A TRUE IRISH WELCOME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 27

A TRUE IRISH WELCOME.

(From the Aation, Sept. 3.) Mb. Skxton, M.V., and Mr. William Bedmond, M.P., arrived in Dublinfrom Corkatten o'clock on Monday night, on their return home from the Boston convention. The occasion wu marked by one of the most magnificent demonstrations seen in Dublin for many ofn«f" JJ^flt P?,™' unß y m P»t*e«c as it is towards the national cause, admits that the reception of Monday night was "one of the lSES^^P n^. d^ mons^ a « on^ hafc L eTertook P lAceia the capital." JSSEi S n arrived at Kingsbridge station the platform was thronged with Parliamentary representatives, members of the Municipal Council, and substantial merchants and traders of the city! Outside the gates an immense crowd was assembled which extended Si ParLfl W W 8< ngßfc -^ P reßeDt * aa thelri^ leader, to IrS'^ W^JtS* Avondale to Mr MeaXr fp jS' ?** th l L i rd MayOr of Dablsn « Alderman SfnJri l7n^Jlf a i°i a attend ? nce - Mr. Michael Davitt also ffl^Sl^. ff Mtr f tlO u Of welcome ' a n<* the members of the Lyn'ch%!p ' ' amy ' M<Pl ' J * F « Smal1 ' Mp - N ' «,. J^ eD ?e? c train Bt^s!! lled tato tlle Btation a rising cheer greeted the returned envoys They were warmly welcomed by Mr. Parnell £%£ £ ber i fneQdß) "n** Pwoeaaloi was then formed Thon. w««L (t PMple ac S on ¥. anied thß carriages to the rooms of the SSSS and While he "Besses were being delivered from the balcony an immense multitude stood below. On the motion of Mr.fSneU. ''" ** *" amidst * reat wSS?£ wii?^^ 11 Wh .° was ™ eivQ * with loud cheers, saidFellowKJitizens, it is some time since I have h»d the opportunity of SSSIe 8O Und 8t TanaSßT anaSB ? mblage ° f m^ellow.coantrymen^ 7 tS present one. Under any circumstances I should have been proud ?n ii additionally rejoiced to-night in being able to take ai ar l WlthyOaiQ ,T elcomio ShornS horne to ou/shoresthatdistS Yon^ii?5 Bhnia ? ll i 0"i 0 " fe i low - co "Q»y«nan, Thomas Sexton (cheers). You shared my feeliugs of satisfaction and pride when you heard a XfunS \ B £ C f hat . he had , cons euted to represent you beyond ?he Atlantic atthat great assemblage of our fellow-countrymen in America (cheers) You felt and I felt that ia his hands wVsXthe usk 3 r T«H l - ng u e . patn 2 tißmand the eloquence of Ireland (cheers), S?«2S \ m whate J e f r SeXton did and wha tever be said he would be th^i \° 7 t? a a nd t°, 0»f0 »f country. He has nobly acquitted himself &mT£Lte ™1O]?1 O] ? St °F°l Ireland and how she stands to «^nff )*«. Ireland .beyond the ocean. (cheers\ He haa maintained the already great and overwhelming reputation Mm Lkl ? f rm u d amoQ ?B t «• He has O endeTred to t i- M^ ho - h S uiLhim aQd •" who saw him, aud he has attracted to him the judgment of all who heird him. We wel. come him back, then, to-night, and we hope it may long be the lot of Ireland to be able to find such sons to represent her (cheers) He has learned something himself too, during his absence. He has learned, to appreciate the enormous power for the benefit of Ireland which our countrymen in America are able and willing to wield. And he is ma better position to-day than be was a short time since, to estimate what are the chances-the overwhelming chances in favour of Ireland's freedom (cheers). He will return to his task amongst us with renewed energy, with renewed hope and confidence and belief in his country's future, with greater determination to trample down and overcome all obstacles till our hopes are realised till we have banished foreign misrule (cheer*), and till that day comes, aud we believe it will not be a distant one, when an Irish Parhameaw.il assemble in College-green (cheers) able and willing £<£?£* JM { lr 3 t0 ? ar P^P l6 -^ to maintain the dignity and independence of the nation at hotae;and abroad (cheers)? I have CcnferV) e!lßUre " g 7 ° U t0 gi ' 6 a ° cad mile Mlte to Mr. Sexton T nrArk? Xt w ' I S IP ' MhoM h0 as . rece^ed with loul cheers, said -My Lord Mayor, Mr. Parnell, and citizens of Dablin~l thank you from vLIT r magnificent welcome, and I tbank you because t know the meaning of this great assemblage gathered here to-night is 9tr ? l ° n v f ad r beßioQ to the cause of the P«°P le whom I love and the leader whom I revere (cheers). Gazing apon you and listening to your thrilling cheers, I find it hard to beUeve ?hat I ha?e lately crossed the Atlantic Oceaa, because the cheers which have illfft *?u nwe^^ght seem to my ear and to my heart to be the Si /Sh the N che f 8 . t aat bade me God spaed from the capital of America (cheers). Ireland and America are very far apart, but the Irish race are one, and the Irish race in politics have abolished the Atl mtic Z^& et %' F ! llo w-countrym etJ , I went to America at the wish ?^mTJS r i bear V hea^' hoße wish to me has aU the sacredne=s of a command (hear, bear). I went to America as his ambassador and £ SZSrt'f t - he « lrißh pe °P le> aQd l can B ive y°» no better pr. of than this of the influence and the power of the Irish race on the American .continent, that upoa me, as the ambassador of Parnell ?«* 5\ IrJ8 v P e °P le ' there were lowered by the highest in the S m f by the great free community of America, such honours as the ambassador of no European despot could command (cheers) Mv mission is completed, my special work U done ( " Not yet "). I mean my work m America, though I know there is work in Ireland yet to

