That invader and invaded should hate each other bitterly is not of any particular importance as bearing on nationality; it is the experience of all lands and races. Presbyterian Murphys and McManuses are no argument for Scotch Murphys and McManuses; it may indicate intermarriage and change of religious faith; it can’t indicate a change of blood. The transformation of bogs and fens into gardens is merely a fairy story; the bogs and fens are in Ulster to-day. The fertile valleys of Ulster, ready to be entered on, were the bait to catch settlers, for the defeated and disheartened native Irish had been driven to the barren hills and bogs. Men as a rule don’t risk life and fortune for the privilege of transforming bogs into gardens in a hostile country; and, moreover, Motley says England and Scotland in that age had the rudest system of agriculture in Europe. The higher system of agriculture, as well as the woolen and linen industries, came with the skilled exiles from Holland and France; and even as great a plunderer as Wentworth was wise enough to foster them. And I might ask, why didn’t these marvelous Scots make their own country famous for woolen and linen industries, when they made their own laws and could snap their fingers at English jealousy?
Finally, if these people were Scotch “slightly hibernicized,” why did they on their arrival in America organize “Irish societies”? Why did they name towns and rivers with Irish names? Why did they celebrate St. Patrick’s day rather than St. Andrew’s?
It will pay Professor Fiske to examine into the Irish emigration of the eighteenth century and learn, as less erudite people have done, that as much of this stream flowed from Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Dublin, and English Bristol as from Ulster; and that Leinster and Munster poured in nearly as many Irish to Colonial America as did the northern provinces. What he is unwittingly doing is settling up the abhorrent dividing lines of religion and marking off our race into “Irish-Irish” and “Scotch-Irish” upon the lines of Catholicity and Protestantism. I as one of the Protestant Irish most strenuously object; the name Irish was good enough for my fathers; their son is proud to wear it as they did; and we must all insist that the Irish, without prefixes, without hyphens, without any qualification, all children of a common and well-loved motherland, shall be given their full measure of credit for the splendid work done by the race in America.
If Professor Fiske is true to himself and the principles and canons of his calling, he will find the truth and tell it, and waste no valuable time chasing myths and will-o’-the-wisps.
As an indication of the great interest of the occasion it may be remarked that the exercises were not brought to a close until 2.30 o’clock the next morning. Before adjourning, resolutions of condolence on the loss of the U. S. S. Maine were adopted by a standing vote, and the Secretary-General was instructed to transmit a copy of the resolutions to the President of the United States and to the Secretary of the Navy.
On Friday afternoon the members of the society were given a reception by Hon. John D. Crimmins, at his home, 40 East 68th Street. It was a most charming occasion. About forty gentlemen attended, including Dr. Emmet and his son; General O’Beirne and Captain McCrystal, of New York; and P. J. Flatley, of Boston; Thomas Hamilton Murray, of Rhode Island; J. F. Swords, of Hartford; O’Meagher Condon, of Washington, D. C.; Joseph Smith, of Lowell, Mass.; James Jeffrey Roche, Thomas B. Lawler, Michael Brennan, and many others.
The company first inspected Mr. Crimmins’s fine library and were shown many books and manuscripts, some of them of great rarity and value. A lunch was then served, after which the visitors were shown the magnificent collection of paintings for which Mr. Crimmins is so well known among lovers of art.
THE AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
When and where Founded.
The American-Irish Historical Society was founded on the evening of Jan. 20, 1897, at a meeting called for that purpose, and held in the Revere House, Boston, Mass. Over forty gentlemen were present. The Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, of Boston, presided. Thomas Hamilton Murray, then editor of the Daily Sun, Lawrence, Mass., was secretary of the meeting. The provisional committee that had attended to the preliminary work included Mr. Murray, just mentioned; Mr. James Jeffrey Roche, editor of the Boston Pilot; Mr. Joseph Smith, Secretary of the Police Commission, Lowell, Mass.; Mr. Thomas B. Lawler, of the publishing house, Ginn & Company, Boston, Mass.; and Hon. John C. Linehan, State Insurance Commissioner, Concord, N. H. Four states—Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island—were represented among those in attendance. Letters conveying good wishes were received from Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and the District of Columbia.