"Parnell was a very good man, and a just man, and if he had lived to
now, Ireland would be different to what it is. The only thing ever could
be said against him was the influence he had with that woman. And how do
we know but that was a thing appointed for him by God? Parnell had a
back to him, but O'Connell stood alone. He fought a good war in the
House of Commons. Parnell did a great deal, getting the land. I often
heard he didn't die at all--it was very quick for him to go. I often
wondered there were no people smart enough to dig up the coffin and to
see what is in it, at night they could do that. No one knows in what
soil Robert Emmet was buried, but he was made an end of sure enough.
Parnell went through Gort one day, and he called it the fag-end of
Ireland, just as Lady Morgan called the North the Athens of Ireland."