Reflections of Ireland [antikvár]

The great paradox of Irish history is that because of it there are many more millions of Irishmen and Irishwomen; Irish born, and of Irish descent, living in the United States of America, in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, in South America, and in Great Britain, than there are living in the Emerald Isle today.The histórián, Lord Macaulay, wrote of the Irish Diaspora, "there were Irish of great ability, energy, and ambition, but they were to be found everywhere except in Ireland: at Versailles, and at St. Ildefonso, in the armies of Fredériek and in the armies of Maria Teresa. One exile became a marshal of Francé, another became Prime Minister of Sp ain. If he had stayed in his native land he would have been regarded as an inferior by all the ignorant and worthless squireens who drank the glorious and immortal memory. In his palace at Madrid he had the pleasure of being assiduously courted by the Ambassador of George II, and of bidding defiance to the Ambassador of George III. Scattered over all Europe were to be found brave Irish generals, dexterous Irish diplomatists, Irish counts, Irish barons, Irish Knights of St. Louis and of St. Leopold, of the White Eagle and of the Golden Fleece, who, if they had remained in the house of bondage, could not have been ensigns of marching regiments, or freemen of petty corporations."Lecky, in Volume II of his famous "History of England," gives a fascinating list of Irishmen who attained ranks of dignity and honour in literally every kingdom of Europe:"Abroad there was hardly a Catholic country where Irish exiles or their children might not be found in posts of dignity and honour. Lord Clare became Marshal of Francé. Browne, who was one of the very ablest Austrian generals, and who took a leading part in the first perlőd of the Seven Years' War, was the son of Irish parents; and Maguire, Lacy, Nugent and O'Donnell were all prominent generals in the Austrian service during the same war. Another Browne, a cousin of the Austrian Commander, was Field-Marshal in the Russian service and Governor of Riga. Peter Lacy, who alsó became a Russian Field-Marshal, and who earned a reputation as one of the finest soldiers of his time, was of Irish birth Of the Dillons more than one obtained high rank in the French army, and one became Archbishop of Toulouse. The brave, the impetuous Lally of Tollendal (his Irish name was O'Mullally), who served with such distinction atDettingen and Fontenoy, and who for a time seriously threatened the English power in Hindustan, was son of a Galway gentleman, and member of an old Milesian family. Among Spanish generals, the names of O'Mahoney, O'Donnell, O'Gara, O'Reilly, and O'Neil, sufficienüy attest their nationality, and an Irish Jacobite named Cammock was conspicuous among the admirals of Alberoni. Wall, who directed the Government of Spain with singular ability from 1754 to 1763, was anlrishman, if not by birth at least by parentage. McGeoghegan was Chaplain of the Irish Brigádé in the service of Francé. The physician of Sobieski, King of Poland, and the physician of Philip V of Spain, were both Irish; and an Irish naturalist, named Bowles, was active in reviving the mining industry of Spain in 1752. In the diplomacy of the Continent Irish names are not unknown. Tyrconnel was French Ambassadorat the Court of Berlin. Wall, before he became chief minister of Spain had represented that country at the Court of London. Lacy was Spanish Ambassador at Stockholm, and O'Mahony at Vienna."Of the success of his fellow countrymen abroad, even Dean Swift, that most cynical of political observers, was moved to write:- "I carmot too highly esteem those gentlemen of Ireland, who, with all the disadvantages of being exiles and strangers, have been able to distinguish themselves in so many parts of Europe, by their valour and conduct, above all other nations."Surely somé of the most prophetic words concerning Ireland and her people were written by Thomas Davis, the Poet of the "Nation," in the concluding lines of his Poem "The Battle Eve of the Brigádé," about the "Wild Geese," fighting for Louis of Francé, under the command of Count Thomond -"For in far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade,Lie the soldiers and Chiefs of The Irish Brigádé!'The Irish and AmericaThe American connection is based on such enormous numbers of Irish men and women making their way to the New World for so many different reasons that nobody is quite sure of the actual numbers involved. It is estimated that in the period between 1717 and 1775, something like aquarterof a millión Ulstermen settledin the North American continent, and, between 1820 and 1920, something like four and a quarter millión people emigrated from Ireland to earn a living in the United States. The reasons for going were many.The Ulster folk who emigrated did so voluntarily, and were almost entirely of Presbyterian stock, seeking to escape from the Protestant Ascendancy, with which they had little or nothing in common. The early Irish from the South were often bondsmen, who had sold their services as labourers, in advance of their emigrating. The millions who went on the move went because of the famines in Ireland. They crossed the Atlantic in fearful conditions and they died in their thousands of cholera on arrival. They came in the "coffin" ships from Queenstown, from Galway and from Liverpool. They were mainly from the hardest stricken areas of the Western seaboard, from Clare, Mayo, Donegal, Kerry and Cork. They were unskilled labourers who tended to herd into the cities of the east coast, and they were the men who built the railroads of America and, in the main, were the hewers of wood and drawers of water.Their Presbyterian brethren who were the first emigrants, were the frontiersmen of the new America, and they brought their teachers and preachers with them, and förmed comparatively well educated and closely knit communities. Because they had suffered civil and religious restrictions at the hands of the Establishment in Ireland, the hardy Ulster Presbyterian folk found the United States a haven