THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 7 April 1921, Page 7

THE STORY OF IRELAND

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

• Chapter LXXlV.—‘'The Penal Times. ” li How “Protestant Ascendancy” by a Bloody Penal Code Endeavored to Beautify the Mind, 1 Destroy the T Intellect, and Deform the Physical and Moral; Features of . the Subject. Catholics. ,, , f , v , 5 It was now there fell upon Ireland that night of deepest horror—that agony the most awful, the most prolonged, of any recorded on the blotted page of human suffering. •• s ;i It would, be little creditable to an, Irish Catholic to own ; himself capable of narrating this chapter of Irish history with calmness and without all conquering emotion. For my part I content myself with citing: the descriptions of it supplied by Protestant and English writers. ■ * “The eighteenth century,” says one of these, writing on the penal laws in Ireland, “was the era of per-, secution, in which the law did the work of the I sword, more effectually : and more - safely. Then was established a code framed with almost diabolical, ingenuity to extinguish natural affection—to foster perfidy and hypocrisy petrify conscience—to perpetuate brutal ignorance— to facilitate the work of tyranny/rendering the vices of slavery inherent and natural in the Irish character, and...to make Protestantism almost irredeemably odious as the monstrous incarnation of all moral perversions. • “Too well,” he continues, “did it accomplish its deadly work of debasement on the intellects, morals, and physical condition of a people sinking •in degeneracy from age to age, till all manly spirit, all virtuous sense of personal independence and responsibility,* was nearly extinct, and the very features—vacant, timid, cunning, and unreflectivebetrayed the crouching slave within !” ...... In the presence of the terrible facts he is .called upon to chronicle, the generous nature of the Protestant historian whom I am quoting warms i into indignation. Unable to endure the reflection that they who thus labored to deform and brutify the Irish people are for ever reproaching them before the world for bearing traces of the infamous effort, he bursts forth into the following noble vindication of the calumniated victims of oppression : w “Having no rights or franchises—no legal protection of life or property—disqualified to handle a gun, even as a common soldier or. a gamekeeper—forbidden to acquire the elements of knowledge at home or abroad —forbidden even to render to God what conscience nictated as His due —what could the Irish be but abject serfs ? What nation in their circumstances could have been otherwise ? Is it not amazing that any social virtue could have survived such, an ordeal?—that any seeds of good, any roots of national greatness; could have outlived such a long tempestuous winter?,*.’, r “These laws,” he continues, “were aimed not only at the religion of the Catholic, but still more, at his liberty and his property. He could enjoy no freehold property, nor was he allowed to have a lease for a longer term than 31 years ; but as even this term was long enough to encourage an industrious man s i to )rec aim waste lands and improve his worldly; circum-' stances, it was enacted that if a Papist should have a farm producing a profit greater than one-third of the lent, his j right to such should immediately cease, and pass over to the first Protestant who should discover the rate of profit!” « . y as the age that gave to Irish topography he Corrig-an-Affrion,” found, so Thickly marked on every barony map in Ireland. “The Mass-Rock!” What memories cling around each hallowed moss-clad stone or rocky ledge on the mountain side, or in the deep recess »of some desolate glen, whereon’, for years and years, the Holy Sacrifice was offered up in stealth and secrecy, the death-penalty hanging over priest and worshipper! - Not infrequently Mass was interrupted by the approach of the bandogs of the law; for, quick-

©ned by thp- rewards to be earned, there sprang up in those days the infamous trade •of priest-hunting, “five pounds” being equally the government fprice for -the head of a priest as for the head of a wolf. The utmost care was necessary in divulging intellio-ence of the uio-hf. on which Mass would next .be celebrated; and when the congregation had furtively stolen to the spot, sentries were 1 posted all around before the Mass began. . Yet in instances not a - few, the worshippers were taken by surprise, and the blood of the murdered priest wetted the altar stone. ' } Well might our Protestant national poet, Davis, exclaim, contemplating this deep night-time of suffering and sorrow Oh! weep those days—the penal days, When Ireland hopelessly complained: . Oh ! weep those days—-the penal days, When godless persecution reigned. They bribed the flock, they bribed the son. To sell the priest and rob the sire; I- Their dogs were taught alike to run Upon the scent of wolf and friar. Among the poor, i Or on the moor, Were hid the pious and the true — While traitor knave And recreant slave Had riches, rank, and retinue ; And, exiled in those penal days,, Our banners over Europe blaze. A hundred years of such a code in active operation. ought, according to all human calculations to have succeeded in accomplishing its malefic puriiose. But i again, all human calculations, all natural consequences and probabilities, were set aside, and God as if by a miracle, preserved the faith, the virtue, the vitality and power of the Irish race. He decreed that they should win a victory more glorious than a hun-' dred gained on the battle-field —more momentous in its future results—in their triumph over the penal Irish rMdfr hre v half ? tUrieS of seeming death, J-nsh Catholicity has rolled away the stone from its guarded sepulchre, and walked forth full of life' It Tnd hUn ?s n l aith that ’ after SUch a crucifixion T|l . bu f ial ’ , could thus arise glorious and immortal l This triumph the greatest, has been Ireland’s: and fut“o?vi^ g ° 0d tlme ’ Will assured, y S l ™ her the (To be continued.)