THE CELEBR&TION IN DUNEDIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2308, 26 May 1898, Page 19

THE CELEBR&TION IN DUNEDIN.

The centenary of tbe Irish insurrection of } 98 was celebrated by a crowded aud enthusiastic gathering at the Garrison Hall on Monday, night. At an early hour crowds were to be seen wendiug their way to the hail, and by 8 o'clock there was not a spare seat available in the. building. The place was tastefully decorated for tho occasion, and the national flag of Ireland,'' together with that cf the .Hibernian Society, bearing the mEcription " God save Ireland " *nd v. representation of an Irish' harp, found promiuent places. A lengthy and varied programme' of music waa gone through, and speeches were delivered wbich evoked fervid popular demonstations. Bishop Verdon (chairman of the '93 Centenary Committee) presided, and there alao occupied seats on the platform .tke Rev. Fatherß Oleary, Murphy, " Eyan, aud Cuffey, Messrs A. R. Barclay and G. Fisher (vice-chairman of tbe committee), Mr J. O'Connor (secretary), and the following delegates : — Rev. Fattier O'Donnell (Qaeenstown), Very Rev. Father O'Leary (Lawrence), Rev. Father Lynch (Palmersion), Ilev. Father O'Nfcill (Winicn), Rev. Father M'Mullan (Port Chalmers), Mes&rs P. Farrell (Purakaaui), O. H. WindJe (River.<dale), Lynch (Gore), Hanley (Nasaby), T. Halpin (Milton), P. M. Collins, P. Kensy, B. Harrington, E. O'Connell, P. M 'Euros, J. Phelan, M. Prendergast (Palmerston and Hyde), J. Donnellan (Lawrence), J. P, Armstrong, John Carroll, P. E. Nolaa, W. Ames, J. Listnn, J. O'Neill (South Dunedin), J. O'Neill (Mornington), D. Maloney, D. Mahoney, J. A. Soott, J. J. Connor, W. A. Shields, J. J. M&rlor/, J. Hucgarford, L. Clancy, *n<J M. Feo ton. Apologies were received from the Very Rev, Father O'Neill (Milton), who wished the gathering every success ; D. Munvo (president of the Gaelic Society), and Jas. Hand (Miller's Flet). .

t-he SPEECHES

Bishop Vehdon, wbo on riaing w?,s itceivad Kith general spplansa, said : Ladies and Gsntlbmen, — It' gives' me very great-pleasure to see so many friends of Ireland assembled hers this evening. We have come hero to show that we sympathise with Ireland in her suffering and her sorrows, bub we will nor, I am sure, say or do auyfching thab can offend any ope of oar f*Uow citizens. — (Applause.) Tfee Irish ia New Zealand are as. loyal and faithful citizens as any in thin colony, — (Applause.) We live in this land of onr adoption ; we are proud of New Zealand. It ia a land of liberty and progress, and th<? dearest wish of our hearts would be gratified if that freedom and self-govern-me&b thab we enjoy here w<;re extended to thab dear old land towards which our thoughts are taming this evening. — (Load applause.) We have been inviccd here to honour the memory of the brave coen who sacrificed freedom and life in the hope of serving their native land. Bub I need &catcely tell you that we do nob corny here to praise up rebellion or to give any encouragement to rebellion, and, I think, indeed, that the history of oar native land should teach us th&t ib is by moral force and by the constitutional efforts of a united people that that victory which we all hope foi shall bt gained. — (Applause.) A few weeks ago that great and good etafcefmaa, thab noble-hearted, generous friend of Ireland, the illustrious William Gladstone — (applause) — wrote these lines to one of the leaders of the people — "Your cause is in your own hands, If Iceland is disunited her cause bo long remains hopeless. If, on the contrary, she knows her own mind, and is one in spirit, that cause is irresistible." — (Applause.) As the programme is very long I shall nob delay you longer this evening, bub we shall commence the proceedings ab once. Thf> Ilev. H. W. Cleart delivered a lecbare on " '98," giving a vivid description of aome of the eveiiLi of (he " l&eurrectioD," and briefly siketchicg the ertbts which led to it. He mentioned thai five-sixths of the leaders in the ius'dcreolion were Protoeteiafcs, ».nd expressed S,ha opinion thab the uprising was forced upon fehs people by Prime Minister Pifct, because he dreaded the union of hearba between pay pie oi various creeds in Ireland, and the parser which lay in such onion, and because he was also fearful of one of the planks for whioh tho union fought — an unoorrupted Irish Parliament representing all creeds and sections of the people. Becauso of this, Pifcb determined lo break up && union aud .to t&ko &w*y the Pac-

