presence and influence of Irish people in this +section in colonial times. In 1720, Robert Temple from Cork brought to +Maine five shiploads of people, mostly from the province of Munster. +They landed at the junction of the Kennebec and Eastern rivers, where +they established the town of Cork, which, however, after a precarious +existence of only six years, was entirely destroyed by the Indians. +For nearly a century the place was familiarly known to the residents +of the locality as "Ireland." The records of York, Lincoln, and +Cumberland counties contain references to large numbers of Irish +people who settled in those localities during the early years of the +eighteenth century. The Town Books of Georgetown, Kirtery, and +Kennebunkport, of the period 1740 to 1775, are especially rich in +Irish names, and in the Saco Valley numerous settlements were made by +Irish immigrants, not a few of whom are referred to by local +historians as "men of wealth and social standing." In the marriage and +other records of Limerick, Me., as published by the Maine Historical +and Genealogical Recorder, in the marriage registers of the First +Congregational Church of Scarborough, and in other similarly +unquestionable records, I find a surprisingly large number of Irish +names at various periods during the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. In fact, there is not one town in the Province that did not +have its quota of Irish people, who came either direct from Ireland or +migrated from other sections of New England.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>The records of New Hampshire and Rhode Island are also a fruitful +source of information on this subject, and the Provincial papers +indicate an almost unbroken tide of Irish immigration to this section, +beginning as early as the year 1640. One of the most noted of Exeter's +pioneer settlers was an Irishman named Darby Field, who came to that +place in 1631 and who has been credited by Governor Winthrop as "the +first European who witnessed the White Mountains." He is also recorded +as "an Irish soldier for discovery," and I find his name in the annals +of Exeter as one of the grantees of an Indian deed dated April 3, +1638, as well as several other Irish names down to the year 1664. In +examining the town registers, gazeteers, and genealogies, as well as +the local histories of New Hampshire, in which are embodied copies of +the original entries made by the Town Clerks, I find numerous +references to the Irish pioneers, and in many instances they are +written down, among others, as "the first settlers." Some are +mentioned as selectmen, town clerks, representatives, or colonial +soldiers, and it is indeed remarkable that there is not one of these +authorities that I have examined, out of more than two hundred, that +does not contain Irish names. From these Irish pioneers sprang many +men who attained prominence in New Hampshire, in the legislature, the +professions, the military, the arts and crafts, and in all departments +of civil life, down to the present time. In the marriage registers of +Portsmouth, Boscawen, New Boston, Antrim, Londonderry, and other New +Hampshire towns, are recorded, in some cases as early as 1716, names +of Irish persons, with the places of their nativity, indicating that +they came from all parts of Ireland. At Hampton, I find Humphrey +Sullivan teaching school in 1714, while the name of John Sullivan from +Limerick, schoolmaster at Dover and at Berwick, Me., for upwards of +fifty years, is one of the most honored in early New Hampshire +history.</p> + +<p>This John Sullivan was surely one of the grandest characters in the +Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the record of his descendants serves +as an all-sufficient reply to the anti-Irish prejudices of some +American historians. He was the father of a governor of New Hampshire +and of a governor of Massachusetts; of an attorney-general of New +Hampshire and of an attorney-general of Massachusetts; of New +Hampshire's only major-general in the Continental army; of the first +judge appointed by Washington in New Hampshire; and of four sons who +were officers in the Continental army. He was grandfather of an +attorney-general of New Hampshire, of a governor of Maine, and of a +United States Senator from New Hampshire. He was great-grandfather of +an attorney-general of New Hampshire, and great-great-grandfather of +an officer in the Thirteenth New Hampshire regiment in the Civil +War.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>In Rhode Island, Irish people are on record as far back as 1640, +and for many years after that date they continued to come. Edward +Larkin was an esteemed citizen of Newport in 1655. Charles McCarthy +was one of the founders of the town of East Greenwich in 1677, while +in this vicinity as early as 1680 are found such names as Casey, +Higgins, Magennis, Kelley, Murphy, Reylie, Maloney, Healy, Delaney, +Walsh, and others of Irish origin. On the rosters of the Colonial +militia who fought in King Philip's war (1675) are found the names of +110 soldiers of Irish birth or descent, some of whom, for their +services at the battle of Narragansett, received grants of land in New +Hampshire and Massachusetts. The New England Historical and +Genealogical Register for 1848 contains some remarkable testimony of +the sympathy of the people of Ireland for the sufferers in this cruel +war, and the "Irish Donation," sent out from Dublin in the year 1676, +will always stand in history to Ireland's credit and as an instance of +her intimate familiarity with American affairs, one hundred years +prior to that Revolution which emancipated the people of this land +from the same tyranny under which she herself has groaned. And yet, +what a cruel travesty on history it reads like now, when we scan the +official records of the New England colonies and find that the Irish +were often called "convicts", and it was thought that measures should +be taken to prevent their landing on the soil where they and their +sons afterwards shed their blood in the cause of their fellow +colonists! In the minutes of the provincial Assemblies and in the +reports rendered to the General Court, as well as in other official +documents of the period, are found expressions of the sentiment which +prevailed against the natives of the "Island of Sorrows." Only twenty +years before the outbreak of King Philip's war, the government of +England was asked to provide a law "to prevent the importation of +Irish Papists and convicts that are yearly pow'rd upon us and to make +provision against the growth of this pernicious evil." And the +colonial Courts themselves, on account of what they called "the cruel +and malignant spirit that has from time to time been manifest in the +Irish nation against the English nation," prohibited "the bringing +over of any Irish men, women, or children into this jurisdiction on +the penalty of fifty pounds sterling to each inhabitant who shall buy +of any merchant, shipmaster, or other agent any such person or persons +so transported by them." This order was promulgated by the General +Court of Massachusetts in October, 1654, and is given in full in the +American Historical Review for October, 1896.</p> + +<p>With the "convicts" and the "redemptioners" came the Irish +schoolmaster, the man then most needed in America. And the fighting +man, he too was to the fore, for when the colonies in after years +called for volunteers to resist the tyranny of the British, the +descendants of the Irish "convicts" were among the first and the most +eager to answer the call.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>Although it does not appear that Irish immigrants settled in the +Province of New York in such large numbers as in other sections, yet, +as far back as the third quarter of the seventeenth century, Irish +names are found on the records of the Colony. O'Callaghan, the eminent +archivist and historian, refers to "Dr. William Hayes, formerly of +Barry's Court, Ireland," as one of New York's physicians in the year +1647, and from the same authority we learn that there were "settlers +and Indian fighters in New Netherland" named Barrett, Fitzgerald, +Dowdall, Collins, and Quinn in 1657. In records relating to the war +with the Esopus Indians (1663), and in fact as early as 1658, frequent +references are made to "Thomas the Irishman", whose name was Thomas +Lewis, a refugee from Ireland to Holland after the Cromwellian war. +Lewis is on record in 1683 as one of the wealthiest merchants of New +York and a large owner of real estate in the present downtown portion +of the city. Such names as Patrick Hayes, John Daly, John Quigly, and +Dennis McKarty appear among its business men between 1666 and 1672, +and in a "Census of the City of New York of the year 1703" we find +people named Flynn, Walsh, Dooley, Gillen, Carroll, Kenne, Gurney, +Hart, Mooney, Moran, Lynch, Kearney, and others, all "Freemen of the +City of New York." In the "Poll List" of the city from 1741 to 1761, +more than one hundred such names appear, while among the advertisers +in the New York newspapers all through the eighteenth century I find a +large number of characteristic Irish names.</p> + +<p>One would scarcely expect to find an Irishman in the old Dutch +settlement of Beverwyck as early as 1645. Yet such is the case, for +"Jan Andriessen, de Iersman van Dublingh"—(John Anderson, the +Irishman from Dublin)—is mentioned as the owner of considerable +landed property in the neighborhood of Albany and Catskill, and in +every mention of this ancient pioneer he is referred to as "the +Irishman." At Albany, between 1666 and 1690, we find people named +Connell, Daly, Larkin, Shaw, Hogan, and Finn, all Irishmen, and in +Jonathan Pearson's "Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient +County of Albany" and in his "Genealogies of the First Settlers of the +Patent and City of Schenectady", I find 135 distinctive Irish names. +These were mostly merchants, farmers, artisans, millers, and +backwoodsmen, the pioneers, who, with their Dutch neighbors, blazed +the trail of civilization through that section, rolled back the savage +redman, and marked along the banks of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers the +sites of future towns and cities. In the rate lists of Long Island +between 1638 and 1675, I find Kelly, Dalton, Whelan, Condon, Barry, +Powers, Quin, Kane, Sweeney, Murphy, Reilly, as well as Norman-Irish +and Anglo-Irish names that are common to Irish nomenclature. Hugh +O'Neale was a prominent resident of Newtown, L.I., in 1655. In a +"Report to the Lord President," dated September 6, 1687, Governor +Dongan recommended "that natives of Ireland be sent to colonize here +where they may live and be very happy." Numbers of them evidently +accepted the invitation, for many Irishmen are mentioned in the public +documents of the Province during the succeeding twenty years.</p> + +<p>That the Irish continued to settle in the Province all through the +eighteenth century may be seen from the announcements in the New York +newspapers of the time and other authentic records. The most important +of these, in point of numbers and character of the immigrants, were +those made in Orange County in 1729 under the leadership of James +Clinton from Longford, and at Cherry Valley, in Otsego County, twelve +years later. On the Orange County assessment and Revolutionary rolls, +and down to the year 1800, there is a very large number of Irish +names, and in some sections they constituted nearly the entire +population. In the northwestern part of New York, Irishmen are also +found about the time of the Franco-English war. They were not only +among those settlers who followed the peaceful pursuits of tilling and +building, but they were "the men behind the guns" who held the +marauding Indians in check and repelled the advances of the French +through that territory. In this war, Irish soldiers fought on both +sides, and in the "Journals of the Marquis of Montcalm" may be seen +references to the English garrison at Oswego, which, in August, 1756, +surrendered to that same Irish Brigade by which they had been defeated +eleven years before on the battlefield of Fontenoy. In the +"Manuscripts of Sir William Johnson", are also found some interesting +items indicating that Irishmen were active participants in the +frontier fighting about that time, and in one report to him, dated May +28, 1756, from the commandant of an English regiment, reference is +made to "the great numbers of Irish Papists among the Delaware and +Susquehanna Indians who have done a world of prejudice to English +interests."</p> + +<p>The early records, with hardly an exception, contain Irish names, +showing that the "Exiles from Erin" came to the Province of New York +in considerable numbers during the eighteenth century. The baptismal +and marriage records of the Dutch Reformed and Protestant churches of +New York City; of the Dutch churches at Kingston, Albany, Schenectady, +and other towns; the muster rolls of the troops enrolled for the +French, Indian, and Revolutionary wars; the Land Grants and other +provincial records at Albany; the newspapers; the Town, County, and +family histories, and other early chronicles, supplemented by +authoritative publications such as those of the New York Historical +and Genealogical and Biographical Societies—these are the +depositories of the evidence that thousands of Irish people settled in +the Province of New York and constituted no inconsiderable proportion +of the total population.</p> + +<p>The majority of the Irish residents of New York whose marriages are +recorded in the Dutch Reformed church were, doubtless, of the Catholic +faith, but, as it was necessary to comply with the established law, +and also so that their offspring might be legitimate, they could be +bound in wedlock only by a recognized Minister of the Gospel. As there +was no Catholic church in New York prior to 1786, the ceremony had to +be performed in the Dutch Reformed or Protestant church. Many of these +Catholics were refugees from Ireland on account of the religious +persecutions. Like the people of Ireland in all ages, they were +devoted to their religion, and while, no doubt, they eschewed for a +while association with the established churches, yet, as time went on, +they and their children were gradually drawn into religious +intercourse with the other sects, until eventually they became regular +communicants of those churches. The variations which from time to time +were wrought in their names brought them further and further away from +what they had been; in their new surroundings, both social and +religious, they themselves changed, so that their children, who in +many cases married into the neighboring Dutch and French families, +became as wholly un-Irish in manner and sentiment as if they had +sprung from an entirely different race. That fact, however, does not +admit of their being now included in the category "Anglo-Saxon."</p> + +<p>In a work entitled "Names of Persons for whom Marriage Licenses +were issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, previous to +1784," compiled by Gideon J. Tucker (when Secretary of State), and +taken from the early records of the office of the Secretary of State +at Albany, we find ample corroboration of the church records. Page +after page of this book looks more like some record of the Province of +Munster than of the Province of New York. It is a quarto volume +printed in small type in double columns, and there are eleven pages +wholly devoted to persons whose names commence with "Mac" and three to +the "O's." Nearly every name common to Ireland is here +represented.</p> + +<p>New York, as a Province and as a State, is much indebted to Irish +genius. Ireland gave the Province its most noted governor in the +person of Thomas Dongan from Co. Kildare, and in later years Sir +William Johnson from Co. Meath, governor of the Indians from New York +to the Mississippi. It gave the State its first governor, George +Clinton, son of an immigrant from Co. Longford, and to the city its +first mayor after the Revolution, James Duane, son of Anthony Duane +from Co. Galway. Fulton, an Irishman's son, gave America priority in +the "conquest of the seas." Christopher Colles, a native of Cork, was +the originator of the grand scheme which united the waters of the +Atlantic and the Lakes—one of the greatest works of internal +improvement ever effected in the United States—while the +gigantic project was carried to a successful end through the influence +and direction of Governor DeWitt Clinton, the grandson of an +Irishman.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>Many of the pioneer settlers of New Jersey were Irish. As early as +1683 "a colony from Tipperary in Ireland" located at Cohansey in Salem +County, and in the same year a number of settlers, also described as +"from Tipperary, Ireland," located in Monmouth County. In the County +records of New Jersey, Irish names are met with frequently between the +years 1676 and 1698. Several of the local historians testify to the +presence and influence of Irishmen in the early days of the colony, +and in the voluminous "New Jersey Archives" may be found references to +the large numbers of Irish "redemptioners," some of whom, after their +terms of service had expired, received grants of land and in time +became prosperous farmers and merchants. Perhaps the most noted +Irishman in New Jersey in colonial days was Michael Kearney, a native +of Cork and ancestor of General Philip Kearney of Civil War fame, who +was secretary and treasurer of the Province in 1723.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>All through the west and southwest, Irishmen are found in the +earliest days of authentic history. Along the Ohio, Kentucky, Wabash, +and Tennessee rivers they were with the pioneers who first trod the +wilderness of that vast territory. As early as 1690, an Irish trader +named Doherty crossed the mountains into what is now Kentucky, and we +are told by Filson, the noted French historian and explorer of +Kentucky, that "the first white man who discovered this region" (1754) +was one James McBride, who, in all probability, was an Irishman. The +first white child born in Cincinnati was a son of an Irish settler +named John Cummins; the first house built on its site was erected by +Captain Hugh McGarry, while "the McGarrys, Dentons, and Hogans formed +the first domestic circle in Kentucky." Prior to the Revolution, +Indian traders from Western Pennsylvania had penetrated into this +region, and we learn from authentic sources that no small percentage +of those itinerant merchants of the west were Irishmen. Among the +leading and earliest colonists of the "Blue Grass State" who +accompanied Daniel Boone, the ubiquitous Irish were represented by men +bearing such names as Mooney, McManus, Sullivan, Drennon, Logan, +Casey, Fitzpatrick, Dunlevy, Cassidy, Doran, Dougherty, Lynch, Ryan, +McNeill, McGee, Reilly, Flinn, and the noted McAfee brothers, all +natives of Ireland or sons of Irish immigrants.</p> + +<p>Irishmen and their sons figured prominently in the field of early +western politics. In the Kentucky legislature, I find such names as +Connor, Cassidy, Cleary, Conway, Casey, Cavan, Dulin, Dougherty, +Geohegan, Maher, Morrison, Moran, McMahon, McFall, McClanahan, +O'Bannon, Powers, and a number of others evidently of Irish origin. On +the bench we find O'Hara, Boyle, and Barry. Among the many +distinguished men who reflected honor upon the west, Judge William T. +Barry of Lexington ranks high for great ability and lofty virtues. +Simon Kenton, famed in song and story, who "battled with the Indians +in a hundred encounters and wrested Kentucky from the savage," was an +Irishman's son, while among its famous Indian fighters were Colonels +Andrew Hynes, William Casey, and John O'Bannon; Majors Bulger, +McMullin, McGarry, McBride, Butler, and Cassidy; and Captains McMahon, +Malarkie, Doyle, Phelon, and Brady. Allen, Butler, Campbell, +Montgomery, and Rowan counties, Ky., are named after natives of +Ireland, and Boyle, Breckinridge, Carroll, Casey, Daviess, Magoffin, +Kenton, McCracken, Meade, Menifee, Clinton, and Fulton counties were +named in honor of descendants of Irish settlers.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>In the councils of the first territorial legislature of Missouri +were Sullivan, Cassidy, Murphy, McDermid, McGrady, Flaugherty, +McGuire, Dunn, and Hogan, and among the merchants, lawyers, and +bankers in the pioneer days of St. Louis there were a number of +Irishmen, the most noted of whom were Mullanphy, Gilhuly, O'Fallon, +Connor, O'Hara, Dillon, Ranken, Magennis, and Walsh. In all early +histories of Missouri towns and counties, Irish names are mentioned, +and in many instances they are on record as "the first settlers."</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>And so it was all through the west. In Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and +Illinois, across the rolling prairies and the mountains, beyond the +Mississippi and the Missouri, in the earliest days of colonization of +that vast territory, we can follow the Irish "trek" in quest of new +homes and fortunes. They were part of that irresistible human current +that swept beyond the ranges of Colorado and Kansas and across the +Sierra Nevada until it reached the Pacific, and in the forefront of +those pathfinders and pioneers we find Martin Murphy, the first to +open a wagon trail to California from the East. The names of Don +Timoteo Murphy, of Jasper O'Farrell, of Dolans, Burkes, Breens, and +Hallorins are linked with the annals of the coast while that territory +was still under Spanish rule, and when Fremont crossed the plains and +planted the "Bear flag" beyond the Sierras, we find Irishmen among his +trusted lieutenants. An Irishman, Captain Patrick Connor, first +penetrated the wilderness of Utah; a descendant of an Irishman, Hall +J. Kelly, was the explorer of Oregon; Philip Nolan and Thomas O'Connor +were foremost among those brave spirits "whose daring and persistency +finally added the Lone Star State to the American Union"; and the +famous Arctic explorer, scientist, and scholar, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, +was a descendant of John O'Kane who came from Ireland to the Province +of New York in 1752.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>To form any reliable estimate of the numerical strength of the +Irish and their descendants in the United States would, I believe, be +a hopeless task, and while several have attempted to do so, I am of +the opinion that all such estimates should be discarded as mere +conjecture. Indeed, there is no standard, or fixed rule or principle, +by which a correct judgment of the racial composition of the early +inhabitants of the United States can now be formed, and the available +statistics on the subject are incomplete and confusing. The greatest +obstacle in determining this question is found in the names of the +immigrants themselves. With names such as Smith, Mason, Carpenter, and +Taylor; White, Brown, Black, and Gray; Forrest, Wood, Mountain, and +Vail, and other names that are similarly derived, the first thought is +that they are of English origin. Yet we know that for centuries past +such names have been numerous in Ireland, and there are many Irish +families so named who are of as pure Celtic blood as any bearing the +old Gaelic patronymics. By a law passed in the second year of the +reign of Edward IV., natives of Ireland were forced to adopt English +surnames. This Act was, substantially, as follows: "An Act that +Irishmen dwelling in the Counties of, etc.... shall go appareled like +Englishmen and wear their beards in English manner, swear allegiance +and take English sirnames, which sirnames shall be of one towne, as +Sutton, Chester, Trim, Skryne, Cork, Kinsale; or colours, as white, +black, brown; or arts, or sciences, as smith or carpenter; or office, +as cook, butler, etc., and it is enacted that he and his issue shall +use his name under pain of forfeyting of his goods yearly", etc.</p> + +<p>This Act could be enforced only upon those Irish families who dwelt +within the reach of English law, and as emigrants from those +districts, deprived of their pure Celtic names, came to America in an +English guise and in English vessels, they were officially recorded as +"English." Moreover, numbers of Irish frequently crossed the channel +and began their voyage from English ports, where they had to take on +new names, sometimes arbitrarily, and sometimes voluntarily for +purposes of concealment, either by transforming their original names +into English or adopting names similar to those above referred to. +These names were generally retained on this side of the Atlantic so as +not to arouse the prejudice of their English neighbors. In complying +with the statute above quoted, some Irish families accepted the rather +doubtful privilege of translating their names into their English +equivalents. We have examples of this in such names as Somers, +anglicised from McGauran (presumably derived from the Gaelic word +signifying "summer"); Smith from McGowan (meaning "the son of the +smith"); Jackson and Johnson, a literal translation from MacShane +(meaning "the son of John"); and Whitcomb from Kiernan (meaning, +literally, "a white comb").</p> + +<p>In addition to this, in the case of some of those Irish immigrants +whose family names were not changed in Ireland, their descendants +appear in a much disguised form in the colonial records. Through the +mistakes of clergymen, court clerks, registrars, and others who had +difficulty in pronouncing Gaelic names, letters became inserted or +dropped and the names were written down phonetically. In the mutations +of time, even these names became still further changed, and we find +that the descendants of the Irish themselves, after the lapse of a +generation or two, deliberately changed their names, usually by +suppressing the Milesian prefixes, "Mac" and "O". Thus we have the +Laflin and Claflin families, who are descended from a McLaughlin, an +Irish settler in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century; the Bryans +from William O'Brian, a captain in Sarsfield's army, who, after the +fall of Limerick in 1691, settled in Pasquetank County, N.C., and one +of whose descendants is William Jennings Bryan, now Secretary of +State; the Dunnels of Maine, from an O'Donnell who located in the Saco +Valley; and at the Land Office at Annapolis I have found the +descendants of Roger O'Dewe, who came to Maryland about 1665, recorded +under the surnames of "Roger", "Dew", and "Dewey". I find Dennis +O'Deeve or O'Deere written down on the Talbot County (Md.) records of +the year 1667 with his name reversed, and today his descendants are +known as "Dennis". Many such instances appear in the early records, +and when we find a New England family rejoicing in the name of +"Navillus" we know that the limit has been reached, and while we +cannot admire the attempt to disguise an ancient and honorable name, +we are amused at the obvious transposition of "Sullivan".</p> + +<p>Thus we see, that, numerous though the old Irish names are on +American records, they do not by any means indicate the extent of the +Celtic element which established itself in the colonies, so that there +is really no means of determining exactly what Ireland has contributed +to the American Commonwealth. We only know that a steady stream of +Irish immigrants has crossed the seas to the American continent, +beginning with the middle of the seventeenth century, and that many of +those "Exiles from Erin", or their sons, became prominent as leaders +in every station in life in the new country.</p> + +<p>Nor is the "First Census of the United States" any criterion in +this regard, for the obvious reason that the enumerators made no +returns of unmarried persons. This fact is important when we consider +that the Irish exodus of the eighteenth century was largely comprised +of the youth of the country. Although the First Census was made in +1790, the first regular record of immigration was not begun until +thirty years later, and it is only from the records kept after that +time that we can depend upon actual official figures. During the +decade following 1820, Ireland contributed more than forty per cent, +of the entire immigration to America from all European countries, and +the Irish Emigration Statistics show that between 1830 and 1907 the +number of people who left Ireland was 6,049,432, the majority of whom +came to America. The <i>Westminster Review</i> (vol. 133, p. 293), in +an article on "The Irish-Americans", puts a series of questions as +follows: "Is the American Republic in any way indebted to those Irish +citizens? Have they with their large numbers, high social standing, +great places of trust, contributed aught to her glory or added aught +to her commercial greatness, refined her social taste or assisted in +laying the foundations of the real happiness of her people, the real +security of her laws, the influence of her civic virtues, which more +than anything else give power and permanency to a naissant and mighty +nation? The answer is unquestionably affirmative. We have only to look +back on the past, and to scan the present state of American affairs, +to feel certain of this." If it be further asked: "Does this statement +stand the test of strict investigation?" the answer must also be in +the affirmative, for in almost every line of progress the Irish in +America have contributed their share of leaders and pioneers, thus +proving that there are characteristics among even the poor Irish +driven to emigration for an existence that are as capable of +development as those possessed by any other race. When we scan the +intellectual horizon, we see many men of great force of character: +preachers and teachers; statesmen and scholars; philanthropists and +founders of institutions; scientists and engineers; historians and +journalists; artists and authors; lawyers and doctors, of Celtic race +and blood, while, in the industrial field, as builders of steamships +and railroads and promoters of public works, as merchants, +manufacturers, and bankers, and in all other fields of endeavor, we +find the American Irish controlling factors in the upbuilding of the +Republic.</p> + +<p>Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thornton, +Taylor, and Smith were natives of Ireland; McKean, Read, and Rutledge +were of Irish parentage; Lynch and Carroll were grandsons of Irishmen; +Whipple and Hancock were of Irish descent on the maternal side; and +O'Hart (<i>Irish Pedigrees</i>) declares that Robert Treat Paine was a +great-grandson of Henry O'Neill, hereditary prince of Ulster, who +"changed his name to that of one of his maternal ancestors so as to +save his estates". It was an Irishman who first read the immortal +Document to the public; an Irishman first printed it; and an Irishman +published it for the first time with facsimiles of the signatures.</p> + +<p>At least six American Presidents had more or less of the Celtic +strain. President Jackson, whose parents came from Co. Down, more than +once expressed his pride in his Irish ancestry. Arthur's parents were +from Antrim, Buchanan's from Donegal, and McKinley's grandparents came +from the same vicinity. Theodore Roosevelt boasts among his ancestors +two direct lines from Ireland, and the first American ancestor of +President Polk was a Pollock from Donegal. The present occupant of the +White House, Woodrow Wilson, is also of Irish descent. Among the +distinguished Vice-Presidents of the United States were George Clinton +and John C. Calhoun, sons of immigrants from Longford and Donegal +respectively, and Calhoun's successor as chairman of the committee on +foreign relations was John Smilie, a native of Newtownards, Co. +Down.</p> + +<p>Among American governors since 1800, we find such names as Barry, +Brady, Butler, Carroll, Clinton, Conway, Carney, Connolly, Curtin, +Collins, Donaghey, Downey, Early, Fitzpatrick, Flannegan, Geary, +Gorman, Hannegan, Kavanagh, Kearney, Logan, Lynch, Murphy, Moore, +McKinley, McGill, Meagher, McGrath, Mahone, McCormick, O'Neal, +O'Ferrall, Orr, Roane, Filey, Sullivan, Sharkey, Smith, Talbot, and +Welsh, all of Irish descent. Today we have as governors of States, +Glynn in New York, Dunne in Illinois, Walsh in Massachusetts, O'Neal +in Alabama, Burke in North Carolina, Carey in Wyoming, McGovern in +Wisconsin, McCreary in Kentucky, and Tener in Pennsylvania, and not +alone is the governor of the last-mentioned State a native of Ireland, +but so also are its junior United States Senator, the secretary of the +Commonwealth, and its adjutant-general.</p> + +<p>In the political life of America, many of the sons of Ireland have +risen to eminence, and in the legislative halls at the National +Capital, the names of Kelly, Fitzpatrick, Broderick, Casserly, Farley, +Logan, Harlan, Hannegan, Adair, Barry, Rowan, Gorman, Kennedy, Lyon, +Fitzgerald, Fair, Sewall, Kernan, Butler, Moore, Regan, Mahone, Walsh, +and Flannegan, are still spoken of with respect among the lawmakers of +the nation. William Darrah Kelly served in Congress for fifty years, +and it remained for James Shields to hold the unique distinction of +representing three different States, at different times, in the Senate +of the United States. Senator Shields was a native of Co. Tyrone.</p> + +<p>In the judiciary have been many shining lights of Irish origin. The +Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court is Edward D. White, +grandson of a '98 rebel, and one of his ablest associates is Joseph +McKenna. No more erudite or profound lawyer than Charles O'Conor has +adorned his profession and it can be said with truth that his career +has remained unrivalled in American history. James T. Brady, Daniel +Dougherty, Thomas Addis Emmet, and Charles O'Neill were among the most +eminent lawyers America has known, while the names of Dennis O'Brien, +Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals, John D. O'Neill, who +occupied a like elevated place on the bench of South Carolina, John D. +Phelan of the Alabama Supreme Court, Richard O'Gorman, Charles P. +Daly, Hugh Rutledge, Morgan J. O'Brien, and others of like origin, are +household words in the legal annals of America. There is no State in +the Union where an Irish-American lawyer has not distinguished +himself.</p> + +<p>The history of medicine in the United States is adorned with the +names of many physicians of Irish birth or blood. Several Irish +surgeons rendered valuable services in the army of the Revolution, +among whom are found Drs. McDonough, McHenry, McCloskey, McCalla, +Burke, Irvine, and Williamson. Dr. John Cochran was appointed by +Washington surgeon-general of the army. Dr. James Lynah of Charleston, +a native of Ireland, became surgeon-general of South Carolina in +recognition of his valuable services to the patriot army. Dr. John +McKinley, a native of Ireland, who was a famous physician in his day, +became the first governor of Delaware. Dr. Ephraim McDowell is known +in the profession as the "Father of Ovariotomy", as is Dr. William J. +McNevin the "Father of American Chemistry". Dr. John Byrne of New York +had a world-wide fame, and his papers on gynecology have been +pronounced by the medical press as "the best printed in any language". +One of the most conspicuous figures in medicine in the United States +was Dr. Jerome Cochran of Alabama. Drs. Junius F. Lynch of Florida; +Charles McCreery of Kentucky; Hugh McGuire and Hunter McGuire of +Virginia; Matthew C. McGannon of Tennessee; and James Lynch, Charles +J. O'Hagan, and James McBride of South Carolina are mentioned +prominently in the histories of their respective localities as the +foremost medical men of their times, while in Wisconsin the pioneer +physician was Dr. William H. Fox, and in Oregon, Dr. John McLoughlin. +Among New York physicians who achieved high reputations in their +profession were Drs. Thomas Addis Emmet, Frank A. McGuire, Daniel E. +O'Neill, Charles McBurney, Isaac H. Reiley, Alfred L. Carroll, Howard +A. Kelly, Joseph O'Dwyer, and James J. Walsh. These and many others of +Irish descent have been honored by medical societies as leaders and +specialists, while it can be said that no surgeon of the present day +has achieved such a world-wide reputation as Dr. John B. Murphy of +Chicago. Among experts in medico-legal science, the names of Drs. +Benjamin W. McCreedy and William J. O'Sullivan of New York stand out +prominently, and among the most noted contributors to medical journals +in the United States, and recognized as men of great professional +skill and authorities in their respective specialties, have been Drs. +F.D. Mooney of St. Louis; Thomas Fitzgibbon of Milwaukee; John D. +Hanrahan of Rutland; James McCann and James H. McClelland of +Pittsburgh; John A. Murphy and John McCurdy of Cincinnati; John +Keating of Philadelphia; John H. Murphy of St. Paul; John W.C. O'Neal +of Gettysburg; and Arthur O'Neill of Meadville, Pa. Indeed, it can be +said that American medical science owes an incalculable debt to Irish +genius.</p> + +<p>Theodore Vail, the presiding genius of the greatest telephone +system in the world, is Irish, and so is Carty, its chief engineer. +Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, was the grandson of an Irishman; +Henry O'Reilly built the first telegraph line in the United States; +and John W. Mackey was the president of the Commercial Cable Company. +John P. Holland, the inventor of the submarine torpedo boat, was a +native of Co. Clare; and McCormick, the inventor of the reaping and +mowing machine, was an Irishman's grandson.</p> + +<p>Sons of Irishmen have stood in the front rank of American statesmen +and diplomats who represented their country abroad. To mention but a +few: Richard O'Brien, appointed by Jefferson American representative +at Algiers; James Kavanagh, Minister to Portugal; and Louis McLane, +Minister to England in 1829 and afterwards Secretary of State in 1832. +In recent years, an O'Brien has represented American interests in +Italy and Japan; a Kerens in Austria; an Egan in Chili and another of +the same name in Denmark; an O'Shaughnessy in Mexico; a Sullivan in +Santo Domingo; and an O'Rear in Bolivia.</p> + +<p>Among historians were John Gilmary Shea, author of numerous +historical works; Dr. Robert Walsh, a learned historian and journalist +of the last century, whose literary labors were extensive; McMahon and +McSherry, historians of Maryland; Burk, of Virginia; O'Callaghan, +Hastings, and Murphy of New York; Ramsay of South Carolina; and +Williamson of North Carolina, all native Irishmen or sons of Irish +immigrants.</p> + +<p>In the field of American journalism have been many able and +forcible writers of Irish birth or descent. Hugh Gaine, a Belfast man, +founded the New York <i>Mercury</i> in 1775. John Dunlap founded the +first daily paper in Philadelphia, John Daly Burk published the first +daily paper in Boston, and William Duane edited the <i>Aurora</i> of +Philadelphia in 1795. All these were born in Ireland. William Coleman, +founder of the New York <i>Evening Post</i> in 1801, was the son of an +Irish rebel of 1798; Thomas Fitzgerald founded the Philadelphia +<i>Item</i>; Thomas Gill, the New York <i>Evening Star</i>; Patrick +Walsh, the Augusta <i>Chronicle</i>; Joseph Medill, the Chicago +<i>Tribune</i>. Henry W. Grady edited the Atlanta <i>Constitution</i>; +Michael Dee edited the Detroit <i>Evening News</i> for nearly fifty +years; Richard Smith, the Cincinnati <i>Gazette</i>; Edward L. Godkin, +the New York <i>Evening Post</i>; William Laffan, the New York +<i>Sun</i>; and Horace Greeley, the New York <i>Tribune</i>. All of +these were either natives of Ireland or sprung from immigrant +Irishmen, as were Oliver of the Pittsburgh <i>Gazette</i>, O'Neill of +the Pittsburgh <i>Despatch</i>, John Keating of Memphis, William D. +O'Connor, and many other shining lights of American journalism during +the last century. Fitz James O'Brien was "a bright, particular star" +in the journalistic firmament; John MacGahan achieved fame as a war +correspondent; Patrick Barry of Rochester, an extensive writer on +horticultural and kindred subjects, was the recognized leader of his +craft in the United States; and William Darby, son of Patrick and Mary +Darby, and Michael Twomey were the ablest American geographers and +writers on abstruse scientific subjects.</p> + +<p>In the field of poetry, we have had Theodore O'Hara, the author of +that immortal poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead"; John Boyle O'Reilly; +Thomas Dunn English, author of "Ben Bolt"; Father Abram Ryan, "the +poet priest of the South"; James Whitcomb Riley; Eleanor Donnelly; +M.F. Egan; T.A. Daly; and Joseph I.C. Clarke, president of the +American Irish Historical Society.</p> + +<p>To recount the successful men of affairs of Irish origin it would +be necessary to mention every branch of business and every profession. +Recalling but a few, Daniel O'Day, Patrick Farrelly, John and William +O'Brien, Alexander T. Stewart, John Castree, Joseph J. O'Donohue, +William R. Grace, John McConville, Hugh O'Neill, Alexander E. Orr, +William Constable, Daniel McCormick, and Dominick Lynch, all of New +York, were dominant figures in the world of business. Thomas Mellon of +Pittsburgh; John R. Walsh and the Cudahy brothers of Chicago; James +Phelan, Peter Donahue, Joseph A. Donohoe, and John Sullivan of San +Francisco; William A. Clark and Marcus Daly of Montana; George Meade, +the Meases and the Nesbits, Thomas FitzSimmons and Thomas Dolan of +Philadelphia; Columbus O'Donnell and Luke Tiernan of Baltimore, all +these have been leading merchants in their day. Few American +financiers occupy a more conspicuous place than Thomas F. Ryan, and no +great industrial leader has reached the pinnacle of success upon which +stands the commanding figure of James J. Hill, both sons of Irishmen. +The names of Anthony N. Brady, Eugene Kelly, James S. Stranahan, and +James A. Farrell, president of the United States Steel Corporation, +are household words in business and financial circles.</p> + +<p>John Keating, the first paper manufacturer in New York (1775); +Thomas Faye, the first to manufacture wall-paper by machinery, who won +for this distinction the first gold medal of the American Institute; +John and Edward McLoughlin of New York, for many years the leading +publishers of illustrated books; and John Banigan of Providence, one +of the largest manufacturers of rubber goods in America, were natives +of Ireland. John O'Fallon and Bryan Mullanphy of St. Louis, and John +McDonough of Baltimore, who amassed great wealth as merchants, were +large contributors to charitable and educational institutions; William +W. Corcoran, whose name is enshrined in the famous Art Gallery at +Washington, contributed during his lifetime over five million dollars +to various philanthropic institutions; and one of the most noted +philanthropists in American history, and the first woman in America to +whom a public monument was erected, was an Irishwoman, Margaret +Haughery of New Orleans.</p> + +<p>Irishmen have shown a remarkable aptitude for the handling of large +contracts, and in this field have been prominent John H. O'Rourke, +James D. Leary, James Coleman, Oliver Byrne, and John D. Crimmins in +New York; John B. McDonald, the builder of New York's subways; George +Law, projector and promoter of public works, steamship and railroad +builder; and John Roach, the famous ship-builder of Chester, Pa. John +Sullivan, a noted American engineer one hundred years ago, completed +the Middlesex Canal; and John McL. Murphy, whose ability as a +constructing engineer was universally recognized, rendered valuable +service to the United States during the Civil War. Among pioneer +ship-builders in America are noted Patrick Tracy fron Wexford and +Simon Forrester from Cork, who were both at Salem, Mass., during the +period of the Revolution and rendered most valuable service to the +patriot cause; and the O'Briens, Kavanaghs, and Sewalls in Maine.