AN GAODHAL.
883
A SERMON FOR THE DRONES.
(From the Tuam News.)
I.
Brother, if you love your brother,
(Scorning base and foul intrigue)
Hold along aflicted mother,
Join the banner of her League;
Tell her scoundrel tyrants ever
That the land is yours of right,
That the war you wage shall never,
Cease till victory crowns your fight.
II.
Swear by all the sacred memories
Of your murdered martyred dead,
By the bones of sainted heroes,
By their blood in torrents shed,
Fitzgerald, Emmett, Wolf Tone.
Let these great names sanctify
The just oath you swear to Erin,
That her cause may never die.
III.
See your brothers in the vanguard
How they throttle now the foe,
That for centuries triumphant,
Laughed to scorn your tale of woe,
They are bleeding, faint and weary,
Yet the foe they bravely face,
Forward, help your wounded comrades,
A retreat would mean disgrace.
IV.
Yes, grim ruin and disaster
Will your portion ever be
If we prove not now the victors,
In this strife for liberty:
May the God of truth and justice
Bless our efforts in the fight
May He plunge the hated foeman
Into ruin black as night.
V.
Brothers call up to your memories
Mitchelstown and Mullaghmast,
Ah, the ghosts of murdered heroes
Make the foeman stand aghast,
These are mem'ries, oh, my brothers,
That will nerve you in the fight,
To work deeds of noble daring,
In your struggle for the right.
VI.
Therefore, falter not my brothers
When your work is nearly done,
Landlordism's last citadel,
Rocks from top to basement stone.
One assault and the whole fabric,
With a crash is overthrown.
Farewell brothers, to the onset,
Pull the grim old master down.
— CICERO.
Caltra, Oct. 6, 1888.
Following is one of some clippings
sent us by the Rev. E. D. Cleaver
from the TUAM News.
An old man named Ridge appeared
before the Tuam Board of Guardians
to seek relief. He spoke Irish.
Chairman — Cia'r'd tá uait?
Ridge — Beagán cónganta.
Chairman — An out-door relief tá uait?
Ridge — Seadh.
Chairman — Cia 'n aois tú? Tá tú cho
sean leis na cnoic, saoilim.
Ridge — Tá mé níos seine na thusa, air
chuma air bith.
Chairman — Bh-fuil teach no talamh agat?
Ridge — Tá bóthainín agus giodáinín
talmhan agam.
Chairman — Nothing but Gaelic here
any more, gentlemen.
Mr. Hughes — Bh-fuil bean agat?
Ridge — Ní'l.
Mr. Hughes — Níor phós tú ariamh?
Ridge — Maiseadh go deimhin phósas, acht
is fada 'san g-cré mo bhean.
Chairman — Téigh amach anois go d-tigidh
sinn do chás
Ridge — Mo ghairm thú.
The district relieving officer having
stated the circumstances of the case,
out-door relief was refused.
a' tastáil
Fifty years ago there was only one Catholic
diocese in all New England, that of Boston, with
only a handful of Catholics, ministered to by a
few missionary priests. There are now six Cath¬
olic dioceses in the New England States, with one
million two hundred thousand Catholic worship¬
ers, as follows :—
Boston, Mass.
400,000
Hartford, Conn.
200,000
Burlington, Vt.
200,000
Springfield, Mass.
150,000
Providence, R.I.
175,000
Manchester, N.H.
75,000
And nearly all these are Irish, or their immedi¬
ate descendants. One-third of the population of
Connecticut is Irish, and nearly one-half of the
population of Massachusetts, and forty per cent.
of the population of Maine, New Hampshire, and
Vermont is Irish and Catholic, and one-half of the
people of Rhode Island is Irish-American.
— Abridged from Donahoe's Magazine.
