152
AN GAODHAL.
THE DYING CELT TO HIS AMERICAN SON.
My son, a darkness falleth,
Not of night, upon my eyes,
And in my ears there calleth
A voice as from the skies.
I feel that I am dying,
I feel my day is done,
Bid the women hush their crying
And hear to me, my son.
When Time my garland gathers,
O my son! I charge you hold
By the standard of your fathers
In the battle-fields of old!
In blood they wrote their story
Across its field, my boy;
On earth it was their glory,
In Heaven it is their joy.
By St. Patrick's hand ’twas planted
On Erin's sea-beat shore,
And it spread its folds, undaunted,
Throug the drift and the uproar.
Of all its vain assaulters,
Who could ever say he saw
The last of Ireland's altars,
Or the last of Patrick's law?
Through the Western ocean driven,
By the tyrant's scorpion whips,
Behold! the hand of Heaven
Bore our standard o'er the ships
In the forest's far recesses,
When the moon shines in at night,
The Celtic cross now blesses
The weary wanderer's sight!
My son, my son! there falleth
Deeper darkness on my eyes;
And the Guardian Angel calleth
Me by name from out the skies.
Dear, my son, I charge thee cherish
Christ's holy cross o'er all ;
Let whatever else may perish,
Let whatever else may fall!
McGee.
But, Erin, you never had mourned the sight,
Had you brandished your spear in your own good
fight!
Had you boldly stood on your mountain crag,
And waved o’er the valley your own green flag,
Soon, soon should the stranger have found his grave
Beneath the wild foam of your ocean wave.“
Beidh an Ghaedhilge faoi mheas fós
THE FORMATION OF SOCIETIES.
We are pleased to see that there is
a wide-spread desire to organize Gael¬
ic societies in several cities and towns
in the United States. We have had
several personal communications on the
subject — a good many of them asking
for information as to the best means
of organizing, but we could not spare
time to write to them personally — This
is a good way to organize — Get as
many of your friends as you can to
meet at a specified place and time, don't
wait to get a large crowd to organize
— many important events had their or-
igin in the energy of a few men — get
a few first books, study yourself a les¬
son or so before your class; don’t allow
the members of the class, or anybody
else to put questions beyond what they
are after learning; don't be ashamed
because you have not a thorough know¬
ledge of the written language.
Meet once a week, once a month
or, as often as you can; try to enlist
the co-operation of your lady friends
— from experience we have found the
ladies far more plucky and patriotic
than the men; plan a set of rules for
the purpose of keeping order, allow no
angry discussions at your meetings
and allow no intoxicated persons to
be present at them. We wish the Hi-
bernians and Alliance would put it
before them to have simple Gaelic les¬
sons at their monthly meetings, and
have their pass-words in the Irish lan-
guage, then they could consistently
claim to be patriotic Irishmen.
Those residing in the neighborhood of New
York and Brooklyn will receive thorough instruc-
tion in the Irish Language by calling at either of
the following places. —
Clarendon Hall, Nos. 114 & 116 13th St. N. Y.
Wednesday and Sunday evenings ; 295 Bowery,
Thursday and Sunday evenings, at Jefferson Hall,
junction of Adams, Willoughby and Fulton Sts.,
Thursday and Sunday evenings, at 8 o'clock.
Every family should have the CELTIC MAGAZINE,
published by J. Haltigan, 117 John st., N. Y.
The Tuam News publishes weekly very inter-
esting Gaelic matter.