</p> + +<p>But it is not in the material things of life alone that the Irish +have been in the van. Thousands of Americans have been charmed by the +operas of Victor Herbert, a grandson of Samuel Lover, and with lovers +of music the strains of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore's band still linger +as a pleasant memory. Edward A. MacDowell, America's most famous +composer, was of Irish descent. The colossal statute of "America" on +the dome of the National Capitol was executed by Thomas Crawford, who +was born in New York of Irish parents in 1814; Henry Inman, one of the +very best of portrait painters, was also born in New York of Irish +parents; John Singleton Copley, the distinguished artist, came to +Boston from Co. Clare in 1736; Thompson, the sculptor, was born in +Queen's Co.; another noted sculptor was William D. O'Donovan of +Virginia; and Augustus Saint Gaudens, one of the greatest sculptors of +modern times, was born in Dublin. Other sculptors of Irish race have +been elsewhere mentioned. Among America's most talented artists and +portrait painters may be mentioned George P. Healy, William J. +Hennessy, Thomas Moran, Henry Pelham, Henry Murray, John Neagle, and +William Magrath, all of Irish birth or descent.</p> + +<p>Ireland has given many eminent churchmen to the United States. The +three American Cardinals, Gibbons, Farley, and O'Connell, stand out +prominently, as do Archbishops Carroll, Hughes, McCloskey, Kenrick, +Ryan, Ireland, Glennon, Corrigan, and Keane, all of whom have shed +lustre on the Church. History has given to an Irishman, Francis +Makemie of Donegal, the credit of founding Presbyterianism in America, +while among noted Presbyterian divines of Irish birth were James +Waddell, known as "the blind preacher of the wilderness," Thomas +Smyth, John Hall, Francis Allison, William Tennant, and James McGrady, +all men of great ability and influence in their day. Samuel Finley, +President of Princeton College in 1761, was a native of Armagh, and +John Blair Smith, famous as a preacher throughout the Shenandoah +Valley and the first president of Union College (1795), was of Irish +descent. Among the pioneer preachers of the western wilderness were +McMahon, Dougherty, Quinn, Burke, O'Cool, Delaney, McGee, and many +others of Irish origin.</p> + +<p>Irishmen and their sons have founded American towns and cities, and +the capital of the State of Colorado takes its name from General James +Denver, son of Patrick Denver, an emigrant from county Down in the +year 1795. Sixty-five places in the United States are named after +people bearing the Irish prefix "O" and upwards of 1000 after the +"Macs", and there are 253 counties of the United States and +approximately 7000 places called by Irish family or place names. There +are 24 Dublins, 21 Waterfords, 18 Belfasts, 16 Tyrones, 10 Limericks, +9 Antrims, 8 Sligos, 7 Derrys, 6 Corks, 5 Kildares, and so on.</p> + +<p>Immigrant Irishmen have also been the founders of prominent +American families. One of the most ancient of Irish patronymics, +McCarthy, is found in the records of Virginia as early as 1635 and in +Massachusetts in 1675, and all down through the successive generations +descendants of this sept were among the leading families of the +communities where they located. In Virginia, the McCormick, Meade, +Lewis, Preston, and Lynch families; in the Carolinas, the Canteys, +Nealls, Bryans, and Butlers; and in Maryland, the Carrolls and Dulanys +are all descended from successful Irish colonizers.</p> + +<p>Even from this very incomplete summary, we can see that Irish +blood, brain, and brawn have been a valuable acquisition to the +building of the fabric of American institutions, and that the sons of +Ireland merit more prominent recognition than has been accorded them +in the pages of American history. The pharisees of history may have +withheld from Ireland the credit that is her due, but, thanks to the +never-failing guidance of the records, we are able to show that at all +times, whether they came as voluntary exiles or were driven from their +homes by the persecutions of government, her sons have had an +honorable part in every upward movement in American life. Testimony +adduced from the sources from which this imperfect sketch is drawn +cannot be called into question, and its perusal by those who so +amusingly glorify the "Anglo-Saxon" as the founder of the American +race and American institutions would have a chastening influence on +their ignorance of early American history, and would reopen the long +vista of the years, at the very beginning of which they would see Celt +and Teuton, Saxon and Gaul, working side by side solidifying the +fulcrum of the structure on which this great nation rests.</p> + + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>The archives, registers, records, reports, and other official +documents mentioned in the text; the various Town, County, and State +Histories; the collections and publications of the following +societies: Massachusetts Historical Society, Genealogical Society of +Pennsylvania, New York Historical Society (34 vols.), New York +Genealogical and Biographical Society (44 vols.), Maine Historical +Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, Connecticut Historical +Society, South Carolina Historical Society, and American Historical +Society; New England Historical and Genealogical Register (67 vols., +Boston, 1847-1913); New England Historical and Biographical Record; +Hakluyt: Voyages, Navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the +English Nation (London, 1607); Dobbs: The Trade and Improvement of +Ireland (Dublin, 1729); Hutchinson: History of Massachusetts from the +First Settlement in 1628 until 1750 (Salem, 1795); Proud: History of +Pennsylvania, 1681-1770 (Philadelphia, 1797-1798); Savage: +Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, +1860-1862); Morris (ed.): The Makers of New York (Philadelphia, 1895); +Pope: The Pioneers of Massachusetts (Boston, 1900), The Pioneers of +Maine and New Hampshire (Boston, 1908); Richardson: Side-lights on +Maryland History (Baltimore, 1913); Spencer: History of the United +States; Ramsay: History of the United States; Prendergast: Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T21"></a>THE IRISH IN CANADA</h2> +<h4>By JAMES J. WALSH, M.D., Ph.D., Litt.D., Sc.D.</h4> + +<p>When Wolfe captured Quebec and Canada came under British rule, some +of the best known of his officers and several of his men were Irish. +After the Peace was signed many of them settled in Canada, not a few +of them marrying French wives, and as a consequence there are numerous +Irish, Scotch, and English names among the French speaking inhabitants +of Lower Canada. Two of Wolfe's officers, Colonel Guy Carleton, born +at Strabane in the county Tyrone, and General Richard Montgomery, born +only seven miles away at Convoy, in the same county, were destined to +play an important role in the future history of Canada. Montgomery was +in command of the Revolutionary Army from the Colonies, when it +attempted to take Quebec, and Carleton, who had been a trusted friend +of General Wolfe, was in command of the Canadian forces. The two men +were the lives of their respective commands, and with the death of +Montgomery Carleton's victory was assured.</p> + +<p>Carleton was made Governor-in-Chief of Canada, and during the +trying years of the early British rule of New France and the American +Revolution, his tact did more than anything else to save Canada for +the British. Bibaud, the French historian, says, "the man to whom the +administration of the government was entrusted had known how to make +the Canadians love him, and this contributed not a little to retain at +least within the bounds of neutrality those among them who might have +been able, or who believed themselves able, to ameliorate their lot by +making common cause with the insurgent colonies." Shortly after being +made governor, Carleton went to England and secured the passage of the +Quebec Act through the English parliament, which gave the Canadian +French assurance that they were to be ruled without oppression by the +British Government. Subsequently, in 1786, Carleton, as Lord +Dorchester, became the first governor-general of Canada, being given +jurisdiction over Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well as Upper and +Lower Canada, and to him more than to any other is due the early +loyalty to the British crown in the Dominion.</p> + +<p>After the army the next important source of Irish population in +Canada were the loyalists who after the Revolution removed from the +United States to the British Dominions in America. There were probably +many thousands of them, more than enough to make up for the French who +left Canada for France when the territory passed over to England. +Among the Irish loyalists who went to Canada was the Rev. John Stuart, +who had become very well known as a missionary in the Mohawk Valley +before the Revolution, and who, though born a Presbyterian, was +destined to win the title of the "Father of the Church of England in +Upper Canada." When the first Canadian parliament met in December +1792, Edward O'Hara was returned for Gaspé, in Lower Canada, +and D'Arcy McGee could boast that henceforward Lower Canada was never +without an Irish representative in its legislative councils.</p> + +<p>When the question of settling Upper Canada with British colonists +came up, Colonel Talbot, a county Dublin man, was the most important +factor. He obtained a large grant of land near what is now London and +attracted settlers into what was at that time a wilderness. The tract +settled under his superintendence now comprises twenty-nine townships +in the most prosperous part of Canada.</p> + +<p>The maritime Provinces had been under British rule before the fall +of Quebec and contained a large element of Irish population. In +Newfoundland in 1753 out of a total population of some thirteen +thousand, Davin says that there were nearly five thousand Catholics, +chiefly Irish. In 1784 a great new stimulus to Irish immigration to +Newfoundland was given by Father O'Connell, who in 1796 was made +Catholic bishop of the island. Newfoundland, for its verdure, the +absence of reptiles, and its Irish inhabitants, was called at this +time "Transatlantic Ireland", and Bonnycastle says that more than one +half of the population was Irish.</p> + +<p>In 1749 Governor Cornwallis brought some 4,000 disbanded soldiers +to Nova Scotia and founded Halifax. Ten years later it was described +as divided into Halifax proper, Irishtown or the southern, and +Dutchtown or the northern, suburbs. The inhabitants numbered 3,000, +one-third of whom were Irish. They were among the most prominent men +of the city and province. In the Privy Council for 1789 were Thomas +Corcoran and Charles Morris. Morris was president of the Irish Society +and Matthew Cahill the sheriff of Halifax in that year. A large number +of Irish from the north of Ireland settled in Nova Scotia in 1763, +calling their settlement Londonderry. They provided a fortunate refuge +for the large numbers of Irish Presbyterians who were expelled from +New England by the intolerant Puritans the following year. They also +welcomed many loyalists who came from New York and the New England +States after the acknowledgment of the independence of the American +Colonies by Great Britain. Between the more eastern settlers around +Halifax and those in the interior, the greater part of the population +of Nova Scotia was probably Irish in origin.</p> + +<p>It was in the Maritime Provinces that the first step in political +emancipation for Catholics under British rule was made. In 1821 +Lawrence Cavanaugh, a Roman Catholic, was returned to the Assembly of +the Province for Cape Breton. He would not subscribe to the +declaration on Transubstantiation in the oath of office tendered him, +and as a consequence was refused admittance to the Assembly. But he +was elected again and again, and six years afterwards Judge +Haliburton, better known by his <i>nom de plume</i> of "Sam Slick", in +an able speech, seconded the motion to dispense with the declaration, +and Cavanaugh was permitted to take the oath without the +declaration.</p> + +<p>The War of 1812 brought over from Ireland a number of Irish +soldiers serving in the British army, many of whom after the war +settled down and became inhabitants of the country. They were allotted +farm lands and added much to Canada's prosperity. A type of their +descendants was Sir William Hingston, whose father was at this time a +lieutenant adjutant in the Royal 100th Regiment, "the Dublins." Sir +William's father died when his son was a mere boy, but the lad +supported his mother, worked his way through the medical school, saved +enough money to give himself two years in Europe, and became a great +surgeon. He was elected three times mayor of Montreal, serving one +term with great prestige under the most trying circumstances. He +afterwards became a senator of the Dominion and was knighted by Queen +Victoria.</p> + +<p>Prince Edward Island was settled mainly by the Scotch and French, +and yet many Irish names are to be found among its old families. It +was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, and the first Governor appointed +was Captain Walter Patterson, whose niece, Elizabeth Patterson, was +married to Jerome Bonaparte in Baltimore in 1803. Captain Patterson +was so ardent an Irishman that through his influence he had an act +passed by the Assembly changing the name of the island to New Ireland, +but the home Government refused to countenance the change. At this +time the island was known as St. John's, and the name Prince Edward +was given to it in honor of the Duke of Kent in 1789. One of the most +popular governors of the island was Sir Dominick Daly, knighted while +in office. He was a member of a well known Galway family, and first +came to America as secretary to one of the governors. He afterwards +became provincial secretary for Lower Canada.</p> + +<p>Canada suffered from the aftermath of the revolutions which took +place in Europe during the early part of the nineteenth century. The +year 1837 saw two revolutions, one in Upper, the other in Lower, +Canada, though neither of them amounted to more than a flash in the +pan. As might be expected, there were not a few Irish among the +disaffected spirits who fostered these revolutions. Their experience +at home led them to know how little oppressed people were likely to +obtain from the British Government except by a demonstration of force. +There were serious abuses, especially "the Family Compact", the lack +of anything approaching constitutional guarantees in government, and +political disabilities on the score of religion. However, most of the +Irish in Canada were ranged on the side of the government. Sir Richard +Bonnycastle, writing in 1846, said "The Catholic Irish who have been +long settled in the country are by no means the worst subjects in this +transatlantic realm, as I can personally testify, having had the +command of large bodies of them during the border troubles of 1837-8. +They are all loyal and true." Above all Bonnycastle pledged himself +for the loyalty of the Irish Catholic priesthood.</p> + +<p>One of the Irishmen who came into prominence in the rebellions of +1837 was Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, the editor of the +<i>Vindicator</i>, the newspaper by means of which Papineau succeeded +in arousing much feeling among the people of Lower Canada and fomented +the Revdlution. O'Callaghan escaped to the United States and settled +at Albany, where he became the historian of New York State. To him, +more than to any other, we owe the preservation of the historical +materials out of which the early history of the State can be +constructed. Rare volumes of the Jesuit Relations, to the value of +which for historical purposes he had called special attention, were +secured from his library for the Canadian library at Ottawa.</p> + +<p>Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, when the population +of Ireland reached its highest point of over 8,000,000, the pressure +on the people caused them to emigrate in large numbers, and then the +famine came to drive out great crowds of those who survived. In +proportion to its population Canada received a great many more of +these Irish emigrants than did the United States. Unfortunately the +conditions on board the emigrant sailing vessels in those days cost +many lives. They were often becalmed and took months to cross the +ocean. My grandmother coming in the thirties was ninety-three days in +crossing, landing at Quebec after seven weeks on half rations, part of +the time living on nothing but oatmeal and water. Ship fever, the +dreaded typhus, broke out on her vessel as on so many others, and more +than half the passengers perished. Many, many thousands of the Irish +emigrants thus died on ship-board or shortly after landing. In 1912, +the Ancient Order of Hibernians erected near Quebec a monument to the +victims. In spite of the untoward conditions, emigration continued +unabated, and in 1875, in the population of Ontario, Quebec, New +Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, it was calculated that the Irish numbered +846,414 as compared with 706,369 English and 549,946 Scotch (Hatton, +quoted by Davin in <i>The Irishman In Canada</i>).</p> + +<p>It had become clear that Canada would prosper more if united than +in separate provinces jealous of each other. The first move in this +direction came from the Maritime Provinces, where the Irish element +was so much stronger than elsewhere, and when a conference of the +leading statesmen of these Provinces was appointed to be held at +Charlottetown, P.E.I., September 1864, representatives of Upper and +Lower Canada asked to be allowed to be present to bring forward a plan +for a Federation of all the British Provinces in North America. The +British North America Act was passed, and received the royal assent, +the queen appointing July 1, 1867 as the formal beginning of the +Dominion of Canada.</p> + +<p>Among the men who were most prominent in bringing about federation +and who came to be known as the Fathers of Confederation were several +distinguished Irishmen. Thomas D'Arcy McGee was the best known and +probably did more than any other Canadian to make the idea of +confederation popular by his writings and speeches. He had come to +Canada as a stranger, edited a newspaper in Montreal, and was elected +to the Assembly after a brief residence, in spite of the opposition +cries of "Irish adventurer" and "stranger from abroad," was +subsequently elected four times by acclamation, and was Minister of +Agriculture and Education and Canadian Commissioner to the Paris +Exposition of 1867. His letters to the Earl of Mayo, pleading for the +betterment of conditions in Ireland, were quoted by Gladstone during +the Home Rule movement as "a prophetic voice from the dead coming from +beyond the Atlantic."</p> + +<p>Another of the Fathers of Confederation was the Honorable Edward +Whalen, born in the county Mayo, who as a young man went to Prince +Edward Island, where he gained great influence as a popular +journalist. He was an orator as well as an editor, and came to have +the confidence of the people of the island, and hence was able to do +very much for federation. A third of the Fathers of Confederation from +the Maritime Provinces was the Honorable, afterwards Sir, Edward +Kenny, who, when the first Cabinet of the New Dominion was formed, was +offered and accepted one of the portfolios in recognition of the +influence which he had wielded for Canadian union.</p> + +<p>At all times in the history of Canada the Catholic hierarchy has +been looked up to as thoroughly conservative factors for the progress +and development of the country. After the Irish immigration most of +the higher ecclesiastics were Irish by birth or descent, and they all +exerted a deep influence not only on their own people but on their +city and province. One of the Fathers of Confederation was Archbishop +Connolly, of Halifax, of whom the most distinguished Presbyterian +clergyman of the Lower Provinces said the day after his death: "I feel +that I have not only lost a friend, but as if Canada had lost a +patriot; in all his big-hearted Irish fashion he was ever at heart, in +mind, and deed, a true Canadian." Among his colleagues of the +hierarchy were such men as his predecessor Archbishop Walsh, +Archbishop Lynch, the first Metropolitan of Upper Canada when Toronto +was erected into an archbishopric, Bishop Hogan of Kingston, +Archbishop Hannan of Halifax, Archbishop Walsh of Toronto, and +Archbishop O'Brien of Halifax, all of whom were esteemed as faithful +Canadians working for the benefit of their own people more especially, +but always with the larger view of good for the whole commonwealth of +Canada.</p> + +<p>The Irish continued to furnish great representative men to Canada. +The first governor, Guy Carleton, was Irish, and his subsequent +governor-generalship as Lord Dorchester did much to make Canada loyal +to Great Britain. During the difficult times of the Civil War in the +United States, Lord Monck, a Tipperary man, was the tactful +governor-general, "like other Irish Governors singularly successful in +winning golden opinions" (Davin). Probably the most popular and +influential of Canada's governors-general was Lord Dufferin, another +Irishman. Some of the most distinguished of Canadian jurists, editors, +and politicians have been Irishmen, and Irishmen have been among her +great merchants, contractors, and professional men. In our own time +Sir William Hingston among the physicians, Sir Charles Fitzpatrick +among the jurists, and Sir Thomas George Shaughnessy among the +administrative financiers are fine types of Irish character.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Davin: The Irishman in Canada (Toronto, 1877); McGee: Works; Tracy: +The Tercentenary History of Canada (New York, 1908); Walsh: Sir +William Hingston, in the Amer. Catholic Quarterly (January, 1911), +Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, in the Records of the Amer. Catholic +Historical Society (1907); McKenna: A Century of Catholicity in +Canada, in the Catholic World, vol. 1, p. 229.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T22"></a>THE IRISH IN SOUTH AMERICA</h2> +<h4>By MARION MULHALL.</h4> + +<h4>I.—FROM THE SPANISH CONQUEST TO THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.</h4> + +<p>South America, although comparatively little known until recent +times to the outside world, contains much to interest the missionary, +the scientist, the historian, the traveler, and the financier. The +twentieth century will probably see hundreds following in the +footsteps of their predecessors. In the meantime, the brilliant +achievements of numerous Irish men and women in that part of the world +are falling into oblivion, and call for a friendly hand to collect the +fragments of historical lore connected with their exploits.</p> + +<p>This paper will cover three periods:—</p> + +<p>(1). From the Spanish Conquest to the War of Independence: here the +principal actors were maritime explorers, buccaneers, and mercantile +adventurers;</p> + +<p>(2). The War of Independence from 1810 to 1826: in this period +Irishmen performed feats of valor worthy to rank with those in Greek +or Roman history.</p> + +<p>(3). Since the Independence; a period of commercial and industrial +development, in which Irishmen have played a foremost part.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + + +<p>It has been said that George Barlow, the companion of Sebastian +Cabot, was an Irishman. Cabot was the first Britisher to sail up the +Rio de la Plata, and gave it its name just thirty-five years after the +discovery of America. Barlow was in the service of the king of Spain, +and in that country met Cabot, who had been appointed Pilot Major to +his Majesty in the year 1518. In 1577 we read of the famous Admiral +Drake's expedition to the River Plate, which he reached on April 14, +1578. Evidently it was a successful one in the opinion of Queen +Elizabeth, for on Drake's return to Plymouth, September 26, 1580, she +came aboard his ship and knighted him. There seem to have been three +Irishmen on this expedition, Fenton, Merrick, and Ward. Fenton, who +was in command of two vessels, was attacked by a Spanish squadron +between Brazil and the River Plate, and the battle continued by +moonlight until one of the Spaniards was sunk. The Spanish historian +adds that Fenton might have sunk another of the enemy's ships, but +refrained because there were several women on board.</p> + +<p>Lozana in his <i>History</i> mentions a revolution in Paraguay in +1555, which was headed by an Irishman named Nicholas Colman. This +revolution was quickly suppressed by the Spanish viceroy, Yrala, but +Colman led a second revolution in 1570, when Captain Rigueline was +governor of Guayra. The mutineers named Colman for their chief, put +their treasures into canoes, and floated down the Parana until their +boats were capsized by some rapids, probably the falls of Apipe in +Misiones. The viceroy, on hearing of the revolt, sent troops to bring +back the fugitives, and the latter were treated with unusual clemency. +Lozana describes Colman as a daring, turbulent buccaneer. For fifteen +years he seems to have played an important part in Guayra; his +subsequent fate is unknown.</p> + +<p>In 1626 an expedition commanded by James Purcell, an Irishman, +established itself on the island of Tocujos, in the mouth of the +Amazon.</p> + +<p>Captain Charles O'Hara was sent by Governor Arana from Montevideo +in March, 1761, to destroy the old landmarks of Rio Negro and Ching +between the dominions of Portugal and Spain. The officer next under +him was Lieutenant Charles Murphy, afterwards governor of Paraguay. +This expedition suffered great hardships.</p> + +<p>Several of the expeditions of the privateers of the eighteenth +century sailed from Ireland. Dampier, a skilful navigator, went on a +cruise to intercept the Spanish galleons returning from the River +Plate with booty supposed to be worth £600,000 sterling. He +sailed from Kinsale in September, 1703, with two vessels, and no doubt +amongst the crews were many Irishmen. It was on this expedition that +Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch sailor, was put on shore at Juan Fernandez +in 1704, where he remained until rescued by Captain Rogers, who +commanded the <i>Duke</i>, a vessel of 320 tons, which sailed from +Cork on September 1, 1708, touched by chance at Juan Fernandez, and +found the original of Defoe's remarkable story, <i>Robinson +Crusoe</i>, who presented a wild appearance dressed in his +goatskins.</p> + +<p>In 1765 Captain Macnamara, with two vessels called the <i>Lord +Clive</i> and the <i>Ambuscade</i>, mounting between them 104 guns, +attempted to take Colonia, in front of Buenos Ayres, from the +Spaniards. Having shelled the place for four hours, Macnamara expected +every moment to see a white flag hoisted, when, by some mishap, the +<i>Lord Clive</i> took fire, and 262 persons perished. The Spaniards +fired upon the poor fellows in the water, only 78 escaping to land. +Macnamara was seen to sink. His sword was found a few years ago by a +Colonia fisherman, who presented it to the British consul at +Montevideo. Most of the Irish names still extant in the Argentine +provinces, such as Sarsfield, Carrol, and Butler, are probably derived +from these captives. Among the descendants of the survivors of +Macnamara's expedition may be mentioned the ablest lawyer ever known +in Buenos Ayres and for many years Prime Minister, the late Dr. Velez +Sarsfield, and also Governor O'Neill.</p> + +<p>The year 1586 saw an expedition of a very different character, +consisting of the first Jesuits sent to convert Paraguay, under the +direction of Father Thomas Field, an Irishman, and son of a Limerick +doctor. Their vessel fell into the hands of English privateers off the +Brazilian coast, but the sea rovers respected their captives, and +after sundry adventures the latter landed at Buenos Ayres, whence they +proceeded over land to Cordoba. The year following they set out for +Paraguay, where Father Field and his companions laid the foundation of +the Jesuit commonwealth of Misiones, which had such wonderful +development in the following two centuries as to cause Voltaire to +admit that "the Jesuit establishment in Paraguay seems to be the +triumph of humanity."</p> + +<p>Another Irish Jesuit, Father Thaddeus Ennis, appears in authority +in Misiones shortly before the downfall. In 1756, when Spain ceded San +Miguel and other missions to Portugal, Father Ennis was entrusted with +the removal lower down to Parana of such tribes as refused to become +Portuguese subjects.</p> + +<p>Yet another Jesuit, Father Falkiner, son of an Irish Protestant +doctor in Manchester, who had himself studied medicine, was one of the +most successful travellers and missionaries of the 18th century. Among +his friends in London was a ship-captain who traded from the coast of +Guinea to Brazil, carrying slaves for the company recently established +by Queen Anne's patent, and he it doubtless was who prevailed on the +young physician to try a seafaring life. In one of his voyages as ship +surgeon, from Guinea to Buenos Ayres, he fell ill at the latter port, +and, there being no hotels, he had the good fortune to enjoy the +hospitality of the Jesuit superior, Father Mahony, whose name +proclaims his Irish nationality. Such was the impression made on +Falkiner by the kindness of the Jesuits that he shortly afterwards was +received into the Church and entered as a novice in the College of St. +Ignatius at Buenos Ayres. He spent the first years of his missionary +career in Misiones and Tucuman. Later on he was despatched by his +superior to Patagonia, and his success there during 27 years was +almost equal to what has already been mentioned of Father Field in +Paraguay. He converted many tribes, and traversed nearly every part of +Patagonia from Rio Negro to Magellan's Straits, and as far inland as +the Andes. He knew most of the Indian tongues, and by his winning +manners and knowledge of medicine gained a great influence over the +savages. When he published his life and travels, such was the effect +of his book upon the king of Spain that he at once ordered surveys and +settlements to be made along the Patagonian coast, which Father +Falkiner represented as exposed to seizure by the first adventurer who +should land there. Father Falkiner's book has been translated into +French, German, and Spanish. He returned to England and died at +Spetchly, Worcestershire, near the end of the 18th century.</p> + +<p>In 1774 the bishop of Ayachucho was Dr. James O'Phelan, who rebuilt +the old Cathedral of Pasco. His father was an Irish officer in the +Spanish army.</p> + +<h4>II.—THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.</h4> + +<p>Towards the close of the 18th century the Pitt administration lent +a willing ear to a Venezuelan patriot, General Miranda, who proposed +that Great Britain should aid South America to expel the Spanish +rulers and set up a number of independent states. Spain being the ally +of France and paying an annual subsidy to Napoleon, it became moreover +the object of England to seize the treasure-ships periodically +arriving from the River Plate.</p> + +<p>Hostilities having broken out in Europe in 1803, an English +squadron under an Irish commander, Captain Moore, captured in the +following year some Spanish galleons laden with treasure at the mouth +of the River Plate. In June, 1806, Major General William Carr +Beresford with a British squadron cast anchor about twelve miles from +Buenos Ayres, and with a force of only 1635 men took possession of +that city of 60,000 inhabitants. The indignation which such a +humiliation at first caused among the people was in large measure +calmed by the manifesto which the conquering commander issued on the +occasion. In the <i>Memoirs</i> of General Belgrano we read: "It +grieved me to see my country subjugated in this manner, but I shall +always admire the gallantry of the brave and honorable Beresford in so +daring an enterprise." Beresford was, however, unable to hold his +ground, for the Spaniards got together an army of 10,000 men, and +re-took the city. Beresford was made prisoner, but after five months' +detention he and his brother-officers, among whom was another +Irishman, Major Fahy, managed to escape. Thus ended the expedition of +this brave general, who nevertheless had covered himself and his +little army with glory, for he held Buenos Ayres as a British colony +for 45 days, and had he been properly supported from home the result +would in all probability have been vastly different.</p> + +<p>General Beresford was one of the most distinguished men of his +time. He was the illegitimate son of the Marquis of Waterford, entered +the army at 16, and served in every quarter of the globe. After his +defeat at Buenos Ayres he captured Madeira, and was made governor of +that island. In 1808 he successfully covered the retreat of Sir John +Moore to Corunna, a difficult feat, for which he received a marshal's +baton, and was made commander-in-chief in Portugal. In 1811 he +defeated Marshal Soult at Albuera, and subsequently took part in the +victories of Salamanca and Vittoria. For these services he was made +Duke of Elvas, and the British government conferred on him in 1814 the +title of Baron Beresford of Albuera and Dungannon. The same year he +was sent as minister to Brazil, and on his return was created +viscount. He married the widow of Thomas Hope the banker, and settled +down on his estates in Kent, where he died in 1854.</p> + +<p>The brilliancy of Beresford's achievement in capturing Buenos Ayres +with a handful of men had dazzled the minds of English statesmen, who +felt that 10,000 British troops were enough to subdue the whole of the +vast continent of South America. In May, 1807, an expedition +comprising several frigates and transports with 5,000 troops appeared +off Montevideo from England. A month later Lieutenant-General +Whitelock arrived with orders to assume the chief command, and among +his officers were the gallant Irishmen, Major Vandeleur, who commanded +a wing of the 88th Regiment, and Lieutenant-Colonel Nugent, of the +38th. Whitelock endeavored, but failed, to retake Buenos Ayres. During +the siege a small detachment of Spanish troops under Colonel James +Butler, after a terrific conflict, in which they sold their lives +dearly, were all killed. Agreeably to Colonel Butler's request his +remains were buried on the spot he had so valiantly defended, and his +tombstone was visible there until 1818.</p> + +<p>It is a remarkable fact that several of the South American +countries, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, were governed by viceroys of Irish +birth in the critical period preceding the Independence, although +Spanish law forbade such office to any but Spaniards born. It was in +recognition of gallant services in Spain, in combination with the Duke +of Wellington, that General O'Donoghue was made viceroy of Mexico in +1821, but the elevation of the great viceroy of Peru, Ambrose +O'Higgins, was due to the splendid talents of administration already +displayed by him during twenty years of service in Chile. He was born +at Summerhill, Co. Meath, about 1730. An uncle of his was one of the +chaplains at the court of Madrid, and at his expense O'Higgins was +educated at a college in Cadiz. He then entered the Spanish engineer +corps, and in 1769 was given the command of the commission sent to +Chile to strengthen the fortifications of Valdivia. He was made +captain-general of Chile in 1788, was subsequently created marquis of +Osorno, and in 1796 was nominated viceroy of Peru, a position which he +held until his death in 1801.</p> + +<p>The great viceroy left only one son, Bernard O'Higgins, who +succeeded General Carreras in the supreme command of the patriot army +against the Spaniards in 1813. In 1817 O'Higgins took a principal part +in the victory of Chacabuco, and was almost immediately appointed +supreme director of Chile, with dictatorial powers. During his +administration, which lasted six years, he gave every proof of his +fitness for the position. But, alas! it was the misfortune of South +America to surpass the republics of antiquity in the ingratitude shown +towards its greatest benefactors. It is then not surprising to find +that the Father of his Country, as O'Higgins is affectionately styled, +was deposed by a military revolution, and obliged to take refuge in +Peru, from which country he never returned. General Miller and Lord +Cochrane, in their <i>Memoirs</i>, give frequent testimony to the +honesty and zeal of Bernard O'Higgins. He was always treated as an +honored guest in Lima, in which city he died on October 24, 1842. He +left a son, Demetrio O'Higgins, a wealthy land-owner, who contributed +large sums for the patriot army against Spain.</p> + +<p>Among other Irish commanders in Chile and Peru, who, during the War +of Independence, fought their way to dignity and rank, was General +MacKenna, the hero of Membrillar. He was born in 1771, at Clogher, Co. +Tyrone; his mother belonged to the ancient Irish sept of O'Reilly, +whose estates were confiscated after the fall of Limerick in 1691.</p> + +<p>General Thomond O'Brien, who won his spurs at the battle of +Chacabuco, seems to have been born in the south of Ireland about 1790. +He joined the army of San Martin, and accompanied that general through +the campaigns of Chile and Peru until the overthrow of the Spanish +régime and the proclamation of San Martin as protector of Peru. +On the day (July 28, 1821) when independence was declared at Lima, the +protector took in his hand the standard of Pizarro and said, "This is +my portion of the trophies." Then, taking the state canopy of Pizarro, +a kind of umbrella always borne over the viceroys in processions, he +presented it to General O'Brien, saying, "This is for the gallant +comrade who fought so many years by my side in the cause of South +America." The inscription on the canopy, in O'Brien's hand, says that +it was brought to Peru on Pizarro's second journey from Spain. Little +did the viceroys think that its last owner would be an Irishman.</p> + +<p>General O'Connor, one of the most distinguished soldiers of the War +of Independence, played an important part in the final victory of +Ayachucho. For his gallantry on that day he was promoted to the rank +of general by the commander-in-chief, General Bolivar. After the War +of Independence he became Minister of War in Bolivia. General O'Connor +went to South America as an ensign in the Irish Legion under General +Devereux. He claimed direct descent from Roderic O'Conor, last king of +Ireland, 1186.</p> + +<p>Captain Esmonde also fought in the War of Independence. He was +brother to the then baronet, Sir Thomas Esmonde, of Co. Wexford. In +later years Captain Esmonde was employed by the Peruvian government to +report on some proposed canals at Tarapaca. The vessel in which he +embarked was never more heard of.</p> + +<p>Colonel Charles Carroll had served in Spain, but joined the Chilian +army after independence was gained. He was one of the most popular +officers in the army, and met with a sad fate. Being sent with too +small a detachment against the savage Indians, their commander, +Benavides, cut his forces in pieces and murdered all the officers in a +most cruel manner. O'Carroll had his tongue cut out and was then +butchered.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Colonel Moran, who commanded the Colombian legion at the +battle of Ayachucho, probably came out in the legion of General +Devereux.</p> + +<p>Colonel (afterwards General) O'Leary was first aide-decamp to +General Bolivar, the Liberator, and received his last breath. He was +nephew to the famous Father Arthur O'Leary. Bolivar employed him on +various missions of great trust and says "he acquitted himself with +great ability." After the war, General O'Leary was appointed British +chargé d'affaires at Bogota, and died in Rome in 1868. General +Arthur Sandes, a native of Dublin, was entrusted with an important +garrison in Peru on the close of the War of Independence.</p> + +<p>Admiral Brown, the distinguished commander and hero of the War of +Independence, whose exploits may be ranked, like those of Nelson, +"above all Greek, above all Roman fame," was born at Foxford, Co. +Mayo, Ireland, on the 22nd of June, 1777. His father emigrated with +his family to Pennsylvania. A ship captain who was about to sail from +Philadelphia offered to take the intelligent Irish boy with him, and +the offer was promptly accepted. During twenty years he seems to have +voyaged to many countries; at one time we find him at Archangel. Brown +had been in Buenos Ayres just two years when the patriot government +offered him command of a squadron to commence hostilities against the +Spanish navy, then mistress of all the coasts and waters of South +America. On the memorable 8th of March, 1814, Brown sailed out of the +port of Buenos Ayres with three ships to commence a campaign, which +was destined to destroy the Spanish navy in this part of the waters of +the New World. With him went his fellow-countrymen, Captains Seaver +and Kearney. Brown's next exploits were against Spanish shipping in +the Pacific, and his entirely successful campaign at sea against +Brazil, in which he gained the mastery by his wonderful skill, +courage, and perseverance, keeping at bay the great naval power of +that country (which consisted at one time of fifty war vessels) with +his few, small, ill-supplied, and ill-armed craft. After these great +exploits Brown spent some months among the wild scenery of Mayo, so +dear to him in boyhood, and, returning to Buenos Ayres, devoted +himself to the quiet life of a country gentleman. He died surrounded +by his family and friends on May 3, 1857, and the day of his funeral +was one of national mourning. His widow erected a monument to his +memory in the Recoleta cemetery, and in 1872 the municipality of +Buenos Ayres granted a site for a public statue on the Pasco Julio, +which so often rang with the plaudits of the people as they welcomed +this great Irishman returning from victory.</p> + +<p>No brighter pages occur in the history of the New World than those +which commemorate the gallantry and self-devotion of the Irish +soldiers who aided South Americans to throw off the yoke of Spain. In +1819 an Irish Legion of 1729 men arrived under the command of General +Devereux, a Wexford landowner, called the Lafayette of South America, +to fight in the campaign of General Bolivar. Devereux was +distinguished for his great bravery. After the War of Independence he +returned to Europe, being commissioned to form a company for mining +operations in Colombia, which country had appointed him envoy +extraordinary to various European courts.</p> + +<p>Colonel Ferguson and Captain Talbot were both Irishmen and among +the last survivors of Devereux's Legion. It is computed that one-third +of the Irish who came out under General Devereux died in hospital. It +was this legion which won the decisive battle of Carabobo, June 26, +1821, going into action 1100 strong and leaving 600 on that +hard-fought field.</p> + +<p>Among the officers who composed Bolivar's Albion Rifles we find the +Irish names of Pigott, Tallon, Peacock, Phelan, O'Connell, McNamara, +Fetherstonhaugh, French, Reynolds, Byrne, and Haig, and the medical +officer was Dr. O'Reilly. We find mention in General Millar's +<i>Memoirs</i> of Dr. Moore, an Irishman, who attended Bolivar in most +of his campaigns and was devotedly attached to the person of the +Liberator. Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes, Major Maurice Hogan, Lieutenant +William Keogh, Captain Laurence McGuire, Lieutenant-Colonel S. Collins +also served in the struggle for independence.</p> + +<p>The period of independence found a small number of Irish residents +in Buenos Ayres, mostly patrician families, such as Dillon, +MacMurrough, Murphy, French, O'Gorman, Orr, Butler, O'Shee, who had +been exiled or had fled from Ireland and obtained the king of Spain's +permission to settle in Spanish America. The descendants of these +families are now so intermarried in the country that they have mostly +forgotten the language and traditions of their ancestors; but they +occupy high positions in political, legal, and commercial circles.</p> + +<h4>III.—THE PERIOD AFTER THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.