CATHOLIC IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 6 November 1919, Page 34

CATHOLIC IRELAND.

“Before England was born into the ' family of nations, 'lreland' was an autonomy, recognised as such by contemporary races. " When ’ Albion was inhabited by a barbarous and savage people, Ireland was in the height fof prosperity. When the Anglo-Saxons .were tearing each other to pieces* Ire- • land was possessed of a settled Government, and was administered by wise laws, so ancient f - that no one knows precisely the period* of i their first promulgation. When this country (England) was remarkable • for * its ignorance and brutality Ireland was celebrated for her culture and civilisation. When St. Augustine was preaching to the heathen, and when* Ethelbert was , receiving baptism, when Alfred was a wanderer, Ireland was i sending forth missionaries all over the world, spreading everywhere the Gos- | pel and civilisation. When the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were laid, the Colleges of Ireland had long been flourishing seats of learning, j imparting to all who came to - her schools knowledge and truth. Ireland j can assert, what no other existing kingdom or State can say, that her history is lost in the mazes of antiquity, and that her era of barbarism j belongs to prehistoric times.” Colin Lindsay. ■ ‘