liatnent, aud in doing bo dnl not heaifcate to plunge the nation into the horrors of civil war. ; After speaking for some time iv substantiation J of this statement, he said : It vss one. English . | statesman who deprived Jfj-etaad tf her old Legislature, bui ar.oi/her..grtsrttfi. EngU&b statesman did wbat i*.y \r: meißwi's pe^er to restore 1j it fco us *gaia. <r hs.t ie*r sai WJlli*m Bw&rt ; Gladstone.— (Appiame.) Well, he did not liva ! to see hi» plan? fully ecjorapiished, but we [ : roust always remember Bjron's words, which ; j were ever truo, "He never fails who dies :|hi 9- great causs." Tl'iUism Ewart Gladstone ■ ! will go down to posterity as one of the greatest i ; of s gceab Hue of English ssateaanen — statesmen : j such os perhaps »o other country could hava |, J produced, T« the Irish, I say, he will ever be . ; j dear, because be spent the last 13 years of his i life iv magnificent effort to restore to Ireland I that which would make her fee) that she was a I nat'oiwoncs again. — (Loud applause.). Con- { UmJJHg his address, the reverend father , 1 tiai rated many incidents showing the good- \ i will that existed at the time of the insurrec- ' | tioD of 1793 between Catholics and Protestants, end roused his audience by tellmg with much ; power "sod feeling how one young ivan had been , saved from execution by the intervention at ' greot personal peril of a Protestaat gentleman, \ the closing words, " Than young man was my I grandfather," be?ng greeted with an enlhusi1 aaiie outburst of applause. Id his second address Father Clears referred ' more particularly to tha ac v .ual encounters , which took pities between the insurgents and the military. Re dwelt upon the battles of • Oularfc Hill, Kaniscorthy, NetcHSoss, Arklow, 1 Newtonnbarrj , and Tubbaitneeiring. Ths insurgents, he pftid, fead no prope? weapon*, and no \ proper military discip'in*. Thfey were without 1 ' .cavalry, &Dd practically had ao art'iJlary. They bad do ammunition.' - Their principal waapon s was the pike. Ho exhibited a model of the pike, which was a long pole with * spear at the end and a sharp book at the side. The hook, the reTerend, speaker explained, was used by pikemen when attacking cavalry. With it a, pikeinan cut the bridle, and the horse bscanao atiraausgeablp, and the horsaman fras'then at i the mercy of his »ntagonißts. So formidable : were the insurgents with, the use of the i>ike that a body of yeomanry was known ."'to have refused to face a body of pikemen." Tha battles won by -the insurgents : were won by sheer headlong bravery, and the force of their onslaught . at j one erebunter was so irresistible taafc'teoops . I f rota. Gory aever paused ia their nighb till thty I jßached Dttbliu. A 6 New Ross fch<j most | dsaperate of all' took' place, and' llia i bravery displayed not only woa the admiration I of Musgrave. the Orange writer, bui; it elicited j the remark from an English officer that " The . 1 1 very devjl from hell could .nob. stop thoge ! ffcHowp." — (Prolonged applause.) It took' J 137,000 men to put the rebellion down in the , two counties of WaeJdow and Wexford, and it > cost th.B Government a sum variously estimated 1 at amounts between ,20 and a half millions 1 to 50 millions of money between tbe foment- - ing and the subsequent putting down of the rebellion. In conclusion, he said that they • were drawing near the close of the [ celebration, and it nausfa be a source of i pride and pleasure to every one of them to see it carried cm!; with such magnificent success. —(Loud applause.) There was . nobody there who would see another such oeca* i Bion. They were united there — Catholics and Protestants!.-— (Applause.) Hand in hand they [ had etood in spirit over the graces of the man who had fcugbt in '98. — (Applause.) Theft was something more in this celebt*ti«m than the raeve standing over the mouldering bones of men who were dead a century ago or ibtsa. There was the spirit of the men, which still i lives on. — (Applause.) There was the mii destructible spirit of. the Irish nation, which i waß as living to-day as it was when the battle of Oulart was fought or when New Rose was captured. — (Clears.) Taey [ had 'chat night in upirifc cfcs^ed bauds acrosi the bairier of the gpswe with the men i who h*A touglti; in '98, and he would ask them i to H*nd up ia their honour. (The gathering here stood up.) There were three grand gaid- ; ing principles which animated the men olt '98, and he would ask those present to give three ' cheers for each of those principles, and for the j rs.en woo fqughb for them. The first prinoiple i was tbd'princiule of union amongst ail creed? i and olassss for ttoe noramon. good; tlie second : was the principle cf full and fair representation ■ of the people of every creed and class in an Irish Parliament ; and the third waa the principle of perfect religious liberty. i In response to the call of the speaker three i enihusis&tic cheers were given for each of these i principlre and the men who laid down their lives for ihara. Mr A. B. Baeclat, who was received with a hearty round of applause, dslivered a length} and telling speech, which was frequently interi rupted by emphatic expressions of approval. He said that he was a humble and unworthy repref enfcfttive of a body that had done much I for Ireland— men who, although net members j of the Roman Catholic Church, were nssrerI tfreless /ri*hmen and patriots. Hft stood there to refute the ignorant and foolish calumny which even yet was tiomeiimes heard, that Irish agitation was merely the work of disaffected Roman Catholics — that if it were not for the clergy of the church there would be nothing heard of Irish troubles. There never was a falser statement spoken or written. All down the course of Irish agitation they would ia every singlemovement the brains and the hands of nonCatholic Irishmen afc work aiding and assisting by every possible means in their power the work of their country's emancipation. — (Prolonged applause.) The '98 rebellion originated with the United Irish Society, and who were the founders of that organisation ? Theobald Wolfe Tone, Simon Butler, and Napper Tandy — (loud applause) — Protestants every one of them. Who was their military leader ? Lard Edward Fitzgerald, the brother of the Duke of Leinster — another PeofcesSant. What were Bagmal, Harvey. Grogan, M'Cracken, Henry Monro, Antony Perry? AH 'Protestants— all leaders of the rebellion. — (Applause.) Twenty of the most prominent rebels -were sent to Fort George after the rebellion aod kept there till 1802. Of those four how many were Catholics P Four, Sis were Pre«byterians f moths) summing 10 were Protestants of other"