A Voice—And yourself is fit to do it. Mr. Sexton— l know there is work to be done in Ireland, in rSt ng^ he A Urelig i tof . pubHc °P iQioa U P° Q fo » la nd filthy places (cheers). I know there is work to be done in clearing out reptiles? A Voice— And to wash out the Castle (cheers) * oonnX; hS* ?;? P S lea who woald have been cleared out of this Oountry by St. Patrick only they came after his time (laughter)

And returning to my own country, and to dear old Dublin, and to the people from whom I spiung, and wbo have the affection of my heart and the services of my life, I say this to you to-night, that the world is wide and America is prosperous and free ; bat there is no place for Irishmen like Ireland (cheers). I went to America as the bearer of a message, and what did my messaje say? I told the American people that we were thankful to them for the help they had given us in our hour of hitter agony. I told them that we had won our way upon the soil of Ireland, and that toe brood — the foul and cruel brood of Cromwellian troopers are no longer the absolute lords of Ireland (cheers). I told them that we are winning our wav in union in intelligence, in resolution, in manly spirit ; and I will never forget tbe cheer that rose from the American audience when I told them that the caubeen is no longer lifted upon the Irish highway, and that if a tenant and a landlord meet on the Queen's highway in Ireland the tenant stiffens up his backbone and wants to see if tbe landlord ■will take off his hat first (laughter and cheers). I told tbe American people that we were within sight of the goal of national independence (cheers) ; that we are an educated, an united people ; and that we feel in our hearts and believe in our minds that there is no power on earth or in hell to keep us from our rights (cheers). Now, fellowconntrymen, I have another word to say. 1 went to America as a delegate from Ireland. I stand here to-night upon the classic ground of the Land League (cheers), and, standing here upon this Epot that future ages will hold to be consecrated to the cause of human liberty I stand with tbe moral force of a delegate from America to Ireland. I speak to the five millions of the Irish race at home from the fifteen millions of the Irish race abroad (bear, hear). And what do they say to you 1 they say this : They believe that yon have the sonls of men ; they believe that you have the impulses of patriots ; they believe that you have the spirit of freemen. ; they believe that you are determined to be free (cheers). They believe that Ireland has now in the citadel of the alien, in the Parliament of London, a body of men gifted by God and by Nature with honesty and with intellect (cheers). They know that that party has poured the cause of Ireland into the eat of the world; they know we have conquered the moral sense of mankind ; they know that tbe forces of God and Nature, the power of morals and tbe r tremendous influence of the human conscience, are all upon our side (cheers). Bat, fellow-countrymen, America knows one thing more. Before and above all America feels and knows— and Irish America rests tranquilly confident in the deep conviction — that Ireland has now at the head of her party a man sent by Heaven to achieve her freedom (cheers). Irishmen in America, being free citizens of a free country, where every man's mind and every man's conscience are his own, differ upon questions of American politics ; bnb wherever from, the Atlantic to the Pacific, and wherever from Maine to Mexico, a body of Irishmen meet on American soil to discuss the cause of Ireland, those Irishmen all speak with one heart and with united voice, and that voice i 9 all for Ireland (cheers). There is no second opinion amongst any tnen whom I have met in America, and I have met men of all kinds. 1 have met with men who have personal wrongs to avenge against the misgovernora of Ireland — men who have suffered the horrors of the prison cell : but all classes of Irishmen, whatever their special school of opinion, whatever their rank in life, lay down this one cardinal doctrine and gospel of hope for the whole cause, and that is, that Parnell is the leader whom the Irish people, if they are ever to -win, must follow with unity, with resolution, and with the reverence which the great qualities of his mind and intellect, his love of liberty and his hatred of oppression entitle him to at our hands (cheers). Irish- America believes that Parnell will win (cheers) ; and not Irish-America only, because the native-born American

