1ut 3, 1909. July 3, 1909 [.11..5 CLAIDI:SA:id• SOL'UIS.]
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It _was this city to wh_ich _in :\Iay, 1574, the Spanish general \t aldez laid s1_e�e. The besieged had a very small stock of provisions and scarcely any regul�r troops, but 'all, even the women, took part in the defence. The main reliance of the citizens was in William the Silent who was endeavouring to collect forces to help them and who wrote bidding them stand firm, for that on them probably depended the fate of their country and the freedom of unborn generations. On the other hand, there were not wanting IY1any unworthy men of their own race who had thro�n in their lot with the enemy and were fighting on the Spanish side. These " Glippers " as they were nicknamed, addressed letters to their rebellious kinsfolk in the town urging t�em to su�n1it to Philip's clemency, " to take pity on their old fathers, their daughters and their wives," but the only reply vouchsafed was an expression of defiance and contempt, and all through the months of May and June the siege went on, and though hunger began to rage there was no talk of surrender. Prince William's first efforts to raise the siege had failed, his forces had been defeated. What was now to be done? But one resource remained. The great dykes along the Meuse and Yssel still remained in the hands of the Hollanders and if these were pierced the sea would flow in up to the very walls of Leyden and the Spaniards would be forced to retreat. But what did this involve ? That thousands and thousands of acres of fertile soil, the result of years of patient labour, would be buried under the waters, that hundreds of villages, the dwellings of thousands of families, would be ruined· that these families would be reduced to beggary: for 'the crops which were all the riches of the poor peasants would be sacrificed. And for what was all this ?-for what " practical " people would call a '' sentiment ''-for under the Spanish dominion these farmers and traders would have suffered directly no very considerable material damage. No wonder that the Spanish soldiery, themselves belonging to a great empire in which from its very vastness the fire of patriotism had begun to cool, ridiculed the idea that the Estates, the representatives of the people, would ever consent to a project involving such heroic self-sacrifice. " Go up to the towers, ye Beggars,'' the sen tries used to cry mocking at the hopes of the besieged, '' go up to the towers and tell us if ye see the ocean coming to your relief." No wonder that when William brought forward the proposal to open the dykes the Estates hesitated and delayed. At length on August r z th a message came from Leyden. "We have kept our promise, we have held out two months, and now we are starving: when will the promised relief be sent?" Now in the city the flesh of cats and dogs was a rare luxury, roots and grass were eaten, and multitudes died of sheer hunger. Then the patriotic enthusiasm of the Estates was kindled-'' better a drained land thana lost land," they cried, and they passed the resolution that gave leave to William leave to open the dykes and which thereby devoted their own fertile fields to destruction. No time was lost; the peasants were bidden to collect what moveable property they could and to take refuge in the towns, and the dykes were pierced in several places. A violent storm at sea assisted the work, the waves of the ocean dashed in over the ruined dykes and swept across the low-lying land. The Spaniards fled with what speed they could, yet not so speedily as to escape unh�rt, for they lost many of their troops by drowning, and the Dutch fleet sailed in triumphantly over the waters laden with bread and meat for the starving patriots who had deserved so well of their country. As a reward for their heroic defence the Estates offered the inhabitants of Leyden either freedom from taxes ora university. They chose like wise men the university, and this university still remains and is one of the most famous in central Europe. . . The siege of Leyden is but one episode in .the long war, the fortunes of which were vaned. In 1585 Alexander Farnese took Antwerp after a long siege. In 1584, a year earlier, th� heroic William the Silent had fallen bv the pistol of an assassin, his last words being : · "My God, have mercy on this poor people ''-but the Be_ggars struggled on. Gradually the southern provinces, these which now constitute the country of Belgium, fell off from the rest'; n1ai!1lY Catholi�, they were more in syn1pathy with C�thohc Spain than were the northern ones. Finally, a compromise was effected ; the northern provinces were formed into an independent republic to be ruled bv a Stadholder or President, while the southern · ones remained attached to on the whole had been Spain-the Beazars bt:> Yictorious. �IA.IRE �I AODAIN.
