The Irish standard. [volume], August 21, 1886, Image 1

About The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920

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I
V,'
VOLUME II.
A LETTER FROM IRELAND,
„,,.
4
During the Past Porty Yews,
IS 1841,8,193,000 1881,6,174,000.
The Desperate Condition of the Irish
People at the Present Time—A
Species of White Slavery.
Dublin, July 28.—'The present pop
ulation of Ireland is almost exactly
what it was at the beginning of the
century. It was then about live mil
lions, and rapidly increased until 1811,
when it numbered. 8,.19ti,000. Then it
began to diminish, and in. loBl num
bered 5,174,000—a loss of ami Hi on every
decade. This bare fact is 3trong pre
sumptive evidence that the economic
conditions of the country are bad, and
at least largely responsible for the pre
sent
condition of things. An English
guide book, innocently says "'In 1845
the failure of the potato and consequent
famine caused
it
Nothing is
rapidly to decline
through increased emigration: and with
the absence of manufacturers, and by
changes in the methods of agriculture,
the decrease has continued up to the
present time.'' It is, after all, a sort of
confession that the system is at least
partly to blame.
The Irish do not more readily leave
their country than do the people of
other
countries. They are really much
attached to Ireiand. and there is no bet
ter proof of this than the fact, that they
always consider it a duty to contribute
to the fund for the liberation of the
countryfrom British rule. When they
obtain Home Utile there is no doubt
that thousands of them will flock back
to Ireland, because of their aits ohm out
to their old home.
more
astonishing than to
lind a country with such resources as
Ireland, and so few of them even, fairly
developed. There is a fair supply of
£ood coal, but it is entirely undevel
oped,
n,nd what is used is brougut al
most wholly from England. There are
immense deposits of iron ore-red hem
atite and bog iron, both in adundance,
the former in connection with the coal
deposits. In happier days there were
iit one time very many small furnaces
and iron works here and there over Ire
land, but they are all gone now. The
iron wealth of the country, too, like the
coal, lies all undeveloped and unused.
The .English wisely account for this by
saving that there is no capital iu Ire
laud with which to develop its resour
ces. It is very true that, there is not
much capital in the country, but.it is
also true that the English have always
carefully strangled such Irish indus
tries as showed the least sign of vital
ity. unless they were in lines which
could offer no competition with "'Brit
ish interests.- Unfortunately for Ire
land, these British interests allow the
existence of no rival interests, if it is in
their power to kill them.
In passing through the various towns
of Ireland, except Belfast and a few
other towns in the north, one notices
an almost entire absence of manufact
uring industry of any kind. The peo
ple say: "Wo formerly had a woolen
mill, or cotLon mill, but it is not run
ning now.17 It is Ji story of departed
glory or prosperity almost everywhere.
The lack of prosperity is well shown by
the stationary and often diminishing
population of. the towns. Cork had 80,
000 people in 1S61, and did not increase
a hundred in the following twenty
years, and tlie same is true of scores of
towns. -Many are going into actual de
cay. GaUvav is an example. It has a
fuie harbor, and ought to be the great
terminus of the North Atlantic steam
ship routes, but its shippiug is .really
very unimportant. It is a town slowly
going into decay and ruin. In some
streets tliero are whole lines of ware
bouses, three and four stones high,
which have been wholly unused for
years, and are going into decay.
•Rents of houses in the towns are not
high as compared with rents in our
Atlantic towns, but they are very high
when we consider the low wages re
ceived, and the depressed state of near
ly all industries. A hovel, fit only for
pigs, cau be rented in thesubuibs of
Gal way and other like towns for oU
cents a week, but then the laborer's
wages are only §2.50 a week at most,
and bread and meat are relatively
high. American fresh beef is about 15
cents a pound in Gaiway, and bread is
as dear as in New York. The Irish
poor make shift to live on potatoes
alone, when they cannot get bread and
beef. The price of butter, eggs and
milk need not be mentioned, for the
Irish poor seldom indulge in such lux
uries.
