Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government; Ulster (Northern Ireland and Ireland)
Mr. Pearse then came forward and delivered an eloquent and impressive
oration, first speaking in Irish. Speaking in English, he said they
had come to the holiest place in Ireland, holier to them than that
sacred spot where Patrick sleeps in Down. Patrick brought them life,
but Wolfe Tone died for them. Though many had testified in death
to the truth of Ireland's claim to Nationhood, Wolfe Tone was the
greatest of all that had made that testimony; he was the greatest of
Ireland's dead. They stood in the holiest place in Ireland, for what
spot of the Nation's soil could be holier than the spot in which the
greatest of her dead lay buried. He found it difficult to speak in
that place, and he knew they all partook of his emotion. There were
no strangers there for they were all in a sense own brothers to Tone
(hear, hear). They shared his faith, his hope still unrealised and
his great love. They had come there that day not merely to salute this
noble dust and to pay their homage to the noble spirit of Tone, but
to renew their adhesion to the faith of Tone and to express their
full acceptance of the gospel of which Tone had given such a clear
definition. That gospel had been taught before him by English-speaking
men, uttered half-articulately by Shan O'Neill, expressed in some
passionate metaphor by Geoffrey Keating, and hinted at by Swift in
some bitter jibe, but it was stated definitely and emphatically by
Wolfe Tone and it did not need to be ever again stated anew for any
new generation. Tone was great in mind, but he was still greater in
spirit. He had the clear vision of the prophet; he saw things as they
were and saw things as they would be. They owed more to this dead man
than they should be ever able to repay him by making pilgrimages to
his grave or building the stateliest monuments in the streets of
his city. They owed it to him that there was such a thing as Irish
Nationalism; to his memory and the memory of '98 they owed it that
there was any manhood left in Ireland (hear, hear). The soul of
Wolfe Tone was like a burning flame, a flame so pure, so ardent, so
generous, that to come into communion with it was as a new optimism
and regeneration. Let them try in some way to get into contact with
the spirit of Tone and possess themselves of its ardour. If they could
do that it would be a good thing for them and their country, because
they would carry away with them a new life from that place of death
and there would be a new resurrection of patriotic grace in their
souls (hear, hear). Let them think of Tone; think of his boyhood
and young manhood in Dublin and in Kildare; think of his adventurous
spirit and plans, think of his glorious failure at the bar, and his
healthy contempt for what he called a foolish wig and gown, think how
the call of Ireland came to him; think how he obeyed that call; think
how he put virility into the Catholic movement; think how this heretic
toiled to make freemen of Catholic helots (applause). Think how he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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