LOST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE IRISH GENTRY

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 25

LOST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE IRISH GENTRY

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

I never will forget the expression of a little old Western peasant at one of the Land League meetings, when some speaker was describing the oppression and the haughtiness of the Irish land-agents in the past—'Begob,' said the old fellow, 'we'll make them put their hands to their hats for us yet.' That really only describes in a comically exaggerated way the change that has come over the face of the country; for, though the Irish people are of too generous and forgiving and Christian a character ever to desire to retort upon their opponents the indignities that were inflicted upon themselves, still it was necessary to enforce the lesson—and I think the lesson is beginning to impress itself upon the comprehension of the most fossilised old gentleman in the land—that a man's importance and his place in the esteem of his fellow-countrymen will depend for the future in Ireland, not upon the length of his purse, nor the length of his pedigree, but upon his usefulness to the community and his readiness to labour and to sacrifice himself for the benefit of his fellow-countrymen. Up to the present, by an extraordinary perversion of the law of nature, a man's consequence in Ireland was measured by the amount of misery he created; for the future it will be measured by the amount of happiness he can confer—the amount of good he can do in protecting industry, rewarding-toil, and raising up the poor and lowly. The Irish gentry have, fortunately for human rights, left us no alternative but to be democrats and to draw our strength from the great heart of the people.

There is one thing upon which I think we may fairly congratulate ourselves in reference to the spread of democracy, and that is, that democracy, as it is rooted in Ireland to-day, is almost altogether free from the features of bloodthirstiness and rabid class hatred and irreligion … continue reading »

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