y regarded as innocent patriots, and
when the forfeit was claimed, they bore themselves with the unwavering
courage and single-heartedness of Christian heroes. Their short and
simple annals are easily written, but their names are graven on the
Irish heart, and their names and actions will be cherished in Ireland
when the monumental piles that mark the resting-places of the wealthy
and the proud have returned, like the bodies laid beneath them, to
dust.

William Philip Allen was born near the town of Tipperary, in April,
1848. Before he was quite three years old his parents removed to
Bandon, County Cork, where the father, who professed the Protestant
religion, received the appointment of bridewell-keeper. As young
Allen grew up, he evinced a remarkable aptitude for the acquirement
of knowledge, and his studious habits were well known to his
playmates and companions. He was a regular attendant at the local
training-school for the education of teachers for the Protestant
schools of the parish, but he also received instruction at the morning
and evening schools conducted under Catholic auspices, in the same
town. He was not a wild boy, but he was quick and impulsive,--ready
to resent a wrong, but equally ready to forgive one; and his natural
independence of spirit and manly disposition rendered him a favourite
with all his acquaintances. The influence and example of his father
did not prevent him from casting a wistful eye towards the ancient
faith. His mother, a good pious Catholic, whose warmest aspiration was
to see her children in the fold of the true church, encouraged this
disposition by all the means in her power, and the result of her pious
care shortly became apparent. A mission, opened in the town by some
Catholic order of priests, completed the good work, which the prayers
and the example of an affectionate mother had commenced; and young
Allen, after regularly attending the religious services and exercises
of the mission, became so much Impressed with the truth of the
lectures and sermons he had listened to, that he formally renounced
the alien religion, and was received by the respected parish priest
of the town into the bosom of the Catholic Church. His only sister
followed his example, while his brothers, four in number, remained in
the Protestant communion. The subject of our sketch was apprenticed
to a respectable master carpenter and timber merchant in Bandon,
but circumstances highly creditable to the y