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Article THURLOGH, THE MILESIAN. ← Page 2 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Thurlogh, The Milesian.
our forefathers offered to the tranquillity of the English settlement under the reign of Queen Elizabeth , and at other intervals occasionally , before and since , I do not conceive that any regard to cowardly succumbeuce , or any terrific alarms about scars , musketry , and swords , could exculpate them in the eyes of a sensitive and noble people , if—while it was yd time , and while tin : intruder's pretensions did not amount to prescription—they did not brace themselves to that struggle which their country demanded , and drown all
minor calculations in the vindication of invincibility . " " My young patriot , my own love for Ireland yields not to that of any of bev more favoured sons , though the colour of my ' cloth , ' and the character of my avocation , preclude my embarking on that troubled sea of which I have been a spectator for many a weary year . But , with all my ' amor patria ; ' I cannot bring myself to acquiesce in the accuracy of the assertion , of its having never been conquered , more especially when the conviction forces itself into notice , that ere England was ever known to us in any other
light than as a field of booty , the Danes had swayed their sceptre over our ill-fated land ; and that , again , ere those barbarians had effaced our institutions , and polluted our altars by their sacrilegious hands , the Milesians had ousted the power of a previous dynasty , and they again another more antecedent . View it , therefore , as you may , you will find that our island , like most others , has been constantly changing masters , subject to one to-day , to another to-morrow , and , if thus constantly alternating and passing into new hands , then is the base removed from the fabric of invincibility -which you -were erecting . " " If , most undoubtedly—but if not , as undoubtedly is my foundation secure , and I undertake , with deference , to negative the condition . That Ireland , then , has been ' constantly passing into new hands , ' I am borne
out by authorities in unequivocally denying . The Danes , it must be admitted , had obtained footing for a time amongst us—and deeply did our vallies groan under their lash—but as to proprietory , they never approached it even in a dream , content with the toleration of a sea-coast residence , where they prosecuted their profession of traffic and of spoil . In this single character oi freebooters and common robbers , did this people ever present themselves within the limits of our shores ; or if their ambition took flight in quest of a higher name , it extended only to the erection of a subordinate
principality , more suitably designated as a den of thieves , and which the dissensions of the native kings had given them but too much assistance to establish . But when at length the virtue of the Milesian nobles sprung awake from its lethargy , and when rallying at the call , and led on b y the auspices of the immortal Brien , they consented to sacrifice their private feuds to the manes of their father and to the groans of their country , the glorious theatre of Clontarf , and the victory there effected , regenerated the hopes that had already well nigh learned to droopand restored the purity of the
, national escutcheon . The English , shortly after , by the vicissitudes of fate , having crept into possession of a certain territory , called the ' Pale '—brought about , as in the preceding instance , by our own internal bickerings , aided by our weakness after the recently expelled scourge—improved upon the policy which . their predecessors had adopted , and blew the coals of dissension to an almost inextinguishable conflagration . But although thus admitted to a lodgement in the land , they never presumed to the honour of being called its kingsuntil the Irish themselvesin a deplorable hour of forgetfulness ,
, , bestowed it upon them of their own free accord * . " " Conceding all you have affirmed , you must acknowledge , at all events , that a regular transfer of the country took place by the defeat of the Irish on the banks of the Boyno , by William ' s troops ; or , if not even then , by the subsequent surrender of the city of Limerick . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Thurlogh, The Milesian.
our forefathers offered to the tranquillity of the English settlement under the reign of Queen Elizabeth , and at other intervals occasionally , before and since , I do not conceive that any regard to cowardly succumbeuce , or any terrific alarms about scars , musketry , and swords , could exculpate them in the eyes of a sensitive and noble people , if—while it was yd time , and while tin : intruder's pretensions did not amount to prescription—they did not brace themselves to that struggle which their country demanded , and drown all
minor calculations in the vindication of invincibility . " " My young patriot , my own love for Ireland yields not to that of any of bev more favoured sons , though the colour of my ' cloth , ' and the character of my avocation , preclude my embarking on that troubled sea of which I have been a spectator for many a weary year . But , with all my ' amor patria ; ' I cannot bring myself to acquiesce in the accuracy of the assertion , of its having never been conquered , more especially when the conviction forces itself into notice , that ere England was ever known to us in any other
light than as a field of booty , the Danes had swayed their sceptre over our ill-fated land ; and that , again , ere those barbarians had effaced our institutions , and polluted our altars by their sacrilegious hands , the Milesians had ousted the power of a previous dynasty , and they again another more antecedent . View it , therefore , as you may , you will find that our island , like most others , has been constantly changing masters , subject to one to-day , to another to-morrow , and , if thus constantly alternating and passing into new hands , then is the base removed from the fabric of invincibility -which you -were erecting . " " If , most undoubtedly—but if not , as undoubtedly is my foundation secure , and I undertake , with deference , to negative the condition . That Ireland , then , has been ' constantly passing into new hands , ' I am borne
out by authorities in unequivocally denying . The Danes , it must be admitted , had obtained footing for a time amongst us—and deeply did our vallies groan under their lash—but as to proprietory , they never approached it even in a dream , content with the toleration of a sea-coast residence , where they prosecuted their profession of traffic and of spoil . In this single character oi freebooters and common robbers , did this people ever present themselves within the limits of our shores ; or if their ambition took flight in quest of a higher name , it extended only to the erection of a subordinate
principality , more suitably designated as a den of thieves , and which the dissensions of the native kings had given them but too much assistance to establish . But when at length the virtue of the Milesian nobles sprung awake from its lethargy , and when rallying at the call , and led on b y the auspices of the immortal Brien , they consented to sacrifice their private feuds to the manes of their father and to the groans of their country , the glorious theatre of Clontarf , and the victory there effected , regenerated the hopes that had already well nigh learned to droopand restored the purity of the
, national escutcheon . The English , shortly after , by the vicissitudes of fate , having crept into possession of a certain territory , called the ' Pale '—brought about , as in the preceding instance , by our own internal bickerings , aided by our weakness after the recently expelled scourge—improved upon the policy which . their predecessors had adopted , and blew the coals of dissension to an almost inextinguishable conflagration . But although thus admitted to a lodgement in the land , they never presumed to the honour of being called its kingsuntil the Irish themselvesin a deplorable hour of forgetfulness ,
, , bestowed it upon them of their own free accord * . " " Conceding all you have affirmed , you must acknowledge , at all events , that a regular transfer of the country took place by the defeat of the Irish on the banks of the Boyno , by William ' s troops ; or , if not even then , by the subsequent surrender of the city of Limerick . "