THE HEROES OF '98.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 40, 29 January 1897, Page 28

THE HEROES OF ' 98.

4 IRISH-AMERICAN PILGRIMS.

We take the following from the Xcio York Sun :—: — Who fears to speak of " Ninety-Eight ? " Who blushes at the name / When cowards mock the patriot's fate Who hangs his head in shame ? He's all a knave — or half a slave — Who slights his country thus : But true men, like you men, Will fill your glass with us ! He is a staid, conservative, graybeard now — the man who wrote those lines. A Fellow of Trinity College. Dublin, and an Episcopalian clergyman to boot, the Rev. Dr. Ingram almost forgets that he was once an Irish revolutionist, applauding in stirring strains the gallant, though unsuccessful, effort to throw off English rule in that year of blood and bravery — 171)8. But if Dr. Ingram forgets, there are millions of Irishmen and Irish-Americans who remember. The story of the rebellion is a vivid story to them, and hence comes it that, two years from now, they will celebrate the centenary of '98. Some years ago a modest association was started in that ancient section of New York City known Greenwich Village. It was called the Ninety-eight Club, and its object was to devise some means of commemorating the rebellion. The central organisation in New York enlisted hundreds of members, while throughout the country there was scarcely a city or town that did not start branches and affiliated bodies. A weekly tax was collected from every member, concerts and other entertainments swelled the receipts, until today the association of Ninety-eight Clubs stands before the world with over 1,000,000 dollars to its credit. How large will be the resources when 181)8 arrives it is hard to say, but the prophecy may be safely ventured that the centenary will " bang Bannagher " — and, as most Irishmen know, " Bannagher bangs the devil." The celebration will take the form of an invasion of the " Ould Dart " by Irish- Americans. Not an invasion by force of arms, with drums beating and bayonets fixed, but a peaceful and reverent revisiting of the Green Isle, and in particular of the scenes hallowed by rebel battles and rebel blood. This means simply that in the spring and summer of 1898 avast army of men, women and children — a conservative estimate places their number at 50,000 souls— is pledged to sail from this country and hold a grand gathering of the race among the glens and uplands of south-eastern Ireland. The preparations for this gathering of the Irish people are being made all over the country under the auspices of the Ninety-eight Club of New York city. This club was established in 1881, and has always enjoyed a large membership of conspicuous Irishmen of the metropolis. Its present president is John B. Vrely, well known in the dry goods trade, and the treasurer is Edward O'Flaherty, a member of a large retail establishment of New York. John B. Goff. Recorder of New York, is one of the leading spirits of the organisation, and others are ex-Commissioner of Street Cleaning, Thomas S. Brennan : Thomas F. Grady, Patrick J. Cody and James J. Stafford. The club has branches in every city in the East and middle West, where members of the Irish race exist in any numbers, as for instance in Frement, 0.. where the Rev. Patrick O'Brien, of St. Patrick's Church, is taking a leading part in the movement. An idea of the invasion's scope may be gathered from the fact that three ocean liners — the largest that can be obtained — have been already chartered to ferry the pilgrims to and fro. The steamers are to land their passengers at the ports of Kingstown and Waterford, according to where each family is to billeted. This billeting system is one of the features of the trip — a feature, too, which will pour many thousands of good American dollars into the hands of the Irish peasantry. For some months agents of the Ninety-eight Clubs have been at work selecting inns, farmers' houses, cottages, etc., in the counties of Wexford. Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Kildare and Wicklow (the area covered by the rebellion). The visitors will be quartered at these places, according to their means. It is proposed that the sojourn in Ireland shall cover a period of six weeks. During this time the path of the rebellion is to be traversed step by step. A committee of Irishmen learned in their country's history has been chosen to pilot the pilgrims from battlefield to battlefield. What appeared to be a serious obstacle in the way of the centenary has been overcome. The British Government, it was feared, would not consent to a celebration glorifying a direct onslaught upon its authority. For the last month a discreet agent has been busy in London and Dublin interiewing the heads of Government departments and the leaders of the two Irish political parties with a view to straightening out this difficulty. John Bull has shown more liberality than was expected, and last week the agent cabled to New York that her Majesty's Ministers would not interpose any objections to the '1)8 celebration. An important feature of the pilgrimage will be, as heretofore stated, the erection of monuments on all the principal scenes of the rebellion. A handsome cross of black Kilkenny marble will stand on the site of the old gates of Ross, where the Irish won a decisive battle. Vinegar Hill, the eminence whose feet are encircled by the Slaney, and whose stone-crowned summit overshadows the town of Enniscorthy, where the insurgents were crushingly and finally defeated, will be adorned with a broken granite shaft. Handsome monuments will be erected over the graves of Father John Murphy, _ Beauchamp, Bagenal, Harvey, Dudley Colclough, Esmond Kyanl and other leaders. Father John will be honoured with a tombstone cut in New York by one of his own kin. Tablets with suitable inscriptions will be placed at different points of interest, so that the youth of Ireland may read on every roadside some portion of history of the memorable struggle.

The theatre of the rebellion centres in the County Wexford, but extends over its borders into the counties of Kilkenny. Carlow, Kildare, and Wicklow, and even to the Dublin mountain*. In thib section all the fighting- of ' ( .)H was done. Hence it is to these counties that the great body of the visitors will turn.