In Ulster farm laborers get somewhat
higher pay than in the west and south
of Ireland but even here $3 a week is
very fair wages, and this without food
of any kind,as a rule. In the west and
south about $2.50 a week is common
wages. In many parts of the country I
,. -La m.a_ asked carefully about wages, and could
Interesting Statistics uoncemmg the ire- ., ,,.. j-..
hear o± nothin? above fifty cents a day
mentions Decrease in Population
for unskilled labor, except in a few
favored towns like Belfast, and in these
one occasionally hears of 75 cents a
day. I talked with a young man who
was going to Enniskilien—a town of 6,
000 people in Ulster—to work as a coach
painter. He was to work for 28 shil
lings a week—say just about $7. He
said that the same work was paid about
50 cents a week more in Belfast. A
printer in Gaiway told me that his
wages were nominally a pound a week,
but that he worked enough overtime to
get 24 shillings ($6) a3 an average. His
living costs him about $4.
But the lot of the farm laborers and
small renters is hardest of all. The
homes of these are usuaily most miser
able excuses of human habitations.
They are seldom surrounded by shrub
bery of an? kind, and never by any
fruit trees. The only orchards in the
country are small enclosures of fruit
trees owned by the nobility or wealthy
fanners. They are very few, however.
1 seldom caught sight of an apple or
pear tree, and yet these fruits* both
•froiv well in Ireland. Tenants on
leases sometimes have fairly comforta
ble and attractive homes, but the year
ly ten ants are much more numerous,and
these have only one permanent work—to
get money enough to nay the rent. Very
large numbers of them are :in arrears
for some years' rent. Their iiouses are
stone huts of only one room and one
story as a rule, and the pig and chick
ens, when they are fortunate enough to
have any, usually share the hut with
the family. They are not delicate
about these matters, and not too proud
to associate on eveu temis with the pig.
Many of them cannot even afford to
keep a pig, and the keeping of a cow is
a condition of affluence which few of
them reach.
Not one child in ten among these
yearly tenants and farm laborers ever
goes to school a day. There are no
schools for them in the first place, and
if the schools were available few of
them would be able to bear the neces
sary expense of attending. In the
towns there are usually some schools
available lor the poor, but the oppor
tunities are not. good, and very few of
the children of the very poor even iu the
towns get an schooling at all. It is
often said that the people of Ireland
are to blame for their own condition
but if this ba admitted, it must be ad
mitted also that very little can reason
ably be expected from people whose
education is absolutely nothing.
English and Scotch landlords usually
live on their estates at least a part of
the year the land is generally let in
large tracts on long leases, and the peo
ple who cultivate the soil are usually
retained for long terms of service. The
Irish landlords have mjpe commonly
looked upon their tenants as necessary
evils, and have not identified themsel
ves with their people. They have
looked upon tenants as rent-paying
machines. .'For years past it has until
yery recently been the rule to raise the
rent as often as the tenant's improved
condition seemed to warrant. If the
tenant saved something and managed
to get a pig or a cow, the landlord only
argued rom this that he was able to
stand more rent, and increased the
rent accordingly. What was
.still worse,
if the tenant reclaimed bits of waste
land, kept fences in good repair, and
enriched'the land by hauling manuie
upon it, these very improvements were
regularly made the ground of increas
ing the rent, so that it was really
against the tenant's interest to improve
things at all. If the Irish tenant is un
thrifty the landlord may be straightly
charged with giving him exactly that
kind of an education.
While in Gaiway, I saw the Saturday
markots, which are attended by the
country folk for ten or twelve miles
around. One of these market women
came into a shop to sell her little store
of marketing, which consisted of four
spring chickens and nothing more.
She wanted two shillings and sixpence
for the four, and the man offered her
only two shillings. As she stood there
trying to get her price the water drip
ped from her soaked garments in little
pools on the floor. She liually took two
shillings. She had trudged these many
miles that morning in the rain and got
only fifty cents for ber chickens and
her work. The bitter, biting poverty
of. the tillers of the soil in the west of
Ireland was well exhibited in that Gal
way market.