</h4> + +<p>A remarkable influx of settlers from Ireland occurred between 1825 +and 1830, to work in the <i>saladeros</i>, or salt mines, of the Irish +merchants, Brown, Dowdall, and Armstrong. Previous to this a few Irish +mechanics and others had come from the United States. In 1813 Bernard +Kiernan came from New Brunswick. He seems to have devoted himself to +science, as the papers mention his discovery of a comet in the +Magellan clouds on March 19, 1830. His son, James Kiernan, became +editor of the government paper, <i>Gaceta Mercantil</i>, in 1823, and +held this post for twenty years; his death occurred in 1857. There is +reason to believe that the first Irishman who landed in Buenos Ayres +in the 19th century, exclusive of Beresford's soldiers, was James +Coyle, a native of Tyrone, who came in the <i>Agréable</i> in +1807, and died in 1876 at the age of 86.</p> + +<p>In 1830 some survivors of an Irish colony of 300 persons in Brazil +made their way to Buenos Ayres. They had come out from Europe in the +barque <i>Reward</i> in 1829.</p> + +<p>The banker, Thomas Armstrong, who arrived in Buenos Ayres in 1817, +occupied the foremost place for half a century in the commerce of that +city. He was of the ancient family of Armstrong in the King's county, +one of whose members was General Sir John Armstrong, founder of +Woolwich arsenal. Having married into the wealthy family of Villanueva +he became intimately connected with all the leading enterprises of the +day, such as railways, banks, loans, etc. He took no part in politics, +but interested himself in charities of every kind.</p> + +<p>In 1865 another Irishman, James P. Cahill, introduced into Peru +from the United States the first complete machinery for sugar growing +and refining.</p> + +<p>Still another Irishman, Peter Sheridan, was one of the chief +founders of the sheep farming industry in Argentina. His family +claimed descent from the same stock in Co. Cavan as Richard Brinsley +Sheridan, the great statesman and dramatist. Sheridan died at the age +of 52, in 1844, and was succeeded in the <i>estancia</i> or +sheep-farming business by his nephew, James, whose brother Dr. Hugh +Sheridan had served under Admiral Brown.</p> + +<p>The number and wealth of the Irish <i>estancieros</i>, or +sheep-farmers, in Argentina have never been exactly ascertained, but +after the old Spanish families they are the most important. It would +be impossible to give all the Irish names to be met with. Some of them +own immense tracts of land. Men whose fathers arrived in Argentina +without a shilling are today worth millions. Their <i>estancia</i> +houses display all the comforts of an American or English home; their +hospitality is proverbial; and most of them have built on their land +fine schools and beautiful little chapels, in which the nearest Irish +priest officiates.</p> + +<p>Many of the <i>partidos</i> or districts of the various provinces +of Argentina may be compared to Irish counties, the railway stations +being called after the owners of the land on which they are situated. +Among the earliest families settled in Argentina in the farming +industries, we find Duggans, Torneys, Harringtons, O'Briens, Dowlings, +Gaynors, Murphys, Moores, Dillons, O'Rorkes, Kennys, Raths, Caseys, +Norrises, O'Farrells, Brownes, Hams, Duffys, Ballestys, Gahans, and +Garaghans.</p> + +<p>Dr. Santiago O'Farrell, son of one of the earliest Irish pioneers, +holds a foremost position among the distinguished lawyers of the +present day. An Irish engineer, Mr. John Coghlan, gave Buenos Ayres +its first waterworks. The British hospital has at present for its +leading surgeon a distinguished Irishman, Dr. Luke O'Connor. A son of +Peter Sheridan, educated in England, has left the finest landscapes of +South America by any artist born in America. He died at Buenos Ayres +in his 27th year, 1861. Among the public men of Irish descent, fifty +years ago, in Buenos Ayres, are to be mentioned the distinguished +lawyer and politician, Dalmacio Velez Sarsfield, and John Dillon, +commissioner of immigration. Dillon was the first to start a brewery +in Buenos Ayres, for which purpose he brought out workmen and +machinery from Europe. All of his sons occupied distinguished +positions. Richard O'Shee, president of the Chamber of Commerce in +Buenos Ayres, was born at Seville of an old Irish family banished by +William III. Among the many valuable citizens of Buenos Ayres who +perished during the cholera of 1868 was Dr. Leslie, a native of Cavan, +whose benevolence to the poor was unceasing. Henry O'Gorman, for some +years chief of police in Buenos Ayres and afterwards governor of the +penitentiary, was descended from an Irish family which went to Buenos +Ayres in the eighteenth century. His brother, Canon O'Gorman, was one +of the dignitaries of the archdiocese, and director of the boys' +reformatory. General Donovan, son of an Irish Dr. Donovan of Buenos +Ayres, had command of one of the sections of the new Indian +frontier.</p> + +<p>The first Irish chaplain was Father Burke, a venerable friar +mentioned by Mr. Love in 1820 as over 70 years of age and much +esteemed. When Rivadavia suppressed the Orders in 1822, he allowed +Father Burke to remain in the convent of Santo Domingo. After his +death the Irish residents, in 1828, petitioned Archbishop Murray of +Dublin for a chaplain. Accordingly the Rev. Patrick Moran was +selected, and he arrived in Buenos Ayres in 1829. He died in the +following year, and was succeeded by the Rev. Patrick O'Gorman from +Dublin, who continued as chaplain during 16 years till his death in +1847.</p> + +<p>The year 1843 is memorable for the arrival of Rev. Anthony Fahy, +with whose name the advancement of the Irish in Argentina will be +forever identified. This great patriarch was born at Loughrea, Co. +Galway, in 1804, and made his ecclesiastical studies at St. Clement's +convent of Irish Dominicans at Rome. Being sent to the western states +of America, he passed ten years in Ohio and Kentucky, after which, on +the invitation of the Irish community of Buenos Ayres and by +permission of the superior of his Order, he came to the river Plate at +a time when the prospects of the country and of the Irish residents +were far from promising. The history of the Irish community since that +time is in some measure a recital of the labors of Father Fahy. He it +was who helped his countrymen to choose and buy their lands which now +are of such enormous value. Their increasing numbers and prosperity in +the camp districts obliged him to endow each of the provincial +<i>partidos</i> was a resident chaplain. Most of these clergymen were +educated in Dublin, and soon showed their zeal not merely in +religious, but also in social spheres. Irish reading-rooms, libraries, +and schools sprang up and laid the foundation for the refined Irish +life of the present day in those districts. Among other services, +Father Fahy founded the Irish convent, bringing out some Sisters of +Mercy under Mrs. Mary Evangelist Fitzpatrick from Dublin, to whom he +gave it in charge. Father Fahy died in harness in 1871 of yellow +fever; he attended a poor Italian woman and on returning home was at +once taken ill. He lasted only three days and expired peacefully, a +martyr to his sacred calling. He died so poor that Mr. Armstrong had +to discharge for him some small debts, and five others of his +countrymen paid his funeral expenses. A fitting memorial of the +deceased priest, the Fahy College for Irish orphan boys in Argentina, +has been erected in Buenos Ayres, and a magnificent monument of Irish +marble, carved in Ireland, also perpetuates his fame.</p> + +<p>The priests, still living, who were co-workers with Father Fahy and +appointed by him to various <i>partidos</i>, are Monsignor Samuel +O'Reilly, deservedly beloved by his parishioners, and the Rev. Father +Flannery, whose appointment to San Pedro brought a great influx of +Irish farmers into that district. Among those who have gone to enjoy +their eternal reward are the brothers, Rev. Michael and Rev. John +Leahy, both of whom were indefatigable during the yellow fever in +Buenos Ayres. Rev. Father Mulleady, Rev. Patrick Lynch, Rev. James +Curran, and Monsignor Curley were also among the Irish priests of that +time.</p> + +<p>The Fahy College is entrusted to the care of the Marist Brothers, +who are largely Irish. The community of Holy Cross of the Passionist +Fathers, who have as provincial the distinguished North American +scholar Father Fidelis Kent Stone, is almost entirely composed of +Irish and Irish-Americans. They have several establishments in various +provinces of Argentina. Irish priests are to be met with all over the +country. In Patagonia and the Chaco we also find a number of +Protestant missionaries sent out by the Irish branch of the South +American Missionary Society.</p> + +<p>Archdeacon Dillon succeeded Father Fahy as Irish chaplain in Buenos +Ayres, and, although by birth and education an Irishman, he became one +of the principal dignitaries of the archdiocese. He was for some time +professor of theology in the ecclesiastical seminary of Buenos Ayres, +and accompanied Archbishop Escalada as theologian to the Vatican +Council in 1869. He was the founder of the <i>Southern Cross</i> in +1874, the Irish weekly paper which is now so ably edited by the gifted +Irishman, Mr. Gerald Foley.</p> + +<p>The first daily paper to appear in English in South America was the +<i>Standard</i>, founded in 1861 by Michael G. Mulhall, the +distinguished statistician, and it is still one of the leading papers +in the country. In conducting it Michael G. Mulhall was joined by his +brother, Edward T. Mulhall, in 1862, and for many years it was +continuously under their care. The <i>Standard</i> still remains in +the Mulhall family, and has for its editor a cousin of the former +editor's, Mr. John Mulhall, who wisely directs its course. The +<i>Argentina</i>, an important paper in Spanish, was founded a few +years since by Edward T. Mulhall, Jr., a brilliant son of the late +Edward Mulhall of the <i>Standard</i>. The <i>Hyberno-Argentine +Review</i>, a new Irish weekly, is edited by another able Irishman, +James B. Sheridan. In Rio Janeiro the <i>Anglo-Brasilian Times</i> was +founded in 1864 by an Irishman, Mr. Scully, who also wrote an +important book on Brazil.</p> + +<p>Ireland had also its representatives in South American diplomacy +and the making of treaties. As early as 1809 Colonel James Burke was +sent by Lord Strangford, British minister at Rio, on a confidential +mission to Buenos Ayres to negotiate the establishment of a separate +kingdom on the river Plate, with the Princess Charlotte as queen. In +1867 Mr. Gould, an Irishman, British chargé d'affaires, +endeavored to mediate between the allies, Brazil and Argentina, and +President Lopez of Paraguay, but without success. Stephen H. Sullivan, +British chargé d'affaires for Chile, signed the treaty of +commerce and navigation between England and Chile on the 10th of May, +1852. He was afterwards appointed British minister at Lima, where he +was murdered. The late Chilian ministers to Buenos Ayres and London, +William Blest Gana and Albert Blest Gana, were the sons of an Irish +Doctor Blest from Sligo, who settled in Chile. In 1859 George Fagan +signed a treaty with General Guido for compensation of losses to +British subjects during the civil wars after the Independence.</p> + +<p>The mining industry had among its pioneers brave sons of Erin. J. +O. French went to Buenos Ayres in 1826, and after an arduous mountain +journey arrived at the foot of the Cerro Morado, where he found +auriferous ores. Chevalier Edmond Temple, an Irish gentleman who had +served in Spain in a dragoon regiment, also landed in Buenos Ayres in +1826, and started across the Pampas, then almost uninhabited, until he +came to the mountainous country where the Potosi mines were situated. +In one of the defiles he lost his favorite horse, and in his book he +bids a touching farewell to the friendly steed which had shared with +him so many toils and dangers. Temple's successor in the Argentine +mining provinces was Major Rickard Seaver, a member of an old Co. +Dublin family.</p> + +<p>Several books of travel in South America have been published by +Irish writers during the last fifty years. MacCann's <i>Travels in the +Argentine Provinces</i>, 1846-49, contains much that is valuable +concerning the history and manners of the country. Major Rickard +Seaver issued in 1863 an interesting narrative of his crossing the +Andes. Consul Hutchinson, an Irishman, published in 1864 his book +<i>Argentine Gleanings</i>, which was followed by another in 1869 +called <i>South American Recollections</i>. Robert Crawford, an Irish +engineer, led an expedition from Buenos Ayres in November, 1871, +across the Indian Pampas and over the pass of the Planchon in the +Andes, to survey an overland route to Chile, and subsequently +published an interesting account of his journey. The first book +printed and published in English, in South America, was the +<i>Handbook of the River Plate</i>, written by Michael G. Mulhall and +published by the <i>Standard</i>, in 1861. The same author also +published the <i>Rural Code of Buenos Ayres</i> in 1867, and the +<i>Handbook of Brazil</i> in 1877. In 1871 he published an account of +his travels among the German colonies in Rio Grande do Sul. Twenty +years ago the writer of this sketch published <i>Between the Amazon +and the Andes</i> and the <i>Story of the Jesuit Missions of +Paraguay</i>. These books derive special interest from the fact that +she was the first foreign woman ever seen in Cuyaba, the capital of +Matto Grosso, whither she accompanied her husband, 2500 miles from +either the Atlantic or the Pacific seaboard. They arrived as far as +the Diamantina Mountains, beyond Cuyaba, and saw the little rivers +which form the sources of the mighty Amazon.</p> + +<p>Casting a glance over South America, we see in every country and +province evidences of Irish genius employed not only in fighting but +in the development of natural resources. To quote Consul Cowper's +report to the Foreign Office in London: "The progress of Buenos Ayres +is mainly due to the industrious Irish sheep farmers." No other +nationality contributed so largely to the export trade of the country. +At one time it was shown by the tables of Mr. Duggan and other wool +exporters that the quantity of this staple industry yearly sold by +Irishmen in Buenos Ayres exceeded that sold by all other +nationalities. In later years the Irish sheep farmers in the province +of Buenos Ayres have turned their lands into wheat lands, and the +great industries of the country, sheep and cattle, have been moved to +the outside camps, especially to that wonderful grazing region in the +Andine valleys recently visited by Col. Roosevelt and his party. It +may be interesting to mention that at the first English races ever +held in South America, on November 6, 1826, the principal event, in +which ten horses ran, was easily won by an Irish horse with the +appropriate name of "Shamrock."</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Beaumont: Travels In Buenos Ayres (1828); Wilson: Travels In South +America (1796); Pinkerton: Travels (1808), Captain Weddell: Cape Horn +and South Atlantic Surveys; Major Gillesple: Buenos Ayres and +Provinces; Mrs. Williams, on Humboldt's Travels (1826); Captain +Master: At Home with the Patagonians (1891); Hadfield: Notes of Travel +in Brazil and La plata (1863); Hinchcliff: South American Sketches +(1862); Captain Burton: Highlands of Brazil; Ross Johnston: A Vacation +in the Argentine Alps (1867); MacCann: Travels in the Argentine +Provinces (1846-1849); Hutchinson: Argentine Gleanings and South +American Recollections; Major Seaver: Crossing the Andes; Crawford: +Across the Pampas; V. MacKenna: Life of O'Higgins; Life of Diego +Rimagro; History of Santiago; History of Valparaiso; MacKenna: +Archives of Spanish America, 50 vols.; Miller: Memoirs; Lives of +Belgrano and San Martin; Mulhall; English In South America.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T23"></a>THE IRISH IN AUSTRALASIA</h2> +<h4>By BROTHER LEO, F.S.C., M.A.</h4> + +<p>Should one be called upon to give in brief the history of the Irish +in the land of the Southern Cross, he could do nothing more to the +purpose than to relate the story of the "Holy House of Australia." The +episode, indeed, is characteristic, not merely of the Irish in +Australia, but of the Irish in every land and clime where they have +striven and conquered.</p> + +<p>On the fourteenth of November, 1817, there landed in Sydney an +Irish Cistercian Father, Jeremiah F. Flynn. He had heard in Rome of +the spiritual destitution of the Irish Catholics in Australia, and he +secured the permission of his superiors to minister to the needs of +his compatriots in the Antipodes. Shortly after his arrival he +celebrated Mass in the house of an Irishman named William Davis, who +had been transported for making pikes for the insurgents in the days +of '98, and then, on the first opportunity that presented itself, he +sought the authorization of the colonial governor to exercise the +functions of his sacred ministry. Far from hospitable was the +reception accorded him by Governor Macquarie. The priest was told, +with the bluntness characteristic of British officialdom, that the +presence of no "popish missionary" would be tolerated in the +settlement, and that the profession of the Protestant form of belief +was obligatory on every person in the penal colony.</p> + +<p>With the example of the "priesthood hunted down like wolves" before +him, Father Flynn saw but one consistent course to pursue. His fellow +Catholics, his fellow Irishmen, were in sore need of his help; that +help they must receive, even though the civil powers refused their +sanction. So for several months he went about as secretly as he could, +hearing confessions, offering the Holy Sacrifice, and breaking the +bread of good counsel. During this trying period, Davis was his host +and defender and friend. Eventually the presence of the priest was +detected; he was arrested and promptly sent back to England. Before +the ship sailed he tried repeatedly to return to the house of Davis +where the Blessed Sacrament was preserved in a cedar clothes-press, +but the surveillance of his captors was strict and unsleeping. So in +the dwelling of the convict Irishman the Sacred Species remained. +Before this unwonted repository Davis kept a light ever burning day +and night; and day and night crept the loyal Irishmen of the +settlement to kneel in prayer before the improvised shrine. The "Holy +House of Australia", as the Davis dwelling came to be known, remained +the only Catholic church in the colony until 1821, when two Irish +priests, Father John Joseph Therry of Cork and Father Philip Connolly +of Kildare, were permitted to attend to the spiritual needs of the +Irish Catholics. Their coming marked the beginning of religious +toleration in Australia and the termination of the sufferings and +sacrifices of the Irish colonists, several of whom had had to pay +dearly for their religious convictions. Davis himself had been twice +flogged and once imprisoned for refusing to attend Protestant +service.</p> + +<p>Today, on the site of the "Holy House of Australia", stands the +church of St. Patrick. Davis gave the land and the sum of one thousand +pounds to the church, and his fellow exiles contributed according to +their means. This episode in the history of the Irish in Australia +pays a touchingly eloquent tribute to the spirit of loyalty to God and +country which has characterized the sons and daughters of St. Patrick +everywhere whither their feet have strayed. It is the spirit which has +embodied itself in the imposing cathedral of St. Patrick in Melbourne +and the splendidly equipped college of St. Patrick in Sydney. It is +the spirit which has made the Irish play so conspicuous a role in the +civic and commercial history of Australasia.</p> + +<p>Originally known as New Holland, Australia became an English penal +colony after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in the United +States of America. An Irish element came into the colony in the last +decade of the eighteenth century when, during the Orange reign of +terror, upwards of a thousand people from the west of Ireland were +deported by the Ulster magistrates and by Lord Carhampton, the +notorious "Satanides", who was charged with the pacification of +Connacht. And during the first three decades of the nineteenth century +the stream of Irish transportation flowed on. As a result of the +Tithes agitation, the Charter and Reform movements, the Combination +Laws and the Corn Laws, many more Irishmen were forced across the sea. +It was not until 1868 that the convict system was permanently +abolished.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for us of a later day to realize the meaning of +that word, transportation. Let us form some conception of what the +Irish exiles suffered from the graphic picture painted in colors, +somber but not untrue, by one who knew from firsthand experience the +lot of the political prisoner. Writes Dr. Ullathorne in <i>The Horrors +of Transportation</i>:</p> + +<p>"Take any one of you, my dear readers; separate him from his wife, +from his children, from all those whose conversation makes life dear +to him; cast him on the ends of the earth; let him there fall amongst +reprobates who are the last stain and disgrace of our common nature; +give him those obscene-mouthed monsters for his constant companions +and consolers; let the daily vision of their progress from infamy to +infamy, until the demon that inspires them has exhausted invention and +the powers of nature together, be his only example; house him, at +night, in a bark hut on a mud floor, where he has less comfort than +your cattle in their stalls; awake him from the troubled dreams of his +wretched wife and outcast children, to feel how far he is from their +help, and take him out at sunrise; work him under a burning sun, and a +heartless overseer, and the threat of the lash until the night fall; +give him not a penny's wages but sorrow; leave him no hope but the +same dull, dreary round of endless drudgery for many years to come; +let him see no opening by which to escape, but through a long, narrow +prospect of police courts, of gaols, of triangles, of death cells, and +of penal settlements; let him all the while be clothed in a dress of +shame, that shows to every living soul his degradation; and if he dare +to sell any part of that clothing, then flog him worse than any dog! +And thus, whilst severed from all kindness and all love, whilst the +stern harsh voice of his task-master is grating in incessant jars +within his ear, take all rest out of his flesh, and plant the thorn; +take all feeling out of his heart, and leave the withered core; take +all peace out of his conscience, and leave the worm of remorse; and +then let any one come and dare to tell me that the man is happy +because he has bread and meat. Is it not here, if ever there was such +a case, where the taste of bread is a taste of misery, and where to +feed and prolong life is to feed and lengthen our sorrow? And in +pondering these things, do not those strong words of Sacred Scripture +bring down their load of truth in heavy trouble to our thoughts, that, +'Their bread is loathsome to their eye, and their meat unto their +soul.'"</p> + +<p>But the bright side of the story of the Irish in Australia and New +Zealand unfolds in the subsequent years. The men who had been sent +forth from Erin with the brand of the convict upon them became the +founders of a new commonwealth. To them were joined the numerous +voluntary settlers who, attracted by the natural resources of the +island-continent and especially by the gold discoveries of the +fifties, migrated to Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales. When +in 1858 William E. Gladstone sought to establish a new colony to be +known as North Australia, he opened a fresh field for Irish +initiative. As a result of his effort there stands today, on a terrace +overlooking Port Curtis, the city of Gladstone, the terminal of the +Australian railway system. It was here, according to Cardinal Moran, +that in 1606, Mass was first celebrated in Australia, when the +Spaniards sought shelter in the "Harbor of the Holy Cross." The first +government resident at Gladstone was Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell, a +relative of the great Liberator; he was four times acting-governor of +Queensland.</p> + +<p>The list of Irish pioneer settlers in Australasia is a lengthy one. +The name of Thomas Poynton stands out prominently. He was a New +Zealand pioneer who had married an Irish girl in Sydney. The devotion +of Poynton and his wife to the faith of their fathers is evidenced by +the fact that he several times made the long journey from his home to +Sydney to interest the church authorities in the wants of the New +Zealand Irish Catholics, and that she twice made the same arduous trip +to have her children baptized. Thomas Mooney has the distinction of +being the first Irish pioneer in Western Australia; and yet another +Irishman, Cassidy by name, carried out a policy of benevolent +assimilation by marrying the daughter of a Maori chief.</p> + +<p>Among the pioneer ecclesiastics were Father William Kelly of +Melbourne and Father John McEncroe, a native of Tipperary and a +Maynooth man, who for thirty years and more was a prominent figure in +the religious and civic life of New South Wales. Father John Brady, +another pioneer priest, became Bishop of Perth. Irish names occupy a +conspicuous and honored place in the roster of the Australian +episcopate. Notable on the list are Bishop Francis Murphy of Adelaide, +who was born in Co. Meath, and Archbishop Daniel Murphy of Sydney, a +native of Cork, the man who delivered the eulogy on the occasion of +Daniel O'Connell's funeral at Rome. But scant reference can here be +made to the illustrious primate of Australia, Cardinal Moran, +archbishop of Sydney from 1884 to 1911, who was such a potent force in +the land of his adoption, and whose masterly <i>History of the +Catholic Church in Australasia</i> puts him in the forefront of +ecclesiastical historians. On his death he was succeeded in the see of +Sydney by another Irishman, Archbishop Michael Kelly of Waterford. +Archbishop O'Reily of Adelaide is a recognized authority on music, and +has written several pamphlets on that subject. A Galway man, Dr. T. J. +Carr, a great educator, is now (1914) archbishop of Melbourne, and a +Clare man, Dr. J. P. Clune, holds sway in Perth.</p> + +<p>Irishmen in Australia have figured largely in the iron and coal +industries, in the irrigation projects, in the manufacturing +activities, and in the working of the gold mines. But they have +likewise distinguished themselves in other fields of endeavor. +Prominent on the beadroll of Australian fame stand the names of Sir +Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), founder of the <i>Nation</i> +newspaper in Dublin, member of the British house of commons, and +afterwards premier of Victoria and speaker of the legislative +assembly, and his sons, John Gavan Duffy and Frank Gavan Duffy, +public-spirited citizens and authorities on legal matters. The +Currans, father and son, active in the public life of Sydney, were +afterwards members of the British parliament. Distinguished in the +records of the Australian judiciary are Judges Quinlan, Casey, +Brennan, and O'Dowd. The Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.S., is a geologist +who has achieved more than local fame. Other Irishmen who have loomed +large in Australasian affairs are Daniel Brophy, John Cumin, Augustus +Leo Kenny, James Coghlan, Sir Patrick Buckley, Sir John O'Shannessy, +and Nicholas Fitzgerald. Louis C. Brennan, C.B., who was born in +Ireland in 1852, emigrated to Australia when a boy and while working +in a civil engineer's office in Melbourne conceived the idea of the +"Brennan Torpedo", which he afterwards perfected, and then in 1897 +sold the invention to the British Admiralty for £110,000. +Another Brennan, Frank by name, is president of the Knights of Our +Lady of the Southern Cross and has been a labor member of the federal +parliament since 1911; a third, Christopher John, is assistant +lecturer in modern literature in the University of Sydney; and a +fourth, James, of the diocese of Perth, was made a Knight of St. +Silvester by Pius X. in 1912. Young Australia and New Zealand may be +as the world goes, but already both have much to their credit in the +domains of music, art, and literature; and here, as usual, the Irish +have been to the fore. In the writing of poetry, history, and fiction +the Celtic element has been especially distinguished. Not to speak of +the writers mentioned elsewhere in this sketch, scores of Irish men +and women have been identified with the development of an Australian +literature which, though delightfully redolent of the land whence it +sprang, nevertheless possesses the universal note which makes it a +truly human product. Many years ago one of the most gifted of +Irish-Australian singers, "Eva"' of the <i>Nation</i>, voiced a +tentative plaint:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>"O barren land! O blank, bright sky!</p> +<p class="i2">Methinks it were a noble duty</p> +<p>To kindle in that vacant eye</p> +<p class="i2">The light of spirit—beauty—</p> +<p>To fill with airy shapes divine</p> +<p class="i2">Thy lonely plains and mountains,</p> +<p>The orange grove, the bower of vine,</p> +<p class="i2">The silvery lakes and fountains;</p> +<p>To wake the voiceless, silent air</p> +<p class="i2">To soft, melodious numbers;</p> +<p>To raise thy lifeless form so fair</p> +<p class="i2">From those deep, spell-bound slumbers.</p> +<p>Oh, whose shall be the potent hand</p> +<p class="i2">To give that touch informing,</p> +<p>And make thee rise, O Southern Land,</p> +<p class="i2">To life and poesy warming?"</p> +</div> + +<p>Mrs. O'Doherty herself, who long lived in that Queensland which she +thus apostrophized, helped in no uncertain way to answer her own +question. So did John Farrell, the author of the truly remarkable +"Jubilee Ode" of 1897 and of a collection of poems which include the +well known "How He Died." And so, long before, had the non-Catholic +Irishman, Edward O'Shaughnessy, who went to Australia as a convict, +but who laughed in lockstep and made music with his chains.</p> + +<p>James Francis Hogan, author and journalist, was born in Tipperary +in 1855 and shortly afterward was brought by his parents to Melbourne +where he received his education. On his return to Ireland he was +elected to represent his native county in parliament. He is an +authority on Australian history and in his book on <i>The Gladstone +Colony</i> has given us a fine specimen of modern historical method. +With him must be mentioned Roderick Flanagan, whose <i>History of New +South Wales</i> appeared in 1862.</p> + +<p>Other Irish names distinguished in Australasian literature are +those of the New Zealand poet, Thomas Bracken; Roderick Quinn; Desmond +Byrne; J.B. O'Hara; the eccentric convict-writer, George "Barrington" +Waldron; Victor J. Daley; Bernard O'Dowd; Edwin J. Brady; the Rev. +J.J. Malone; and the Rev. W. Kelly.</p> + +<p>Finally, the Irish in Australia have done more than their share in +the work of education and social service. Under Irish auspices several +of the Catholic teaching congregations, including the Christian +Brothers and the Presentation Nuns, were introduced, and their work +has borne goodly fruit. A mighty power for good is the Hibernian +Australasian Benefit Society. The organization, which was founded in +1871, has spread rapidly and has a large active membership.</p> + +<p>Truly the land of the Southern Cross is not the dimmest jewel in +the coronet of Ireland's glories.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Hogan: The Irish in Australia (1888), The Gladstone Colony (1898); +Mennell: Dictionary of Australian Biography (1892); Duffy: Life in Two +Hemispheres (1903); Kenny: The Catholic Church in Australia to the +Year 1840; Moran: History of the Catholic Church in Australasia +(1898); Davitt: Life and Progress in Australasia (1898); Bonwick: The +First Twenty Years of Australia (1883); Flanagan: History of New South +Wales (1862); Byrne: Australian Writers (1896); Wilson: The Church in +New Zealand (1910); Hocken: A Bibliography of the Literature Relating +to New Zealand (1909).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T24"></a>THE IRISH IN SOUTH AFRICA</h2> +<h4>By A. MILLIARD ATTERIDGE.</h4> + +<p>The tide of emigration from Ireland has set chiefly towards America +and Australia. In South Africa, therefore, the Irish element among the +colonists has never been a large one. But, despite its comparatively +small numbers, it has been an important factor in the life of South +Africa. Here, as in so many other countries, it has been the glory of +the sons of Erin to be a missionary people. To their coming is due the +very existence of the Catholic Church in these southern lands.</p> + +<p>When Dr. Ullathorne touched at the Cape on his way to Australia in +1832, he found at Cape Town "a single priest for the whole of South +Africa," an English Benedictine, who soon afterwards returned to +Europe in broken health. Few Irish immigrants had by that time found +their way to the Cape. They began to arrive in numbers only after the +famine year.</p> + +<p>The founder of the Catholic hierarchy in South Africa was the Irish +Dominican, Patrick R. Griffith, who, in 1837, was sent to Cape Town by +Gregory XVI. as the first Vicar Apostolic of Cape Colony. His +successors at the Cape, Bishops Grimley, Leonard, and Rooney, have all +been Irishmen, and nine in every ten of their flock have from the +first been Irish by birth or descent. In the earlier years of Bishop +Griffith's episcopate there was a large garrison in South Africa on +account of the Kaffir wars. Many of these soldiers were Irishmen. At +Grahamstown in 1844 the soldiers of an Irish regiment stationed there +did most of the work of building St. Patrick's Church, one of the +oldest Catholic churches in South Africa. They worked without wages or +reward of any kind, purely out of their devotion to their Faith, +giving up most of their leisure to this voluntary labor.</p> + +<p>Ten years after Bishop Griffith's appointment, Pius IX. separated +Natal and the eastern districts of Cape Colony from Cape Town, and +erected the Eastern Vicariate Apostolic. Once more an Irish prelate +was the first Bishop—Aidan Devereux, who was consecrated by +Bishop Griffith at Cape Town in the Christmas week of 1847. The great +emigration from Ireland had now begun, and a stream of immigrants was +arriving at the Cape. Bishop Devereux fixed his residence at Port +Elizabeth, and of his four successors up to the present day three have +been Irish. Bishop Moran, who went out to Port Elizabeth in 1854, was +consecrated at Carlow in Ireland by Archbishop (afterwards Cardinal) +Cullen. The third Vicar Apostolic was Bishop Ricards, and the present +bishop is another Irishman, Dr. Hugh McSherry, who received his +consecration from the hands of Cardinal Logue in St. Patrick's +Cathedral at Armagh.</p> + +<p>Until the discovery of the diamond deposits in what is now the +Kimberley district, some forty years ago, the Irish immigrants had +chiefly settled in the ports and along the coast. But among the crowds +who went to seek their fortunes at the diamond fields were large +numbers of adventurous Irishmen. The mission church established at +Kimberley became the centre of a new bishopric in 1886, when the +Vicariate of Kimberley, which for some time included the Orange Free +State, was established, and an Irish Oblate, Father Anthony Gaughran, +was appointed its first bishop. He was succeeded in 1901 by his +namesake and fellow countryman, the present Bishop Matthew +Gaughran.</p> + +<p>The gold discoveries on the Witwatersrand about Johannesburg +produced another rush into the interior in the days after the first +Transvaal war. A great city of foreign immigrants—the +"Uitlanders"—grew up rapidly on the upland, where a few months +before there had been only a few scattered Boer farms. Irishmen from +Cape Colony and Natal, from Ireland itself, and from the United States +formed a large element in the local mining and trading community. They +were mostly workers. Few of them found their way into the controlling +financier class, which was largely Jewish. The Irish were better out +of this circle of international gamblers, whose intrigues finally +produced the terrible two years' bloodshed of the great South African +war. Many engineers of the mines were Irish-Americans. Huge +consignments of mining machinery arrived from the United States, and +many of the engineers who came to fit it up remained in the employ of +the mining companies. Until after the war, the Transvaal and +Johannesburg had depended ecclesiastically on the Vicar Apostolic of +Natal, but in 1904 a Transvaal Vicariate was erected, and once more +the first bishop was an Irishman, Dr. William Miller, O.M.I.</p> + +<p>We have seen how Irish the South African episcopate has been from +the very outset. Most of the clergy belong to the same missionary +race, as also do the nuns of the various convents, and the Christian +Brothers, who are in charge of many of the schools. Of the white +Catholic population of the various states of the South African Union, +the greater part are Irish. There are about 25,000 Irish in Cape +Colony in a total population of over two millions. There are some +7,000 in Natal, I,500 in Kimberley, and about 2,000 in the Orange +River Colony. In the Transvaal, chiefly in and about Johannesburg, +there are some 12,000 Irish. A few thousand more are to be found +scattered in Griqualand and Rhodesia.</p> + +<p>As has been already said, the total numbers are not large in +proportion to that of the population generally, and they belong +chiefly to the industrial and trading classes. The most notable names +among them are those of prelates, priests, and missionaries, who have +founded and built up the organization of the Catholic Church in South +Africa. But there are some names of note also in civil life. Sir +Michael Gallwey was for many years Chief Justice of Natal; the Hon. A. +Wilmot, who has not only held high official posts, but has also done +much to clear up the early history of South Africa, is Irish on the +mother's side; Mr. Justice Shiel is a judge of the Cape Courts; Eyre +and Woodbyrne are Irish names among the makers of Rhodesia; and +amongst those who have done remarkable work in official life may also +be named Sir Geoffrey Lagden, Sir William St. John Carr, and the Hon. +John Daverin. Lagden was for many years British Resident in +Basutoland, the Switzerland of South Africa, where the native tribes +are practically independent under a British protectorate. Griffith, +the paramount chief of the Basuto nation, has been a Catholic since +1911. Sir Geoffrey's tactful policy and wise counsels did much to +promote the prosperity of this native state, and during the trying +days of the South African War, he was able to secure the neutrality of +the tribesmen.</p> + +<p>In the Boer wars, Irishmen fought with distinction on both sides. +General Colley, who fell at Majuba in the first Boer War, was a +distinguished Irish soldier. Another great Irishman, General Sir +William Butler, has written the story of Colley's life. Butler himself +was in command of the troops at the Cape before the great war. If his +wise counsels had been followed by the Government, the war would +undoubtedly have been avoided. He refused to have any part in the +war-provoking policy of Rhodes and Chamberlain, and warned the Home +Government that an attack on the Dutch republics would be a serious +and perilous enterprise. When the war came, England owed much to the +enduring valor of Irish soldiers and to the leadership of Irish +generals. One need only name General Hart, of the Irish Brigade; +General French, who relieved Kimberley, and who is now (1914) +Field-Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of the British army in France; +General Mahon, who raised the siege of Mafeking; Colonel Moore, of the +famous Connaught Rangers, now (1914) commandant and chief military +organizer of the Irish National Volunteers; and, finally, Lord +Roberts, who took over the chief command and saved the situation after +the early disasters. Lord Kitchener, who acted as Roberts's +chief-of-staff, succeeded him in the command, and brought the war to +an end by an honorable treaty with the Boer leaders, is a native of +Ireland, but of English descent, and he passed most of his boyhood in +Ireland, in Co. Kerry, where his father had bought a small property. I +used to know an Irish Franciscan lay brother who told me he had taught +the future soldier "many games" when he was quite a little fellow.</p> + +<p>Of the regiments which took part in the war none won a higher fame +than the Munster and the Dublin Fusiliers and the Connaught Rangers. +It was in recognition of their splendid valor that the new regiment of +Irish Guards was added to the British Army.</p> + +<p>But the majority of Irishmen sympathized with the Boer republics, +and many of them fought under the Boer flag, of these were legally +British subjects, but many were naturalized burghers of the Transvaal, +and many more were United States citizens, Irish-Americans from the +Rand gold mines. There were two small Irish brigades under the Boer +flag, those of McBride and Lynch (the latter now a member of the +British House of Commons), and an engineer corps commanded by Colonel +Blake, an American. At the first battle before Ladysmith it was one of +the Irish brigades that kept the Boer guns in action, bringing up +ammunition under a rain of shellfire. During the Boer retreat and +Roberts's advance on Pretoria, Blake's engineers were always with the +Boer rearguard and successfully destroyed every mile of the railway as +they went back. Blake had served in the United States cavalry, had +learned mining while on duty in Nevada, and had then gone to seek his +fortune at Johannesburg. The great leader of the Boer armies, now the +Prime Minister of the new South Africa which has happily arisen out of +the storm of war, has Irish connections. Louis Botha lived before the +war in the southeast Transvaal, not far from Laings Nek, and near +neighbors of his were a family of Irish settlers bearing the honored +name of Emmet. The Emmets and the Bothas were united by ties of +friendship and intermarriage, and one of the Emmets served with Louis +Botha during the war.</p> + +<p>The Irish colonists of South Africa keep their love for faith and +fatherland, but, as in the United States, they have thoroughly and +loyally thrown in their lot with the new country of which they have +become citizens. Few in number though they are, they are an important +factor in the new Dominion, for their national tradition inspires them +with civic patriotism, and their religion gives them a high standard +of conduct and puts before them, as guides in the work of life and the +solution of the problems of the day, the Christian principles of +justice and charity.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Government Census Returns, South Africa; Catholic Directory for +British South Africa (Cape Town, since 1904); The Catholic Magazine, +Cape Town; Wilmot and Chase: History of Cape Colony (London, 1896); +Theal: History of South Africa (5 vols., London, 1888-1893); for the +war period, the <i>Times</i> History of the South African War, and the +British Official History.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T25"></a>IRISH LANGUAGE AND LETTERS</h2> +<h4>By DOUGLAS HYDE, LL.D., M.R.I.A.</h4> + +<p>The Celtic languages consist of two divisions, (a) the Gaelic or +Irish division, and (b) the Kymric or Welsh division. Between them +they comprise (a) Irish, Scotch-Gaelic, and Manx, and (b) Welsh, +Armorican, and Cornish. All these languages are still alive except +Cornish, which died out about a hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>Of all these languages Irish is the best preserved, and it is +possible to follow its written literature back into the past for some +thirteen hundred years; while much of the most interesting matter has +come down to us from pagan times. It has left behind it the longest, +the most luminous, and the most consecutive literary track of any of +the vernacular languages of Europe, except Greek alone.