"And they succeed in other branches of life also, equally well,"
continued the cardinal. "As I was sailing up the Hudson River one day we
passed a city called Hoboken, and I was told that it was inhabited
exclusively by Germans with the exception of two solitary Irishmen, and
one of them, Lord, is mayor of the city and the other is prefect of
police. That is an indication of how our people are going ahead in
America. And even in the humbler walks of life I found them hard
working, well educated, and giving every sign of having retained their
own faith and that love for Ireland which is the characteristic of our
race in every part of the world. Some of them of the third and fourth
generations were as warm and as strong in their love for Ireland as
those born in this dear old land of ours."
Cardinal Logue forgets that the ancestors of the men he speaks of in
America were once kings of Ireland, and they have the right to success;
but I often wonder what would have happened if all the great Irishmen we
read about--the Duke of Wellington, Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener,
General Sheridan, A.T. Stewart, John W. Mackey, John McDonald, Thomas F.
Ryan, and the thousands of other famous Irishmen--had remained here
instead of going out into a wider field of fame and usefulness. The
result would be incomprehensible.
And there is a good deal of truth in the joke about the kings of
Ireland. At the time of St. Patrick and up to the Norman invasion in the
twelfth century Ireland was divided into many little kingdoms in
addition to the four grand divisions which correspond to the provinces
to-day. The O'Connors were kings of Connaught, the O'Brians of Munster,
the O'Neills of Ulster, the McMurroughs of Leinster, the Kavanaughs of
Wexford, the O'Carrolls of Tipperary, the MacCarthys of Cork, the
O'Sullivans and the O'Donaghues ruled in the southwest, the O'Flahertys
in Galway--and so on through a long list. What is a county now was a
kingdom then, and the descendants of the rulers still bear their names.
XIX
IRISH CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS
If any one should write a book on Irish characteristics, I think he
should rank good humor as the most prominent, and that makes up for a
great many defects. We were on the island for nearly three months and
visited more than half the counties, seeing a good deal of both city and
country life, and coming in contact with all classes of people, and it
is safe to say that no one uttered a cross or an unkind word to us, but
everywhere and under all circumstances and from everybody we received a
most cordial welcome and the most courteous treatment. And when we asked
questions which many times must have seemed silly and unnecessary to the
people to whom they were addressed, the replies have always been polite
and considerate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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