Near such towns as Belfast, Cork
and Limerick, tenants pay $10 to $20
an acre lor good land, and three or four
miles away they pay about half as
much. Seven or eight miles away from
railways $4 and §5 is more common,and
much land is let for even $2 and $3 an
acre. Indeed, what are called "fair
rents" always struck me as being enor
mous.* J. W. S.
u0
—no! Even now when I call up
from the depths of buried years the re
membrance of O'Mahony on that night,
the fine proportions of his imposing fig
ure, the light and shadow that alter
nately swept across his countenance,
his soul inwardly burning with a con
suming love for Ireland, yet seeing the
Herculean labors of his years threat
ened with nullification—for the temple
of Fenianism he had so heroically
erected
lay almost in ruins around his
feet at the time—when I call up those
things to mental life again, and hear
the central figure of them repeat, with
an earnestness it would be blasphemy
to question, that heart-wail of Tom
Davis, I feel I am not overdrawing the
picture.
"Let me quote the entire poem, and
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1886.
AN IRISH PATRIOT'S LOVE.
A Pathetic Incident in the Life of John
O'Mahony, One of Ireland's Most
Devoted Sons.
BURIAL OF CAPTAIN O'ROURKE,
"Sweet Thoughts, Bright Dreams, My
Comfort Be, All Comfort
Else Has Flown,
John Locke, the sweet Irish poet and
charming novelist, recalls the following
incident in the life of one of Ireland's
most devoted sons:
"A few days ago I was reading some
reminiscences of my dear and deeply
revered friend, John O'Mahony, writ
ten by Mr. Luby, when there came to
my recollection an incident connected
with the chivalrous and noble-souled
deceased that I cannot refrain from re
lating. "Incompany with Mr.O'Maliony
and Mr. Timothy Cohalan. now of Mid
dletown, N. Y., I attended the funeral
of poor Captain O'Rourke, or—as he
was familiarly known—Beeeher. O'Ma
hony entertained a very high opinion of
O'Rourke. His energy, sincerity, and
the leal, unwavering fidelity with which
he clung to the good old cause had won
him a warm place in the big Celtic
soul of 'the founder of Fenianism.' Iu
truth, O'M.ahony's great, generous
heart warmed and cottoned to every
man whom he believed earnestly de
voted to Ireland. He had been so long
and so deeply engaged Irish revolu
tionary effort himself, that he almost
regarded, every co-worker as a kinsman
iu blood, I believe. He was deeply af
fected by poor Beecher's death. On the
way to Calvary Cemetery he at different
times feelingly alluded to the deceased,,
and to his uast services in Ireland's
cause. 'It isn't here such men as
O'Rourke shouid die,' was a remark
he made, and with such sadly-solemn
earnestness that I can never forget it
Could O'Mahony at the moment have
had any vague foreshadowing that it
was here, too, in the stranger's land,
far away from the hopes of ins beloved
Galtees, his own heart would beat its
iast vibration Difficult to answer.
O'Mahony was one of those sad, soli
tary souls that oftentimes soared be
yond the gross, material things
of earth
to hold communion with the Genius of
Solitude. What his intellectual vision
may or may not have perceived in these
silent reveries, is net for me to attempt
to conjecture.
"We reached Calvary, wound our
way over the sinuous avenues that run
In every conceivable direction through
its somber domain, and at last was
landed beside the yellow mound of
Long Island loam that was to be heaped
upon the breast of poor Beecher. Soon
all that was mortal of our departed
friend was hidden from our sight for
ever. The gravediggers performed
their moody, thankless task. Tom
.Burke spoke the panegyric, a heart
prompted and deepiy pathetic oration,
and we turned away once more from
the city of the dead to the city of the
living. We drove to Mr. Colialan's
house in Brooklyn. O'Mahony was vis
ibly depressed. We chatted upon va
rious topics, and by easy and sympa
thetic digressions, strove to lure
O'Mahony away from his sombre cogi
tations, We partially succeeded, and
when supper was over Mr. Cohalan
took up a copy of Hayes' Book of Bal
lads, and read for us some poems from
Tom Davis, of whom he was an enthu
siastic admirer. The warm fount of
Irish feeling O'Mahony's breast was
stirred into quicker flowing by our
host's recitation. In a moment or two
a tall, dark figure arose from the table
and with a pale, half-radiant face that
had seemingly caught the glow of a
sudden inspiration, and in tones at
once thrilling and melting, O'Mahony
recited for us Tom Davis1 'Lost Path.'