</p> + +<p>For centuries the Irish and their language were regarded by the +English as something strange and foreign to Europe. It was not +recognized that they had any relationship with the Greeks or Romans, +the French, the Germans, or the English. The once well-known +statesman, Lord Lyndhurst, in the British parliament denounced the +Irish as aliens in religion, in blood, and in language. Bopp, in his +great Comparative Grammar, refused them recognition as Indo-Europeans, +and Pott in 1856 also denied their European connection. It was left +for the great Bavarian scholar, John Caspar Zeuss, to prove to the +world in his epoch-making "Grammatica Celtica" (published in Latin in +1853) that the Celts were really Indo-Europeans, and that their +language was of the highest possible value and interest. From that day +to the present it is safe to say that the value set upon the Irish +language and literature has been steadily growing amongst the scholars +of the world, and that in the domain of philology Old Irish now ranks +close to Sanscrit for its truly marvellous and complicated scheme of +word-forms and inflections, and its whole verbal system.</p> + +<p>The exact place which the Celtic languages (of which Irish is +philologically far the most important) hold in the Indo-European group +has often been discussed. It is now generally agreed upon that, +although both the Celtic and Teutonic languages may claim a certain +kinship with each other as being both of them Indo-European, still the +Celtic is much more nearly related to the Greek and the Latin groups, +especially to the Latin.</p> + +<p>All the Indo-European languages are more or less related to one +another. We Irish must acknowledge a relationship, or rather a very +distant connecting tie, with English. But, to trace this home, Irish +must be followed back to the very oldest form of its words, and +English must be followed back to Anglo-Saxon and when possible to +Gothic. The hard mutes (p, t, c) of Celtic (and, for that matter, of +Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, and Lithuanian) will be +represented in Gothic by the corresponding soft mutes (b, d, g), and +the soft mutes in Celtic by the corresponding, hard mutes in Gothic. +Thus we find the Irish <i>dia</i> (god) in the Anglo-Saxon <i>tiw</i>, +the god of war, whose name is perpetuated for all time in +Tiwes-däg, now "Tuesday", and we find the Irish +<i>déad</i> in the Anglo-Saxon "toth", now "tooth", and so on. +But of all the Indo-European languages Old Irish possesses by far the +nearest affinity to Latin, and this is shown in a great many ways, not +in the vocabulary merely, but in the grammar, which for philologists +is of far more importance,—as, for example, the <i>b</i>-future, +the passive in-r, the genitive singular and nominative plural of "o +stems", etc. Thus the Old Irish for "man", nom. <i>fer</i>, gen. +<i>fir</i>, dat. <i>fiur</i>, acc. <i>fer n</i>—, plur. nom. +<i>fir</i>, gen. <i>fer n</i>—, is derived from the older forms +<i>viros, viri, viro, viron</i>, nom. plur. <i>viri</i>, gen. plur. +<i>viron</i>, which everyone who knows Latin can see at a glance +correspond very closely to the Latin inflections, <i>vir, viri, viro, +virum</i>, nom. plur. <i>viri</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>So much for the language. When did this language begin to be used +in literature? This question depends upon another—When did the +Irish begin to have a knowledge of letters; when did they begin to +commit their literature to writing; and whence did they borrow their +knowledge of this art?</p> + +<p>The oldest alphabet used in Ireland of which remains exist appears +to have been the Ogam, which is found in numbers of stone inscriptions +dating from about the third century of our era on. About 300 such +inscriptions have already been found, most of them in the southwest of +Ireland, but some also in Scotland and Wales, and even in Devon and +Cornwall. Wherever the Irish Gael planted a colony, he seems to have +brought his Ogam writing with him.</p> + +<p>The Irishman who first invented the Ogam character was probably a +pagan who obtained a knowledge of Roman letters. He brought back to +Ireland his invention, or, as is most likely, invented it on Irish +soil. Indeed, the fact that no certain trace of Ogam writing has been +found upon the European continent indicates that the alphabet was +invented in Ireland itself. An inscription at Killeen Cormac, Co. +Kildare, survives which seems to show that the Roman alphabet was +known in Ireland in pagan times. Ogam is an alphabet suitable enough +for chiselling upon stones, but too cumbrous for the purposes of +literature. For this the Roman alphabet must have been used. The Ogam +script consists of a number of short lines straight or slanting, and +drawn either below, above, or through one long stem-line. This +stem-line is generally the sharp angle between two faces or sides of a +long upright rectangular stone. Thus four cuts to the right of the +long line stand for S; to the left of it they mean C; passing through +it, half on one side and half on the other, they mean Z. The device +was rude, but it was applied with considerable skill, and it was +undoubtedly framed with much ingenuity. The vowels occurring most +often are also the easiest to cut, being scarcely more than notches on +the edge of the stone. The inscription generally contains the name of +the dead warrior over whom the memorial was raised; it usually begins +on the left corner of the stone facing the reader and is to be read +upwards, and it is often continued down on the right hand angular line +as well.</p> + +<p>The language of the Ogam inscriptions is very ancient and nearly +the same forms occur as in what we know of Old Gaulish. The language, +in fact, seems to have been an antique survival even when it was first +engraved, in the third or fourth century. The word-forms are probably +far older than those used in the spoken language of the time. This is +a very important conclusion, and it must have a far-reaching bearing +upon the history of the earliest epic literature. Because if forms of +language much more ancient than any that were then current were +employed on pillar-stones in the third or fourth century, it follows +that this obsolescent language must have survived either in a written +or a regularly recited form. This immediately raises the probability +that the substance of Irish epic literature (which was written down on +parchment in the sixth or seventh century) really dates from a period +much more remote, and that all that is purely pagan in it was +preserved for us in the same antique language as the Ogam inscriptions +before it was translated into what we now call "Old Irish."</p> + +<p>The following is the Ogam alphabet as preserved on some 300 ancient +pillars and stones, in the probably ninth-century treatise in the Book +of Ballymote, and elsewhere:</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<img src="images/270.png" width="50%" alt="Ogam Alphabet"> +</div> + +<p>There are a great many allusions to this Ogam writing in the +ancient epics, especially in those that are purely pagan in form and +conception, and there can be no doubt that the knowledge of letters +must have reached Ireland before the island became Christianized. With +the introduction of Christianity and of Roman letters, the old Ogam +inscriptions, which were no doubt looked upon as flavoring of +paganism, quickly fell into disuse and disappeared, but some +inscriptions at least are as late as the year 600 or even 800. In the +thoroughly pagan poem, <i>The Voyage of Bran</i>, which such +authorities as Zimmer and Kuno Meyer both consider to have been +committed to parchment in the seventh century, we find it stated that +Bran wrote the fifty or sixty quatrains of the poem in Ogam. +Cuchulainn constantly used Ogam writing, which he cut upon wands and +trees and standing stones for Queen Medb's army to read, and these +were always brought to his friend Fergus to decipher. Cormac, king of +Cashel, in his glossary tells us that the pagan Irish used to inscribe +the wand they kept for measuring corpses and graves with Ogam +characters, and that it was a source of horror to anyone even to take +it in his hand. St. Patrick in his Confession, the authenticity of +which no one doubts, describes how he dreamt that a man from Ireland +came to him with innumerable letters.</p> + +<p>In Irish legend Ogma, one of the Tuatha De Danann who was skilled +in dialects and poetry, seems to be credited with the invention of the +Ogam alphabet, and he probably was the equivalent of the Gaulish god +Ogmios, the god of eloquence, so interestingly described by +Lucian.</p> + +<p>We may take it then that the Irish pagans knew sufficient letters +to hand down to Irish Christians the substance of their pagan epics, +sagas, and poems. We may take it for granted also that the greater +Irish epics (purely pagan in character, utterly untouched in substance +by that Christianity which so early conquered the country) really +represent the thoughts, manners, feelings, and customs of pagan +Ireland.</p> + +<p>The effect of this conclusion must be startling indeed to those who +know the ancient world only through the medium of Greek and Roman +literature. To the Greek and to his admiring master, the Roman, all +outside races were simply barbarians, at once despised, +misinterpreted, and misunderstood.</p> + +<p>We have no possible means of reconstructing the ancient world as it +was lived in by the ancestors of some of the leading races in Europe, +the Gauls, Spaniards, Britons, and the people of all those countries +which trace themselves back to a Celtic ancestry, because these races +have left no literature or records behind them, and the Greeks and +Romans, who tell us about them, saw everything through the false +medium of their own prejudices. But now since the discovery and +publication of the Irish sagas and epics, the descendants of these +great races no longer find it necessary to view their own past through +the colored and distorting glasses of the Greek or the Roman, since +there has now opened for them, where they least expected to find it, a +window through which they can look steadily at the life of their race, +or of one of its leading offshoots, in one of its strongholds, and +reconstruct for themselves with tolerable accuracy the life of their +own ancestors. It is impossible to overrate the importance of this for +the history of Europe, because neither Teutons nor Slavs have +preserved pictures of their own heroic past, dating from pagan times. +It is only the Celts, and of these the Irish, who have handed down +such pictures drawn with all the fond intimacy of romance, and +descriptions which exhibit the life of western Europeans at an even +earlier culture-stage in the evolution of humanity than do the poems +of Homer.</p> + +<p>This conclusion, to which a study of the literature invites us, +falls in exactly with that arrived at from purely archaeological +sources. Professor Ridgeway of Cambridge University, working on +archaeological lines, expresses himself as follows: "From this survey +of the material remains of the <i>la Tern</i> period found actually in +Ireland, and from the striking correspondence between this culture and +that depicted in the <i>Táin Bó Cúalnge</i>, and +from the circumstance that the race who are represented in the epic as +possessing this form of culture resemble in their physique the tall, +fair-haired, grey-eyed Celts of Britain and the continent, we are +justified in inferring (1) that there was an invasion (or invasions) +of such peoples from Gaul in the centuries immediately before Christ, +as is ascribed by the Irish traditions, and (2) that the poems +themselves originally took shape when the <i>la Tène</i> +culture was still flourishing in Ireland. But as this could hardly +have continued much later than A.D. 100, we may place the first +shaping of the poems not much later than that date and possibly a +century earlier."</p> + +<p>This conclusion would make the earliest putting together of the +Irish epics almost contemporaneous with Augustus Cæsar.</p> + +<p>So much for the history and growth of Irish letters.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Brash: Ogam inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhil (1879); MacAlister: +Studies in Irish Epigraphy, vol. 1 (1897), vol. 2 (1902), vol. 3 +(1907); Rhys: in Proceedings of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries +(Edinburgh, 1892); Ridgeway: Date of the First Shaping of the +Cuchulain Saga (1905), in Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. II; +Joyce: Social History of Ancient Ireland, vol. I, Chap. 2; Preface to +fac-simile edition of the Book of Ballymote.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T26"></a>NATIVE IRISH POETRY</h2> +<h4>By PROFESSOR GEORGES DOTTIN.</h4> + +<p>[Note.—This chapter was written in French by M. Dottin, who +is a distinguished professor and dean at the University of Renacs, +France. The translation into English has been made by the +Editors.]</p> + +<p>By the year 1200 of the Christian era, a time at which the other +national literatures of Europe were scarcely beginning to develop, +Ireland possessed, and had possessed for several centuries, a Gaelic +poetry, which was either the creation of the soul of the people or +else was the work of the courtly bards. This poetry was at first +expressed in rhythmical verses, each containing a fixed number of +accented syllables and hemistichs separated by a pause:</p> + +<div class="ctr"> +<table summary="" style="width: 50%;"> + <tbody> + <tr align="center"> + <td><i>Crist</i> lim,</td> + <td>|</td> + <td><i>Crist</i> reum,</td> + <td>|</td> + <td><i>Crist</i> in degaid</td> + </tr> + <tr align="center"> + <td><i>Crist</i> indium</td> + <td>|</td> + <td><i>Crist</i> issum</td> + <td>|</td> + <td><i>Crist</i> úasum </td> + </tr> + <tr align="center"> + <td></td><td></td> + <td><i>Crist</i> dessum</td> + <td>|</td> + <td><i>Crist</i> úasum</td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> +</div> + +<p>This versification, one of the elements of which was the repetition +of words or sounds at regular intervals, was transformed about the +eighth century into a more learned system. Thenceforward alliteration, +assonance, rhyme, and a fixed number of syllables constituted the +characteristics of Irish verse:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>Mésse ocus Pángur bÁN</p> +<p>cechtar náthar fria sáindAN</p> +<p>bith a <i>ménma</i> sam fri SEILGG</p> +<p>mu <i>ménma</i> céin im sáinchEIRDD.</p> +</div> + +<p>As we see, the consonants in the rhyme-words were merely related: +<i>l, r, n, ng, m, dh, gh, bh, mh, ch, th, f</i> could rime together +just as could <i>gg, dd, bb</i>. Soon the poets did not limit +themselves to end-rhymes, which ran the risk of becoming monotonous, +but introduced also internal rhyme, which set up what we may call a +continuous chain of melody:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>is aire caraim DOIRE</p> +<p>ar a reidhe ar a ghlOINE</p> +<p>'s ar iomad a aingel fIND</p> +<p>ó 'n CIND go aoich arOILE.</p> +</div> + +<p>This harmonious versification was replaced in the seventeenth +century by a system in which account was no longer taken of +consonantal rhyme or of the number of syllables.</p> + +<p>The rules of Irish verse have nothing in common with classical +Latin metres, which were based on the combination of short and long +syllables. In Low-Latin, indeed, we find occasionally alliteration, +rhyme, and a fixed number of syllables, but these novelties are +obviously of foreign origin, and date from the time when the Romans +borrowed them from the nations which they called barbarous. We cannot +prove beyond yea or nay that they are of Celtic origin, but it is +extremely probable that they are, for it is among the Celts both of +Ireland and of Wales that the harmonizing of vowels and of consonants +has been carried to the highest degree of perfection.</p> + +<p>This learned art was not acquired without long study. The training +of a poet (<i>filé</i>) lasted twelve years, or more. The poets +had a regular hierarchy. The highest in rank, the <i>ollamh</i>, knew +350 kinds of verse and could recite 250 principal and 100 secondary +stories. The <i>ollamhs</i> lived at the court of the kings and the +nobles, who granted them freehold lands; their persons and their +property were sacred; and they had established in Ireland schools in +which the people might learn history, poetry, and law. The bards +formed a numerous class, of a rank inferior to the <i>filé</i>; +they did not enjoy the same honors and privileges; some of them even +were slaves; according to their standing, different kinds of verse +were assigned to them as a monopoly.</p> + +<p>The Danish invasions in the ninth century set back for some time +the development of Irish poetry, but, when the Irish had driven the +fierce and aggressive sea-rovers from their country, there was a +literary renascence. This was in turn checked by the Anglo-Norman +invasion in the twelfth century, and thereafter the art of +versification was no longer so refined as it had formerly been. +Nevertheless, the bardic schools still existed in the seventeenth +century, more than four hundred years after the landing of Strongbow, +and, in them, students followed the lectures of the <i>ollamhs</i> for +six months each year, or until the coming of spring, exercising both +their talents for composition and their memory.</p> + +<p>A catalogue of Irish poets, which has recently been made out, shows +that there were more than a thousand of them. We have lost many of the +oldest poems, but the Irish scribes often modernized the texts which +they were copying. Hence the language is not always a sufficient +indication of date, and it is possible that, under a comparatively +modern form, some very ancient pieces may have been preserved. Even if +the poems attributed to Amergin do not go back to the tenth century +B.C., as has been claimed for them, they are in any case old enough to +be archaic, and certain poems of the mythological cycle are +undoubtedly anterior to the Christian era.</p> + +<p>We have reason to believe that there have been preserved some +genuine poems of Finn macCumaill (third century), a hymn by St. +Patrick (d. 461), some greatly altered verses of St. Columcille (d. +597), and certain hymns written by saints who lived from the seventh +to the ninth century. The main object of the most celebrated of the +ancient poets up to the end of the twelfth century was to render +history, genealogy, toponomy, and lives of saints readier of access +and easier to retain by putting them into verse-form; and it is the +names of those scholars that have been rescued from oblivion, while +lyric poetry, having as its basis nothing more than sentiment, has +remained for the most part anonymous. After the Anglo-Norman invasion, +the best poet seems to have been Donnchadh Mór O'Daly (d. +1244). Of later date were Teig MacDaire (1570-1652), Teig Dall +O'Higinn (d. 1615), and Eochaidh O'Hussey, who belonged to the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The new school, which abandoned +the old rules and whose inspiration is now personal, now patriotic, is +represented by <i>caoine</i> (keens or laments), <i>abran</i> (hymns), +or <i>aislingi</i> (visions), composed, among others, by Geoffrey +Keating (d. c. 1650), David O'Bruadair (c. 1625-1698), Egan O'Rahilly +(c. 1670-c. 1734), John MacDonnell (1691-1754), William O'Heffernan +(fl. 1750), John O'Tuomy (1706-1775), and Andrew MacGrath (d. c. +1790). The greatest of the eighteenth century Irish poets was Owen Roe +O'Sullivan (c. 1748-1784), whose songs were sung everywhere, and who, +in the opinion of his editor, Father Dinneen, is the literary glory of +his country and deserves to be ranked among the few supreme lyric +poets of all time.</p> + +<p>If, in order to study the subjects treated by the poets, we lay +aside didactic poetry and confine ourselves to the ancient poems from +the seventh to the eleventh century, we shall find in the latter a +singular variety. They were at first dialogues or monologues, now +found incorporated with the sagas, of which they may have formed the +original nucleus. Thus, in the <i>Voyage of Bran</i>, we have the +account of the Isles of the Blessed and the discourse of the King of +the Sea; in the <i>Expedition of Loégaire MacCrimthainn</i>, +the brilliant description of the fairy hosts; in <i>The Death of the +Sons of Usnech</i>, the touching farewell of Deirdre to the land of +Scotland and her lamentation over the dead bodies of the three +warriors; and in the <i>Lay of Fothard Canann</i>, the strange and +thrilling speech of the dead lover, returning after the battle to the +tryst appointed by his sweetheart. Other poems seem never to have +figured in a saga, like the Song of Crede, daughter of Guaire, in +which she extols the memory of her friend Dinertach, and the affecting +love-scenes between Liadin and Curithir; or like the bardic songs +designed to distribute praise or blame: the funeral panegyric on King +Niall, in alternate verses, the song of the sword of Carroll, and the +satire of MacConglinne against the monks of Cork.</p> + +<p>Religious poetry comprised lyric fragments, which were introduced +into the lives of the saints and there formed a kind of Christian +saga, or else were based on Holy Writ, like the <i>Lamentation of +Eve</i>; hymns in honor of the saints, like <i>The Hymn to St. +Michael</i>, by Mael Isu; pieces such as the famous Hymn of St. +Patrick; and philosophic poems like that keen analysis of the flight +of thought which dates from the tenth century.</p> + +<p>At a time when the poets of other lands seem wholly engrossed in +the recital of the deeds of men, one of the great and constant +distinguishing marks of poetry in Ireland, whether we have to do with +a short note set down by a scribe on the margin of a manuscript or +with a religious or profane poem, is a deep, personal, and intimate +love of nature expressed not by detailed description, but more often +by a single picturesque and telling epithet. Thus we have the hermit +who prays God to give him a hut in a lonely place beside a clear +spring in the wood, with a little lark to sing overhead; or we have +Marban, who, rich in nuts, crab-apples, sloes, watercress, and honey, +refuses to go back to the court to which the king, his brother, +presses him to return. Now, we have the description of the summer +scene, in which the blackbird sings and the sun smiles; now, the song +of the sea and of the wind, which blows tempestuously from the four +quarters of the sky; again, the winter song, when the snow covers the +hills, when every furrow is a streamlet and the wolves range +restlessly abroad, while the birds, numbed to the heart, are silent; +or yet again the recluse in his cell, humorously comparing his quest +of ideas to the pursuit of the mice by his pet cat. This deep love of +inanimate and animate things becomes individualized in those poems in +which every tree, every spring, every bird is described with its own +special features.</p> + +<p>If we remember that these original poems, which, before the twelfth +century, expressed thoughts that were scarcely known to the literature +of Europe before the eighteenth, are, besides, clothed in the rich +garb of a subtle harmony, what admiration, what respect, and what love +ought we not to show to that ancient Ireland which, in the darkest +ages of western civilization, not only became the depositary of Latin +knowledge and spread it over the continent, but also had been able to +create for herself new artistic and poetic forms!</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Hyde: Love Songs of Connacht (Dublin, 1893), Irish Poetry, an Essay +in Irish with Translation in English and a Vocabulary (Dublin, 1902), +The Religious Songs of Connacht (London, 1906); Meyer: Ancient Gaelic +Poetry (Glasgow, 1906), a Primer of Irish Metrics with a Glossary and +an Appendix containing an Alphabetical List of the Poets of Ireland +(Dublin, 1909); Dottin-Dunn: The Gaelic Literature of Ireland +(Washington, 1906); Meyer: Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry (2d +edition, London, 1913); Best: Bibliography of Irish Philology and of +Printed Irish Literature (Dublin, 1913); Loth: La métrique +galloise (Paris, 1902); Thurneysen: Mittelirische Verslehren, Irische +Texte III.; Buile Suibhne (Dublin, 1910).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T27"></a>IRISH HEROIC SAGAS</h2> +<h4>By ELEANOR HULL.</h4> + +<p>Ireland has the unique distinction of having preserved for mankind +a full and vivid literary record of a period otherwise, so far as +native memorials are concerned, clouded in obscurity. A few +fragmentary suggestions, derived from ancient stone monuments or from +diggings in tumuli and graves, are all that Gaul or Britain have to +contribute to a knowledge of that important period just before and +just after the beginning of our era, when the armies of Rome were +overrunning western Europe and were brought, for the first time, into +direct contact with the Celtic peoples of the West. Almost all that we +know of the early inhabitants of these countries comes to us from the +pens of Roman writers and soldiers—Poseidonius, Caesar, +Diodorus, Tacitus. We may give these observers credit for a desire to +be fair to peoples they sometimes admired and often dreaded, but +conquerors are not always the best judges of the races they are +engaged in subduing, especially when they are ignorant of their +language, unversed in their lore and customs, and unused to their +ways. Valuable as are the reports of Roman authorities, we feel at +every point the need of checking them by native records; but the +native records of Gaul, and in large part also those of Britain and +Wales, have been swept away. Caesar is probably right in saying that +the Druids, who were the learned men of their race and day, committed +nothing to writing; if they did, whatever they wrote has been +irrecoverably lost.</p> + +<p>But Ireland was exempt from the sweeping changes brought about +through long periods of Roman and Saxon occupation; no great upheaval +from without disturbed the native political and social conditions up +to the coming of the Norse and Danes about the beginning of the ninth +century. Agricola, standing on the western coast of Britain, looked +across the dividing channel, and reflected upon "the beneficial +connection that the conquest of Ireland would have formed between the +most powerful parts of the Roman Empire," but, fortunately for the +literature of Ireland, if not for her history, he never came. The +early incursions of the Scotti or Irish were eastward into England, +Wales, and Gaul, and there seem to have been few return movements +towards the west. Ireland pursued her path of native development +undisturbed. It is to this circumstance that she owes the preservation +of so much of her native literature, a great body of material, +historical, religious, poetic, romantic, showing marks of having +originated at a very early time, and of great variety and +interest.</p> + +<p>At what period this literature first began to be written down we do +not know. Orosius tells us that a traveler named Aethicus spent a +considerable time in Ireland early in the fifth century "examining +their volumes", which tends to prove that there was writing in Ireland +before St. Patrick. But the native bard must have made writing +superfluous. The man who could, at a moment's notice, recite any one +out of the 350 stories which might be called for, besides poetry, +genealogies, and tribal records, was worth many books. Only a few were +expert enough to read his writings, but all could enjoy his tales.</p> + +<p>The earliest written records that we have now existing date from +the seventh or eighth century; but undoubtedly there is preserved for +us, in these materials, a picture of social conditions going back to +the very beginning of our era, and coeval with the stage of +civilization known in archaeology as <i>La Tène</i> or "Late +Celtic".</p> + +<p>To help his memory the early "shanachie" or story-teller grouped +his romantic story-store under different heads, such as "Táins" +or Cattle-spoils, Feasts, Elopements, Sieges, Battles, Destructions, +Tragical Deaths; but it is easier for us now to group them in another +way, and to class together the series of tales referring to the Tuatha +De Danann or ancient deities, those belonging to the Red Branch cycle +of King Conchobar and Cuchulainn, those relating to Finn, and the +Legends of the Kings. The hundred or more tales belonging to the +second group are especially valuable for social history on account of +the detailed descriptions they give of customs, dress, weapons, habits +of life, and ethical ideas. To the historian, folklorist, and student +of primitive civilizations they are documents of the highest +importance.</p> + +<p>It seems likely that the Red Branch cycle of tales, including the +epic tale of the Táin or Cattle-spoil of Cualnge, which has +gathered round itself a number of minor tales, had some basis of +historical fact, and arose in the period of Ulster's predominance to +celebrate the deeds of a band of warlike champions who flourished in +the north about the beginning of the Christian era. No one who has +visited the raths of Emain Macha, near Armagh, where stood the +traditional site of the ancient capital of Ulster, or has followed the +well-defined and massive outworks of Rath Celtchair and the forts of +the other heroes whose deeds the tales embody, could doubt that they +had their origin in great events that once happened there. The +topography of the tales is absolutely correct. Or again, when we cross +over into Connacht, the remains at Rath Croghan, near the ancient +palace of the Amazonian queen, Medb, testify to similar events. She it +was who in her "Pillow Talk" with her husband Ailill declared that she +had married him only because in him did she find the "strange +bride-gift" which her imperious nature demanded, "a man without +stinginess, without jealousy, without fear." It was in her desire to +surpass her husband in wealth that she sent the combined armies of the +south and west into Ulster to carry off a famous bull, the Brown Bull +of Cooley, the only match in Ireland for one possessed by her spouse. +This raid forms the central subject of the <i>Táin Bó +Cúalnge</i>. The motif of the tale and the kind of life +described in it alike show the primitive conditions out of which it +had its rise. It belongs to a time when land was plenty for the +scattered inhabitants to dwell upon, but stock to place upon it was +scarce. The possession of herds was necessary, not only for food and +the provisioning of troops, but as a standard of wealth, a proof of +position, and a means of exchange. Everything was estimated, before +the use of money, by its value in kine or herds. When Medb and Ailill +compare their possessions, to find out which of them is better than +the other, their herds of cattle, swine, and horses are driven in, +their ornaments and jewels, their garments and vats and household +appliances are displayed. The pursuit of the cattle of neighboring +tribes was the prime cause of the innumerable raids which made every +man's life one of perpetual warfare, much more so than the acquisition +of land or the avenging of wrongs. Hence a motif that may seem to us +insufficient and remote as the subject of a great epic arose out of +the necessities of actual life. Cattle-driving is the oldest of all +occupations in Ireland.</p> + +<p>The conditions we find described in these tales show us an open +country, generally unenclosed by hedges or walls. The chariots can +drive straight across the province. There are no towns, and the +stopping places are the large farmers' dwellings, open inns known as +"houses of hospitality", fortified by surrounding raths or earthen +walls, the only private property in land, in a time when the +tribe-land was common, that we hear of at this period. Within these +borders lay the pleasure grounds and gardens and the cattle-sheds for +the herds, which the great landowner or chief loaned out to the +smaller men in return for services rendered. Here were trained in arts +of industry and fine needlework the daughters of the chief men of the +tribe and their foster-sisters, drawn from the humbler families around +them. The rivers as a rule formed the boundaries of the provinces, and +the fords were constantly guarded by champions who challenged every +wayfarer to single combat, if he could not show sufficient reason for +crossing the borderland. These combats were fought actually in the +ford itself, and all wars began in a long series of single +hand-to-hand combats between equal champions before the armies as a +whole engaged each other.</p> + +<p>To fight was every man's prime duty, and the man who had slain the +largest number of his fellows was acclaimed as the greatest hero. It +was the proud boast of Conall Cernach, "the Victorious", that seldom +had a day passed in which he had not challenged a Connachtman, and few +nights in which a Connachtman's head had not formed his pillow. It +shows the primitive savagery of the period that skulls of enemies were +worn dangling from the belt, and were stored up in one of the palaces +of Emain Macha as trophies of valor. So warlike were the heroes that +even during friendly feasts their weapons had to be hung up in a +separate house, lest they should spring to arms in rivalry with their +own fellows.</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of this rude barbarism of outward life, the warriors +had formed for themselves a high and exacting code of honor, which may +be regarded as the first steps toward what in later times and other +countries became known as "chivalry"; save that there is in the acts +of the Irish heroes a simplicity and sincerity which puts them on a +higher level than the obligatory courtesies of more artificial ages. +Generosity between enemies was carried to an extraordinary pitch. +Twice over in fights with different foes, Conall Cernach binds his +right hand to his side in order that his enemy, who had lost one hand, +may fight on equal terms with him. The two severest combats sustained +by Cuchulainn, the youthful Ulster champion, in the long war of the +Táin are those with Loch the Great and Ferdiad, both first-rate +warriors, who had been forced by the wiles of Medb into unwilling +conflict against their young antagonist. In their youth they had been +fellow-pupils in the school of the Amazon Scathach, who had taught +them both alike the arts of war. When Loch the Great, as a dying +request, prays Cuchulainn to permit him to rise, "so that he may fall +on his face and not backwards towards the men of Erin," lest hereafter +it should be said that he fell in flight, Cuchulainn replies: "That +will I surely, for it is a warrior's boon thou cravest," and he steps +back to allow the wounded man to reverse his position in the ford. The +tale of Cuchulainn's combat with Ferdiad has become classic; nothing +more pathetic or more full of the true spirit of chivalry is to be +found in any literature. Each warrior estimates nobly the prowess of +the other, each sorrowfully recalls the memory of old friendships and +expeditions made together. When Ferdiad falls, his ancient comrade +pours out over him a passionate lament. Each night, when the day's +combat is over, they throw their arms round each other's neck and +embrace. Their horses are put up in the same paddock and their +charioteers sleep beside the same fire; each night Cuchulainn sends to +his wounded friend a share of the herbs that are applied to his own +wounds, while to Cuchulainn Ferdiad sends a fair half of the pleasant +delicate food supplied to him by the men of Erin. We may recall, too, +Cuchulainn's act of compassion towards Queen Medb near the close of +the Táin. Her army is flying in rout homeward across the +Shannon, closely pursued by Cuchulainn. As he approaches the ford he +finds Queen Medb lying prostrate on the bank, unable any longer to +guard the retreat of her army. She appeals to her enemy to aid her; +and Cuchulainn, with that lovable boyish delight in acts of supreme +generosity which is always ascribed to him, undertakes to shield the +retreat of the disordered host from his own troops and to see them +safely across the river, while Medb reposes peacefully in a field hard +by. The spirit which actuates the heroes is well expressed by +Cuchulainn when his friends would restrain him from going forth to his +last fight, knowing that in that battle he must fall: "I had rather +than the whole world's gold and than the earth's riches that death had +ere now befallen me, so would not this shame and testimony of reproach +now stand recorded against me; for in every tongue this noble old +saying is remembered, 'Fame outlives life.'"</p> + +<p>The Irish tales surpass those of the Arthurian cycle in simplicity, +in humor, and in human interest; the characters are not mere types of +fixed virtues and vices, they have each a strongly marked +individuality, consistently adhered to through the multitude of +different stories in which they play a part. This is especially the +case with regard to the female characters. Emer, Deirdre, Etain, +Grainne may be said to have introduced into European literature new +types of womanhood, quite unlike, in their sprightliness and humor, +their passionate affection and heroic qualities, to anything found +elsewhere. Stories about women play a large part in ancient Irish +literature; their elopements, their marriages, their griefs and +tragedies, form the subject of a large number of tales. Among the list +of tales that any bard might be called upon to recite, the +"Courtships" or "Wooings" probably formed a favorite group; they are +of great variety and beauty. The Irish, indeed, may be called the +inventors of the love-tale for modern Europe.</p> + +<p>The gravest defect of this literature (a defect which is common to +all early literature before coming under the chastening hand of the +master) is undoubtedly its tendency to extravagance; though much +depended upon the individual writer, some being stylists and some not, +all were prone to frequent and grotesque exaggerations. The lack of +restraint and self-criticism is everywhere apparent; the old Irish +writer seems incapable of judging how to shape his material with a +view to presenting it in its best form. Thus, we have the feeling, +even with regard to the <i>Táin Bó Cúalnge</i>, +that what has come down to us is rather the rough-shaped material of +an epic than a completed design. The single stories and the groups of +stories have been handled and rehandled at different times, but only +occasionally, as in the Story of Deirdre (the "Sorrowful Tale of the +Sons of Usnech"), or in the later versions of the "Wooing of Emer", or +the Book of Leinster version of the "Wooing of Ferb", do we feel that +a competent artist has so formed his story that the best possible +value has been extracted from it. Yet, in spite of their defects, the +old heroic sagas of Ireland have in them a stimulating force and +energy, and an element of fine and healthy optimism, which is +strangely at variance with the popular conception of the melancholy of +Irish literature, and which, wherever they are known, make them the +fountain-head of a fresh creative inspiration. This stimulating of the +imagination is perhaps the best gift that a revived interest in the +old native romance of Ireland has to bestow.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>The originals of many of the Tales of the Cuchulainn cycle of +romances will be found, usually accompanied by English or German +translations, in the volumes of <i>Irische Texte; Revue Celtique; +Zeitschrift für Celt. Phil.; Eriu</i>; Irish Texts Society, vol. +II; <i>Atlantis</i>; Proceed. of the R. Irish Academy (Irish MSS. +Series and Todd Lecture Series). English translations: of the +Táin Bó Cúalnge (LU. and Y.B.L. versions), by +Miss Winifred Faraday (1904); (LL. version with conflate readings), by +Joseph Dunn (1914); of various stories: E. Hull, The Cuchulain Saga in +Irish Literature (1898); A. H. Leahy, Heroic Romances of Ireland +(1905-6), the Courtship of Ferb (1902). French translations in Arbois +de Jubainville's <i>Epopée celtique en Irlande</i>; German +translations in Thurneysen's <i>Sagen aus dem alien Irland</i> (1901); +free rendering by S. O'Grady in The Coming of Cuchullain (1904), and +in his History of Ireland, the Heroic Period (1878). For full +bibliography, see R. I. Best's Bibliography of Irish Philology and +Printed Literature (1913), and Joseph Dunn's <i>Táin Bó +Cúalnge</i>, pp. xxxii-xxxvi (1914).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T28"></a>IRISH PRECURSORS OF DANTE</h2> +<h4>By SIDNEY GUNN, M.A.</h4> + +<p>One of the supreme creations of the human mind is the <i>Divine +Comedy</i> of Dante, and undoubtedly one of its chief sources is the +literature of ancient Ireland. Dante himself was a native of Florence, +Italy, and lived from 1265 to 1321. Like many great men, he incurred +the hatred of his countrymen, and he spent, as a result, the last +twenty years of his life in exile with a price on his head. He had +been falsely accused of theft and treachery, and his indignation at +the wrong thus done him and at the evil conduct of his contemporaries +led him to write his poem, in which he visits Hell, Purgatory, and +Paradise, and learns how God punishes bad actions, and how He rewards +those who do His will.</p> + +<p>To the writing of his poem Dante brought all the learning of his +time, all its science, and an art that has never been surpassed, +perhaps never equalled. Of course, he did not know any Irish, but he +knew Italian and the then universal tongue of the learned—Latin, +in both of which were tales of visits to the other world; and the +greater part of these tales, as well as those most resembling Dante's +work in form and spirit, were Irish in origin.</p> + +<p>All peoples have traditions of persons visiting the realms of the +dead. Homer tells of Odysseus going there; Virgil does the same of +Aeneas; and the Oriental peoples, as well as the Germanic races, have +similar tales; but no people have so many or such finished accounts of +this sort as the ancient Irish. In pagan times in Ireland one of the +commonest adventures attributed to a hero was a visit to "tír +na m-beó," the land of the living, or to "tír na +n-óg," the land of the young; and this supernatural world was +reached in some cases by entering a fairy mound and going beneath the +ground to it, and in others by sailing over the ocean.</p> + +<p>Of the literature of pagan Ireland, though much has come down to +us, we have only a very small fraction of what once existed, and what +we have has been transmitted and modified by persons of later times +and different culture, who, both consciously and unconsciously, have +changed it, so that it is very different from what it was in its +original form; but the subject and the main outlines still remain, and +we have many accounts of both voyages and underground journeys to the +other world.</p> + +<p>The oldest voyage is, perhaps, that of Maelduin, which, Tennyson +has transmuted into English under the title <i>The Voyage of +Maeldune</i>. This is a voyage undertaken for revenge; but vengeance, +as Sir Walter Scott has pointed out in his preface to <i>The Two +Drovers</i>, springs in a barbarous society from a passion for +justice; and it is this instinct for justice that inspires the Irish +hero to endure and to achieve what he does. Christianity has preserved +this legend and added to it its own peculiar quality of mercy; and +this illustrates one of the characteristics of Ireland's pagan +literature—it is imperfectly Christian and can readily be made +to express the Christian point of view.