JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY’S ANNIVERSARY

New Zealand Tablet, 3 September 1914, Page 17

JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY’S ANNIVERSARY

SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY COMMEMORATEp IN •i BOSTON. ■ ■ %

| On the evening of June 28, the John Boyle O’Reilly Association of Boston celebrated the seventieth birthday* of the illustrious Irishman in Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American Independence, and seldom has the old pile had a more enthusiastic audience, made up of men and 'women from all walks of life (says the Catholic Bulletin \ . The, hall was appropriately decorated with flags and bunting, and a dasn of color was given by the beautiful flag of green that* flanked one side of the stage. The orchestra started a martial air as the guests of the evening entered the hall and marched to the stage,' and the presiding officer introduced as master of ceremonies the famous Joe Smith, the man who recently complained of the supineness of the Catholics for not protesting vigorously against the vile sheet, The Menace. -

11l Mr. Smith, for years a writer on the Pilot and now the, editor of Truth, is an intense, strong, race-loving Irishman, though not a Catholic. In his happy, witty style, famous all over New England, he declared it a delightful occasion for him personally, and a privilege also for one who knew Boyle O’Reilly in his youth to be asked to preside at the meeting, held to do honor to the memory of a man, who won the love and respect of : all men a man who is revered not alone because he wjis Irish, but because of the immortal words he has left to posterity; a man, a true-born poet, who has spoken words that will not die,. and nowhere in the world ought his memory to be held dearer than in dear old Boston* the city to which he came, having plunged through the fires of hell,—-an Australian prison camp. Here in Boston,. O’Reilly, by his kindness and culture, personally gave to the narrow Puritan a new type of Irishman, and the Irish of the present day owe to him a debt of gratitude, and if to-day they hold places of honor and fill worthy positions it is due to the pioneer work of the big-hearted Boyle O’Reilly. He urged his hearers to take O’Reilly as their model and not to pattern their lives after the cheap Irishman, who is no more loved than the cheap Yankee. Both are a despised type in New England. O’Reilly’s coming to Boston was through the efforts of an old-fashioned Yankee, who is with us to-night. After being thrust %' into hell, and having . endured what would have destroyed the vitality of most men, but like the crude ord put through the purifying process, O’Reilly came forth pure steel, all the . dross gone. Here in Boston he lived and preached the pure, vigorous, sturdy manhood, , and I want *to see all young Americans not only quoting O’Reilly, but I want them to live as O’Reilly lived. ‘ . O’Reilly by- his charming personality . won ' the hearts of all mankind, much as that famous -Bostonian, General Walker, did at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Trinity College, Dublin. : General | Walker, president of the well-known Institute of Technology, puzzled his. brain as to the subject of his address and, being a veteran' of the civil war and observed the valor and : endurance of the Irish Brigade and the "fighting Ninth,, decided to make them . the subject of his discourse. There, in the den of Toryism, he praised the Irish troops, fighting in defence of the flag of the Union. So powerful was his address that the students, : much to the chagrin ;of the ; dons, arose en masse and cheered him to the echo. Thus did O’Reilly reach the hearts of men. ~

He then introduced Mr. J. Mitchell Galvin, a personal friend of ; O’Reilly, .who 'paid a loving tribute to the illustrious Irishman and quoted the closing words spoken at the dedication of O’Reilly’s monument in the Fenway, by the late president of Tuft’s College, Elmer H. Gapin’; To him O’Reilly; was the; most accomplished Irishman since the days of Edmund Burke.

With a very delightful introduction' Mr. Smith presented the mayor of the city, Mr, James Curly. The audience rose and cheered the mayor, whose rich, deep voice in his tribute to O’Reilly called forth rounds of applause. , v

When the mayor finished his cultured address, Mr. Smith introduced; the, next speaker, orator of the occasion, an honored judge in the city, Hon. Michael J. Murray, an ‘ American with the right kind of Irish slant.’ • •;

1 For an hour the judge, in his characteristic style, paid a glowing tribute to the great man whose memory was being honored, and in the course of his oration referred to the one man who made it possible for O’Reilly to come to Americaold Captain Hathaway, who was forced to stand upon the platform while the audience gave three hearty cheers. He closed the exercises by a loving tribute to the flag of O’Reilly’s adopted country and the flag of his home. ’ The following extract from the late President Elmer H. Capin’s eulogy at the dedication of O’Reilly’s monument, was quoted by Mr. J. Mitchell Galvin during the evening:—‘ Such, in my poor and fragmentary speech, was the man whose monument we , have reared—the broadest-minded and most accomplished Irishman since Edmund Burke, one of the few rare and transparent souls to whom out of all the races, the last half of the nineteenth century has decreed an immortality of fame. We place him here in our Valhalla. The venerable Puritan founders of this glorious commonwealth, the mighty leaders of the revolutionary epoch, the soldiers whose blood moistened <ftid rendered sacred forever the soil of Bunker Hill, the matchless orators and heroes of anti-slavery reform, the . nameless hosts who with the first echoes of Sumter’s guns grasped their muskets and marched to the defence of the Republic, must all lie a little closer in their graves to make room for this lover of mankind. Here we set his memorial in the public square, embellished with all the. grace and beauty that art can bestow. Let those who go swarming past it, day after day, fleeing from the dust and turmoil of the city, seeking the fields and woods beyond, turn their eyes hither, and recall the happy -hearted, sunny soul, to whom the song of birds and the voice of running waters were ever like angel’s voices speaking of Paradise. Let the disheartened reformer pause here for a moment and hear him say,’as it were out of the open heaven : - - . “I know That when God gives us the clearest light He does not touch our eyes with love, but sorrow.” ‘Let the hunted fugitive, speaking in an alien tongue, or our English speech with an alien accent, set down his knapsack beside, these stones, and, remembering the welcome which America gave to the stranger be assured that here* there is room for honest work and patriotic effort whether men are native to the soil or foreign born. Let him who would serve his country by pen, or speech or sword, look : on these symbols in bronze and find his patriotism renewed. Let the children of the poor, as they .behold this monument, he ; reminded that it is neither wealth nor station but honorable service that secures for men under the Stars and Stripes affection and renown. Let the high-bred youth of this great city, who may be tempted to scorn the poor and lowly, pause and listen before- this noble pile, and he will learn the lesson which the rich must learn for safety : . , < , * “That the bluest blood is putrid blood, . " That the people’s blood is red.” ’ "