citizens are opening tteir minds to the merits of the Irish cause. It was my pride and my delight to stand on the platform of Boston beside the Governor of that mighty State (cheers)— a State which is as large as Ireland, a State with three millions of people. I stood beside that man—

A Voice — A good man was there. Mr. Sexton — Who occupies in that State a position as powerful as the red earl holds in Ireland (groans, hisses, and laughter) and who occupies a very different position from the red earl in the hearts of the people. I heard that great official of State say to the assembled thousands of Boston in the vast building where we met that the Irish were entitled to Home Rule (cheers), that they are competent to use it wisely and well, and that there is no power in the world that can keep it permanently from them. I cannot tell you what thoughts went through my mind as I stood in that great hall, 3,000 miles away, and saw a regiment of 500 men, every man of them a stalwart Irishman, (cheers), and saw that stalwart regiment presenting jArms to salute the ambassadors from Ireland (cheers). My Aieart was full ; but even in the most serious moment an Irishmen rinds room for a joke, and I did somewhat tickle the humour of that Boston audience when I told them I was much obliged for the military honours they had given me, but that my relations with the military of the old country were of quite a different kind (laughter and cheers). Now the hour is late, and I shall close by giving von in a few simple words the message of America to Ireland. Ireland in America is your faithful ally. Nothing can draw it away from your service, and I believe I can say for the fifteen millions of Irish birth and Irish blood in* the American continent what the framers of the American Declaration of Independence said about American liberty, that the Irish in America are ready to pledge to the service of the Irish cause, and to the service of Idah liberty, " their lives, their fortune?, and their sacred honour " (cheers). They believe — our kindred in America believe, as I have told you — that Parnell will win. I believe the same ; but I close by saying this— that whether Parnell wins or loses— whether the Iri-h party tbat follow him succeed or fail —tbe Irish struggle has passed beyond the bounds of the shores of Ireland. It is no longer the struggle of a eountry — it is now the struggle of a race (cheers) ; and I believe that, whatever may become of us and our Parliamentary leader, the Irish race all over the world are determined, by the help of God, and with the power inherent to them, that Ireland shall be held, and used, and enjoyed, and governed by the Irish race alone (enthusiastic cheers).

Mr. W. H. K. Redmond, M.P., was then introduced. He delivered a brief but eloquent speech, in which he assured the Irish race, at home that their kindred in America were eager to give all help, all assistance, all support, and all encouragement in their power (cheers).

Mr. William O'Brien, M. P., Mr. Justin M'Cartby, M.P.; Mr. T. P. O"Connor, M. P.; Mr. T. D. Sullivan, M.P., and Mr. Healy, M. P., then addressed the multitude in the order named, each of them expressing the great satisfaction felt by him in taking part in the demonstration of welcome to Mr. Sexton and Mr. Redmond.

The proceedings did not terminate until after one o'clock in the morning. At the close of Mr. Healy's speech the crowd dispersed, cheering loudly. Chief Superintendent Mallon, Superintendents Reddy, Byrne, and Entwistle were present with a forca of police ia Sackville-street.