</p> + +<p>Another voyage of pagan Irish literature is the <i>Voyage of +Bran</i>. In this tale idealism is the inspiration that leads the hero +into the unknown world. A woman appears who is invisible to all but +Bran, and whose song of the beauteous supernatural land beyond the +wave is heard by none but him; so that, after refusing to go with her +the first time she appears, at length he steps into her boat of glass +and sails away to view the wonders and taste the joys of the other +world.</p> + +<p>In these tales we have two main elements, one real and one ideal. +The real element is the fact that the ancient Irish unquestionably +made voyages and visited lands which the fervid Celtic imagination and +the lapse of time transformed into the wonderful regions of the +legends. The stories are thus early geographies, and they show +unmistakably a knowledge of western Europe and of the Canary Islands +or some other tropical regions; perhaps also, some have gone so far as +to claim, they are reminiscent of voyages to America.</p> + +<p>The ideal element is no less important as indicating achievement, +for it shows that the Irish poets of pagan times had not only +realized, but had succeeded in making their national traditions +embody, the fact that love of justice and aspiration for knowledge are +the foundations of all enduring human achievement and all perfect +human joy. Christianity therefore found moral and spiritual ideas of a +highly developed order in pagan Ireland, and it did not hesitate to +adopt whatever in the literature of the country illustrated its own +teachings, and not only were these stories of visits to the other +world full of suggestions as to ways of enforcing Christian doctrine, +but the Irish church and men of Irish birth were the most active in +spreading the faith in the early centuries of its conquest of western +Europe.</p> + +<p>For these reasons it is not strange that all the earliest Christian +visions of the spirit-world were of Irish origin. We find the earliest +in the <i>Ecclesiastical History</i> of the "Venerable Bede," who died +in 735. It is the story of how an Irishman of great sanctity, Furseus +by name, was taken in spirit by three angels to a place from which he +looked down and saw the four fires that are to consume the world: +those of falsehood, avarice, discord, fraud and impiety. In this there +is the germ of some very fundamental things in Dante's poem, and we +know that Dante knew Bede and had probably read his history, for he +places him in Paradise and mentions him elsewhere in his works.</p> + +<p>In Bede's work there is also another vision, and though in this +second case the man who visits the spirit-world is not an Irishman, +but a Saxon named Drithelm, yet the story came to Bede through an +Irish monk named Haemgils; so it, too, is connected with Ireland, and +it also contains much that is developed further in the <i>Divine +Comedy</i>.</p> + +<p>One of the most celebrated of the works belonging to this class of +so-called "visionary" writings is the <i>Fis</i> or "Vision" which +goes under the name of the famous Irish saint, Adamnan, who was +poetically entitled the "High Scholar of the Western World." This +particular vision, the <i>Fis Adamnáin</i>, is remarkable among +other things for its literary quality, which is far superior to +anything of the time, and for the fact that it represents "the highest +level of the school to which it belonged," and that it is "the most +important contribution made to the growth of the legend within the +Christian Church prior to the advent of Dante."</p> + +<p>Another Irish vision of great popularity all over Europe in the +Middle Ages is the <i>Voyage of Saint Brendan</i>. This is known as +the Irish Odyssey, and it is similar to the pagan tales of Maelduin +and Bran, except that instead of its hero being a dauntless warrior +seeking vengeance or a noble youth seeking happiness, he is a +Christian saint in quest of peace; and instead of the perils of the +way being overcome by physical force or the favor of some capricious +pagan deity, they are averted by the power of faith and virtue.</p> + +<p>The <i>Voyage of Saint Brendan</i>, like its pagan predecessors, +has a real and an ideal basis; and in both respects it shows an +advancement over its prototypes. It contains some very poetic touches, +and is credited with being the source of some of the most effective +features of Dante's poem. Its great popularity is shown by the fact +that Caxton, the first English printer, published a translation of it +in 1483; so that it was among the first books printed in English, and +for that reason must have been one of the best-known works of the +time. Dante undoubtedly knew it, for he was a great scholar in the +learning of his day, and especially in ecclesiastical history and the +biography of saints.</p> + +<p>Another vision of Irish origin that Dante and other writers have +borrowed from is that of an Irish soldier named Tundale. He is said to +have been a very wicked and proud man, who refused to a friend who +owed him for three horses an extension of time in which to pay for +them. For this he was struck down by an invisible hand so that he +remained apparently dead from Wednesday till Saturday, when he revived +and told a story of a visit to the world of the dead that has many +features later embodied in the <i>Divine Comedy</i>. Tundale's vision +is said to have taken place in 1149; Dante probably wrote his poem +between 1314 and 1321.</p> + +<p>The Irish also produced another legend of this sort that was +enormously and universally popular, and became the chief authority on +the nature of heaven and hell, in the story of <i>Saint Patrick's +Purgatory</i>. Saint Patrick was said to have been granted a view of +heaven and hell, and a certain island in Lough Derg in Donegal was +reputed to be the spot in which he had begun his journey; and there, +it was said, those who desired to purge themselves of their sins could +enter as he had entered and come back to the world again, provided +their faith was strong enough.</p> + +<p>This legend was probably known in Ireland from a very early time, +but it had spread over all western Europe by the twelfth century. +Henry of Saltrey, a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of that name in +England, wrote an account in Latin of the descent of an Irish soldier +named Owen into Saint Patrick's Purgatory in 1153; and this story soon +became the subject of poetic treatment all over Europe. We have +several French versions, one by the celebrated French poetess Marie de +France, who lived about 1200; and there are others in all the +languages of Europe, besides evidence of its wide circulation in the +original Latin. Its importance is shown by the fact that it is +mentioned by Matthew Paris, the chief English historian of the +thirteenth century, and also by Froissart, the well-known French +annalist of the fourteenth while Calderon, the great Spanish +dramatist, has written a play based on the legend. Dante undoubtedly +knew of Marie de France's version as well as the original of Henry of +Saltrey and probably others besides.</p> + +<p>From what has been said it will be seen that Dante's masterpiece is +largely based on literature of Irish origin; but there are other +superlative exhibitions of human genius of which the same is true. One +of these is the story of Tristan and Isolde. Tristan is the paragon of +all knightly accomplishments, the most versatile figure in the entire +literature of chivalry; while Isolde is an Irish princess. By a trick +of fate these two drink a love potion inadvertently and become +irresistibly enamored of each other, although Isolde is betrothed to +King Mark of Cornwall, and Tristan is his nephew and ambassador. The +story that follows is infinitely varied, intensely dramatic, +delicately beautiful, and tenderly pathetic. It has been treated by +several poets of great genius, among them Gottfried of Strassburg, the +greatest German poet of his time, and Richard Wagner; but all the +beauty and power in the works of these men existed in the original +Celtic form of the tale, and the later writers have only discovered it +and brought it to light.</p> + +<p>The same thing is true of the Arthurian Legend and the story of the +Holy Grail. Dante knew of King Arthur's fame, and mentions him in the +<i>Inferno</i>. To Dante he was a Christian hero, and the historical +Arthur may have been a Christian; but much in the story goes back to +the pagan Celtic religion. We can find in Irish literature many +references that indicate a belief in a self-sustaining, miraculous +object similar to the Holy Grail, and the fact that this object was +developed into a symbol of some of the deepest and most beautiful +Christian truths shows the high character of the civilization and +literature of ancient Ireland.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Wright: St. Patrick's Purgatory (London, 1844); Krapp: The Legend +of St. Patrick's Purgatory (Baltimore, 1900); Becker: Mediaeval +Visions of Heaven and Hell (Baltimore, 1899); Shackford: Legends and +Satires (Boston, 1913); Meyer and Nutt: The Voyage of Bran, edited and +translated by K. Meyer, with an Essay on the Irish Version of the +Happy Other World and the Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth, by A. Nutt, 2 +vols. (London, 1895); Boswell: An Irish Precursor of Dante (London, +1908).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T29"></a>IRISH INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE</h2> +<h4>By E.C. QUIGGIN, M.A.</h4> + +<p>Among the literary peoples of the west of Europe, the Irish, in +late medieval and early modern times, were singularly little affected +by the frequent innovations in taste and theme which influenced +Romance and Teutonic nations alike. To such an extent is this true, +that one is often inclined to think that far-off Iceland was to a +greater degree in the general European current than the much more +accessible Erin. During the age of chivalry, conditions in Ireland +were not calculated to promote the growth of epic and lyric poetry +after the continental manner. Some considerable time elapsed before +the Norman barons became fully Hibernicised, previous to which their +interest may be assumed to have turned to the compositions of the +trouvères. In the early Norman period, the poets of Ireland +might well have begun to imitate Romance models. But, strange to say, +they did not, and, for this, various reasons might be assigned. The +flowing verses of the Anglo-Norman were impossible for men who +delighted in the trammels of the native prosody; and in the heyday of +French influence, the patrons of letters in Ireland probably insisted +on hearing the foreign compositions in their original dress, as these +nobles were doubtless sufficiently versed in Norman-French to be able +to appreciate them. But a still more potent factor was the +conservatism of the hereditary Irish poet families. A close +corporation, they appear to have resented every innovation, and were +content to continue the tradition of their ancestors. The direct +consequence of this tenacious clinging to the fashions of by-gone days +rendered it impossible, nay almost inconceivable, that the literary +men of Ireland should have exerted any profound or immediate influence +upon England or western Europe. Yet, nowadays, few serious scholars +will be prepared to deny that the island contributed in considerable +measure to the common literary stock of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>We might expect to find that direct influence, as a general rule, +can be most easily traced in the case of religious themes. Here, in +the literature of vision, so popular in Ireland, a chord was struck +which continued to vibrate powerfully until the time of the +Reformation. In this branch the riotous fancy of the Celtic monk +caught the medieval imagination from an early period. Bede has +preserved for us the story of Fursey, an Irish hermit who died in +France, A.D. 650. The greatest Irish composition of this class with +which we are acquainted, the <i>Vision of Adamnan</i>, does not appear +to have been known outside the island, but a later work of a similar +nature met with striking success. This was the <i>Vision of +Tundale</i> (Tnudgal), written in Latin by an Irishman named Marcus at +Regensburg, about the middle of the twelfth century. It seems probable +that this work was known to Dante, and, in addition to the numerous +continental versions, there is a rendering of the story into Middle +English verse.</p> + +<p>Closely allied to the Visions are the <i>Imrama</i> or "voyages" +(Lat. <i>navigationes</i>). The earliest romances of this class are +secular, <i>e.g., Imram Maelduin</i>, which provided Tennyson with the +frame-work of his well-known poem. However, the notorious love of +adventure on the part of the Irish monks inevitably led to the +composition of religious romances of a similar kind. The most famous +story of this description, the Voyage of St. Brendan, found its way +into every Christian country in Europe, and consequently figures in +the South English Legendary, a collection of versified lives of saints +made in the neighborhood of Gloucester towards the end of the +thirteenth century. The episode of St. Brendan and the whale, +moreover, was probably the ultimate source of one of Milton's best +known similes in his description of Satan. Equally popular was the +visit of Sir Owayn to the Purgatory of St. Patrick, which is also +included in the same Middle English Legendary. Ireland further +contributed in some measure to the common stock of medieval stories +which were used as illustrations by the preachers and in works of an +edifying character.</p> + +<p>When we turn to purely secular themes, we find ourselves on much +less certain ground. Though the discussion as to the origins of the +"romance of Uther's son", Arthur, continues with unabated vigor, many +scholars have come think that the Celtic background of these stories +contains much that is derived from Hibernian sources. Some writers in +the past have argued in favor of an independent survival of common +Celtic features, in Wales and Ireland, but now the tendency is to +regard all such coincidences as borrowings on the part of Cymric +craftsmen. At the beginning of the twelfth century a new impulse seems +to have been imparted to native minstrelsy in Wales under'the +patronage of Gruffydd ap Cynan, a prince of Gwynedd, who had spent +many years in exile at the court of Dublin. Some of the Welsh +rhapsodists apparently served a kind of apprenticeship with their +Irish brethren, and many things Irish were assimilated at this time +which, through this channel, were shortly to find their way into +Anglo-French. Thus it may now be regarded as certain that the name of +the "fair sword" Excalibur, by Geoffrey called Caliburnus (Welsh +<i>caletfwlch</i>), is taken from Caladbolg, the far-famed broadsword +of Fergus macRoig. It does not appear that the whole framework of the +Irish sagas was taken over, but, as Windisch points out, episodes were +borrowed as well as tricks of imagery. So, to mention but one, the +central incident of <i>Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyght</i> is +doubtless taken from the similar adventure of Cuchulainn in +<i>Bricriu's Feast</i>. The share assigned to Irish influence in the +<i>matière de Bretagne</i> is likely to grow considerably with +the progress of research.</p> + +<p>The fairy lore of Great Britain undoubtedly owes much to Celtic +phantasy. Of this Chaucer, at any rate, had little doubt, as he +writes:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>In th' olde dayes of the King Arthour,</p> +<p>Of which that Britons speken greet honour,</p> +<p>Al was this land fulfild of fayerye;</p> +<p>The elf-queen, with hir joly companye,</p> +<p>Daunced ful ofte in many a grene med.</p> +</div> + +<p>And here again there is a reasonable probability that certain +features were borrowed from the wealth of story current in the +neighboring isle. Otherwise it is difficult to understand why the +queen of fayerye should bear an Irish name (Mab, from Irish Medb), and +curiously enough the form of the name rathef suggests that it was +borrowed through a written medium and not by oral tradition. On the +other hand it is incorrect to derive Puck from Irish <i>puca</i>, as +the latter is undoubtedly borrowed from some form of Teutonic +speech.</p> + +<p>So all embracing a mind as that of the greatest English dramatist +could not fail to be interested in the gossip that must have been +current in London at the time of the wars in Ulster. References to +kerns and gallowglasses are fairly frequent. He had evidently heard of +the marvellous powers with which the Irish bards were credited, for, +in <i>As You Like It</i>, Rosalind exclaims:</p> + +<p>"I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an +Irish rat, which I can hardly remember."</p> + +<p>Similarly, in <i>King Richard III</i>, mention is made of the +prophetic utterance of an Irish bard, a trait which does not appear in +the poet's source. Any statements as to Irish influence in Shakespeare +that go beyond this belong to the realm of conjecture. Professor +Kittredge has attempted to show that in Syr Orfeo, upon which the poet +drew for portions of the plot of <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, the +Irish story of Etain and Mider was fused with the medieval form of the +classical tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Direct influence is entirely +wanting, and it is difficult to see how it could have been +otherwise.</p> + +<p>Even in the case of the Elizabethan poet who spent many years in the +south +of Ireland, there is no trace of Hibernian lore or legend. Spenser, +indeed, tells us himself that he had caused some of the native poetry +to +be translated to him, and had found that it "savoured of sweet wit and +good invention." But Ireland plays an infinitesimal part in the <i>Faerie +Queene</i>. The scenery round Kilcolman Castle forms the background of +much +of the incident in Book V. "Marble far from Ireland brought" is +mentioned +in a simile in the second Book, where we also read:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>As when a swarme of gnats at eventide</p> +<p>Out of the fennes of Allan do arise.</p> +</div> + +<p>But Ireland supplied no further inspiration.</p> + +<p>The various plantations of the seventeenth century produced an +Anglo-Irish stock which soon asserted itself in literature. As a +typical example, we may take the author of <i>The Vicar of +Wakefield</i>. At his first school at Lissoy, Oliver Goldsmith came +under Thomas Byrne, a regular shanachie, possessed of all the +traditional lore, with a remarkable gift for versifying. It was under +this man that the boy made his first attempts at verse, and his memory +is celebrated in <i>The Deserted Village</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>There, in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule,</p> +<p>The village master taught his little school.</p> +<p>A man severe he was, and stern to view.</p> +</div> + +<p>Unfortunately Goldsmith was removed to Elphin at the age of nine, +and although he retained an affection for Irish music all his life, +his intimate connection with Irish Ireland apparently ceased at this +point. "Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain" is doubtless +full of reminiscences of the poet's early years in Westmeath, but the +sentiments, the rhythm, and the language are entirely cast in an +English mould. We may mention, in passing, that it has been suggested +that Swift derived the idea of the kingdom of Lilliput from the Irish +story of the Adventures of Fergus macLeide amongst the leprechauns. +All that can be said is that this derivation is not impossible, though +the fact that the tale is preserved only in a single manuscript rather +points to the conclusion that the story did not enjoy great popularity +in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>We have seen that Goldsmith was removed from an Irish atmosphere at +a tender age, and this is not the only instance of the frowning of +fortune upon the native literature. When the fame of the ancient bards +of the Gael was noised from end to end of Europe, it was through the +medium of Macpherson's forgeries. <i>Fingal</i> caught the fleeting +fancy of the moment in a manner never achieved by the true Ossianic +lays of Ireland. The <i>Reliques of Irish Poetry</i>, published by +Miss Brooke by subscription in Dublin in 1789 to vindicate the +antiquity of the literature of Erin, never went into a second edition. +And although some of the pieces contained in that volume have been +reprinted in such undertakings of a learned character as the volumes +of the Dublin Ossianic Society, J.F. Campbell's <i>Leabhar na +Feinne</i>, and Cameron's <i>Reliquiae Celticae</i>, they have aroused +little interest amongst those ignorant of the Irish tongue.</p> + +<p>During the nineteenth century, the number of poets who drew upon +Ireland's past for their themes increased considerably. The most +popular of all is unquestionably the author of the <i>Irish +Melodies</i>. But, here again, the poet owes little or nothing to +vernacular poetry, the mould is English, the sentiments are those of +the poet's age. Moore's acquaintance with the native language can have +been but of the slightest, and in the case of Mangan we are told that +he had to rely upon literal versions of Irish pieces furnished him by +O'Donovan or O'Curry. Of the numerous attempts to reproduce the +overelaboration of rhyme to which Irish verse has ever been prone, +Father Prout's <i>Bells of Shandon</i> is perhaps the only one that is +at all widely known. When the legendary lore of Ireland became +accessible to men of letters, owing to the labors of O'Curry, +O'Donovan, and Hennessy, and the publication of various ancient texts +by the Irish Archaeological Society, it was to be expected that an +attempt would be made by some poet of Erin to do for his native land +what the Wizard of the North had accomplished for Scotland. The task +was undertaken by Sir Samuel Ferguson, who met with conspicuous +success. His most ambitious effort, <i>Congal</i>, deals in epic +fashion with the story of the battle of Moyra. Others in similar +strain treat the story of Conaire Mór and Deirdre, whilst +others such as the <i>Tain-Quest</i> are more in the nature of +ballads. Ferguson did more to introduce the English reading public to +Irish story than would have been accomplished by any number of bald +translations. His diction is little affected by the originals, and he +sometimes treats his materials with great freedom, but his achievement +was a notable one, and he has not infrequently been acclaimed as the +national poet.</p> + +<p>Is it perhaps invidious to single out any living author for special +mention, but this brief survey cannot close without noticing the +dramatic poems of W.B. Yeats, the latest poet who attempts to present +the old stories in an English dress. His plays <i>On Baile's Strand, +Deirdre</i>, and others, have become familiar to English audiences +through the excellent acting of the members of the Abbey Theatre +Company. The original texts are now much better known than they were +in Ferguson's day, and Mr. Yeats consequently cannot permit himself +the same liberties. Similarly, it is only during the last twenty-five +years that the language of Irish poetry has been carefully studied, +and Mr. Yeats has this advantage over his predecessors that on +occasion, e.g., in certain passages in <i>The King's Threshold</i>, he +is able to introduce with great effect reminiscences of the +characteristic epithets and imagery which formed so large a part of +the stock-in-trade of the medieval bard.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Friedel and Meyer: La Vision de Tondale (Paris, 1907); Boswell: An +Irish Precursor of Dante (London, 1908); Cambridge History of English +Literature, vol. I, chaps, xii and xvi; Windisch: <i>Das Keltische +Brittannien</i> (Leipzig, 1912), more especially chap. xxxvii; +Dictionary of National Biography; Gwynn: Thos. Moore ("English Men of +Letters" Series, London, 1905).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T30"></a>IRISH FOLKLORE</h2> +<h4>By ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES.</h4> + +<p>Among savage peoples there is at first no distinction of a definite +kind between good and bad spirits, and when a distinction has been +reached, a great advance in a spiritual direction has been made. For +the key to the religion of savages is fear, and until such terror has +been counteracted by belief in beneficent powers, civilization will +not follow. But the elimination of the fear of the unseen is a slow +process; indeed, it will exist side by side with the belief in +Christianity itself, after a modification through various stages of +better pagan belief.</p> + +<p>Ireland still presents, in its more out-of-the-way districts, +evidence of that strong persistence in the belief in maleficent or +malicious influences of the pre-Christian powers of the air, which it +seems difficult to eradicate from the Celtic imagination. In the +celebrated poem entitled <i>The Breastplate of St. Patrick</i>, there +is much the same attitude on the part of Patrick towards the Druids +and their powers of concealing and changing, of paralyzing and +cursing, as was shown by Moses towards the magicians of Egypt. Indeed, +in Patrick's time a belief in a world of fairies existed even in the +king's household, for "when the two daughters of King Leary of +Ireland, Ethnea the fair and Fedelma the ruddy, came early one morning +to the well of Clebach to wash, they found there a synod of holy +bishops with Patrick. And they knew not whence they came, or in what +form, or from what people, or from what country; but they supposed +them to be <i>Duine Sidh</i>, or gods of the earth, or a +phantasm."</p> + +<p>Colgan explains the term <i>Duine Sidh</i> thus: "Fantastical +spirits," he writes, "are by the Irish called men of the <i>Sidh</i>, +because they are seen, as it were, to come out of the beautiful hills +to infest men, and hence the vulgar belief that they reside in certain +subterranean habitations: and sometimes the hills themselves are +called, by the Irish, <i>Sidhe</i> or <i>Siodha</i>."</p> + +<p>No doubt, when the princesses spoke of the gods of the earth, +reference was made to such pagan deities as Beal; Dagda the great or +the good god; Aine, the Moon, goddess of the water and of wisdom; +Manannan macLir, the Irish Neptune; Crom, the Irish Ceres; and Iphinn, +the benevolent, whose relations to the Irish Oirfidh resembled those +of Apollo towards Orpheus; and to the allegiance they owed to the +Elements, the Wind, and the Stars. But besides these pagan divinities +and powers, and quite apart from them, the early Irish believed in two +classes of fairies: in the first place, a hierarchy of fairy beings, +well and ill disposed, not differing in appearance, to any great +degree at any rate, from human beings—good spirits and demons, +rarely visible during the daytime; and, in the second place, there was +the magic race of the De Danann, who, after conquest by the Milesians, +transformed themselves into fairies, and in that guise continued to +inhabit the underworld of the Irish hills, and to issue thence in +support of Irish heroes, or to give their aid against other fairy +adversaries.</p> + +<p>There is another theory to account for the fairy race. It is that +they are angels who revolted with Satan and were excluded from heaven +for their unworthiness, but were not found evil enough for hell, and +therefore were allowed to occupy that intermediate space which has +been called "the Other World." It is still a moot point with the Irish +peasantry, as it was with the Irish saints of old, whether, after +being compelled to dwell without death among rocks and hills, lakes +and seas, bushes and forest, till the day of judgment, the fairies +then have the chance of salvation. Indeed, the fairies are themselves +believed to have great doubts of a future existence, though, like many +men, entertaining undefined hopes of happiness; and hence the enmity +which some of them have for mankind, who, they acknowledge, will live +eternally. Thus their actions are balanced between generosity and +vindictiveness towards the human race.</p> + +<p>Mr. W.Y. Evans Wentz, A.M., of Leland Stanford University, +California, and Jesus College, Oxford, has received an honorary degree +from the latter university for his thesis, "The Fairy Faith in Celtic +Countries: Its Psychical Origin and Nature", a most laborious as well +as ingenious work, whose object is to prove "that the origin of the +fairy faith is psychical, and that fairyland, being thought of as an +invisible world within which the visible world is immersed as an +island in an unexplored ocean, actually exists, and that it is peopled +by more species of living beings than this world, because incomparably +more vast and varied in its possibilities." This may be added as a +fourth theory to account for the existence of fairies, and it may be +further stated here that the Irish popular belief in ghosts attributes +to some of their departed spirits much of the same violence and malice +with which fairies are credited. Mr. Jeremiah Curtin gives striking +instances of this kind in his book, the <i>Folk Lore of West +Kerry</i>.</p> + +<p>It became necessary, therefore, for the Gaels who believed in the +preternatural powers of the fairies for good and ill to propitiate +them as far as possible. On May eve, accordingly, cattle were driven +into raths and bled there, some of the blood being tasted, the rest +poured out in sacrifice. Men and women were also bled on these +occasions. The seekers for buried treasure, over which fairies were +supposed to have influence, immolated a black cock or a black cat to +propitiate them. Again, a cow, suffering from sickness believed to be +due to fairy malice, was bled and then devoted to St. Martin. If it +recovered, it was never sold or killed. The first new milk of a cow +was poured out on the ground to propitiate the fairies, and especially +on the ground within a fairy rath. The first drop of any drink is also +thrown out by old Irish people. If a child spills milk, the mother +says, "that's for the fairies, leave it to them and welcome." Slops +should never be thrown out of doors without the warning, "Take care of +water!" lest fairies should be passing invisibly and get soiled by the +discharge. Eddies of dust upon the road are supposed to be caused by +the fairies, and tufts of grass, sticks, and pebbles are thrown into +the centre of the eddy to propitiate the unseen beings. Some fairies +of life size, who live within the green hills or under the raths, are +supposed to carry off healthy babes to be made fairy children, their +abstractors leaving weak changelings in their place. Similarly, +nursing mothers are sometimes supposed to be carried off to give the +breast to fairy babes, and handsome young men are spirited away to +become bridegrooms to fairy brides. Again, folk suffering from falling +sickness are supposed to be in that condition owing to the fatigue +caused by nocturnal rides through the air with the fairies, whose +steeds are bewitched rushes, blades of grass, straws, fern roots, and +cabbage stalks. The latter, to be serviceable for the purpose, should +be cut into the rude shapes of horses before the metamorphosis can +take place.</p> + +<p>Iron of every kind keeps away malignant fairies: thus, a horseshoe +nailed to the bottom of the churn prevents butter from being +bewitched. Here is a form of charm against the fairies who have +bewitched the butter: "Every window should be barred, a great turf +fire should be lit upon which nine irons should be placed, the +bystanders chanting twice over in Irish, 'Come, butter, come; Peter +stands at the gate waiting for a buttered cake.' As the irons become +heated the witch will try to break in, asking the people to take the +irons, which are burning her, off the fire. On their refusing, she +will go and bring back the butter to the churn. The irons may then be +removed from the fire and all will go well."</p> + +<p>If a neighbor or stranger should enter a cottage during the +churning, he should put his hand to the dash, or the butter will not +come. A small piece of iron should be sewed into an infant's clothes +and kept there until the child is baptized, and salt should be +sprinkled over his cradle to preserve the babe from abduction. The +fairies are supposed to have been conquered by an iron-weaponed race, +and hence their dread of the metal.</p> + +<p>To recover a spell-bound friend, stand on All Hallows' eve at cross +roads or at a spot pointed out by a wise woman or fairy doctor. When +you have rubbed fairy ointment on your eyelids, the fairies will +become visible as the host sweeps by with its captive, whom the gazer +will then be able to recognize. A sudden gust announces their +approach. Stooping down, you will then throw dust or milk at the +procession, whose members are then obliged to surrender your +spell-bound friend. If a man leaves home after his wife's confinement, +some of his clothes should be spread over the mother and infant, or +the fairies may carry them off. It is good for a woman, but bad for a +man, to dream of fairies. It betokens marriage for a girl, misfortune +for a man, who should not undertake serious business for some time +after such dreaming.</p> + +<p>Fairy changelings may be recognized by tricky habits, constant +crying, and other unusual characteristics. It was customary to recover +the true child in the following way: The changeling was placed upon an +iron shovel over the fire, when it would go shrieking up the chimney, +and the <i>bona fide</i> human child would be restored. It was +believed that fairy changelings often produced a set of small bagpipes +from under the clothes and played dance music upon them, till the +inmates of the cottage dropped with exhaustion from the effects of the +step dancing they were compelled to engage in.</p> + +<p>On Samain eve, the night before the first of November, or, as it is +now called, All Hallows' night or Hallowe'en, all the fairy hills or +<i>shees</i> are thrown wide open and the fairy host issues forth, as +mortals who are bold enough to venture near may see. Naturally +therefore people keep indoors so as not to encounter the spectral +host. The superstition that the fairies are abroad on Samain night +still exists in Ireland and Scotland, and there is a further belief, +no doubt derived from it, that the graves are open on that night and +that the spirits of the dead are abroad.</p> + +<p>Salt, as already suggested, is regarded to be so lucky that if a +child falls, it should always be given three pinches of salt, and if a +neighbor calls to borrow salt, it should not be refused, even though +it be the last grain in the house.</p> + +<p>An infant born with teeth should have them drawn by the nearest +smith, and the first teeth when shed should be thrown into the fire, +lest the fairies should get hold of what had been part of you.</p> + +<p>Those who hear fairy music are supposed to be haunted by the +melody, and many are believed to go mad or commit suicide in +consequence.</p> + +<p>The fairies are thought to engage in warfare with one another, and +in the year 1800 a specially sanguinary battle was believed to have +been fought between two clans of the fairies in county Kilkenny. In +the morning the hawthorns along the fences were found crushed to +pieces and drenched with blood.</p> + +<p>In popular belief fairies often go hunting, and faint sounds of +fairy horns, the baying of fairy hounds, and the cracking of fairy +whips are supposed to be heard on these occasions, while the flight of +the hunters is said to resemble in sound the humming of bees.</p> + +<p>Besides the life-sized fairies who are reputed to have these direct +dealings with human beings, there are diminutive preternatural beings +who are also supposed to come into close touch with men. Among these +is the Luchryman (<i>Leithphrogan</i>), or brogue maker, otherwise +known as Leprechaun. He is always found mending or making a shoe, and, +if grasped firmly and kept constantly in view, will disclose hidden +treasure to you, or render up his <i>sparan na sgillinge</i>, or purse +of the (inexhaustible) shilling. He can only be bound by a plough +chain or woolen thread. He is the symbol of industry which, if +steadily faced, leads to fortune, but, if lost sight of, is followed +by its forfeiture.</p> + +<p>Love in idleness is personified by another pigmy, the +<i>Geancanach</i> (love-talker). He does not appear, like the +Leprechaun, with a purse in one of his pockets, but with his hands in +both of them, and a <i>dudeen</i> (short pipe) in his mouth, as he +lazily strolls through lonely valleys making love to the foolish +country lasses and "gostering" with the idle "boys." To meet him meant +bad luck, and whoever was ruined by ill-judged love was said to have +been with the <i>Geancanach</i>.</p> + +<p>Another evil sprite was the <i>Clobher-ceann</i>, "a jolly, +red-faced, drunken little fellow," always "found astride of a +wine-butt" singing and drinking from a full tankard in a hard +drinker's cellar, and bound by his appearance to bring its owner to +speedy ruin.</p> + +<p>Then there were the <i>Leannan-sighes</i>, or native Muses, to be +found in every place of note to inspire the local bard, and the +<i>Beansighes</i> (Banshees, fairy women) attached to each of the old +Irish families and giving warning of the death of one of its members +with piteous lamentations.</p> + +<p>Black Joanna of the Boyne (<i>Siubhan Dubh na Boinne</i>) appeared +on Hallowe'en in the shape of a great black fowl, bringing luck to the +home whose <i>Banithee</i> (woman of the house) kept the dwelling +constantly clean and neat.</p> + +<p>The Pooka, who appeared in the shape of a horse, and whom +Shakespeare is by many believed to have adapted as "Puck," was a +goblin who combined "horse-play" with viciousness, but also at times +helped with the housework.</p> + +<p>The <i>Dullaghan</i> was a churchyard demon whose head was of a +movable kind. Dr. Joyce writes: "You generally meet him with his head +in his pocket, under his arm, or absent altogether; or if you have the +fortune to light upon a number of <i>Dullaghans</i>, you may see them +amusing themselves by flinging their heads at one another or kicking +them for footballs."</p> + +<p>An even more terrible churchyard demon is the fascinating phantom +that waylays the widower at his wife's very tomb, and poisons him by +her kiss when he has yielded to her blandishments.</p> + +<p>Of monsters the Irish had, and still believe in, the <i>Piast</i> +(Latin <i>bestia</i>), a huge dragon or serpent confined to lakes by +St. Patrick till the day of judgment, but still occasionally seen in +their waters. In old Fenian times, namely, the days of Finn and his +companion knights, the <i>Piasts</i>, however, roamed the country, +devouring men and women and cattle in large numbers, and some of the +early heroes are recorded to have been swallowed alive by them and +then to have hewed their way out of their entrails.</p> + +<p>Merrows, or Mermaids, are also still believed in, and many folk +tales exist describing their intermarriage with mortals.</p> + +<p>According to Nicholas O'Kearney, "It is the general opinion of many +old persons versed in native traditional lore, that, before the +introduction of Christianity, all animals possessed the faculties of +human reason and speech; and old story-tellers will gravely inform you +that every beast could speak before the arrival of St. Patrick, but +that the saint having expelled the demons from the land by the sound +of his bell, all the animals that, before that time, had possessed the +power of foretelling future events, such as the Black Steed of +<i>Binn-each-labhra</i>, the Royal Cat of <i>Cloughmagh-righ-cat</i> +(Clough), and others, became mute, and many of them fled to Egypt and +other foreign countries."</p> + +<p>Cats are said to have been appointed to guard hidden treasures; and +there are few who have not heard old Irish people tell about strange +meetings of cats and violent battles fought by them in the +neighborhood. "It was believed," adds O'Kearney, "that an evil spirit +in the shape of a cat assumed command over these animals in various +districts, and that when those wicked beings pleased they could compel +all the cats belonging to their division to attack those of some other +district. The same was said of rats; and rat-expellers, when +commanding a colony of those troublesome and destructive animals to +emigrate to some other place, used to address their 'billet' to the +infernal rat supposed to hold command over the rest. In a curious +pamphlet on the power of bardic compositions to charm and expel rats, +lately published, Mr. Eugene O'Curry states that a degraded priest, +who was descended from an ancient family of hereditary bards, was +enabled to expel a colony of rats by the force of satire!"</p> + +<p>Hence, of course, Shakespeare's reference to rhyming Irish rats to +death.</p> + +<p>It will thus be seen that Irish Fairy Lore well deserves to have +been called by Mr. Alfred Nutt, one of the leading authorities on the +subject, "as fair and bounteous a harvest of myth and romance as ever +flourished among any race."</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Alex. Carmichael: Carmina Gadelica; David Comyn: The Boyish +Exploits of Finn; the Periodical, "Folklore"; Lady Gregory: Cuchulain +of Muirthemne, Gods and Fighting Men; Miss Eleanor Hull: The Cuchulain +Saga in Irish Literature; Douglas Hyde: Beside the Fire, (a collection +of Irish Gaelic Folk Stories), <i>Leabhar Sgeulaicheachta</i>, (Folk +Stories in Irish); "Irish Penny Journal"; Patrick Kennedy: The +Fireside Stories of Ireland, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celt; +Standish Hayes O'Grady: Silva Gadelica; Wood-Martin: Traces of the +Elder Faiths in Ireland, Pagan Ireland; W.Y. Wentz: The Fairy Faith in +Celtic Countries; Lady Wilde: Charms, Incantations, etc.; Celtic +articles in Hastings' Dictionary of Religion and Ethics.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T31"></a>IRISH WIT AND HUMOR</h2> +<h4>By Charles L. Graves.</h4> + +<p>No record of the glories of Ireland would be complete without an +effort, however inadequate, to analyze and illustrate her wit and +humor. Often misunderstood, misrepresented, and misinterpreted, they +are nevertheless universally admitted to be racial traits, and for an +excellent reason. Other nations exhibit these qualities in their +literature, and Ireland herself is rich in writers who have furnished +food for mirth. But her special pre-eminence resides in the possession +of what, to adapt a famous phrase, may be called an <i>anima +naturaliter jocosa</i>. Irish wit and Irish humor are a national +inheritance. They are inherent in the race as a whole, independent of +education or culture or comfort. The best Irish sayings are the +sayings of the people; the greatest Irish humorists are the nameless +multitude who have never written books or found a place in national +dictionaries of biography. None but an Irishman could have coined that +supreme expression of contempt: "I wouldn't be seen dead with him at a +pig-fair," or rebuked a young barrister because he did not "squandher +his carcass" (<i>i.e.</i>, gesticulate) enough. But we cannot trace +the paternity of these sayings any more than we can that of the +lightning retort of the man to whom one of the "quality" had given a +glass of whisky. "That's made another man of you, Patsy," remarked the +donor. "'Deed an' it has, sor," Patsy flashed back, "an' that other +man would be glad of another glass." It is enough for our purpose to +note that such sayings are typically Irish and that their peculiar +felicity consists in their combining both wit and humor.