To the hour of my death, and I believe
long beyond it', my spirit will remem
ber that scene. It was one of those
sadly-grand spectacles .hat once beheld
cannot be forgotten. Nothing but the
pen of a Balzac or the pencil of a Rem
brandt could truly delineate it. It may
be fancied I overdraw the picture, but
ask the reader to note how truly and
tenderlv applicable every line of the di
vinely-beautiful monody was to
O'Mahony at the time:
'THE LOST PATH.
"'Swee thoughts, bright dreams, my comfort
be,
All comfort else has flown.
For every hope was liaise to mo,
And here I am, alone.
What thoughts -were mine In early youtli,
Like some old Irish song,
Brimful of love and hope and truth
My spirit Kushed along.
'I hoped to right my nativo isle,
I hoped a soldier's fame,
I hoped to rest in woman's ernile,
And win a minsti-el's name.
Oh little bare I served my land,
No laurels press my brow,
1 have no woman's heart or hand,
Nor minstrel honors now.
'But fancy has a magic power,
It brings ine wreath and crown.
And w-Oman's love, the sell' same hour
It smites oppression down.
Sweet thoughts, bright dreams, my comfort be.
I have no joy beside
Oh throng aronud. and be to me
Power, country, fame and bride.'
"O'Mahony finished the lines, and sat
down with that sweet, sad smile of his
which often and often, both before and
afterwards, reminded me of Moore's
thoughtful couplet
"I'ht eheek may be ringed with a '.verm,
sunny smile,
Thonfrh the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the
while,'
"To the ruin of dissolution Ma
hahony's great heart was hastening at
the time. The repulses that Fenian
ism met. with were as feathered arrows
in his breast but he hid from the world
all the poignancy they caused. Suffer
ing and endurance had purified and ex
alted him. Proud and tender spirit!
v/e shall not look upon your like again,
and never more on my ears shall fall
words more sadly tender than those you
syllabled on that by-gone summer night
in Brooklyn."
Battle of Thurles.
A battle was fought in 1171 between
the English under Donald O'Brieo,
King of Limerick, and the invaders
under Strongbow within a short dis
tance of Thurles and near Holy Cross
Abbey, but on the opposite side of the
Suir. We-find the following record of
this event in the "Annals of the Four
Masters"The Earl, of Strongbow
led an army to plunder Monster. King
Ruaidri (Roderick O'Connor) led an
other army to defend it against him.
When the strangers had heard of the
arrival of Ruardi in Munster, for the
purpose of giving them battle, they so
licited to their assistance the Ostmen of
Athcliath and then made no delay un
til they reached Durlas (Thurles).
Thither came Domnail Ua Briain and
the Dal-g-Cais, the battalion of West
Conn aught and the great battalion of
Sil Muredaigh (the O'Connors) besides
numerous other good troops left there
by King Ruadri. At this place a brave
battle was fought between the English
and the Irish, and it the English
were finally defeated by dint of fight
ing 1,700 cf the strangers were slain in
this engagement and only a few of
them survived with the Earl, who pro
ceeded in sorrow to his house at Port
Largi, Waterford. Ua Briain returned
home in triumph."
Ireland's Honored Viceroys,
Justin McCarthy said quite recently
that in London every one was talk."
ing about the splendid demonstration
made Dublin on the occasion of the
departure of Lord and Lady Aberdeen.
Aberdeen is the third Irish viceroy ever
honored by the Irish people with such
evidence of confidence and admiration.
Lord Chesterfield was the first, Lord
Fitzwilliam the second. Chesterfield
was recalled because he was making
himself too popular with the Irish peo
ple to please the English garrison and
the ruling classes of Ireland. Fitz
william was recalled because he was
endeavoring to bring about Catholic
emancipation. Aberdeen is recalled
because he lias proclaimed himself a
Home Ruler. Each former recall
brought about a crisis. The same re
sult will probably be seen this time as
well. The new viceroy, Lord London
derry, and his wife, will have a cool re
ception from the Irish people. Lord
Londonderry, when Lord Castlereagh,
promised during an election contest to
vote for an inquiry into the Home Rule
demand. We had only got to the ask
ing for an inquiry then, and he ob
tained the support of the Home Rule
party. I do not know whether any
particular reliance can be placed now
on any promise he may have made then.
There are reasons, not of a political na
ture, which make one wonder why on
earth the
Queen
ABOUT
should have sent Lord
and Lady Londonderry to Dublin to
represent her. But, on that subject I
shall not further touch."