IRISH CULTURE AND THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.
the name that is to he his for all time, takes arms, drives away in his chariot to the Ford in Sliablr[Fuaidh, and returns to the Red Branch laden with the spoils of his victory over their enemies. The pageant turned upon this argument and was worthy of it. The audience had It was not the nothing for it but praise. meaningless conventional praise of people who say :-" most interesting ! " " very excellent, indeed ' " " quite pretty," and then yawn dismally while they look round for something to eat. It was the praise of people who had been genuinely delighted. They had been instructed as well as entertained. But that was not all. They had been able to glance back for a moment into the past. They had seen a triumph of art coming out of the ancient civilisation of Ireland, and it had made them prouder than ever of our common heritage. Fine dramatic effects were in the pageant, and it was at times very spirited in movement, and alwavs beautiful in its chaste scheme of Gaelic colouring. But this was not enough to account for the afternoon's success. The spirit with which the youthful performers entered into the pageant was the thing which counted most. \Ve are not going to talk of the technique of acting. A school performance is not the place to look for it. But those lads at Sgoil Eanna had that which was better than technique, and without which all dramatic art is hollow and tiresome. They not only acted that passage of the Saga. They lived it. They believed in it to that extent, and their pride in it, transfigured them. By God's infinite goodness this miracle has happened in Ireland in our time. The heroes of the Red Branch have come back. The language of the Red Branch has brought them, at the bidding of the Most High. The noble comradeship, the pride of high thought· and deed, the chivalry of the olden time have come into the hearts of the modern Boy Corps. Last Christmas some of them did not know a word of Irish, A few months of Irish education and they are as Irish as Cuchulainn. Irish is spoken by most of the visitors all It rings in the speech with which through. Eoin MacNeill inaugurates the distribution of prizes, and in those made by Padraic Mac Piarais to give an account of his stewardship and by Dr. Henry commenting on the work of the year. In the class rooms are Irish schedules, on the prize books are Irish inscriptions. In the teaching are Irish technologies. In the playIn the garden and ground are Irish games. orchard the wonderful Irishman in charge gives flowers and fruits their Irish names, and tells the boys how to speak of the produce of Irish earth in the language of Ireland. Irish work ; Irish play ; Irish mind; Irish thought ; Irish heart; Irish emotion ; Irish faith; Irish purpose ; Irish education ; Irish character. This, indeed, is Ireland. Senators of the National University'of Ireland, Academic Councils, and the like; here is an earnest of the future, here is the making of the pace for the march of Irish educational thought. This College is alone in the field of Irish secondary education to-day. But in a few years it will have companions. The day is coming when no parent claiming to be Irish will think twice of choosing between the kind of education given at Sgoil Eanna and the education given under the disastrous system which is passing. The system of education which would paralyse and enslave Irish intellect and reduce Irish character to a calculating machine mounted for the service of the main chance is doomed. The flag of revolt against it has been raised, and will be carried to victory. No human agency can now prevent the regeneration of Irish education. It is coming as surely as to-morrow's sun. Instead of trying to prevent its inevitable advance or seeking to keep aloof from it, the National University of Ireland should meet the new order of things with faith and courage, and declare at once for essential Irish. CHE BUONO.