</p> + +<p>To what element in the Irish nature are we to attribute this joyous +and illuminating gift? No one who is not a Gaelic scholar can venture +to dogmatize on this thorny subject. But, setting philology and +politics aside, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Ireland has +gained rather than lost in this respect by the clash of races and +languages. Gaiety, we are told, is not the predominating +characteristic of the Celtic temperament, nor is it reflected in the +prose and verse of the "old ancient days" that have come down to us. +Glamour and magic and passion abound in the lays and legends of the +ancient Gael, but there is more melancholy than mirth in these tales +of long ago. Indeed, it is interesting to note in connection with this +subject that the younger school of Irish writers associated with what +is called the Celtic Renascence have, with very few exceptions, +sedulously eschewed anything approaching to jocosity, preferring the +paths of crepuscular mysticism or sombre realism, and openly avowing +their distaste for what they consider to be the denationalized +sentiment of Moore, Lever, and Lover. To say this is not to disparage +the genius of Yeats and Synge; it is merely a statement of fact and an +illustration of the eternal dualism of the Irish temperament, which +Moore himself realized when he wrote of "Erin, the tear and the smile +in thine eye."</p> + +<p>A reaction against the Donnybrook tradition was inevitable and to a +great extent wholesome, since the stage Irishman of the transpontine +drama or the music-halls was for the most part a gross and unlovely +caricature, but, like all reactions, it has tended to obscure the real +merits and services of those who showed the other side of the medal. +Lever did not exaggerate more than Dickens, and his portraits of +Galway fox-hunters and duellists, of soldiers of fortune, and of +Dublin undergraduates were largely based on fact. At his best he was a +most exhilarating companion, and his pictures of Irish life, if +partial, were not misleading. He held no brief for the landlords, and +in his later novels showed a keen sense of their shortcomings. The +plain fact is that, in considering the literary glories of Ireland, we +cannot possibly overlook the work of those Irishmen who were affected +by English influences or wrote for an English audience.</p> + +<p>Anglo-Irish humorous literature was a comparatively late product, +but its efflorescence was rapid and triumphant. The first great name +is that of Goldsmith, and, though deeply influenced in technique and +choice of subjects by his association with English men of letters and +by his residence in England, in spirit he remained Irish to the +end—generous, impulsive, and improvident in his life; genial, +gay, and tender-hearted in his works. The Vicar of Wakefield was Dr. +Primrose, but he might just as well have been called Dr. Shamrock. No +surer proof of the pre-eminence of Irish wit and humor can be found +than in the fact that, Shakespeare alone excepted, no writers of +comedy have held the boards longer or more triumphantly than Goldsmith +and his brother Irishman, Sheridan. <i>She Stoops to Conquer, The +Rivals, The School for Scandal</i>, and <i>The Critic</i> represent +the sunny side of the Irish genius to perfection. They illustrate, in +the most convincing way possible, how the debt of the world to Ireland +has been increased by the fate which ordained that her choicest +spirits should express themselves in a language of wider appeal than +the ancient speech of Erin.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, English literature and the English tongue have +gained greatly from the influence exerted by writers familiar from +their childhood with turns of speech and modes of expression which, +even when they are not translations from the Gaelic, are +characteristic of the Hibernian temper. The late Dr. P.W. Joyce, in +his admirable treatise on English as spoken in Ireland, has +illustrated not only the essentially bilingual character of the +Anglo-Irish dialect, but the modes of thought which it enshrines. +There is no better known form of Irish humor than that commonly called +the "Irish bull," which is too often set down to lax thinking and +faulty logic. But it is the rarest thing to encounter a genuine Irish +"bull" which is not picturesque and at the same time highly +suggestive. Take, for example, the saying of an old Kerry doctor who, +when conversing with a friend on the high rate of mortality, observed, +"Bedad, there's people dyin' who never died before." Here a truly +illuminating result was attained by the simple device of using the +indicative for the conditional mood—as in Juvenal's famous +comment on Cicero's second Philippic: <i>Antoni gladios potuit +contemnere si sic omnia dixisset</i>. The Irish "bull" is a heroic and +sometimes successful attempt to sit upon two stools at once, or, as an +Irishman put it, "Englishmen often make 'bulls,' but the Irish 'bull' +is always pregnant."</p> + +<p>Though no names of such outstanding distinction as those of +Goldsmith and Sheridan occur in the early decades of the nineteenth +century, the spirit of Irish comedy was kept vigorously alive by Maria +Edgeworth, William Maginn, Francis Mahony (Father Prout), and William +Carleton. Sir Walter Scott's splendid tribute to the genius of Maria +Edgeworth is regarded by some critics as extravagant, but it is +largely confirmed in a most unexpected quarter. Turgenief, the great +Russian novelist, proclaimed himself her disciple, and has left it on +record that but for her example he might never have attempted to give +literary form to his impressions of the classes in Russia +corresponding to the poor Irish and the squireens and the squires of +county Longford. Maginn and Mahony were both scholars—the latter +happily called himself "an Irish potato seasoned with Attic +salt"—wrote largely for English periodicals, and spent most of +their lives out of Ireland. In the writings of all three an element of +the grotesque is observable, tempered, however, in the case of Mahony, +with a vein of tender pathos which emerges in his delightful "Bells of +Shandon." Maginn was a wit, Mahony was the hedge-schoolmaster <i>in +excelsis</i>, and Carleton was the first realist in Irish peasant +fiction. But all alike drew their best inspiration from essentially +Irish themes. The pendulum has swung back slowly but steadily since +the days when Irish men of letters found it necessary to accommodate +their genius to purely English literary standards. Even Lever, though +he wrote for the English public, wrote mainly about Ireland. So, too, +with his contemporary Le Fanu, whose reputation rests on a double +basis. He made some wonderful excursions into the realm of the +bizarre, the uncanny, and the gruesome. But in the collection known as +<i>The Purcell Papers</i> will be found three short stories which for +exuberant drollery and "diversion" have never been excelled. That the +same man could have written <i>Uncle Silas</i> and <i>The Quare +Gander</i> is yet another proof of the strange dualism of the Irish +character.</p> + +<p>The record of the last fifty years shows an uninterrupted progress +in the invasion of English <i>belles lettres</i> by Irish writers. +Outside literature, perhaps the most famous sayer of good things of +our times was a simple Irish parish priest, the late Father Healy. Of +his humorous sayings the number is legion; his wit may be illustrated +by a less familiar example—his comment on a very tall young lady +named Lynch: "Nature gave her an inch and she took an ell." In the +House of Commons today there is no greater master of irony and +sardonic humor than his namesake, Mr. Tim Healy. On one occasion he +remarked that Lord Rosebery was not a man to go tiger-shooting +with—except at the Zoo. On another, being anxious to bring an +indictment against the "Castle" <i>régime</i> in Dublin and +finding the way blocked by a debate on Uganda, he successfully +accomplished his purpose by a judicious geographical transference of +names, and convulsed the House by a speech in which the nomenclature +of Central Africa was applied to the government of Ireland.</p> + +<p>But wit and humor are the monopoly of no class or calling in +Ireland. They flourish alike among car-drivers and K.C.'s, publicans +and policemen, priests and parsons, beggars and peers. It is a +commonplace of criticism to deny these qualities in their highest form +to women. But this is emphatically untrue of Ireland, and was never +more conclusively disproved than by the recent literary achievements +of her daughters. The partnership of two Irish ladies, Miss Edith +Somerville and Miss Violet Martin, has given us, in <i>Some +Experiences of an Irish R.M.</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, Resident Magistrate), +the most delicious comedy, and in <i>The Real Charlotte</i> the finest +tragi-comedy, that have come out of Great Britain in the last thirty +years. The <i>R.M.</i>, as it is familiarly called, is already a +classic, but the Irish <i>comédie humaine</i>—to use the +phrase in the sense of Balzac—is even more vividly portrayed in +the pages of <i>The Real Charlotte</i>. Humor, genuine though +intermittent, irradiates the autumnal talent of Miss Jane Barlow, and +the long roll of gifted Irishwomen who have contributed to the gaiety +of nations may be closed with the names of Miss Hunt, author of +<i>Folk Tales of Breffny</i>; of Miss Purdon and Miss Winifred Letts, +who in prose and verse, respectively, have moved us to tears and +laughter by their studies of Leinster peasant life; and of "Moira +O'Neill" (Mrs. Skrine), the incomparable singer of the Glens of +Antrim. To give a full list of the living Irish writers, male and +female, who are engaged in the benevolent work of driving dull care +away would be impossible within the space at our command. But we +cannot end without recognition of the exhilarating extravaganzas of +"George A. Birmingham" (Canon Hannay), the freakish and elfin muse of +James Stephens, and the coruscating wit of F.P. Dunne, the famous +Irish-American humorist, whose "Mr. Dooley" is a household word on +both sides of the Atlantic.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, She Stoops to Conquer; Sheridan: The +Rivals, The School for Scandal, The Critic; R. Edgeworth: Essay on +Irish Bulls; M. Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent, The Absentee; Maginn: +Miscellanies in Prose and Verse; Carleton: Traits and Stories of the +Irish Peasantry; Mahony (Father Prout): Reliques of Father Prout; John +and Michael Banim: Tales of the O'Hara Family; Lover: Legends and +Stories of Ireland, Handy Andy; Lever: Harry Lorrequer, Charles +O'Malley, Lord Kilgobbin; Le Fanu: The Purcell Papers; Barlow: Bogland +Studies, Irish Idylls, Irish Neighbours; Birmingham: The Seething Pot, +Spanish Gold, The Major's Niece, The Red Hand of Ulster, General John +Regan; Stephens: The Crock of Gold, Here are Ladies; Hunt: The Folk +Tales of Breffny; Purdon: The Folk of Furry Farm; Somerville and Ross: +The Real Charlotte, Some Experiences of an Irish R.M., All on the +Irish Shore, Dan Russel the Fox.</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T32"></a>THE IRISH THEATRE</h2> +<h4>By JOSEPH HOLLOWAY.</h4> + +<p>The Irish theatre and secular drama may be said to begin with the +production of James Shirley's historical play, <i>St. Patrick for +Ireland</i>, in Werburgh Street Theatre, about 1636-7; and though +Dublin was a great school for acting, and supplied many of the best +players to the English stage, such as Quin, Macklin, Peg Woffington, +Miss O'Neill, and hosts of others, it never really possessed a +creative theatre (save at the Capel Street Theatre for a few years +during the Grattan Parliament) until the modern movement in Ireland +came into being and the Abbey Theatre became its headquarters.</p> + +<p>Of course, innumerable plays by Irish writers were written, but +most of them were not distinctively Irish in character; and the names +of Goldsmith, Sheridan, O'Keeffe, Farquhar, Sheridan Knowles, Oscar +Wilde, and dozens of others will always be remembered as great Irish +writers for the stage. And when fine impersonators of Irish character +like Tyrone Power, John Drew, or Barney Williams arrived, there were +always to be found several clever writers to fit them with parts, the +demand always creating the supply.</p> + +<p>Even before Dion Boucicault took to writing Irish dramas of a more +palatable and less "stage-Irish" character than those of his immediate +predecessors, some excellent plays, Irish in character and tone, had +from time to time found their way to the stage. However, Boucicault +sweetened our stage by the production of <i>The Colleen Bawn, +Arrah-na-Pogue</i>, and <i>The Shaughraun</i>, and showed by his +rollicking impersonations of Myles, Shan, and Conn, how good-humored, +hearty, and self-sacrificing Irish boys in humble life can be. He had +great technical knowledge of stagecraft, and that has helped to make +his Irish plays live in the popular goodwill right up to today.</p> + +<p>A revolt against Boucicault's Irish boys, all fun and frolic, and +charming colleens, who could do no wrong, has made our modern +playwrights go to the other extreme; so that now we find our stage +peopled with peasants, cruel, hard, and forbidding for the most part, +and with colleens who are the reverse of lovable in thought or act. +Neither picture is quite true of our people. What is really wanted is +the happy medium, which few, if any, of our new playwrights have yet +given us.</p> + +<p>If our great popular Irish drama has yet to come, I think the Fays +have made it possible to say that a distinct and really fine dramatic +school has arisen in Ireland, evolved out of their wonderful skill in +teaching, producing, and acting; and if we are not always really +delighted with what our playwrights give us, the almost perfect way in +which the plays are served up by the actors invariably wholly +satisfies. It is the actors who have made the Abbey Theatre famous, +and not the plays. Such acting as theirs cast a spell over all who see +them. What pleasing memories do the names of W.G. Fay, Frank J. Fay, +Dudley Digges, Sara Allgood, Arthur Sinclair, Maire O'Neill, Maire ni +Shuiblaigh, J.M. Kerrigan, Fred O'Donovan, Eileen O'Doherty, Una +O'Connor, Eithne Magee, Nora Desmond, and John Connolly recall!</p> + +<p>With the production of W.B. Yeats's poetic one-act play, <i>The +Land of Heart's Desire</i>, at the Avenue Theatre, London, on March +29, 1894, began the modern Irish dramatic movement. When the poet had +tasted the joys of the footlights, he longed to see an Irish Literary +Theatre realized in Ireland. Five years later, in the Antient Concert +Rooms, Dublin, on May 9, 1899, his play, <i>The Countess Cathleen</i>, +was produced, and his desire gratified. The experiment was tried for +three years and then dropped; plays by Yeats, Edward Martyn, George +Moore, and Alice Milligan were staged with English-trained actors in +the casts; and a Gaelic play—the first ever presented in a +theatre in Ireland—was also given during the third season. It +was <i>The Twisting of the Rope</i>, by Dr. Douglas Hyde, and was +played at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, on October 21, 1901, by a Gaelic +Amateur Dramatic Society coached by W.G. Fay. The author filled the +principal part with distinction.</p> + +<p>It was while rehearsing this play that the thought came to Fay: +"Why not have my little company of Irish-born actors—the Ormond +Dramatic Society—appear in plays by Irish writers instead of in +the ones they have been giving for years?" And the thought soon +ripened into realization. His brother, Frank, had dreamed of such a +company since he read of the small beginnings out of which the +Norwegian Theatre had grown; and just then, seeing some of "Æ's" +(George Russell's) play, <i>Deirdre</i>, in the <i>All Ireland +Review</i>, he asked the author if he would allow them to produce it, +and, consent being given, the company put it into rehearsal at once. +"Æ" got for them from Yeats <i>Kathleen-Ni-Houlihan</i>, to make +up the programme. Thus it was that this company of amateurs and poets, +now known as the Abbey Players, came into existence, and at St. +Teresa's Hall, Clarendon Street, Dublin, gave their first performance +on April 2, 1902.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards they took a hall at the back of a shop in Camden +Street, where they rehearsed and gave a few public performances. On +"Æ" declining to be their president, Frank Fay suggested the +name of W.B. Yeats, and he was elected, and in that way came again +into the movement in which he has figured so largely ever since.</p> + +<p>The company played occasionally in the Molesworth Hall, and +produced there, among other pieces, Synge's <i>In the Shadow of the +Glen</i> (October 8, 1903) and <i>Riders to the Sea</i> (February 25, +1904); Yeats's <i>The Hour Glass</i> (March 14, 1903) and <i>The +King's Threshold</i> (October 8, 1903); Lady Gregory's +<i>Twenty-five</i> (March 14,1903); and Padraic Colum's <i>Broken +Soil</i> (December 3, 1903).</p> + +<p>On March 26, 1904, the company paid a flying one-day visit to the +Royalty, London, and Miss A.E.F. Horniman, who had given Shaw, Yeats, +and Dr. John Todhunter their first real start as playwrights at the +Avenue, London, in March-April, 1894 (Shaw had had his first play, +<i>Widowers' Houses</i>, played by the Independent Theatre in 1892), +saw the performance, and was so impressed that she thought she would +like to find a suitable home for such talent in Dublin, and fixed upon +the old Mechanics' Institute and its surrounding buildings, and there +the Abbey Theatre soon afterwards—on December 27, +1904—came into existence.</p> + +<p>In writing of this Irish dramatic movement, one must always bear in +mind that it was Yeats who first conceived the idea of such a +movement; the Fays who founded the school of Irish acting; and Miss +Horniman who, like a fairy godmother, waved the wand, and gave it a +habitation and a name—the Abbey Theatre—and endowed it for +six years.</p> + +<p>Play followed play with great rapidity, and dramatic societies +sprang up all over the country, playing home-made productions in +Gaelic and English. All Ireland seemed to be play-acting and +play-writing; so much so that Frank Fay was heard to say that "he +thought everyone had a play in his pocket, and that anyone in the +street could be picked up and shaped into an actor or actress with a +little training, Ireland was so teeming with talent!"</p> + +<p>Dramatic Ireland had slumbered for a long while, and awoke with +tremendous vigor for work. New dramatists sprang up in all parts of +Ireland; The Ulster Literary Theatre started in Belfast; The Cork +Dramatic Society, in Cork; The Theatre of Ireland, in Dublin; and +others in Galway and Waterford soon followed. In Dublin at present +more than half a dozen dramatic societies are continually producing +new plays and discovering new acting talent. There are also two Gaelic +dramatic societies. And nearly every town in Ireland now has its own +dramatic class and its own dramatists. All this activity has come +about within the last ten or twelve years, where, before, in many +places, drama and acting were almost unknown.</p> + +<p>Many Gaelic societies throughout the country put on Gaelic plays by +Dr. Douglas Hyde, Pierce Beasley, Thomas Haynes, Canon Peter O'Leary, +and others; and the <i>Oireachtas</i> (the Gaelic musical and literary +festival) held each year in Dublin usually presents several Irish +plays and offers prizes for new ones at each festival.</p> + +<p>Of all the Irish playwrights who have arisen in recent years, Lady +Gregory has produced most and W.B. Yeats is the most poetic. He is +more a lyric poet than a dramatist, and is never satisfied with his +work for the stage, but keeps eternally chopping and changing it. His +<i>Kathleen-Ni-Houlihan</i>, though a dream-play, always appeals to an +audience of Irish people. Perhaps his one-act <i>Deirdre</i> is the +nearest approach to real drama he has done. Some of Lady Gregory's +earlier one-act farces, such as <i>The Workhouse-Ward</i>, are very +amusing; <i>The Rising of the Moon</i> is a little dramatic gem, and +<i>The Gaol Gate</i> is touched with genuine tragedy. Synge wrote only +one play—Riders to the Sea—that acts well. The others are +admired by critics for the strangeness of their diction and the beauty +of the nature-pictures scattered through them. His much-discussed +<i>Playboy of the Western World</i> has become famous for the rows it +has created at home and abroad from its very first production on +January 26, 1907. William Boyle, who gets to the heart of those he +writes about, has produced the most popular play of the movement in +<i>The Eloquent Dempsey</i>, and a perfectly constructed one in <i>The +Building Fund</i>. W.F. Casey's two plays—The Man Who Missed the +Tide and <i>The Suburban Groove</i>—are both popular and +actable. Padraic Colum's plays—The Land and <i>Broken Soil</i> +(the latter rewritten and renamed <i>The Fiddler's +House</i>)—are almost idyllic scenes of country life. Lennox +Robinson's plays are harsh in tone, but dramatically effective, and +T.C. Murray's <i>Birthright</i> and <i>Maurice Harte</i> are fine +dramas, well constructed and full of true knowledge of the people he +writes about. Seumas O'Kelly has written two strong dramas in +<i>The Shuiler's Child</i> and <i>The Bribe</i>, and Seumas O'Brien +one of the funniest Irish farces ever staged in <i>Duty</i>. R.J. +Ray's play, <i>The Casting Out of Martin Whelan</i>, is the best this +dramatist has as yet given us, and George Fitzmaurice's <i>The Country +Dressmaker</i> has the elements of good drama in it. St. John G. +Ervine has written a very human drama in <i>Mixed Marriage</i>. He +hails from the north of Ireland; but Rutherford Mayne is the best of +the Northern playwrights, and his plays, <i>The Drone</i> and <i>The +Turn of the Road</i>, are splendid homely county Down comedies.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw's <i>John Bull's Other Island</i>, as Irish plays go, +is a fine specimen; Canon Hannay has written two successful comedies, +<i>Eleanor's Enterprise</i> and <i>General John Regan</i>—the +latter not wholly to the taste of the people of the west. James +Stephens and Jane Barlow have also tried their hands at playwriting, +with but moderate success. Perhaps the modern drama that made the most +impression when first played was <i>The Heather Field</i>, by Edward +Martyn. It gripped and remains a lasting memory with all who saw it in +1899. But I think I have written enough to show that the Irish Theatre +of today is in a very alive condition, and that if the great National +Dramatist has not yet arrived, he is sure to emerge. When that time +comes, the actors are here ready to interpret such work to +perfection.</p> + +<p>An article, however brief, on the Irish Theatre, would be +incomplete without mention of the world-famous tragedians, John Edward +MacCullough, Lawrence Patrick Barrett, and Barry Sullivan; of genial +comedians like Charles Sullivan and Hubert O'Grady; of sterling actors +like Shiel Barry, John Brougham, Leonard Boyne, J.D. Beveridge, and +Thomas Nerney; or of operatic artists like Denis O'Sullivan and Joseph +O'Mara—many of whom have passed away, but some, fortunately, are +with us still.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>John Genest: Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration +to 1830 (1832; vol. 10 is devoted to the Irish Stage); Chetwood: +General History of the Stage, more particularly of the Irish Theatre +(Dublin, 1749); Molloy: Romance of the Irish Stage; Baker: Biographia +Dramatica (Dublin, 1782); Hitchcock: An Historical View of the Irish +Stage from its Earliest Period down to the Season of 1788; Doran: +Their Majesties' Servants, or Annals of the English Stage (London, +1865); Hughes: The Pre-Victorian Drama in Dublin; The History of the +Theatre Royal, Dublin (Dublin, 1870); Levey and O'Rourke: Annals of +the Theatre Royal (Dublin, 1880); O'Neill: Irish Theatrical History +(Dublin, 1910); Brown: A Guide to Books on Ireland (Dublin, 1912); +Lawrence: The Abbey Theatre (in the Weekly Freeman, Dublin, Dec., +1912), Origin of the Abbey Theatre (in Sinn Fein, Dublin, Feb. 14, +1914); Weygandt: Irish Plays and Playwrights (London, 1913); Lady +Gregory: Our Irish Theatre (London, 1914); Bourgeois: John M. Synge +and the Irish Theatre (London, 1913); Moore: Hail and Farewell, 3 +vols. (London, 1911-1914); Esmore: The Ulster Literary Theatre (in the +Lady of the House, Dublin, Nov. 15, 1913); the Reviews, Beltaine +(1899-1900) and Samhain (1901-1903).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T33"></a>IRISH JOURNALISTS</h2> +<h4>By MICHAEL MACDONAGH.</h4> + +<p>The most splendid testimony to the Irish genius in journalism is +afforded by the London press of the opening decades of the twentieth +century. One of the greatest newspaper organizers of modern times is +Lord Northcliffe. As the principal proprietor and guiding mind of both +the <i>Times</i> and the <i>Daily Mail</i>, he directly influences +public opinion, from the steps of the Throne and the door of the +Cabinet, to the errand boy and the servant maid. T.P. O'Connor, M.P., +is the most popular writer on current social and political topics, and +so amazing is his versatility that every subject he touches is +illumined by those fine qualities, vision and sincerity. The most +renowned of political writers is J.L. Garvin of the <i>Pall Mall +Gazette</i> and the <i>Observer</i>. By his leading articles he has +done as much as the late Joseph Chamberlain by his speeches to +democratize and humanize the old Tory party of England. The +authoritative special correspondent, studying at first hand all the +problems which divide the nations of Europe, and knowing personally +most of its rulers and statesmen, is E.J. Dillon of the <i>Daily +Telegraph</i>. And when the quarrels of nations are transferred from +the chancelleries to the stricken field there is no one among the war +correspondents more enterprising and intrepid in his methods, or more +picturesque and vivid with his pen, than M.H. Donohoe of the <i>Daily +Chronicle</i>. All these men are Irish. Could there be more striking +proof of the natural bent and aptitude of the Irish mind for +journalism?</p> + +<p>Dean Swift was the mightiest journalist that ever stirred the +sluggish soul of humanity. Were he alive today and had he at his +command the enormous circulation of a great daily newspaper, he would +keep millions in a perpetual mental ferment, such was the ferocious +indignation into which he was aroused by wrong and injustice and his +gift of savage ironical expression. Swift, as a young student in +Trinity College, Dublin, saw the birth of the first offspring of the +Irish mind in journalism. The <i>Dublin News Letter</i> made its +appearance in June, 1685, and was published every three or four days +for the circulation of news and advertisements. Only one copy of the +first issue of this, the earliest of Irish newspapers, is extant. It +is included in the Thorpe collection of tracts in the Royal Dublin +Society. Dated August 26, 1685, it consists of a single leaf of paper +printed on both sides, and contains just one item of news, a letter +brought by the English packet from London, and two local +advertisements. As I reverently handled it, I was thrilled by the +thought that from this insignificant little seed sprang the great +national organ, the <i>Freeman's Journal</i>; the <i>Press</i> of the +United Irishmen; the <i>Nation</i> of the Young Irelanders; the +<i>United Ireland</i> of the Land League; the <i>Irish World</i> and +the <i>Boston Pilot</i> of the American Irish; and the <i>Irish +Independent</i>, the first half-penny Dublin morning paper, and the +most widely circulated of Irish journals. If Swift did not write for +the <i>Dublin News Letter</i>, he certainly wrote for the +<i>Examiner</i>, a weekly miscellany published in the Irish capital +from 1710 to 1713, and the first journal that endeavored to create +public opinion in Ireland. It was at Swift's instigation that this +paper was started, and he was doubtless encouraged to suggest it by +the success that attended his articles in the contemporary London +publication of the same name, the Tory <i>Examiner</i>, in which his +journalistic genius was fully revealed. As it has been expressively +put, he wrote his friends, Harley and St. John, into a firm grip of +power, and thus, as in other ways, contributed his share to the +inauguration and maintenance of that policy which in the last four +years of Queen Anne so materially recast the whole European situation. +About the same time there appeared in London the earliest forms of the +periodical essay in the <i>Tatler</i> and the <i>Spectator</i>, which +exhibit the comprehensiveness of the Irish temperament in writing by +affording a contrast between the Irish force and vehemence of Swift +and the Irish play of kindly wit and tender pathos in the deft and +dainty periods of Richard Steele.</p> + +<p>Dr. Charles Lucas was, even more than Swift perhaps, the precursor +of that type of Irish publicist and journalist, of which there have +been many splendid examples since then in Ireland, England, and +America. Lucas first started the <i>Censor</i>, a weekly journal, in +1748. Within two years his paper was suppressed for exciting +discontent with the government, and to avoid a prosecution he fled to +England. In 1763 the <i>Freeman's Journal</i> was established by three +Dublin merchants. Lucas, who had returned from a long exile and was a +member of the Irish parliament, contributed to it, sometimes +anonymously but generally over the signature of "A Citizen" or +"Civis." The editor was Henry Brooks, novelist, poet, and playwright. +His novel, <i>The Fool of Quality</i>, is still read. His tragedy, +<i>The Earl of Essex</i>, was, wrongly, supposed to contain a precept, +"Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free," which led to the more +famous parody of Dr. Samuel Johnson, "Who drives fat oxen should +himself be fat." The object of Lucas and Brooke, as journalists, was +to awaken national sentiment, by teaching that Ireland had an +individuality of her own independently of England. But they were more +concerned with the assertion of the constitutional rights of the +parliament of the Protestant colony as against the domination of +England. Therefore, the first organ of Irish Nationality, +representative of all creeds and classes, was the <i>Press</i>, the +newspaper of the United Irishmen, which was started in Dublin in 1797, +by Arthur O'Connor, the son of a rich merchant who had made his money +in London. Its editor was Peter Finnerty, born of humble parentage at +Loughrea, afterwards a famous parliamentary reporter for the London +<i>Morning Chronicle</i>, and its most famous contributor was Dr. +William Drennan, the poet, who first called Ireland "the Emerald +Isle."</p> + +<p>Irishmen did not become prominently associated with American +journalism until after the Famine and the collapse of the Young +Ireland movement in 1848. The journalist whom I regard as having +exercised the most fateful influence on the destinies of Ireland was +Charles Gavan Duffy, the founder and first editor of the +<i>Nation</i>, a newspaper of which it was truly and finely said that +it brought a new soul into Erin. Among its contributors, who +afterwards added lustre to the journalism of the United States, was +John Mitchel. In the <i>Southern Citizen</i> and the <i>Richmond +Enquirer</i> he supported the South against the North in the Civil +War. The Rev. Abram Joseph Ryan, who was associated with journalism in +New Orleans, not only acted as a Catholic chaplain with the +Confederate army, but sang of its hopes and aspirations in tuneful +verse. Serving in the army of the North was Charles G. Halpine, whose +songs signed "Private Miles O'Reilly" were very popular in those days +of national convulsion in the United States. Halpine's father had +edited the Tory newspaper, the Dublin <i>Evening Mail</i>; and Halpine +himself, after the war, edited the <i>Citizen</i> of New York, famous +for its advocacy of reforms in civic administration. Perhaps the two +most renowned men in Irish-American journalism were John Boyle +O'Reilly of the <i>Boston Pilot</i> and Patrick Ford of the <i>Irish +World</i>. O'Reilly was a troop-sergeant in the 10th Hussars (Prince +of Wales's Own), and during the Fenian troubles of 1866 had eighty of +his men ready armed and mounted to take out of Island Bridge Barracks, +Dublin, at a given signal, to aid the projected insurrection. +Detected, he was brought to trial, summarily convicted, and sentenced +to be shot. This sentence was commuted to twenty-five years' penal +servitude; but O'Reilly survived it all to become a brilliant man of +letters and make the <i>Boston Pilot</i> one of the most influential +Irish and Catholic newspapers in the United States. Ford, who had +served his apprenticeship as a compositor in the office of William +Lloyd Garrison at Boston, founded the <i>Irish World</i> in 1870. This +newspaper gave powerful aid to the Land League. A special issue of +1,650,000 copies of the <i>Irish World</i> was printed on January 11, +1879, for circulation in Ireland; and money to the amount of $600,000 +altogether was sent by Ford to the headquarters of the agitation in +Dublin. A journalist of a totally different kind was Edwin Lawrence +Godkin. Born in County Wicklow, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, +Godkin in 1865 established the <i>Nation</i> in New York as an organ +of independent thought; and for thirty-five years he filled a unique +position, standing aside from all parties, sects, and bodies, and yet +permeating them all with his sane and restraining philosophy.</p> + +<p>In Canada, Thomas D'Arcy Magee won fame as a journalist on the +<i>New Era</i> before he became even more distinguished as a +parliamentarian. When the history of Australian journalism is written +it will contain two outstanding Irish names: Daniel Henry Deniehy, who +died in 1865, was called by Bulwer Lytton "the Australian Macaulay" on +account of his brilliant writings as critic and reviewer in the press +of Victoria. Gerald Henry Supple, another Dublin man, is also +remembered for his contributions to the <i>Age</i> and the +<i>Argus</i> of Melbourne. In India one of the first—if not the +first—English newspapers was founded by a Limerick man, named +Charles Johnstone, who had previously attained fame as the author of +<i>Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea</i>, and who died at +Calcutta about 1800.</p> + +<p>Stirring memories of battle and adventure leap to the mind at the +names of those renowned war correspondents, William Howard Russell, +Edmond O'Donovan, and James J. O'Kelly. Russell, a Dublin man, was the +first newspaper representative to accompany an army into the field. He +saw all the mighty engagements of the Crimea—Alma, Balaclava, +Inkerman, Sebastopol—not from a distance of 60 or 80 miles, +which is the nearest that correspondents are now allowed to approach +the front, but at the closest quarters, riding through the lines on +his mule, and seeing the engagements vividly, so that he was able to +describe them in moving detail for readers of the <i>Times</i>. +O'Donovan—son of Dr. John O'Donovan, the distinguished Irish +scholar and archaeologist—was in the service of the London +<i>Daily News</i>. That dashing campaigner—as his famous book, +<i>The Merv Oasis</i>, shows him to have been—perished with +Hicks Pasha's Army in the Sudan in November, 1883. At the same time +James O'Kelly, also of the <i>Daily News</i>, was lost in the desert, +trying to join the forces of the victorious Sudanese under the Madhi. +Ten years before that he had accomplished, for the New York +<i>Herald</i>, the equally daring and hazardous feat of joining the +Cuban rebels in revolt against Spain. He escaped the perils of the +Mambi Land and the Sudan, and survived to serve Ireland for many years +as a Nationalist member in the British parliament. John Augustus +O'Shea, better known, perhaps, as "The Irish Bohemian", also deserves +remembrance for his quarter of a century's work as special +correspondent in Europe—including Paris during the +siege—for the London +<i>Standard</i>.</p> + +<p>Indeed, no matter to what side of journalism we turn, we find +Irishmen filling the foremost and the highest places. John Thaddeus +Delane, under whose editorship the <i>Times</i> became for a time the +most influential newspaper in the world, was of Irish parentage. The +first editor of the <i>Illustrated London News</i> (1842)—one of +the pioneers in the elucidation of news by means of pictures—was +an Irishman, Frederick Bayley. Among the projectors of <i>Punch</i>, +and one of its earliest contributors, was a King's county man, Joseph +Sterling Coyne. The founder of the <i>Liverpool Daily Post</i> (1855), +the first penny daily paper in Great Britain, was Michael Joseph +Whitty, a Wexford man. His son, Edward M. Whitty, was the originator +of that interesting feature of English and Irish journalism, the +sketch of personalities and proceedings in parliament. Of the editors +of the <i>Athenaeum</i>—for many years the leading English organ +of literary criticism—one of the most famous was Dr. John Doran, +who was of Irish parentage. "Dod" is a familiar household word in the +British Parliament. It is the name of the recognized guide to the +careers and political opinions of Lords and Commons. Its founder was +an Irishman, Charles Roger Dod, who for twenty-three years was a +parliamentary reporter for the <i>Times</i>. And what name sheds a +brighter light on the annals of British journalism for intellectual +and imaginative force than that of Justin MacCarthy, novelist and +historian, as well as newspaper writer?</p> + +<p>At home in Ireland the name of Gray is inseparably associated with +the <i>Freeman's Journal</i>. Under the direction of Dr. John Gray +this newspaper became in the sixties and seventies the most powerful +organ of public opinion in Ireland; and in the eighties it was raised +still higher in ability and influence by his son and successor, Edmund +Dwyer Gray. In the south of Ireland the most influential daily +newspaper is the <i>Cork Examiner</i>, which was founded in 1841 by +John Francis Maguire, who wrote in 1868 <i>The Irish in America</i>. +It is doubtful whether any country ever produced a more militant and +able political journal than was <i>United Ireland</i> in the stormy +years during which it was edited by William O'Brien as the organ of +the Land League.</p> + +<p>The Irish mood is gregarious, expansive, glowing, and eager to keep +in intimate touch with the movements and affairs of humanity. That, I +think, is the secret of its success in journalism.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Madden: Irish Periodical Literature (1867); Andrews: English +Journalism (1855); North: Newspaper and Periodical Press of the United +States (1884); MacDonagh: The Reporter's Gallery (1913).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T34"></a>THE IRISH LITERARY REVIVAL</h2> +<h4>By HORATIO S. KRANS, Ph.D.</h4> + +<p>In the closing decade of the nineteenth century and in the opening +years of the twentieth, no literary movement has awakened a livelier +interest than the Irish Literary Revival, a movement which, by its +singleness and solidarity of purpose, stood alone in a time of +confused literary aims and tendencies. Movements, like individuals, +have their ancestry, and that of the Irish Literary Revival is easily +traced. It descends from Callanan and Walsh, and from the writers of +'48. It is to this descent that the lines in William Butler Yeats's +"To Ireland in Coming Times" allude:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>Know that I would accounted be</p> +<p>True brother of that company,</p> +<p>Who sang to sweeten Ireland's wrong,</p> +<p>Ballad and story, rann and song.</p> +</div> + +<p>With the passing of the mid-nineteenth-century writers, the old +movement waned, and in the field of Irish letters there was, in the +phrase of a famous bull, nothing stirring but stagnation. A witty +critic of the period, commenting upon this unhappy state of affairs, +declared that, though the love of learning in Ireland might still be, +as the saying went, indestructible, it was certainly imperceptible. +But after the fall of Parnell a new spirit was stirring. Politics no +longer absorbed the whole energy of the nation. Groups of men inspired +with a love of the arts sprang up here and there. In 1890 Yeats proved +himself a real prophet when he wrote: "A true literary +consciousness—national to the centre—seems gradually to be +forming out of all this disguising and prettifying, this penumbra of +half-culture. We are preparing likely enough for a new Irish literary +movement—like that of '48—that will show itself in the +first lull in politics."</p> + +<p>Responsive to the need of the young writers associated with Yeats, +the National Literary Society was founded in Dublin in 1892, and a +year later London Irishmen, among them men already distinguished in +letters, founded in the English metropolis the Irish Literary Society. +From the presses in Dublin, in London, and in New York as well, books +began to appear in rapid succession—slender volumes of verse, +novels, short stories, essays, plays, translations, and remakings of +Irish myths and legends, all inspired by, and closely related to, the +past or the present of Ireland, voicing an essentially national spirit +and presenting the noblest traits of Irish life and character.</p> + +<p>Not content with the organization of the two literary societies, +Yeats, with courage and relentless tenacity, cast about to realize his +long-cherished dream of a theatre that should embody the ideals of the +Revival. In Lady Gregory, and in Edward Martyn, an Irishman of large +means, who with both pen and purse lent a willing hand, he found two +ardent laborers for his vineyard. George Moore, who in the event +proved a fish out of water in Ireland, Yeats and Martyn contrived to +lure from his London lodgings and his cosmopolitan ways, and to enlist +in the theatrical enterprise. The practical knowledge of the stage +which this gifted <i>enfant terrible</i> of literature contributed was +doubtless of great value in the early days of the dramatic adventure, +though Moore's free thoughts, frank speech, and mordant irony brought +an element of discord into Dublin literary circles, which may well +have left Yeats and his associates with a feeling that they had paid +too dear for a piper to whose tunes they refused to dance. Be that as +it may, in 1899 Yeats's dream was measurably realized, and the Irish +Literary Theatre established, to be succeeded a little later by the +Irish National Theatre Society. Enough, however, of the dramatic +aspect of the Revival, which receives separate treatment elsewhere in +these pages, as does also the dramatic work of certain of the authors +considered here.</p> + +<p>From what has already been said, it should be plain that in the +last decade of the last century the ranks of the Irish Literary +Revivalists filled rapidly, and that the movement was really under +way. The renascent spirit took various forms. To one group of poets +the humor, pathos, and tragedy of peasant life deeply appealed, and +found expression in a poetry distinctively and unmistakably national, +from which a kind of pleasure could be drawn unlike anything else in +other literatures. In this group Alfred Perceval Graves and Moira +O'Neill cannot pass unmentioned. Who would ask anything racier in its +kind than the former's "Father O'Flynn"?</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>Of priests we can offer a charmin' variety,</p> +<p>Far renowned for larnin' and piety,</p> +<p>Still I'd advance you without impropriety,</p> +<p>Father O'Flynn as the flower of them all.</p> +<p class="i2">Here's a health to you, Father O'Flynn,</p> +<p class="i2">Slainte,[1] and slainte, and slainte agin.</p> +<p class="i4">Powerfullest preacher,</p> +<p class="i4">And tinderest teacher,</p> +<p>And kindliest creature in Old Donegal.</p> +</div> + +<p>[Footnote 1: "Your health."]</p> + +<p>Or was the homing instinct, the homesick longing for the old sod, +ever more truly rendered than in Moira O'Neill's song of the Irish +laborer in England?</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Over here in England I'm helpin' wi' the hay,</p> +<p>An' I wish I was in Ireland the livelong day;</p> +<p>Weary on the English, an' sorra take the wheat!</p> +<p>Och! Corrymeela an' the blue sky over it.