LOST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE IRISH GENTRY

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 23

LOST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE IRISH GENTRY

« previous page | book contents | start of this chapter | next page »

boards, and even on the floor of the House of Commons. In the same way the Irish gentry believed that the policy of emigration was a stroke of genius to deliver them from a troublesome population. They believed that once the Irish peasant was embarked in a coffin-ship, they were done with him for evermore. But there came back from America a power more fatal to aristocracy and to privileged idleness than if these Irish emigrants had come back in line-of-battle ships and armies. There came back the principles of democracy and freedom which the emigrants imbibed in the great Republic of the West. Every American letter that came home was a lesson in democracy. From the time that American principles took root here in the soil that was prepared for them by education, it was all over with the ascendency of the Irish gentry; for, from the moment free inquiry began to be focussed upon them, their pretensions melted away like wax before a fire. People began to ask themselves who were these gods who wrapped themselves up in cold and haughty majesty, and looked down upon the people whose industry gave them rents to squander and purple and fine linen to bask in. To our surprise we found that they were not gods, but men, with blood very much the same colour as other men's, and with a by no means alarming preponderance of brains. The gods were, in fact, a squad of Cromwellian troopers a few generations removed. As somebody remarked—I think it was O'Connell—the Irish gentry have nothing ancient about them but their prejudices, and nothing modern except their pedigrees. The so-called ' old families ' were but things of yesterday compared with the ancient race they despised and lorded it over. The real old families of the land are to be found not in the landlords' mansion, but in the cabins of their serfs. To … continue reading »

« previous page | book contents | start of this chapter | next page »