Mr. Davitt does not appear to be
taking the rest he proposed to in
America. Men with the spirit of Mr.
Davitt would die if they did not work.
THE
EMERALD ISLE.
Archbishop V" aish, the Patriotic Prolate of
Dublin, 03 thf. Iid^i Otiestion
and 3rkiih if
HOME RULE AM ASStKI'D FACT.
The iu'clibisiio." Would Jfnt Bs the Least
Surprised r, Aii, :t
i''ro'Ji
:V
i'o::-'
st Rev. Arc:sb:feKv V'ai^h, nays
the North America News Company,
was interviewed by Mr. T. P. Gill, Xt..
P., the o'..her day, and the folic wing
wise words from His Graca'slipswiilbe
interesting reading, as showing how ac
curately lie has gauged the subject of
the Irish land and Home Rule ques
tions. Y7e give the interview in the
form of question and answer as it ap
peared the columns of one of the
daily newspapers:
Mr. Gill—Your Grace has no objec
tion to my asking you a few questions
as to the views you take of the present
state of affairs in Ireland?
The Archbishop—Certainly not. So
far as your questions seem fair and
proper I shall answer them with pleas
ure. The outlook, I think, is in one
way as gloomy as gloomy can be. As
for Home Rule, it must come. Mr.
Gladstone's bill, with the conflict that
has arisen out of it, has made it impos
sible for the English Liberal party to
go back, and I take it that it is the Lib
eral and not the Tory party that has
the future of English politics in its
hands. It would of course by no
means surprise me if Home .Rule came
to us from the Tories but come rt will,
and that very soon. When I speak of
a gloomy outlook I am thinking rather
of another question, the land question,
and the trouble that fear it has in
store for us. What fooi3 our Irish
landlords have proved themselves to
be.
Mr. Gill—Your Grace then thinks
that the Democratic movement in Ire
land will now be great enough to break
the old notions about rent, and the ob
ligation of paying it
The Archbishop— You misunder
stand me. The rent question in Ire
land has but little to do with questions
of democracy, or aristocracy, or with
any other merely political question.
Let me tell you of an incident that
bears on this. Not long ago an Eng-,
Jish gentlemanwho had come to Ire
land to study the laud question, did me
the favor of calling upon me. His
great difficulty was about rent., arid the
payment or non-payment of it. It may
seem a little amusing to you, but the
view he took was that the rent ques
tion in Ireland was in the main a ques
tion between Catholics and Protestants
and in this sense a religious question,
for, as he put it to me, the bulk of the
tenants being Catholics, and staunch
Catholics, and the bulk of the land
lords being Protestants, and. staunch
Protestants, he took it that the diffi
culty about, the payment of rent in Ire
land was an unwillingness on the part
of our Irish farmers to Jet so much
Catholic
money
go into Protestant
pockets.
Mr. Gill—But this Englishman must
have known very little of the real state
of the country.
The Archbishop—Manifestly he knew,
practically nothing about it. He told
me that his strongest sympathies were
with us, that he was anxious to help on
the Irish cause, that already he had
done some good work for us in England,
but that be now found it had become
useless for him or *or anyone like him,
to put his views on Irish affairs, before
his fellow cvuntrymen, whether in pub
lic or in private, unless the man who
put them forward was able to speak
from personal knowledge of Ireland,
and so he had come over to see things
for himself.
Mr. Gill—After all, this is not an un
reasonable view for Englishmen to
take of it.
The Archbishop—No on the con
trary, it is a most reasonable view,that
is to say, it would be a most reasonable
view if they took it all round, but they
don't. Why, any Englishman who
takes the Irish popular side on any
Irish question is at once pulled up with
the remark, "What do you know about
Ireland'? How long have you lived
there?" and so forth, but when Mr.
Chamberlain gives his speculations, or
Mr. .Goschen, or Mr. Caird, no such
question is raised or even thought of.
If, indeed, the settlement of the Irish
difficulties was really left to the judg
ment of those who know our country
and our people the prospect of peace
and reconciliation between the two na
tions would be a bright one indeed.
