LUNCHEON CLUB

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1188, 10 December 1924, Page 6

LUNCHEON CLUB

ADDRESS ON IRISH POETRY. An interesting address on Irish poetry and national ballads was delivered to members of the Citizens’ Lunch Club today by Mr J. G. Cobbo of Feilding. Mr J. Cunninghamc presided over a large attendance. The causes for great national movements, said Mr Cobbe, were often overlooked, but the ballads of the people and poetry of a nation had a far greater au-d more subtle effect than was generally supposed. Ballads were usually rhymes made by the people for the people. They went straight to tlie heart and wore pregnant with national sentiment, calculated to move a nation to great things. The simple and often rude ballads of Ireland had had u marvellously fur-reaching effect on the indomitable spirit of the tho Irish people. The speaker proceeded to quote from and explain some notable Irish ballads and poems. In so doing ho mentioned that not all the Irish poets hud mado a true appeal to the people of that race. Goldsmith, for instance, was more a Londoner thun anything; else, and most of his works- found more favour m Mayfair than in Connemara. “The Wearing of the Green,” said Mr Cobbe, was a street ballad of the time of the Irish rebellion in 1798 and he proceeded to recite it in order to show the depth of national feeling which it contained. It had been said, lie continued, that only a native of a country could write national ballads for the people of that land, and none but D. F. McCarthy could have written “The Green of the Future.” which competition tho speaker also recited. Wit, eloquence, pathos and humour, lie said, abounded in Irish poets. The history of Ireland went back many years, and some of the old ballads provided an interesting and colourful connecting link. For instance, said Mr Cobbe, there were poems telling of tlie holy wells, a relic of the days of water worship, and ho gave examples. One of the most important events in the political and literary history of Ireland was the establishment of the Nation newspaper in 1842. Mr Cobbe entertained his auditors with a number of excerpts from national Irish ballads of a humorous, sentimental, pathetic and martial character. He mentioned, however, that poems of a true humorous character were rare in Irish literature, for tlie reuson that the sorrows for the oppression of the nation in past ages were still too fresh in the memory of tho people. There were, though, not a few lighter ballads of a convivial character. Sustained applause greeted the conclusion of the address and, on the motion of the Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, the speaker was accorded a vote of thanks.