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>D'ye mind me now, the song at night is mortial hard to +raise,</p> +<p>The girls are heavy-goin' here, the boys are ill to plase;</p> +<p>When ones't I'm out this workin' hive, 'tis I'll be back +again—</p> +<p>Aye, Corrymeela in the same soft rain.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Here, too, should be named Jane Barlow, whose poems and stories are +faithful imaginative transcripts of the face of nature and the hearts +of men as she knew them in Connemara. Finally there is William Butler +Yeats, who, on the whole, is the representative man of the Revival. +Except in the translator's sphere, his writings have given him a place +in almost all the activities of this movement. As a lyric poet, he has +expressed the moods of peasant and patriot, of mystic, symbolist, and +quietist, and it is safe to say that in lyric poetry no one of his +generation writing in English is his superior. We cannot resist the +pleasure of quoting here from his "Innisfree", which won the praise of +Robert Louis Stevenson, and which, if not the high mark of Yeats's +achievement, is still a flawless thing in its way:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,</p> +<p class="i2">And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;</p> +<p>Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,</p> +<p class="i2">And live alone in the bee-loud glade.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes +dropping slow,</p> +<p class="i2">Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the +cricket sings;</p> +<p>There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,</p> +<p class="i2">And evening full of the linnets' wings.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>In this place, and for convenience sake, it may be permitted to +speak of aspects of Yeats's work other than that by virtue of which he +is to be classed with the group we have just considered. In his +narrative poem, "The Wanderings of Usheen", as well as in his plays +and lyrics, he is of the best of those—among them we may mention +by the way Dr. John Todhunter, Nora Hopper (Mrs. W.H. Chesson), and +William Larminie—who have revealed to our day the strange beauty +of the ancient creations of the Gaelic imagination. In prose he has +written short stories, a novelette, <i>John Sherman and Dhoya</i>, and +essays that reveal a subtle critical insight, and a style of beautiful +finish and grace, suggestive of the style of Shelley's <i>Defence of +Poetry</i>. Yeats's plays constitute a considerable and an important +part of his work, but these must be reserved for treatment elsewhere +in this book. In prefaces to anthologies of prose and verse of his +editing, in the pages of reviews, and elsewhere, he appears as the +chief apologist of the aims of the Literary Revival, and in particular +of the methods of the dramatists of the Revival. Whatever he has +touched he has lifted into the realm of poetry, and this is in large +measure true of his prose, which proceeds from the poet's point of +view and breathes the poetic spirit. A man of rare versatility, a +finished artist with a scrupulous artistic conscience, he has done +work of high and sustained quality, and is certain to exert a good and +lasting influence upon the literature of his country.</p> + +<p>In a literary movement in the "Isle of Saints", we look naturally +for religious poetry, and we do not look in vain. This poetry, chiefly +Catholic, has a quality of its own as distinctive as that of the +writers of the group we have just left. Now it voices a naïve, +devoted simplicity of Christian faith; now it attains to a high and +keen spirituality; now it is mystic and pagan. Among the religious +poets, Lionel Johnson easily stands first—perhaps the Irish poet +of firmest fibre and most resonant voice of his generation. A note of +high courage and of spiritual triumph rings through his verse, even +from the shadow of the wings of the dark angel that gives a title to +one of the saddest of his poems. Often he strikes a note of genuine +religious ecstasy and exaltation rarely heard in English, as in "Te +Martyrum Candidatus":</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Ah, see the fair chivalry come, the companions of Christ!</p> +<p class="i2">White Horsemen, who ride on white horses, the Knights of +God!</p> +<p>They, for their Lord and their Lover who sacrificed</p> +<p class="i2">All, save the pleasure of treading where He first trod.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>These through the darkness of death, the dominion of night,</p> +<p class="i2">Swept, and they woke in white places at morning tide:</p> +<p>They saw with their eyes, and sang for joy of the sight,</p> +<p class="i2">They saw with their eyes the Eyes of the Crucified.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Among the men of the Revival, no personality is stronger or more +attractive than that of G.W. Russell—"Æ", as he is always +called—who may be regarded as the hero of George Moore's <i>Hail +and Farewell</i>, and who alone in that gallery of wonderful +pen-portraits looks forth with complete amiability. He is a pantheist, +a mystic, and a visionary, with what would seem a literal and living +faith in many gods, though strongly prepossessed in favor of the +ancient divinities of the Gael, now long since in exile. Impressive +and striking by a certain spiritual integrity, so to say, "Æ" +unites gifts and faculties seldom combined. He is a poet of rare +subtlety, a painter in whose genius so good a judge as George Moore +believed, and a most practical man of affairs, who, as assistant to +Sir Horace Plunkett, held up the latter's hands in his labors on +behalf of co-operative dairies and the like. His poems have their +roots in a pantheism which half reveals the secrets of an indwelling +spirit, speaking alike "from the dumb brown lips of earth" and from +the passions of the heart of man.</p> + +<p>Of novelists, both men and women, the Irish Revival can, in the +words of "Father O'Flynn", offer a charming variety, and among their +novels and short stories are some books of high quality and not a few +in a high degree interesting and entertaining. To Standish O'Grady we +turn for tales, with a kind of bardic afflatus about them, of the hero +age of legendary Ireland—tales which drew attention to the +romantic Celtic past of myth and saga, and must have been an +inspiration to more than one writer of the younger generation. In +contrast to the broad epic sweep and remote romantic backgrounds of +O'Grady, are the stories of Jane Barlow, whose <i>genre</i> pictures +of peasant life in the west of Ireland, like her poems mentioned +above, show how sympathetically she understands the ways of thinking, +feeling, and acting of her humble compatriots. A like minute and +faithful knowledge is evident in the work of two story-tellers of the +north, Seumas MacManus and Shan Bullock. The former's outlook is +humorous and pathetic. He tells fairy and folk tales well, and is a +past master of the dialect and idiom that combine to give his +old-wives' yarns an honest smack of the soil. Let him who doubts it +read <i>Through the Turf Smoke</i> or <i>Donegal Fairy Stories</i>. If +Shan Bullock walks the same fields as Seumas MacManus, he does so with +a different air and with a more definite purpose. Sometimes he turns +to the squireens, small farmers, or small country gentry, and lays +bare the hardness and narrowness that are a part of their life. Or, +again, in pictures whose sadness and gloom are lightened, to be sure, +with humor or warmed with love, he studies the necessitous life of the +poor. <i>The Squireen, The Barrys</i>, and <i>Irish Pastorals</i> are +some of his representative books.</p> + +<p>In the novel as in poetry the ladies have worked side by side with +their literary brethren. Miss Hermione Templeton, in her <i>Darby +O'Gill</i>, and elsewhere, has written pleasantly and gracefully of +the fairies. In a very different vein are the novels of the +collaborators, Miss Somerville and "Martin Ross" (Miss Violet Martin), +over which English and American readers have laughed as heartily as +their own fellow countrymen. <i>The Experiences of an Irish +R.M.</i>remains, perhaps, their best book. The work of these ladies, +be it said by the way, is in the line of descent from that group of +older Irish novelists who wrote in the spirit of the devil-may-care +gentry, the novelists from Maxwell to Lover and Lever, who were ever +questing "divilment and divarshion," and who in their moods of +boisterous fun forgot the real Irishman, and presented in his place a +caricature—him of the Celtic screech and the exhilarating whack +of the shillelagh, the famous stage Irishman who has made occasional +appearances in English literature from the time of Shakespeare's +<i>Henry V.</i>, on through the works of Fielding and the plays of +Sheridan, to the present moment of writing.</p> + +<p>Of a very different stripe from the work of the collaborating +ladies just mentioned are the novels of the recently deceased Canon +Sheehan—notable among them <i>Luke Delmege</i> and <i>My New +Curate</i>—rambling, diffuse, and a trifle provincial from the +artistic standpoint, but interesting as studies of manners, and for +the pictures they afford of the priesthood of modern Ireland in the +pleasantest light. If the stories of Miss Somerville and "Martin Ross" +are related to the comic stories of the old novelists of the gentry, +those of Canon Sheehan must be associated with the work of the older +novelists who wrote more or less in the spirit of the peasantry, that +is, with Gerald Griffin, the Banim brothers, and William Carleton, +less famous than he deserves to be by his <i>Traits and Stories</i> +and a long line of novels and tales.</p> + +<p>No survey of Irish novelists, however brief, can afford to forget +the Rev. James Owen Hannay ("George A. Birmingham"), canon of St. +Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, whose work is as distinctively Protestant +in its point of view as Father Sheehan's is Catholic. His more +substantial novels are a careful transcript of the actualities of +Irish life today, and in them one meets, incognito but easily +recognizable, many Irishmen now prominent in literature or politics in +Ireland. Of his numerous books may be mentioned <i>The Seething Pot</i>, +<i>Hyacinth</i>, and <i>Northern Iron</i>.</p> + +<p>Finally there is George Moore, whose enlistment in the Revival was +responsible for the novel <i>The Lake</i> and the short stories of +<i>The Unfilled Field</i>, and for a largely autobiographic and +entirely indiscreet trilogy entitled <i>Hail and Farewell</i>, the +separate volumes appearing as <i>Ave</i>, <i>Salve</i>, <i>Vale</i>, +and the last of them as late as 1914. George Moore's anti-Catholic +bias is strong, but his is the pen of an accomplished artist. He has +the story-teller's beguiling gift, and he bristles with ideas which +his books cleverly embody and to which the dramatic moments of his +novels give point and relief.</p> + +<p>Not the least important work of the Irish Literary Revival has been +done by translators, who have put into English the old Gaelic romances +and the folklore still current among the little remnant of +Irish-speaking country folk. Dr. Douglas Hyde is in the forefront of +this group. He it was who organized the Gaelic League, a band of +enthusiasts zealous for the revival of the Irish language both as a +spoken tongue and as the medium for a national literature, and eager, +also, to breed up a race of Celtic scholars. The lyrics in his <i>Love +Songs of Connacht</i> are full of grace, tenderness, and fire, and +indicate the kind of gems which he and his fellow laborers have added +to the treasury of poetry in English. But it is Lady Gregory, +especially in her <i>Cuchulain of Muirthemne</i> and <i>Gods and +Fighting Men</i>, who more than any other has found a way to stir the +blood of readers of to-day by the romantic hero tales of Ireland. From +the racy idiom of the dwellers on or about her own estate in Galway, +she happily framed a style that gave her narratives freshness, +novelty, and a flavor of the soil. Upon the work of scholars she drew +heavily in making her own renderings, but she has justified all +borrowings by breathing into her books the breath and the warmth of +life, and her adaptation to epic purposes of the dialect of those who +still retain the expiring habit of thinking in Gaelic was a real +literary achievement. She has, indeed, in sins of commission and of +omission, taken liberties with the old legends, but this may render +them not less, and perhaps more, delightful to the general reader, +however just complaints may be from the standpoint of the scholar.</p> + +<p>Even so brief a sketch as this may suffice to bring home to those +not already aware of it a realization of the delights to be drawn from +the creations of a living literary movement, which is perhaps the most +notable of its generation, and which has gathered together a +remarkable group of poets, novelists, and dramatists, who, as men and +women, are a most interesting company—a fact to which even +George Moore's <i>Hail and Farewell</i>, with its quick eye for +defects and foibles and its ironic wit, bears abundant testimony.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Brooke and Rolleston: Treasury of Irish Poetry (New York and +London, 1900); Krans: William Butler Yeats and the Irish Literary +Revival (New York and London, 1904); Yeats: Ideas of Good and Evil +(London, 1903); Moore: Hail and Farewell, 3 vols. (London and New +York, 1912-1914); Lady Gregory: Our Irish Theatre (New York and +London, 1913); Weygandt: Irish Plays and Playwrights (New York, 1913); +Yeats: Introduction to Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry +(London, 1889), Representative Irish Tales (London, 1890), Book of +Irish Verse (London, 1895). There is much of interest, though chiefly +as regards the drama, in the reviews, Beltaine (London and Dublin, +1899-1900) and Samhain (London and Dublin, 1901-1903).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<h2><a name="T35"></a>IRISH WRITERS OF ENGLISH</h2> +<h4>By P.J. LENNOX, B.A., Litt.D.</h4> + +<p>The Gaelic literature of Ireland is not only of wonderful volume +and priceless worth, but is also of great antiquity, whereas the +English literature of Ireland, while also of considerable extent and +high value, is of comparatively modern origin. The explanation of this +fact is that for more than six centuries after the Anglo-Norman +invasion of 1169 the Irish language continued to be both the spoken +and, with Latin, the written organ of the great mass of the Irish +people, and that for nearly the whole of that period those English +settlers who did not become, as the well-known phrase has it, more +Irish than the Irish themselves by adopting the native language, +customs, and sentiments, were kept too busy in holding, defending, and +extending their territory to devote themselves to literary pursuits. +Hence we need not wonder if, leaving out of account merely technical +works like Lionel Power's treatise on music, written in 1395, we find +that the English literature of Ireland takes its comparatively humble +origin late in the sixteenth century. For more than two centuries +thereafter, owing to the fact that the native Irish, because they were +Catholics, were debarred by law from an education, the writing of +English remained almost exclusively in the hands of members or +descendants of the Anglo-Irish colony, who, with scarcely an +exception, were Protestants and had as their principal Irish seat of +learning the then essentially Protestant institution, Trinity College, +Dublin. Alien in race and creed though these writers mainly were, they +have nevertheless spread a halo of glory around their adopted country, +and have won the admiration, and often the affection, of Irishmen of +every shade of religious and political belief. For example, there is +no Irishman who is not proud of Molyneux and Swift, of Goldsmith and +Burke, of Grattan and Sheridan. From the nineteenth century onward +Irish Catholics have taken their full share in the production of +English literature. Here, however, it will be necessary to consider +the writers of none but the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth +centuries, as in other pages of this volume considerable attention has +been given to those of later date.</p> + +<h4>I. SIXTEENTH CENTURY.</h4> + +<p>Richard Stanyhurst (1547-1618), born in Dublin but educated at +Oxford, is the first representative of the sixteenth century with whom +we are called upon to deal. He belonged to a family long settled in or +near Dublin and of some note in municipal annals. Under the direction +of the Jesuit martyr, Edmund Campion, Stanyhurst wrote a +<i>Description</i>, as well as a portion of the <i>History</i>, of +Ireland for Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>, published in 1577. He also +translated (1582) the first four books of <i>Virgil his Aeneis</i> +into quantitative hexameters, on the unsound pedantic principles which +Gabriel Harvey was at that time trying so hard to establish in English +prosody; but the experiment, which turned out so badly in the master's +hands, fared even worse in those of the disciple, and Stanyhurst's +lines will always stand as a noted specimen of inept translation and +ridiculous versification. Equally inartistic was his version of some +of the Psalms in the same metre. In Latin he wrote a profound +commentary on Porphyry, the Neo-Platonic mystic. Stanyhurst, who was +uncle to James Ussher, the celebrated Protestant archbishop of Armagh, +was himself a convert to Catholicity, and on the death of his second +wife became a priest and wrote in Latin some edifying books of +devotion. Two of his sons joined the Jesuit order. He died at Brussels +in 1618. Stanyhurst viewed Ireland entirely from the English +standpoint, and in his <i>Description</i> and <i>History</i> is, +consciously or unconsciously, greatly biased against the native +race.</p> + +<p>If we may take it as certain that modern investigation is correct +in asserting that Thomas Campion was a native of Dublin, a notable +addition will have been made to the ranks of Irish-born writers of +English at this period. Thomas Campion (1567-1620), wherever born, +spent most of his life in London. He was a versatile genius, for, +after studying law, he took up medicine, and, although practising as a +physician, he yet found time to write four masques and many lyrics and +to compose a goodly quantity of music. Some of his songs appeared as +early as 1591. Among his works is a treatise entitled <i>Observations +in the Art of English Poesie</i> (1602), in which, strange to say, he, +a born lyrist, advocated unrhymed verse and quantitative measures, but +fortunately his practice did not usually square with his theory. His +masques were written for occasions, such as the marriage of Lord Hayes +(1607), the nuptials of the Princess Elizabeth and the Elector +Palatine (1613), and the ill-starred wedding of Somerset and the +quondam Countess of Essex in the same year. In these masques are +embedded some of his best songs; others of his lyrics appeared in +several <i>Bookes of Ayres</i> between 1601 and 1617. Many of them +were written to music, sometimes music of his composing. Such dainty +things as "Now hath Flora robb'd her bowers" and "Harke, all you +ladies that do sleep" possess the charms of freshness and spontaneity, +and his devotional poetry, especially "Awake, awake, thou heavy +Spright" and "Never weather-beaten Saile more willing bent to shore", +makes almost as wide an appeal.</p> + +<h4>II. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.</h4> + +<p>Passing by with regret the illustrious seventeenth century names of +Philip O'Sullivan Beare, Sir James Ware, Luke Wadding, Hugh Ward, John +Colgan, and John Lynch, because their bearers wrote in Latin, and +those of "The Four Masters" and Geoffrey Keating, because they wrote +in Irish, we are first brought to a pause in the seventeenth century +by the imposing figure of him, whom, in a later day, Johnson justly +called the "great luminary of the Irish [Protestant] church", none +other than the archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland, James +Ussher himself. James Ussher (1581-1656), born in Dublin and among the +earliest students of the newly-founded Trinity College, was in +intellect and scholarship one of the greatest men that Ireland has +ever produced. Selden describes him as "learned to a miracle" (<i>ad +miraculum doctus</i>), and Canon D'Alton in his <i>History of +Ireland</i> says of him that "he was not unworthy to rank even with +Duns Scotus, and when he died he left in his own Church neither an +equal nor a second." Declining the high office of provost of Trinity, +Ussher was made bishop of Meath and was afterwards promoted to the +primatial see. His fine intellect was unfortunately marred by narrow +religious views, and in many ways he displayed his animus against +those of his countrymen who did not see eye to eye with him in matters +of faith and doctrine. For example, it was he who in 1626 drew up the +Irish Protestant bishops' protest against toleration for Catholics, +therein showing a bigotry which consorted badly with his reputation as +a scholar. On account of his well-known attitude towards Catholicism, +he was naturally unpopular with those who professed the ancient creed, +and hence, when the rebellion of 1641 broke out, much of his property +was destroyed by the enraged insurgents. His person escaped violence, +for he happened to be in England at the time engaged in the vain task +of trying to effect an accommodation between Charles I. and the +English parliament. He never returned to his see and died in +London.</p> + +<p>Ussher's collected works fill seventeen stately volumes. His +<i>magnum opus</i> is undoubtedly the <i>Annales Veteris et Novi +Testamenti</i>. It is written in Latin, and is a chronological +compendium of the history of the world from the Creation to the +dispersion of the Jews under Vespasian. Published at Leyden, London, +Paris, and Oxford, it gained for its author a European fame. His books +written in English deal mostly with theological or controversial +subjects, and while they display wide reading, great acumen, and keen +powers of argumentation, they yet do not do full justice to his +genius. Those which he published in Dublin are <i>A Discourse of the +Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British</i> (1622), in +which he tried to show that the ritual and discipline of the Church as +originally established in the British Isles were in agreement with the +Church of England and opposed to the Catholic Church on the matters in +dispute between them; <i>An Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuite in +Ireland</i> (1624), in which his aim was to disprove the contention +set forth earlier in the same year by a Jesuit that uniformity of +doctrine had always been maintained by the Catholic Church; and +<i>Immanuel, or the Mysterie of the Incarnation</i>. He published in +England <i>The Originall of Bishops, A Body of Divinitie, The +Principles of Christian Religion</i>, and other works. So great was +Ussher's reputation that when he died Cromwell relaxed in his favor +one of the strictest laws of the Puritans and allowed him to be buried +with the full service of the Church of England, and with great pomp, +in Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>Among Ussher's other claims to distinction, it should be noted that +it was he who in 1621 discovered the celebrated Book of Kells, which +had long been lost. This marvel of the illuminator's art passed with +the remainder of his collection of books and manuscripts to Trinity +College, Dublin, in 1661, and to this day it remains one of the most +treasured possessions of the noble library of that institution.</p> + +<p>Sir John Denham (1615-1669), a Dublin man by birth, took an active +part on the side of Charles I. against the parliament during the Civil +War, and subsequently was conspicuous in the intrigues that led to the +restoration of Charles II. In his own day he had a great reputation as +a poet. His tragedy, <i>The Sophy</i>, and his translation of the +Psalms are now forgotten, but he is still remembered for one piece, +<i>Cooper's Hill</i>, in which occur the well-known lines addressed to +the River Thames:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream</p> +<p>My great example, as it is my theme!</p> +<p>Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;</p> +<p>Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full.</p> +</div> + +<p>Another Dublin-born man was Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon +(1633-1684). He had the good fortune to win encomiums both from Dryden +and from Pope. One of his merits, as pointed out by the latter, is +that</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i10">In all Charles's days</p> +<p>Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays.</p> +</div> + +<p>He translated from Virgil, Lucan, Horace, and Guarini; wrote +prologues, epilogues, and other occasional verses; but is now +principally remembered for his poetical <i>Essay on Translated +Verse</i> (1681), in which he develops principles previously laid down +by Cowley and Denham. To his credit be it said, he condemns indecency, +both as want of sense and bad taste. He was honored with a funeral in +Westminster Abbey. Johnson records that, at the moment of his death, +Roscommon uttered with great energy and devotion the following two +lines from his own translation of the <i>Dies Irae</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>My God, my Father, and my Friend,</p> +<p>Do not forsake me in my end!</p> +</div> + +<p>Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the founders of the Royal Society +(1662), was son of the "great" Earl of Cork and was born at Lismore, +Co. Waterford. He takes rank among the principal experimental +philosophers of his age, and he certainly rendered valuable services +to the advancement of science. Most of his writings, which are very +voluminous, are naturally of a technical character and therefore do +not properly belong to literature; but his <i>Occasional Reflections +on Several Subjects</i> (1665), a strange mixture of triviality and +seriousness, was germinal in this sense that it led to two celebrated +<i>jeux d'esprit</i>, namely, Butler's <i>Occasional Reflection on Dr. +Charlton's feeling a Dog's Pulse at Gresham College</i> and Swift's +<i>Pious Meditation upon a Broomstick, in the Style of the Honourable +Mr. Boyle</i>. Indeed, one of Boyle's <i>Reflections</i>, that "Upon +the Eating of Oysters", is reputed to have rendered a still more +signal service to literature, for in its two concluding paragraphs is +contained the idea which, under the transforming hand of the master +satirist, eventually took the world by storm when it appeared, fully +developed, as <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>.</p> + +<p>His brother, Roger Boyle (1621-1679), who figures largely as a +soldier and a statesman in Irish and English history under his title +of Lord Broghill, was an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin. During +the Civil War he was a royalist until the death of Charles I., when he +changed sides and aided Cromwell materially in his Irish campaign. +When the Lord Protector died, Broghill made another right-about-face, +and crossing to his native country worked so energetically and +successfully that he made Ireland solid for the restoration of Charles +II. For this service he was rewarded by being created Earl of Orrery. +He was the author of six tragedies and two comedies, some of which +when produced proved gratifyingly popular. He is noted for having been +the first to write tragedy in rhyme, thereby setting an example that +was followed with avidity for a time by Dryden and others. He also +wrote poems, a romance called <i>Parthenissa</i> (1654), and a +<i>Treatise on the Art of War</i> (1677). From whatever point of view +considered, Lord Orrery was a remarkable member of a remarkable +family. His son, John Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery (1707-1762), in +virtue of his translation of Pliny's <i>Letters</i>, his <i>Remarks on +the Life and Writings of Swift</i>, and his <i>Letters from Italy</i>, +has some claims to recognition in the field of literature.</p> + +<p>Charles Leslie (1650-1722), a Dubliner by birth, was son of that +John Leslie, bishop of Raphoe and Clogher, who lived through a whole +century, from 1571 to 1671, and who was 79 years of age when Charles, +his sixth son, was born. Educated first at Enniskillen and afterwards +at Trinity College, Dublin, Charles Leslie studied law in London, but +eventually abandoned that profession and entered the ministry. He was +of a disputatious character and in particular went to great lengths in +opposing the pro-Catholic activities of James II. Nevertheless, when +the Revolution of 1688 came, he took the side of the deposed monarch, +and loyally adhered to his Jacobite principles for the remainder of +his life. He even joined the Old Pretender on the continent, and +endeavored to convert him to Protestantism, but, failing therein, he +returned to Ireland, where he died at Glasslough in county Monaghan. +Many years of Leslie's life were devoted to disputes with Catholics, +Quakers, Socinians, and Deists, and the seven volumes which his +writings fill prove that he was an extremely able controversialist. +His best known work is the famous treatise, <i>A Short and Easy Method +with the Deists</i>, published in 1698.</p> + +<p>The Irish note, tone, or temper is not conspicuous in any of the +writings so far named unless when it is conspicuous by its absence; +but it appears plainly, for the first time, in Molyneux's <i>Case of +Ireland being bound by Laws [made] in England Stated</i> (1698). +William Molyneux (1656-1698) has always ranked as an Irish patriot. +His was one of the spirits invoked by Grattan in his great speech +(1782) on the occasion on which he carried his celebrated Declaration +of Independence in the Irish parliament. When the English Act of 1698, +which was meant to destroy, and did destroy, the Irish woolen +industry, came before the Irish house of commons for ratification, +Molyneux's was the only voice raised against its adoption. His protest +was followed by the publication of his <i>Case Stated</i>, which is a +classic on the general relations between Ireland and England, and +contained arguments so irrefutable that it drove the English +parliament to fury and was by that body ordered to be burned by the +common hangman. It is a remarkable coincidence that Molyneux opens his +argument by laying down in almost identical words the principles which +stand at the beginning of the American Declaration of +Independence.</p> + +<p>John Toland (1669-1722) was born near Redcastle, in Co. Derry, and +was at first a Catholic but subsequently became a free-thinker. His +<i>Christianity not Mysterious</i> (1696) marks an epoch in religious +disputes, for it started the deistical controversy which was so +distinctive a feature of the first half of the eighteenth century. It +shared a similar fate to that of the <i>Case Stated</i>, though on +very different grounds, and was ordered by the Irish parliament to be +burned by the hangman. Toland wrote many other books, among which are +<i>Amyntor</i> (1699); <i>Nazarenus</i> (1702); +<i>Pantheisticon</i>; <i>History of the Druids</i>; and +<i>Hypatia</i>. All his books show versatility and wide reading and +are characterized by a pointed, vigorous, and aggressive style.</p> + +<p>George Farquhar (1678-1707), a Derry man, and Thomas Southerne +(1660-1746), born near Dublin, were distinguished playwrights, who +began their respective careers in the seventeenth century. Farquhar +left Trinity College, Dublin, as an undergraduate and became an actor, +but owing to his accidental killing of another player he left the +stage and secured a commission in the army. He soon turned his +attention to the writing of plays, and was responsible in all for +eight comedies. He has left us some characters that are very humorous +and at the same time true to life, such as Scrub the servant in <i>The +Beaux' Stratagem</i> and Sergeant Kite in <i>The Recruiting +Officer</i>. His Boniface, the landlord in the former of these two +plays, has become the type, as well as the ordinary quasi-facetious +nickname, of an innkeeper. He was advancing in his art, for his last +comedy, <i>The Beaux' Stratagem</i> (1707), is undoubtedly his best, +and had he lived longer—he died before he was thirty—he +might have bequeathed to posterity something even more noteworthy. As +Leigh Hunt says of him: "He was becoming gayer and gayer, when death, +in the shape of a sore anxiety, called him away as if from a pleasant +party, and left the house ringing with his jest."</p> + +<p>Southerne was also a student of Trinity College, Dublin. At the age +of eighteen, however, he left his <i>alma mater</i>, and went to +London to study law. This profession he in turn abandoned for the +drama. His first play, <i>The Persian Prince, or the Loyal +Brother</i>, had remarkable success when performed, and secured him an +ensign's commission in the army (1685). Here promotion came to him +rapidly and by 1688 he had risen to captain's rank. The Revolution of +that year, however, cut off all further hope of advancement, and he +once more turned his attention to the writing of plays. His +productions number ten. His tragedies <i>Isabella, or the Fatal +Marriage</i> (1694) and <i>Oroonoko</i> (1696), both founded on tales +by Mrs. Aphra Behn, are powerful presentations of human suffering. His +comedies are amusing, but gross. Southerne had business ability enough +to make play-writing pay, and the amounts he received for his +productions fairly staggered his friend Dryden. It is to this faculty +that Pope alludes when he says that Southerne was one whom</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i10">heaven sent down to raise</p> +<p>The price of prologues and of plays.</p> +</div> + +<p>He was apparently of amiable and estimable character, for he +secured and retained the friendship not only of Dryden—a +comparatively easy matter—but also that of Pope, a much more +difficult task. Known as "the poets' Nestor", Southerne spent his +declining years in peaceful retirement and in the enjoyment of the +fortune which he had amassed by his pen.</p> + +<p>Nahum Tate (1652-1715), a Dubliner by birth, and Nicholas Brady +(1659-1726), a Bandon man, have secured a certain sort of twin +immortality by their authorized metrical version of the Psalms (1696), +which gradually took the place of the older rendering by Sternhold and +Hopkins. Tate became poet-laureate in 1690 in succession to Shadwell +and was appointed historiographer-royal in 1702. He wrote the bulk of +the second part of <i>Absalom and Achitophel</i> with a wonderfully +close imitation of Dryden's manner, besides several dramatic pieces +and poems. Between Tate, Shadwell, Eusden, and Pye lies the unenviable +distinction of being the worst of the laureates of England. Brady was +a clergyman who, after the pleasant fashion of that day, was a +pluralist on a small scale, for he had the living of Richmond for +thirty years from 1696, and while holding that held also in succession +the livings of Stratford-on-Avon and Clapham. He added further to his +income, and doubtless to his anxieties, by keeping a school at +Richmond. He wrote a tragedy entitled <i>The Rape</i>, a <i>History of +the Goths and Vandals</i>, a translation of the <i>Aeneid</i> into +blank verse, and an <i>Ode for St. Cecilia's Day</i>; but, unless for +his share in the version of the Psalms, his literary reputation is +well nigh as dead as the dodo.</p> + +<p>Ireland somewhat doubtfully claims to have given birth to Mrs. +Susannah Centlivre (c. 1667-1723), who, after a rather wild youth, +settled down to literary pursuits and domestic contentment when, in +1706, she married Queen Anne's head-cook, Joseph Centlivre, with whom +she lived happily ever after. Her first play, <i>The Provoked +Husband</i>, a tragedy, was produced in 1700, and then she went on the +stage as an actress. She wrote in all nineteen dramatic pieces, some +of which had the honor of being translated into French and German. Her +most original play was <i>A Bold Stroke for a Wife</i> (1717).</p> + +<h4>III. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</h4> + +<p>We have now fairly crossed the border of the eighteenth century, +and, as we met Ussher early in the seventeenth, so we are here +confronted with the colossal intellect and impressive personality of +Swift, one of the greatest, most peculiar, and most original geniuses +to be found in the whole domain of English literature. Jonathan Swift +(1667-1745), born in Dublin, was educated at Trinity College, where he +succeeded in graduating only by special favor. After some years spent +in the household of Sir William Temple in England, he entered the +ministry of the Irish Church. During the early years of the century he +spent much time in London, and took an active part in bringing about +that political revolution which seated the Tories firmly in power +during the last four years of the reign of Queen Anne. His services in +that connection on the <i>Examiner</i> newspaper were so great that it +would be difficult to dispute the assertion, which has been made, that +he was one of the mightiest journalists that ever wielded a pen. He +also stood loyally by his party in his great pamphlets, <i>The Conduct +of the Allies</i> (1711), <i>The Barrier Treaty</i> (1712), and <i>The +Public Spirit of the Whigs</i> (1714). When the time came for his +reward, he received not, as he had hoped, an English bishopric, but +the deanery of St. Patrick's in Dublin. On resuming his residence in +Ireland he was at first very unpopular, but his patriotic spirit as +shown in the <i>Drapier Letters</i> (1723-1724), written in connection +with a coinage scheme known as "Wood's halfpence", not only caused the +withdrawal of the obnoxious project but also made Swift the idol of +all classes of his countrymen. In many others of his writings he +showed that pro-Irish leaning which caused Grattan to invoke his +spirit along with that of Molyneux on the occasion already referred +to. Nothing more mordant than the irony contained in his +<i>Modest Proposal</i> has ever been penned. In his plea for native +manufactures he struck a keynote that has vibrated down the ages when +he advised Irishmen to burn everything English except coal!</p> + +<p>Swift's greater works are <i>The Battle of the Books</i>, his +contribution to the controversy concerning the relative merits of the +ancients and the moderns; the <i>Tale of a Tub</i>, in which he +attacked the three leading forms of Christianity; and, above all, +<i>Gulliver's Travels</i>. In this last work he let loose the full +flood of his merciless satire and lashed the folly and vices of +mankind in the most unsparing way. He also wrote verses which are +highly characteristic and some of them not without considerable merit. +His life was unhappy and for the last five years of it he was to all +intents and purposes insane. His relations with Stella (Hester +Johnson) and Vanessa (Esther Vanhomrigh) have never been quite +satisfactorily explained. The weight of evidence would seem to show +that he was secretly married to Stella, but that they never lived +together as husband and wife. Many novels and plays have been written +round those entanglements. He lies buried in his own cathedral, St. +Patrick's, Dublin, and beside him lies Stella. Over his tomb there is +an epitaph in Latin, written by himself, in which, after speaking of +the <i>saeva indignatio</i> which tore his heart, he bids the wayfarer +go and imitate, if he can, the energetic defender of his native +land.</p> + +<p>Contemporary with the Dean there was another Anglo-Irishman, who +fills a large space in the history of English literature, and of whom +his countrymen are justly proud. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), who +was born in Dublin and educated at the Charterhouse in London and +afterwards at Oxford, started the <i>Tatler</i> in 1709, and thereby +popularized, though he did not exactly originate, the periodical +essay. Aided by his friend, Addison, he carried the work to perfection +in the <i>Spectator</i> (1711-1712) and the <i>Guardian</i> (1713). +Since then these essays have enlightened and amused each succeeding +generation. Of the two, Addison's is the greater name, but Steele was +the more innovating spirit, for it is to him, and not to Addison, that +the conception and initiation of the plan of the celebrated papers is +due. Steele had had a predecessor in Defoe, whose <i>Review</i> had +been in existence since 1704, but the more airy graces which +characterized the <i>Tatler</i> and the <i>Spectator</i> gave the +"lucubrations" of "Isaac Bickerstaffe" and of "Mr. Spectator" a +greater hold on the public than Defoe's paper was ever able to +establish. Steele was responsible for many more periodicals, such as +the <i>Englishman</i>, the <i>Lover</i>, the <i>Reader</i>, <i>Town +Talk</i>, the <i>Tea-Table, Chit-Chat</i>, the <i>Plebeian</i>, and +the <i>Theatre</i>, most of which had a rather ephemeral existence. +Among his other services to literature he helped to purify the stage +of some of its grossness, and he became the founder of that +sentimental comedy which in the days of the early Georges took the +place of the immoral comedy of the Restoration period, when, in +Johnson's famous phrase,</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Steele's four comedies are <i>The Funeral; or Grief à la +mode</i> (1701); <i>The Lying Lover</i> (1703); <i>The Tender +Husband</i> (1705); and <i>The Conscious Lovers</i> (1722). Although +he held various lucrative offices, Steele was never really prosperous +and was frequently in debt; like most of the contemporary Englishmen +with whom his lot was thrown, he was rather addicted to the bottle; +but, on the whole, it may fairly be advanced that unnecessary stress +has been laid on these aspects of his life by Macaulay, Thackeray, and +others. After a chequered career, he died near Carmarthen, in Wales, +on September 1, 1729.</p> + +<p>Member of a family and bearer of a name destined to secure immense +fame in later Irish history, Thomas Parnell (1679-1718) was born in +Dublin and educated at Trinity College. Entering the ministry in 1700, +he was rapidly promoted to be archdeacon of Clogher and some years +later was made rector of Finglas. An accomplished scholar and a +delightful companion, he was one of the original members of the famous +Scriblerus Club and wrote or helped to write several of its papers, he +contributed to the <i>Spectator</i> and the <i>Guardian</i>, and he +rendered sterling assistance to Pope in the translation of Homer. As +will be inferred, he spent much of his time in England, and on one of +his journeys to Ireland he died in his thirty-ninth year at Chester, +where he was buried. He wrote a great deal of verse—songs, +hymns, epistles, eclogues, translations, tales, and occasional +trifles; but three poems, <i>A Hymn to Contentment</i>, which is +fanciful and melodious, <i>A Night-piece on Death</i>, in which +inquisitorial research seems to have found the first faint dawn of +Romanticism, and <i>The Hermit</i>, which has been not inaptly styled +"the apex and <i>chef d'oeuvre</i> of Augustan poetry in England", +constitute his chief claim to present remembrance.