denominations. — (Loud applause). And itwa*. tie sawe Etory all tt,)ong the lice. Henry Grattau pleaded for Cahhoiie emancipation 10 years before O'Conuell begau to work. Henry Gi'ftttan, the ProSestant, it was who moved that; celebrated re>olution— " That uc power on earth save that r-f the Kicg, Lords, &ud Commons of. Irel&nd bas a rig-ht to make I&ws to bind rhitf kingdom."— (Load applause). Mr Barclay thcii weuf ob to sypak ox the leaders of the Young Ireland party in 1848— the party that had done BO much for J.ielaud's cause — Smith O'Brien, Davis (the sweet-voiced sioger of the nation), John MitcheU, John" Matfcin (of Longmore), all Protestants every man of them.— (Applause.) It thfcy look back on the Homo Rule movement they found the same story. Of the 61 Irishmen who were present at the meeting when it was set afoot half were nop-C«thol:es. Theie first leader, Isaac Bufct; was a -Protestant ; their second leader, William Shaw, was a Protestant ; aud the fchird, and the greatest of them all — he \vho3e came could never be meubiozsed by Irishmen without feelings of the greatest pride and admiration, -though m'agled with deep sorrow,— Charles Ste«acfc Farte-ll v>as a Pro • test-snb.— (Coutju'ufid sypSsuPe ) The Rev.' Father O'DoNSfßtt'. of Qaeensfcewn^ proffered his cocsraculafcions on the magnificent success of the gafchanng.- They ihad assembled there feo do honour to the men of '98, aud the success of their meeting was due to the teachings c£ Bishop Jtf«>r«n, — (Ap»l«use.) Ha wss not oily the apoa^ls oJ the Gospel, but tha apostle o? patriotism acd Irish nationality.— (Prolongs T upplauss.) He hoped they would read the Li'stwy of Ireland, and instil into' "their heartn iiis grand principles. In that way they would imtnori&lfse the memory of the Boeu of '98.— (Lend applause ) Mr J. P. Arji?tp.osu said he was prond of being an Irishmau, aud"sb!ll prouder of being a Wexford man. He w»3 still prouder that some of his -Protestant ancestors on his mothers side had joined the rebels — (loud applause), — • and had fought against tyranny, oppression, and wrong. If he had been there he would have been a rebel. — (Laughter and applause.) In 1848 there was a Wexford man; for whoaa capture tha Government had offered £500, but that offer did net prevent his leaving his native land. He. did nob think the Government cared three ateaws whether he (the speaker) left or not— (laughter),— but his friends thought otherwise, and he left and went to America, afterwards coming to New Zealand, — (Applause.)

THE CONCERT.

The programme of music was gone through in excellent style, and although tha proceeding* were prolonged till h*lf-past 11 or thereabout, several encores were demanded.