Treaty of Limerick Broken.—In 1692, contrary to the articles of the treaty of Limerick, the Catholics were excluded from the Irish Parliament. Education of a Catholic child, shortly afterwards, was declared to be a serious crime. Catholics were required to take an oath declaring the mass damnable. No Catholic could learn a trade.
In 1701, contrary to the treaty of Limerick, Catholic solicitors were disqualified. Priests found in Ireland were branded with redhot irons on the cheeks. The law made it death to shelter, and penal servitude to know where a priest was concealed and not to inform the government. Priests were dragged from the altars, branded, disemboweled, quartered, hanged and transported. A Catholic could not have a horse worth more than five pounds (twenty-five dollars). Any Protestant tendering a Roman Catholic five pounds for his horse, the horse would have to go.
Flight of Wild Geese.—The young Irishmen of that period rushed to France and were called "Wild Geese." Catholics could not send their children to be educated at home or abroad, and Catholic doctors were not allowed.
The Irish Brigade at Fontenoy, France.—At Fontenoy, France, on Tuesday, the 11th of May, 1745, the Irish Brigade in battle swept before them the British and their flag. The war cry was "Revenge! Remember Limerick!! Dash down the Sassenach!!!" From that day onward Irish priests and Irish Catholics could move about without the danger of being hanged or transported. At Fontenoy the Irish exiles made the British ministry conscious of the harsh and unjust manner in which they had treated the Irish Catholics, and gradually the penal laws were forced to disappear.
American Revolution.—In 1775, Irishmen were found very active in the cause of the American Revolution. Shortly after, England granted Ireland an independent Parliament. This Parliament is known as "Grattan's Parliament." The progress of Ireland under her own Parliament surprised the world and immediately England set about for its destruction. In 1801, Ireland was again a bleeding nation—her Parliament was gone. Although an Irish Catholic could not sit in Irish Parliament, yet the people expected Catholic emancipation from it much sooner than from the British Parliament.
Tithes and Orangemen.—During all this time Roman Catholics resisted the payment of tithes to the parson. The parson was a minister of the Protestant church, who was substituted for the priest and never ministered to a Roman Catholic. Catholics were compelled by law to give one-tenth of their crops to the support of the Protestant Church without receiving anything in return but insult and injury. Then came the landlord, giving nothing but claiming everything to the body and souls of the tenants. Up until the land agitation the buildings and all improvements made or erected by the tenant became the property of the landlord. In order to keep Ireland divided, the wealth and power of the Unionist (capitalist) class from England to New Zealand is still lavished on a body of foreigners in the North of Ireland, called "Orangemen."
Orangemen.—It must be remembered that it is not the Orangemen alone the Irish have to contend with in their fight for Home Rule, but the whole power and wealth of the Unionist Party in England, Scotland, Ireland, India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The English under the color and pretense of peacemakers and Christians are always doing the utmost in their power to sow the seeds of discord and dissension amongst the Irish people. One of the sharpest wedges they can drive to divide the people is religion. If the English Unionists believed that by granting Home Rule they could set Irishmen fighting, a full measure would be granted in eight hours.
Irish Patriots.—Amongst the Irish patriots the following Protestants took a leading part for Irish freedom, namely, Charles Stewart Parnell, Sir Isaac Butt, Henry Grattan and Robert Emmett. Their names, with many others, Ireland will hold in grateful remembrance.
Every blade of grass that grows on Irish soil is consecrated by the blood of Irishmen, women and children, shed in the cause of freedom. England, in her efforts to destroy the Irish language, the Catholic religion and the nationality of the country, tried the rack, gibbet, pitch-cap, quartering, coercion, famines, bribery and every barbarous and refined form of cruelty, without success. The war between Sax and Celt will rage hot and fierce until the last vestige of English misrule is swept from the green hills of Erin.
Taxation and Refunds.—By the Unionist Parliament, whiskey was taxed much heavier than beer. Few Irishmen drink beer, but many of them drink whiskey, while nearly every man and woman in England likes to have beer. After a careful study of Irish customs, every taxable article desired by the Irish was especially aimed at. To make the tax appear just, the sum for the same quantity was raised alike all over the United Kingdom. By such plans and others of the like, Ireland was robbed of over $28,000,000 a year, outside of her proper proportion, not to mention the millions the landlords or other office pets took out of the country. Money raised in Ireland went into the British treasury. Recently the England Parliament would make a grant of a few million pounds to Ireland for some purpose, the largest portion of which would go to some English pets holding offices of some kind in Ireland. Then a cry would be raised of "millions of English money granted by a generous government to Ireland." The truth is that in such grants the Irish people only received back a small portion of their own money.