</p> + +<p>Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), the son of a Presbyterian minister, +was born at Armagh, and studied at Glasgow University. He opened in +Dublin a private academy, which succeeded beyond expectation. The +publication of his <i>Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty +and Virtue</i> (1720) and his <i>Essay on the Nature and Conduct of +the Passions</i> (1728) brought him great fame, and in 1729 he was +elected to the professorship of moral philosophy in the University of +Glasgow. Others of his works are a treatise on <i>Logic</i> and <i>A +System of Moral Philosophy</i>, the latter not published till 1755, +nine years after his death. Hutcheson fills a large space in the +history of philosophy, both as a metaphysician and as a moralist. He +is in some respects a pioneer of the "Scotch school" and of "common +sense" philosophy. He greatly developed the doctrine of "moral sense", +a term first used by the third Earl of Shaftesbury; indeed, much of +his whole moral system may be traced to Shaftesbury. Hutcheson's +influence was widely felt: it is plainly perceptible in Hume, Adam +Smith, and Reid. He was greater as a speaker even than as a writer, +and his lectures evoked much enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>George Berkeley (1685-1753), bishop of Cloyne, was born at Dysert +Castle, near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, and was educated first at +Kilkenny school and afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin. Having +taken Anglican orders, he visited London, where he wrote nine papers +for the <i>Guardian</i> and was admitted to the companionship and +friendship of the leading literary men of the age—Swift, Pope, +Addison, Steele, and Arbuthnot. This connection proved of great +assistance to him, for Pope not only celebrated him as possessing +"every virtue under heaven", but also recommended him to the Duke of +Grafton, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, who appointed him his chaplain +and subsequently obtained for him the deanery of Derry. In furtherance +of a great scheme for "converting the savage Americans to +Christianity", Berkeley and some friends, armed with a royal charter, +came to this country, landing at Newport in Rhode Island in January, +1729. All went well for a while: Berkeley bought a farm and built a +house; but when the hard-hearted prime minister refused to forward the +£20,000 which had been promised, the project came to an end, and +Berkeley returned to London in February, 1732. In 1734 he was +appointed bishop of Cloyne, and later refused the see of Clogher, +though its income was fully double that of his own diocese. In 1752 he +resigned his bishopric and settled at Oxford, where he died in +1753.</p> + +<p>Berkeley's works are very numerous. His <i>Essay towards a New +Theory of Vision</i> (1709), which was long regarded in the light of a +philosophical romance, in reality contains speculations which have +been incorporated in modern scientific optics. In his <i>Three +Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous</i> (1713) he sets forth his +famous demonstration of the immateriality of the external world, of +the spiritual nature of the soul, and of the all-ruling and direct +providence of God. His tenets on immateriality have always been +rejected by "common-sense" philosophers; but it should be remembered +that the whole work was written at a time when the English-speaking +world was disturbed by the theories of sceptics and deists, whose +doctrines the pious divine sought as best he could to confute. In 1732 +appeared his <i>Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher</i>, in which, +dialogue-wise, he presents nature from a religious point of view and +in particular gives many pleasing pictures of American scenery and +life. These dialogues have frequently been compared to the dialogues +of Plato. To Berkeley's credit be it said that while he ruled in +Cloyne he devoted much thought to the amelioration of conditions in +his native land. Many acute suggestions in that direction are found in +the <i>Querist</i> (1735-1737). By some extraordinary ratiocinative +process he convinced himself that tar-water was a panacea for human +ills, and in 1744 he set forth his views on that subject in the tract +called <i>Siris</i>, and returned to the charge in 1752 in his +<i>Further Thoughts on Tar-Water</i>. Whatever may be thought of the +value of Berkeley's philosophical or practical speculations, there is +only one opinion of his style. It is distinguished by lucidity, ease, +and charm; it has the saving grace of humor; and it is shot through +with imagination. Taken all in all, this eighteenth century bishop is +a notable figure in literary annals.</p> + +<p>Charles Macklin (c. 1697-1797), whose real name was MacLaughlin, +was a Westmeath man, who took to the stage in early life and remained +on the boards with considerable and undiminished reputation for some +seventy years, not retiring until 1789 when he was at least 92 years +old. To him we are indebted for what is now the accepted presentation +of the character of Shylock in <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>. He wrote +a tragedy and many comedies and farces: those by which he is now best +remembered are the farce, <i>Love-à-la-Mode</i> (1760), and his +masterpiece, the farcical comedy, <i>The Man of the World</i> (1764). +In Sir Pertinax MacSycophant, Macklin has given us one of the +traditional burlesque characters of the English stage.</p> + +<p>Thomas Amory (1691?-1788), if not born in Ireland, was at least of +Irish descent and was educated in Dublin. He is known in literature +for two books. The first, with the very mixed title of <i>Memoirs +containing the Lives of several Ladies of Great Britain; A History of +Antiquities; Observations on the Christian Religion</i>, was published +in 1755, and the second, <i>The Life of John Buncle, Esq.</i>, came +out in two volumes in 1756-1766. It appears to have been the author's +aim in both works to give us a hotch-potch in which he discourses +<i>de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis</i>. We have dissertations on +the cause of earthquakes and of muscular motion, on the Athanasian +Creed, on fluxions, on phlogiston, on the physical cause of the +Deluge, on Irish literature, on the origin of language, on the +evidences for Christianity, and on all other sorts of unrelated +topics. Hazlitt thought that the soul of Rabelais had passed into +Amory, while a more recent critic can see in his long-winded +discussions naught but the "light-headed ramblings of delirium." If we +try to read <i>John Buncle</i> consecutively, the result is boredom; +but if we open the book at random, we are pretty sure to be interested +and even sometimes agreeably entertained.</p> + +<p>The bizarre figure of Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) next claims our +attention. The son of a captain in the British army, he was born at +Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. Of him almost more than of any of the writers +so far dealt with, it may be said that he was Irish only by the +accident of birth. His parents were English on both sides, and +practically the whole life of their son was spent out of Ireland. He +was sent to school at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and thence went to +Cambridge University, where he graduated in due season. Taking +Anglican orders in 1738, he was immediately appointed to the benefice +of Sutton-in-the-Forest, near York, and on his marriage in 1741 with +Elizabeth Lumley he received the additional living of Stillington. He +was also given sundry prebendal and other appointments in connection +with the chapter of the archdiocese of York. He spent nearly twenty +years in the discharge of his not very onerous duties and in reading, +painting, shooting, and fiddling, without showing the least sign of +any literary leanings. Then suddenly, in 1760, he took the world by +storm with the first two volumes of <i>Tristram Shandy</i>. He at once +became the lion of the hour, was fêted and dined to his heart's +content, and had his nostrils tickled with the daily incense of praise +from his numerous worshippers. He repeated the experiment with equal +success the following year with two more volumes of <i>Tristram</i>, +and so at intervals until 1767, when he published the ninth and last +volume of this most peculiar story. In 1768 he brought out <i>A +Sentimental Journey</i>, and within three weeks he died in his +lodgings in London. His other publications include <i>Sermons</i> and +<i>Letters</i>. <i>Tristram Shandy</i> is unique in English +literature—it stands <i>sui generis</i> for all time. There is +scarcely any consecutive narrative, and what there is is used merely +as a peg on which to hang endless digressions. But while there are +many faults of taste and morals, there are also genuine humor and +pathos, and without Walter Shandy, Dr. Slop, the Widow Wadman, Yorick, +Uncle Toby, and Corporal Trim, English literature would certainly be +very much the poorer.</p> + +<p>Hugh Kelly (1739-1777), born in Dublin, was the son of a publican +and himself became a staymaker, a trade from which he developed +through the successive stages of attorney's clerk, newspaper-writer, +theatrical critic, and essayist, into a novelist and playwright. His +novel, <i>Memoirs of a Magdalen</i> (1767), was translated into +French. His first comedy, a sentimental one entitled <i>False +Delicacy</i> (1768), achieved a remarkable success on the stage and +was even a greater success in book form, 10,000 copies being sold in a +year, so that its author was raised from poverty to comparative +affluence. In addition, it gave him a European reputation, for it was +translated into German, French, and Portuguese. Strange to say, his +later comedies, <i>A Word to the Wise, A School for Wives</i>, and +<i>The Man of Reason</i>, were practically failures, and the same is +true of his tragedy, <i>Clementina</i>. Kelly ultimately withdrew from +stage work, and for the last three years of his life practised as a +barrister without, however, achieving much distinction in his new +profession.</p> + +<p>Charles Coffey (d. 1745), an Irishman, was the author of several +farces, operas, ballad operas, ballad farces, and farcical operas, the +best known of which was <i>The Devil to Pay, or the Wives +Metamorphosed</i> (1731).</p> + +<p>Henry Brooke (1703?-1783), a county Cavan man and the son of a +clergyman, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards +studied law in London. Becoming guardian to his cousin, a girl of +twelve, he put her to school for two years and then secretly married +her. Of his large family of twenty-two children, three of whom were +born before their mother was eighteen years old, but one survived him. +Appointed by Lord Chesterfield barrack-master at Mullingar, Brooke +afterwards settled in Co. Kildare. It was there that he wrote his +celebrated work, <i>The Fool of Quality, or the History of the Earl of +Moreland</i> (5 vols., 1766-1770), which won the commendations of men +so widely different as John Wesley and Charles Kingsley. It is, +indeed, a remarkable book, combining, as it does, many of the +characteristics of Sterne, Mackenzie, Borrow, and George Meredith. It +is not very well known nowadays, but it will always bear, and will +well repay, perusal. Brooke also wrote a poem on <i>Universal +Beauty</i> (1735) and the tragedies <i>Gustavus Vasa</i> (1739), the +production of which was forbidden in London but which was afterwards +staged in Dublin as <i>The Patriot</i>, and <i>The Earl of Essex</i> +(1749), which was played both in London and in Dublin, and has been +made famous by the parody of one line in it by Samuel Johnson. Another +novel, <i>Juliet Grenville, or the History of the Human Heart</i>, +published in 1774, was not nearly up to the standard of <i>The Fool of +Quality</i>. Brooke was a busy literary man. He made a translation of +part of Tasso, drafted plans for a History of Ireland, projected a +series of old Irish tales, wrote one fragment in a style very like +that subsequently adopted by Macpherson in his <i>Ossian</i>, and for +a while was editor of the <i>Freeman's Journal</i>. In the beginning, +Brooke was violently anti-Catholic; but, as time progressed, he became +more liberal-minded, and advocated the relaxation of the penal laws +and a more humane treatment of his Catholic fellow-countrymen. Like +Swift and Steele, he fell into a state of mental debility for some +years before his death. His daughter, Charlotte Brooke (1740-1793), +deserves mention as a pioneer of the Irish literary revival, for she +devoted herself to the saving of the stores of Irish literature which +in her time were rapidly disappearing. One of the fruits of her labors +was <i>The Reliques of Irish Poetry</i>, published in 1789. She also +wrote <i>Emma, or the Foundling of the Wood</i>, a novel, and +<i>Belisarius</i>, a tragedy.</p> + +<p>Charles Johnstone (c. 1719-1800), a Co. Limerick man, was educated +in Dublin and called to the English bar, but owing to deafness was +more successful as a chamber counsel than as a pleader. Emigrating to +India in 1782, he became joint proprietor of a newspaper in Calcutta, +and there he died. He wrote several satirical romances, such as +<i>Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea; The Reverie, or a Flight to +the Paradise of Fools</i>; and <i>The History of Arsaces, Prince of +Betlis</i>. Of these the first was the best. Samuel Johnson, who read +it in manuscript, advised its publication, and his opinion was +vindicated, for it proved a huge success. Sir Walter Scott afterwards +said that the author of <i>Chrysal</i> deserved to rank as a prose +Juvenal. Johnstone also wrote <i>The Pilgrim, or a Picture of Life</i> +and a picaresque novel, <i>The History of John Juniper, Esquire, alias +Juniper Jack</i>.</p> + +<p>Arthur Murphy (1727-1805), born at Cloonquin, Co. Roscommon, was +educated at St. Omer. At first an actor, he afterwards studied law and +was called to the English bar in 1762. He made a translation of +Tacitus, and wrote several farces and comedies, among which may be +mentioned <i>The Apprentice; The Spouter; The Upholsterer; The Way to +Keep Him</i>; and <i>All in the Wrong</i>. He also wrote three +tragedies, namely, <i>The Orphan of China; The Grecian Daughter</i>; +and <i>Arminius</i>. For the last-named, which was produced in 1798, +and which had a strongly political cast, he received a pension of +£200 a year. His plays long held the stage.</p> + +<p>Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), essayist, poet, novelist, playwright, +historian, biographer, and editor, was a many-sided genius, who, as +Johnson said in his epitaph, left scarcely any kind of writing +untouched, and touched none that he did not adorn. Born, probably, in +Co. Longford, the son of a poor clergyman, he was educated at various +country schools until, in 1744, he secured a sizarship in Trinity +College, Dublin. There he had a somewhat stormy career, but eventually +took his degree in 1749. He then lounged at home for a while in his +widowed mother's cottage at Ballymahon, until he was persuaded to take +orders, but spoiled his already sufficiently poor chances of +ordination by appearing before the bishop of Elphin in scarlet +breeches. After other adventures in search of a profession, he went to +Edinburgh in 1752 to study medicine, and two years later transferred +himself to Leyden for the same purpose. It was from Leyden that, with +one guinea in his pocket, one shirt on his person, and a flute in his +hand, he started on his celebrated walking tour of Europe, during +which he gained those impressions which he was afterwards to embody in +some of his greater works. In 1756 he arrived in England, where for +three years he had very varied experiences—as a strolling +player, an apothecary's journeyman, a practising physician, a reader +for the press, an usher in an academy, and a hack-writer. In 1759 he +published anonymously his <i>Enquiry into the Present State of Polite +Learning in Europe</i>, which was well received and helped him to +other literary work. <i>The Bee</i>, a volume of essays and verses, +appeared in the same year. He was made editor of the <i>Lady's +Magazine</i>; he published <i>Memoirs of Voltaire</i> (1761), a +<i>History of Mecklenburgh</i> (1762), and a <i>Life of Richard +Nash</i> (1762). In 1762 also he brought out his <i>Citizen of the +World</i>, a collection of essays, which takes an extremely high rank. +In 1764 his poem, <i>The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society</i>, made +its appearance; and in 1766 he gave to the world his famous novel, +<i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i>. His reputation as a writer was now +established; he was received into Johnson's circle and was a member of +the Literary Club; Reynolds and Burke were proud to call him friend. +In 1768 he had his comedy, <i>The Good Natured Man</i>, produced at +Covent Garden Theatre, where it achieved a fair measure of success and +brought him in £400. In 1770 he repeated his triumph as a poet +with <i>The Deserted Village</i>. He wrote a <i>History of Animated +Nature</i>, a <i>History of England</i>, and a <i>History of Rome</i>, +all compilations couched in that easy style of which he was master. He +also wrote a <i>Life of Parnell</i> and a <i>Life of Bolingbroke</i>. +Finally, in 1773, his great comedy, <i>She Stoops to Conquer</i>, was +staged at Covent Garden, and met with wonderful success. A little more +than a year later Goldsmith died of a nervous fever, the result of +overwork and anxiety, and was buried in the burial ground of the +Temple Church. His unfinished poem, <i>Retaliation</i>, a series of +epigrams in epitaph form on some of his distinguished literary and +artistic friends, was issued a few days after his death, and added +greatly to his reputation as a wit and humorist, a reputation which +was still further enhanced when, in 1776, <i>The Haunch of Venison</i> +made its appearance. In the latter year a monument, with a medallion +and Johnson's celebrated Latin epitaph attached, was erected to his +memory in Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>Goldsmith's renown, great in his own day, has never since +diminished. His essays, his novel, and his poems are still read with +avidity and pleasure; his comedy is still acted. It is his statue that +stands along with Burke's at the entrance gate to Trinity College, +Dublin, the <i>alma mater</i> seeking to commemorate in a striking +manner two of her most distinguished sons by placing their effigies +thus in the forefront of her possessions and in full view of all the +world. Personally, Goldsmith was a very amiable and good-hearted man, +dear to his own circle and dear to that "Mr. Posterity" to whom he +once addressed a humorous dedication. He had his faults, it is true, +but they are hidden amid his many perfections. Everyone will be +disposed to agree with what Johnson wrote of him: "Let not his +frailties be remembered; he was a very great man."</p> + +<p>Edmund Burke (1729-1797), born in Dublin, the son of a Protestant +father and a Catholic mother whose name was Nagle, was educated first +at a Quaker school in Ballitore, Co. Kildare, and afterwards at +Trinity College, Dublin. He became a law student in London, but he did +not eventually adopt the law as a profession. He brought out in 1756 a +<i>Vindication of Natural Society</i>, in which he so skilfully +imitated the style and the paradoxical reasoning of Bolingbroke that +many were deceived into the belief that the <i>Vindication</i> was a +posthumously published production of the viscount's pen. In the +following year Burke published in his own name <i>A Philosophical +Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful</i>, +which attracted widespread attention, was translated into German and +French, and brought its author into touch with all the leading +literary men of London. He was instrumental with Dodsley the publisher +in starting the <i>Annual Register</i> in 1759, and for close on +thirty years he continued to supply it with the "Survey of Events." He +entered public life in 1760 by accompanying "Single-Speech" Hamilton +to Dublin when the latter was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland. +In 1765 he was made private secretary to the prime minister, the +Marquis of Rockingham, and, as member for Wendover, entered +parliament, where he speedily made a name for himself. During Lord +North's long tenure of office (1770-1782) Burke was one of the +minority and opposed the splendid force of his genius to the +corruption, extravagance, and mal-administration of the government. To +this period belong, in addition to lesser works, his great speeches +<i>On American Taxation</i> (1774) and <i>On Conciliation with +America</i> (1775), as well as his spirited <i>Letter to the Sheriffs +of Bristol</i> (1777). He had been elected member of parliament for +Bristol in 1774, but he lost his seat in 1780 because he had advocated +the relaxation of the restrictions on the trade of Ireland with Great +Britain and of the penal laws against Catholics. In the second +administration of Rockingham (1782) and in that of Portland (1783) he +was paymaster of the forces, a position which he lost on the downfall +of the Whigs in the latter year, and he never again held public +office. His speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings in 1788 is +universally and justly ranked as a masterpiece of eloquence. When the +French Revolution broke out, he opposed it with might and main. His +<i>Reflections on the French Revolution</i> (1790) had an enormous +circulation, reached an eleventh edition inside of a year, was read +all over the continent as well as in the British Isles, and helped +materially not only to keep England steady in the crisis, but also to +incite the other powers to continue their resistance to French +aggression. He continued his campaign in <i>Thoughts on French +Affairs</i> and <i>Letters on a Regicide Peace</i>. He was given two +pensions in 1794, and would have been raised to the peerage as Lord +Beaconsfield, had not the succession to the title been cut off by the +premature death of his only son. He himself died in 1797 and was +buried at Beaconsfield, where, as far back as 1768, he had purchased a +small estate.</p> + +<p>As an orator and a deep political thinker, Burke holds a foremost +place among those of all time who distinguished themselves in the +British parliament. His keen intellect, his powerful imagination, his +sympathy with the fallen, the downtrodden, and the oppressed, and his +matchless power of utterance of the thoughts that were in him have +made an impression that can never be effaced. His wise and +statesman-like views on questions affecting the colonies ought to +endear him to all Americans, although, if his counsels had been +hearkened to, it is probable that the separation from the mother +country would not have occurred as soon as it did. For his native land +he used his best endeavors when and how he could, and although, as her +defender, he was faced by obloquy as well as by the loss of that +parliamentary position which was as dear to him as the breath of his +nostrils, he did not flinch or shrink from supporting her material and +spiritual interests in his own generous, manly, whole-hearted way. +Trinity College, Dublin, has done well in placing his statue at her +outer gates as representing the greatest Irishman of his +generation.</p> + +<p>A political associate of Burke's for many years was Richard +Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816). Of Co. Cavan descent, Sheridan was born +in Dublin, and was educated partly in his native city and partly at +Harrow, and the remainder of his life was spent in England. He was +distinguished first as a playwright and afterwards as a parliamentary +orator. In 1775 his comedy, <i>The Rivals</i>, was produced at Covent +Garden Theatre; his farce, <i>St. Patrick's Day, or the Scheming +Lieutenant</i>, and his comic opera, <i>The Duenna</i>, were staged in +the same year. His greatest comedy, <i>The School for Scandal</i>, was +acted at Drury Lane Theatre in 1777, and it was followed in 1779 by +<i>The Critic</i>. His last dramatic composition was the tragedy, +<i>Pizarro</i>, produced in 1799. Elected to parliament in 1780, +Sheridan was made under-secretary for foreign affairs in the +Rockingham administration of 1782, and in 1783 he was secretary to the +treasury in the Coalition Ministry. He sprang into repute as a +brilliant orator during the impeachment of Warren Hastings, 1787-1794. +His speech on the Begums of Oude was one of the greatest ever +delivered within the walls of the British parliament. In 1806, on the +return of the Whigs to power, he was appointed treasurer in the navy. +In 1812 his long parliamentary career came to a close when he was +defeated for the borough of Westminster. He died in 1816, and was +honored with a magnificent funeral in Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>To give an idea as to how Sheridan's oratorical powers impressed +his contemporaries, it is perhaps enough to repeat what Burke said of +his second speech against Warren Hastings, namely, that it was "the +most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit united of +which there is any record or tradition", and to add that when, after +three hours of impassioned pleading, he brought his first speech +against Hastings to an end, the effect produced was so great that it +was agreed to adjourn the house immediately and defer the final +decision until the members should be in a less excited mood. As a +dramatist Sheridan is second in popularity to Shakespeare alone. +<i>The School for Scandal</i> and <i>The Rivals</i> are as fresh and +as eagerly welcomed today as they were a hundred and forty years ago. +Like Burke, he was true to the land of his birth and his oppressed +Catholic fellow-countrymen. Almost his last words in the house of +commons were these: "Be just to Ireland. I will never give my vote to +any administration that opposes the question of Catholic +emancipation."</p> + +<p>Sheridan belonged to a family that was exceptionally distinguished +in English literature. Among those who preceded him as litterateurs +were his grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Sheridan, D.D.; his father, +Thomas Sheridan; and his mother, Frances Sheridan. Rev. Dr. Sheridan +(1684-1738), the friend and confidant of Dean Swift, kept a +fashionable school in Dublin, edited the <i>Satires</i> of Persius in +1728, wrote a treatise on <i>The Art of Punning</i>, and figures +largely in Swift's correspondence. Thomas Sheridan (1721-1788) was at +first an actor of considerable reputation, both in Dublin and in +London; was next a teacher of elocution; and finally came forward with +an improved system of education, in which oratory was to have a +conspicuous part. In this connection he published an elaborate <i>Plan +of Education</i> in 1769, but his ideas, some of which are in accord +with modern practice, were not taken up, He also compiled a +pronouncing <i>Dictionary of the English Language</i>, with a prosodic +grammar, and in 1784 published an entertaining <i>Life of Swift</i>. +Frances Sheridan (1724-1766), wife of Thomas and mother of Richard +Brinsley, who as Frances Chamberlaine had been known as a poetess, +wrote after her marriage two plays, <i>The Discovery</i> and <i>The +Dupe</i>, and two novels, <i>The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph</i>, +which was a great success and was translated by the Abbé +Prévost into French, and <i>The History of Nourjahad</i>, an +Oriental tale. In 1775 the singular spectacle was presented of the +son's play running at Covent Garden while the mother's was being acted +at Drury Lane.</p> + +<p>Among Sheridan's descendants who earned a niche in the temple of +literary fame were his grand-daughters, the Countess of Dufferin +(1807-1867) and the Hon. Mrs. Norton, afterwards Lady Stirling Maxwell +(1808-1877), and his great-grandson, the first Marquis of Dufferin and +Ava (1826-1902). Lady Dufferin's <i>Lament of the Irish Emigrant</i> +("I'm sittin' on the style, Mary") has moved the hearts and brought +tears to the eyes of countless thousands since it was published more +than fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip Francis (1740-1818), born in Dublin, was the son of a +clergyman of like name who attained some literary eminence as the +translator of Horace and as a political writer. After filling various +important government positions, Philip Francis, the son, was in 1773 +made a member of the Council of Bengal, where his relations with the +governor-general, Warren Hastings, were of an extremely strained +character, amounting at times almost to a public scandal. He returned +to England in 1781, entered parliament, made a name as a speaker, took +part in the impeachment of Hastings, and composed numerous political +pamphlets. He is generally supposed to have been the writer of the +celebrated <i>Letters of Junius</i>, which appeared at intervals in +the <i>Public Advertiser</i> between January 21, 1769, and January 21, +1772. These letters are distinguished for their polished style, their +power of invective, their galling sarcasm, their knowledge of state +secrets, and their unparalleled boldness. Every prominent man +connected with the government was attacked: even the king himself was +not spared. As revised by their pseudonymous writer in a reprint made +in 1772, they number 70; a later edition, in 1812, contained 113 more. +Their authorship has been the subject of much controversy, nor is the +question yet finally settled. In his <i>Essay on Warren Hastings</i>, +written in 1841, Macaulay went to considerable trouble to prove, by +the cumulative method, that Francis was the writer, and since then +that opinion has been generally, but not universally, maintained.</p> + +<p>Isaac Bickerstaffe (c. 1735-c. 1812) was an Irishman, whose name, +strange to say, had no connection with the <i>nom de guerre</i> of the +same style under which Swift had masqueraded in his outrageously +satirical attacks on Partridge the almanac maker, or with the more +celebrated imaginary Isaac Bickerstaffe under cover of whose +personality Steele conducted the <i>Tatler</i>. The real Bickerstaffe +was a prolific playwright. His best known pieces are <i>The +Sultan</i>, <i>The Maid of the Mill</i>, <i>Lionel and Clarissa</i>, +and <i>Love in a Village</i>. In the last-mentioned occurs the famous +song, beginning "We all love a pretty girl—under the rose."</p> + +<p>William Drennan (1754-1820), who has been called the Tyrtaeus of +the United Irishmen, was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, was born +in Belfast, and was educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities, +taking a medical degree from the latter. He practised his profession +in the north of Ireland. When the Irish Volunteers were established, +Drennan entered heart and soul into the movement. Removing to Dublin +in 1789, he associated with Tone and other revolutionary spirits, and +became one of the founders of the Society of United Irishmen, the +first statement of whose objects was the product of his pen. His +<i>Letters of Orellana</i> helped materially to enlist the men of +Ulster in the ranks of the Society. He also wrote a series of stirring +lyrics which, voicing as they did the general sentiment in Ireland at +the time, became extremely popular and had a widespread effect. These +were afterwards (1815) collected under the title of <i>Fugitive +Pieces</i>. All his political hopes being blasted with the failure of +the rebellion of 1798 and of Emmet's insurrection in 1803, Drennan +returned in 1807 to Belfast and there founded the <i>Belfast +Magazine</i>. "The Wake of William Orr", a series of noble and +affecting stanzas commemorating the judicial murder of a young +Presbyterian Irish patriot in 1798, is one of his best known pieces. +He also celebrated the ill-fated brothers Sheares. His song "Erin" was +considered by Moore to be one of the most perfect of modern songs. It +was in this piece that he fixed upon Ireland the title of the Emerald +Isle:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>When Erin first rose from the dark swelling flood,</p> +<p>God bless'd the green island, and saw it was good;</p> +<p>The em'rald of Europe, it sparkled and shone—</p> +<p>In the ring of the world the most precious stone.</p> +</div> + +<p>Mary Tighe (1772-1810), whose maiden name was Blachford, was born, +the daughter of a clergyman, in Co. Wicklow. She contracted an unhappy +marriage with her cousin who represented Kilkenny in the Irish house +of commons. By all accounts she was of great beauty and numerous +accomplishments. She wrote many poems: her best, and best known, is +<i>Psyche, or the Legend of Love</i>, an adaptation of the story of +Cupid and Psyche from the <i>Golden Ass</i> of Apuleius. The metre she +employed in this piece was the Spenserian stanza, which she handled +with great power, freedom, and melody. <i>Psyche</i>, which first +appeared in 1795, had a wonderful vogue, running rapidly through +edition after edition. Among others to whom it appealed and who were +influenced by it was Keats. Mrs. Tighe's talent drew from Moore a +delicate compliment in "Tell me the witching tale again"; and in "The +Grave of a Poetess" and "I stood where the life of song lay low", Mrs. +Hemans bewailed her untimely death.</p> + +<p>Edmund Malone (1741-1813), the son of an Irish judge, was born in +Dublin and studied at Trinity College. He was called to the Irish bar +in 1767, but coming into a fortune, he abandoned his profession and +gave himself over to literary work. In 1790 he brought out an edition +of Shakespeare which was deservedly praised for its learning and +research. His critical acumen led him to doubt the genuineness of +Chatterton's <i>Rowley Poems</i>, and he was one of the first to +expose Ireland's Shakespearean forgeries in 1796. Among other services +to literature he wrote a <i>Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds</i> and edited +Dryden. He also left a quantity of materials afterwards utilized for +the "Variorum Shakespeare" by James Boswell the younger in 1821.</p> + +<p>John O'Keeffe (1747-1833), a Dublin man, was at first an art +student, but soon became an actor, and then developed into a +playwright. His pen was most prolific; he published a collection of +over fifty pieces in 1798. His plays are mostly comic operas or +farces, and some of them had great success. Lingo, the schoolmaster in +<i>The Agreeable Surprise</i>, is a very amusing character. <i>The +Positive Man, The Son-in-Law, Wild Oats, Love in a Camp</i>, and +<i>The Poor Soldier</i> are among his compositions. His songs are well +known, such as "I am a friar of orders grey", and there are few +schoolboys who have not sooner or later made the acquaintance of his +"Amo, amas, I loved a lass". For the last fifty-two years of his life +O'Keeffe was blind, an affliction which he bore with unfailing +cheerfulness. In 1826 he was given a pension of one hundred guineas a +year from the king's privy purse.</p> + +<p>George Canning (1770-1827), prime minister of England, properly +belongs here, for, although born in London, he was a member of an +Irish family long settled at Garvagh in Co. Derry. Entering parliament +on the side of Pitt in 1796, he was made secretary of the navy in 1804 +and in 1812 secretary of State for foreign affairs. He became prime +minister in 1827, but died within six months, leaving a record for +scarcely surpassed eloquence. In addition to his speeches, he is known +in literature for his contributions to the <i>Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly +Examiner</i>, which ran its satirical and energetic career for eight +months (November, 1797-July, 1798.) Some of the best things that +appeared in this ultra-conservative organ were from Canning's pen. Few +there are who have not laughed at his <i>Loves of the Triangles</i>, +in which he caricatured Erasmus Darwin's <i>Loves of the Plants</i>; +at <i>The Needy Knife-Grinder</i>; or at the song of Rogero in +<i>The Rovers</i>, with its comic refrain of the</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="i10">U—</p> +<p>niversity of Gottingen.</p> +</div> + +<p>Like most of the great Anglo-Irishmen of his time, Canning favored +Catholic emancipation. It is interesting to note that it was a letter +of Canning's that led to the formulation of the Monroe Doctrine.</p> + +<p>Henry Grattan (1746-1820), the hero of Grattan's parliament, was +born in Dublin and studied at Trinity College. His history belongs to +that of his country. Suffice it here to say that not only did he by +great eloquence and real statesmanship secure a free parliament for +Ireland In 1782, but also that he fought energetically, if +unavailingly, against the abolition of that parliament in 1800, and +that thenceforward he devoted his abilities to promoting the cause of +Catholic emancipation. Dying in London, he was honored by being buried +in Westminster Abbey. In an age of great orators he stands out among +the very foremost. His speeches have become classics, and are +constantly quoted.</p> + +<p>Another brilliant Irish orator, as well as an eminent wit, of this +period, was John Philpot Curran (1750-1817), who, born at Newmarket, +Co. Cork, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, achieved a +wonderful success at the Irish bar. He defended with rare insight, +eloquence, and patriotism those who were accused of complicity in the +rebellion of 1798. As a member of Grattan's parliament, he voiced the +most liberal principles, and, though a Protestant himself, he worked +hard in the Catholic cause. He held the great office of Master of the +Rolls in Ireland from 1806 to 1814. The memory of few Irish orators, +wits, or patriots is greener today than that of Curran. His daughter +Sarah, whose fate is so inextricably blended with that of the +ill-starred Robert Emmet, has been rendered immortal by Moore in his +beautiful song, "She is far from the land where her young hero +sleeps".</p> + +<p>Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1759-1797), the first advocate of the +rights of women, though born in London, was of Irish extraction. Into +the details of her extraordinary and chequered career it is not +possible, or necessary, here to enter. Her published works include +<i>Thoughts on the Education of Daughters</i> (1787); <i>Answer to +Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution</i> (1791); +<i>Vindication of the Rights of Women</i> (1792); and an unfinished +<i>Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution</i> (Vol. I., +1794). Having in August, 1797, borne to her husband, William Godwin, a +daughter who afterwards became Shelley's second wife, Mary Godwin died +in the following month. Whatever her faults—and they were +perhaps not greater than her misfortunes—she had something of +the divine touch of genius, and, in a different environment, might +easily have left some great literary memento which the world would not +willingly let die.</p> + +<p>Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), though born at Blackbourton in +England, belonged to a family which had been settled in different +parts of Ireland and finally at Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, for +nearly two hundred years. She was the daughter of Richard Lovell +Edgeworth (1744-1817), who was distinguished for his inventions, for +his eccentricity, and for his varied matrimonial experiences, and who +himself figures in literature as the author of <i>Memoirs</i>, +posthumously published in 1820, and as the partner with his daughter +in <i>Practical Education</i> (1798) and in an <i>Essay on Irish +Bulls</i> (1802). Maria had a busy literary career and was before the +public for fifty-two years from 1795 to 1847. She wrote <i>Moral +Tales; Popular Tales; Tales from Fashionable Life</i>; and +<i>Harrington</i>; but she is now best remembered for her three +masterpieces dealing with Irish life and conditions, namely, <i>Castle +Rackrent</i> (1800); <i>The Absentee</i> (1812); and <i>Ormond</i> +(1817). By these works she inspired Scott, as he himself tells us, to +attempt for his own country something "of the same kind with that +which she had so fortunately achieved for Ireland", and in a later day +she inspired Turgenief to do similarly for Russia. She excels in wit +and pathos and gives a true and vivid presentation of the times and +conditions as she viewed them.</p> + +<p>Andrew Cherry (1763-1821), born in Limerick, became an actor, a +theatrical manager, and a playwright. He wrote nine or ten plays, +several of which were moderately successful. The one that is now +remembered is <i>The Soldier's Daughter</i>. Some of his songs, such +as "The Bay of Biscay", "Tom Moody, the Whipper-in", and, especially, +"The Green Little Shamrock of Ireland", bid fair to be immortal.</p> + +<p>Other Irish song-writers were Thomas Duffet (fl. 1676), author of +"Come all you pale lovers"; Arthur Dawson (1700?-1775), author of +"Bumpers, Squire Jones"; George Ogle (1742-1814), author of "Molly +Asthore"; Richard Alfred Millikin (1767-1815), author of the grotesque +"Groves of Blarney"; Edward Lysaght (1763-1811), author of "Our +Ireland", "The Gallant Man who led the van Of the Irish Volunteers", +and "Kate of Garnavilla"; George Nugent Reynolds (1770?-1802), author +of "Kathleen O'More"; Thomas Dermody (1775-1802), author of the +collection of poems and songs known as <i>The Harp of Erin</i>; James +Orr (1770-1816), author of "The Irishman"; Henry Brereton Code (d. +1830), author of "The Sprig of Shillelah"; Charles Wolfe (1791-1823), +author of "If I had thought thou couldst have died", and of "The +Burial of Sir John Moore"; and Charles Dawson Shanly (1811-1875), +author of "Kitty of Coleraine".</p> + +<p>Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-1798), born in Dublin, educated at +Trinity College, and called to the Irish bar in 1789, fills a large +space in the history of his country from 1790 to his death in 1798. +Intrepid, daring, and resourceful, he was one of the most dangerous of +the enemies to English domination in Ireland that arose at any time +during the troubled relations between the two countries. Taken +prisoner on board a French ship of the line bound for Ireland on a +mission of freedom, he committed suicide in prison rather than submit +to the ignominy of being hanged to which he had been condemned. He +sleeps his last sleep in Bodenstown churchyard, in that county of +Kildare to which he was connected by many ties. His grave is still the +Mecca of many a pilgrimage, and the corner-stone of a statue to his +memory has been laid for some years on a commanding site in the city +of his birth. He is known in literature for his <i>Journals</i> and +his <i>Autobiography</i>, both containing sad, but inspiring, reading +for the Irishman of today.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak"> + +<p>Here this rapid survey of Irish writers of English must close. To +tell in any sort of appropriate detail the story of the English +literature of Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries would +require a separate volume—a volume which is now under way and +will, it is hoped, be speedily forthcoming. There is all the less need +to attempt the agreeable task here, because in other portions of this +book much more than passing reference is made to the chief Irish +authors who, in the last hundred and fifteen years, have distinguished +themselves and shed lustre on their country. During that period Irish +poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists, historians, biographers, +humorists, critics, and scholars have fully held their own both in the +quantity and the quality of the work produced, and have left an +impression of power and personality, of graceful style and vivifying +imagination, that in itself constitutes, and must for ever constitute, +one of the distinctive Glories of Ireland.</p> + +<h4>REFERENCES:</h4> + +<p>Irish Literature (10 vols., New York, 1904); Chambers's Cyclopaedia +of English Literature (3 vols., Philadelphia and London, 1902-1904); +Dictionary of National Biography; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Cambridge +History of English Literature; D'Alton: History of Ireland (London, +1910); Lennox: Early Printing in Ireland (Washington, 1909), Addison +and the Modern Essay (Washington, 1912), Lessons in English Literature +(21st edition, Baltimore, 1913); Macaulay: Essays, History of England; +Brown: A Reader's Guide to Irish Fiction (London, 1910), A Guide to +Books on Ireland (Dublin, 1912).</p> + +<hr class="break"> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12111 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/12111-h/images/270.png b/12111-h/images/270.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e698fb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/12111-h/images/270.png |
