AN GAODHAL.
355
But better still than all the rest — (how pleasant 'tis to tell);
You never lost your love for that old tongue we love so well :—
Old Erinn's tongue, the sweet and bland — the tongue of Chief and Bard,
Still kept its place within your heart and held your high regard.
A Bard you were when none were found to sound its praises high,
Its tattered symbol you upraised against the Irish sky,
You raised to life the grand old tongue and music of the Gael ;—
Oh ! long the day ere we shall see your like, brave JOHN MACHALE!
The living language of our sires can never hope to find
A nobler advocate than you — a friend more real and kind;
The light that shone on its rough path is quenched through future years,
And Erinn's guiding light is drowned beneath her mist of tears.
When listing to that news we heard Death's tidings in the air,
There fell upon our inmost hearts a cry of wild despair,
Oh ! sorrowful are we this day! Oh! pitiful our case —
Our happiness is fled for aye, — Misfortune grows apace.
The hour your blissful soul to God had winged its joyful flight.
A crushing blow fell on our hearts and seared them like a blight,
When, in your coffin, you were laid there rose a piercing wail
From Erin's heart — her light and love went with you, JOHN MACHALE.
We see, by a report in the Brooklyn Eagle,
that some members of the St. Patrick Society pur¬
pose erecting a monument to the late Mr. Thomas
Kinsella in Prospect Park, basing such action or
the fact of his being a representative Irishman.
We regarded Mr. Kinsella as a very clever world¬
ly Irishman who, by his splendid talent and indom¬
itable will power, raised himself from obscurity to
a commanding position among his fellow-citizens.
But in all other respects he did not possess a sing¬
le trait characteristic of the Irish race.
Thomas Kinsella was extolled and feasted by a
class of persons who invariably lionize any Irish¬
man who deviates from that path of conduct and
morality which distinguishes the representative
Irishman.
We understand that at least three-fourths of the
members of the society are opposed to the contem¬
plated action, and we regret that they have not the
moral courage to openly express their sentiments
and thereby put an end to it.
This is not the first time that the Irish character
has suffered through the timidity of Irishmen them¬
selves to openly maintain their convictions. The
St. Patrick society has not been, these years past
an organization representative of Irish sentiment.
It is now cosmopolitan, and as an Irishman, we
will not passively permit it to libel the Irish char¬
acter by indorsing Mr. Kinsella's career, as its rep¬
resentative.
We regret to be thus forced into the revival of
matters which we would sooner see forgotten. But
the best way to avoid being stung by a nettle is to
grasp it. Should the handful of the members of
the St. Patrick Society who originated this project
persevere in their intentions, it is the dut of Irish¬
men to assemble and disclaim any sympathy with
it, otherwise the actions of these few, supported
and promulgated by a powerful anti-Irish press,
would pass as that of the many, and would brand
the representative Irishman as — the prototype of
Thos. Kinsella. The St. Patrick Society's actions
are a libel on Irishmen, and the sooner it disbands
the better.
The Truth Scanton, Pa. we are pleased to see
is now being published daily, and conducted by
Irishmen. Irishmen are at the head of every en¬
terprise in the country requiring intelligence, and
yet, the New York (English) Times tells us that
Irishmen are not sufficiently intelligent to be en¬
trusted with the management of their own affairs !
The Irish element in Brooklyn has now an able
weekly newspaper — the Catholic Examiner, and
should liberally support it. Irish fathers and mo¬
thers make a very great mistake when they neglect
to supply their children with wholesome re ding
matter — the Examiner is such.
