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THE ·VIAT-O RIAN Fac et Spera . VOLUME 24
MARCH l907
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' NUMBER 6
THE STUDY OF IRISH HISTORY.
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J.. J. Corcoran, 'o8.
J7rHE.RE is no need to make an appeal to the Irish people for a love of their country, for this is one of their noblest traits .. The seventeenth of March in every clime sees the Irishman with the sprig of green in his coat lapel; but true as the Irish are to their ,native land, they have grown somewhat indifferent as to a study · of its history. We, the children of Irish parentage, should study the history of Ireland. Why? Because it speaks to us of the trials which Ireland has undergone; of her religious persecution~; of her statesmen, her saints, and the opposite of her s·aints, her enemies. . If the . History of Ireland is not on the curriculum of our schools, it should be the pride of every Irish fath~r to .purchase an Irish history and add it to his library. Let it occupy the same shelf as the Irish Lives of the Saints fbr both go hand in hand in completing the true history of Ireland, . It is astonishing what a vast knowledge of Irish history some of our Irishmen - have. It did my heart · good a few years ago to hear a dear old Irishman relate to me many stirring events which took place. in Ireland years ago, but it thrilled me more, when he :r elated in verse, stanza after stan?a, the brave deeds of Ireland's statesmen and warriors. This old man was but a tender of a tool chest for a street gang in Chicago, but in my eyes he wa~ more than a common workman, worn out with years of toil, for he had within his breast the history and le>re of clear old Ireland. Was he not a living history of that dear country which he called motHer? vVas he not a dutiful son, s·i nging the virtues and brave deeds of that mother? No doubt he had been an eyewitness to many of the things which he had related to · me. "We have· been Jdefeated," said he, ubut not conquered.' ' And I answered in the words of St. Paul, "Your cotmtry, dear friend, has ·fought a good fight; she has run a good race, and above all, she has kept her faith."
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