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THE CUCHULAI�� PAGEANT AT SGOIL EANNA. Purple, and white, and green, and saffron, broaches, cloaks and kilts, war pipes, and spears and shields, an ancient dun, the seat 0£ an Irish king. An ancient smithy from which rang the anvil song of the days when it was counted noble to be a craftsman in Eirinn. A hurling match with spear shafts for goal posts. A war chariot brave in its Gaelic decoration. Two Irish wolf hounds, grizzled, and sinewy, and graceful. Irish cailini robed as were the women of Emhain Macha, and Irish buachailli dressed as were fthe king and champions and courtiers, and boy corps of the Red Branch ; all speaking in the rolling majestic virile Irish tongue and interpreting part of one of the Irish sagas which in sheer epic nobility of argument, stand alone in the literature of the world. It was on the playing field of Sgoil Eanna I saw this sight the other day, framed by the tall limes and elms in their wealth of summer green, and roofed by the arching blue of the June sky from which a great billowy mass of snowy cloud had been pulled by the west wind-riven in two, and draped like nine mile curtains-to let the sun stream down. Now wait a moment; a glance at the audience will be of interest. An exhibition of Irish manufacture, you may postulate, to begin with. But much more than that. You can take those dress serges and homespuns and poplins for granted. Deanta in Eirinn goes without saying": but that is only the beginning. You could hardly throw a stone amongst them without hitting some one whose name is known throughout Ireland. Clerics, poets, dramatists, historians, students from Mavnooth, and from the Universities, legal men, medical men, educationalists, journalists, workers in many fields. There is a lady here to my left whose lyrics are read �wherever people of the Irish race have made a home. To my right is a quiet looking gentleman talking about harmony, symphony, and high musical science, who has made a place, which is all his own in AngloIrish drama. He has been in politics also, but we have left politics out on Oakley Road, Rathmines, and the Irish nation and its people are our theme. Yonder is an ecclesiastical student, another O'Growney. They tell me he has to suffer for his Irish enthusiasm. I judge him to be one who knows how to do it. God made him that way. Let us be thankful that there are such spirits as his in Ireland. Here is a velvet-toned, genial, peaceful-looking citizen speaking Irish courtliness in the Irish tongue to some lady friends. There is a softness in his voice which is like a caress. But I have read of him on the other side of the world as a tiger and a lion, and an eagle, and a raging hurricane at certainjcorporation meetings. Near him, you see a dark, handsome, soldierly-looking, bareheaded man with the raven locks tumbling over his forehead, a journalist they tell me who has been a free lance, and a wanderer in many European lands, now home, to work as best he can for his own This telephone-post of a Gael in my people. immediate vicinity is one I sketched before in an official capacity. He is the same still only more so. This intellectual-looking neighbour in kilts, with the 32 candle-power smile and the merry eyes of Irish brown, is a poet, who does his singing, as Boyle O'Reilly said all the poets should do it-for itself=-as the leaf grows sunward, as the stream flows onward. This lady in white serge and her husband carry between them the honour of solid and beautiful work done for Ireland. He is Irishjshe is SaxeBeurla. This broad chested, well-knit man with the heavy moustache, and the level steady gaze of frank and honest scr1;1tiny, an� the slow deliberate speech, and the gift of saying much by silent listening, is known wherever modem Irish has been read for the past ten years. He took his pen name from that champion of the Fianna who carried the briar on his banner. But I am not afraid of him at all. His heart and his pseudonym are two different thingsAnd there ! The temptation to go on and on, telling you of the people that are pointed_ out to me-Irishmen and women attracted hither by an Irish event-would be �oo stro!lg to resist if it were not for the war pipes which, led by Tomas Mac Domhnaill, announce the first part of the pageant. . It is not my purpose to describe that most successful performance in det�l. Let me co!1fess that I am out after something else. Briefly, then, Seatanta, son of Sualtamh, comes into the Boy Corps of Emhain � Iacha, defeats them at hurling, slays the hcund of Culann, assumes
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COLAISTE CHONN ACHT.
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Colaiste Chonnacht has begun its first term with just twice the number of students that were in attendance during the first term of last year. 350 applications for places during the second term have been received, and it looks as if all the young school teachers of Connacht and the Midlands were going to Tourmakeady for August. Intending students should note that the fee for the month of July is only one guinea.
PATRICK CAHILL, Optician to His Holiness Pope Pius X • Specialist in Sight Testing. Private Room fitted with Latest Ophthalmic Instruments.
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WELLINGTON
QUAY,
DUBLIN.