But to return to the point. Your very
natural observation turned me aside
for the moment from what I was about
to say. My English visitor came over
to Ireland full ot the idea that the
NUMBER
Irish-land question was. n
that I have explained, a reiigiouj .j
tion. Y.ou seem* 'to looK upon it ao
more or
JIess
a political one. Well, as
I ti Id our sympathetic
friend from the
ther side of the channel, it is neither
one nor the other. It is a plain com
mercial question, nothing more and
uothingless. It is a struggle between
landlords as a class, who insist upon
obtaining extravagantly exorbitant
.ivnts for the land, and the tenants as a
class, who are unwilling and, indeed,
h.bJe to pay more than the land is
Mr. G-m-Yclr^raee-ita
that if due allowance were made n\
legislation for the difference between
tlie commercial circumstances of the
two eneutries. the
a-'would be no more
aifiieulty ft bout th* question* in Ira-,
land than there is in England?
The Archbishop—Ov morv diilieuiiy
in Ireland than in England? Are you
not aware that the diilicult} as ii now
exists in England is far more serious
than any that exists in Ireland or per
haps I may put it more accurately thus
—that the dii-icuity in .England would
be greater, and would, in fact, be in
superable and appalling, it English
landlords had not shown themselves
able to deal equitably with, their tenants
and to make those reductions in their
demands of rent which the present
condition of the agricultural interest
render imperative? When I say im
perative I mean, of course, imperative
iu the seuse that they are absolute'"}
necessary if agriculture is not to end in
bankruptcy in England, as you know
there are hundreds and hundreds of
farms for which no teuaiits can be
found, farms for which landlords would
willingly hand over to any .-jolvent
tenant for even a nominal rent, and in
many instances for no rent at all,
merely to get rid of the obligation of
paying local rates.
An Eviction Describeil,
A special to the New York Herald
from Coi?k city, Ire., under the date of
August 5, read thus: "The following
intelligence comes to-day from JfCil
rush, county Clare, near where the
Shannon broadens, and gives evidence
of the peacefulness of Irish Home
Irlulers amid the increasing asperity of
the landlord interest. It stems that
some time ago a private estate—which,
by the way, includes Hog Island
evicted the Widow Mcloery, a%ed SO.
years, and her unmarried daughter
from their cottage in a hamlet called
Leahee.ua, but they had reU-rned during
the absence of the legal caretaker..
Then proceedings were be^un against
them as trespassers and for a fresh,
eviction. Yesterday the resident mag
istrate. named DunsterviUe, and an in
spector of the constabulary, with a
posse, attended, and a large concourse
of neighbors joined them, but there was
not the slightest violence offered to the
law. The appeals of the old lady to let
her die in the home of her childhood
moved the crowd and the parish priest,
Father Quinlaven, to tears, impressing
also the magistrate, who, on a cer
tificate of the parish physician of the
imminent danger of her death, post
poned the eviction. This decision,
amid the dramatic expressions of grati
tude of the mother and daughter, was
hailed with cheers. The concourse,
beaded by the priest, then formed in
procession and marched to a spot not
far away, the scene of another recent
eviction. There were met similar dele
gations from Kilkee, Dunbeg and sev
eral other villages of county Clare, and
there was another widow, named Mur
rihay, with her four children and her
venerable mother. They had been sev
eral days sheltered by the roadside un
der an impromptu covering for their
scanty furniture. The peasantry dele
gations had brought boards, thatch,
window panes, tools, mortar and tbe
like, and in two hours willing hfnds
had erected on the roadside- a compara
tively comfortable hut, in which the
widow, her children and the old grand
mother were placed, while Father Quiri
lavan blessed the humble home and
willing workers, who then peacefully
dispersed to homes not much better.
Annoying Mrs. Pamell.
Bordentown, N. J., Aug. 17.—
Edward Slavin, tbe farmer on Mr:
Parnell's Ironsides property, to-day is
ued printed notices offering a liberal
reward for the detection of the parties
guilty of maliciously destroying the
fences along the Burlington road Satur
day night and again last night, and of:
obstructing with telegraph poles the
lane from the highway to the farm
house. The poles were placed across
the lane from fence to fence and it re
quired several men to remove them.
There have been many petty annoy
ances before, but the repetition of the
bold acts of Saturday night was more
than Slavin could stand.
Patriotic merchants at Tombstone,
Ariz., refuse to take Mexican money
for their goods.
A