THE IRISH NATIONAL IDEA

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 8

THE IRISH NATIONAL IDEA

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every other year by his palace guards. Yet, if we confine our judgment of Ireland to those centuries from the coming of St. Patrick to the Danish invasions—centuries during which the other nations of Europe were simply shifting camps of savages—we shall find Ireland the sanctuary and the only uncontaminated fountain of civilisation, and a civilisation all the more marvellous that it was not derived from Rome or Greece, but grew up of its own native vigour, like a violet in some unvisited dell. Human history furnishes no fairer picture than that of Ireland in her golden age—the one lustrous star in an European night. Her people enjoyed the equality of a modern republic. Their chiefs were of their own choice. The lands belonged to the whole people. A system of law prevailed so mild that the bard was the most formidable power in the community. The sound of festivities in their halls, the chant of a thousand saints in their thousand churches, the enthusiasm of learning that lighted their schools, come down to us across the gloomy gulf of ages that followed, and make us doubt whether modern civilisation, with all its new-fangled refinements, but redoubled cares, can give us anything to compare with the simple happiness of that old race, with their bright wits, their mirthful hearts, the sensitive organisation which could be ruled by the power of music, and the glorious enthusiasm which inspired them to bear the torch of religion and learning to the ends of a darkened world. Ireland's laws, religion, arts, and hospitality were combined with a colonising capacity beyond any seen since the days of the Greek migrations to Ionia and Sicily, and with a warlike vigour which for 300 years enabled her to withstand the attacks of the terrible Northmen who overran England with as much facility as the Anglo-Saxons and … continue reading »

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