[Illustration:
ANDREW ATHY
WORCESTER, MASS.
]
[Illustration:
CAPT. JOHN DRUM, U. S. A.
]
That invader and invaded should hate each other bitterly is not of
any particular importance as bearing on nationality; it is the
experience of all lands and races. Presbyterian Murphys and
McManuses are no argument for Scotch Murphys and McManuses; it may
indicate intermarriage and change of religious faith; it can’t
indicate a change of blood. The transformation of bogs and fens into
gardens is merely a fairy story; the bogs and fens are in Ulster
to-day. The fertile valleys of Ulster, ready to be entered on, were
the bait to catch settlers, for the defeated and disheartened native
Irish had been driven to the barren hills and bogs. Men as a rule
don’t risk life and fortune for the privilege of transforming bogs
into gardens in a hostile country; and, moreover, Motley says
England and Scotland in that age had the rudest system of
agriculture in Europe. The higher system of agriculture, as well as
the woolen and linen industries, came with the skilled exiles from
Holland and France; and even as great a plunderer as Wentworth was
wise enough to foster them. And I might ask, why didn’t these
marvelous Scots make their own country famous for woolen and linen
industries, when they made their own laws and could snap their
fingers at English jealousy?
Finally, if these people were Scotch “slightly hibernicized,” why
did they on their arrival in America organize “Irish societies”? Why
did they name towns and rivers with Irish names? Why did they
celebrate St. Patrick’s day rather than St. Andrew’s?
It will pay Professor Fiske to examine into the Irish emigration of
the eighteenth century and learn, as less erudite people have done,
that as much of this stream flowed from Limerick, Cork, Waterford,
Dublin, and English Bristol as from Ulster; and that Leinster and
Munster poured in nearly as many Irish to Colonial America as did
the northern provinces. What he is unwittingly doing is settling up
the abhorrent dividing lines of religion and marking off our race
into “Irish-Irish” and “Scotch-Irish” upon the lines of Catholicity
and Protestantism. I as one of the Protestant Irish most strenuously
object; the name Irish was good enough for my fathers; their son is
proud to wear it as they did; and we must all insist that the Irish,
without prefixes, without hyphens, without any qualification, all
children of a common and well-loved motherland, shall be given their
full measure of credit for the splendid work done by the race in
America.
If Professor Fiske is true to himself and the principles and canons
of his calling, he will find the truth and tell it, and waste no
valuable time chasing myths and will-o’-the-wisps.
As an indication of the great interest of the occasion it may be
remarked that the exercises were not brought to a close until 2.30
o’clock the next morning. Before adjourning, resolutions of condolence
on the loss of the U. S. S. _Maine_ were adopted by a standing vote, and
the Secretary-General was instructed to transmit a copy of the
resolutions to the President of the United States and to the Secretary
of the Navy.
On Friday afternoon the members of the society were given a reception by
Hon. John D. Crimmins, at his home, 40 East 68th Street. It was a most
charming occasion. About forty gentlemen attended, including Dr. Emmet
and his son; General O’Beirne and Captain McCrystal, of New York; and P.
J. Flatley, of Boston; Thomas Hamilton Murray, of Rhode Island; J. F.
Swords, of Hartford; O’Meagher Condon, of Washington, D. C.; Joseph
Smith, of Lowell, Mass.; James Jeffrey Roche, Thomas B. Lawler, Michael
Brennan, and many others.
The company first inspected Mr. Crimmins’s fine library and were shown
many books and manuscripts, some of them of great rarity and value. A
lunch was then served, after which the visitors were shown the
magnificent collection of paintings for which Mr. Crimmins is so well
known among lovers of art.