The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848Doheny, Michael
History
The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848
Doheny, Michael
Ireland -- History -- Rising of 1848; Young Ireland Party -- History; Young Ireland movement
With the 30th of May, passed off the excitement of which it was the
cause and scene. Those who arranged the grand pageant of that day, and
invested it with attributes, suggestive, imposing and useful as ever
decked a public spectacle, would have wrought it out into a sterner
purpose: but the heart upon which they counted had, even then, died. Mr.
O'Connell's speech too painfully bespoke his utter inability to guide
the nation in any higher effort. The energy that should have seized the
occasion to confirm the people in their strong purpose, and elevate
their hopes to the level of the great stake at issue, exhausted itself
in balancing the routine details of cold and empty statistics. The
curtain fell, and nothing remained but grotesque figures, withered
garlands, broken panels and desolate dust, which mingled confusedly
behind the scene, over the dark, deserted stage. The journals, of
course, preserved, for a few days, very glittering reminiscences of the
scene. With one accord, they pronounced it surpassing in interest and
importance. Great results were anticipated in the newspaper world; and
many imagined they had fulfilled the last obligations they owed their
country. But with the men, who had fondly hoped to date therefrom a new
era and begin a nobler task, the 30th of May, was of dark, despairing
augury. They clearly saw that from that hour forth there remained but
the alternative of abandoning their cherished hopes, or attempting to
realise them without the aid, perhaps in opposition to the wishes, of
Mr. O'Connell. It was a gloomy and sad conviction, but it was no longer
to be blinked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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