ophet; he saw things as they
were and saw things as they would be. They owed more to this dead man
than they should be ever able to repay him by making pilgrimages to
his grave or building the stateliest monuments in the streets of
his city. They owed it to him that there was such a thing as Irish
Nationalism; to his memory and the memory of '98 they owed it that
there was any manhood left in Ireland (hear, hear). The soul of
Wolfe Tone was like a burning flame, a flame so pure, so ardent, so
generous, that to come into communion with it was as a new optimism
and regeneration. Let them try in some way to get into contact with
the spirit of Tone and possess themselves of its ardour. If they could
do that it would be a good thing for them and their country, because
they would carry away with them a new life from that place of death
and there would be a new resurrection of patriotic grace in their
souls (hear, hear). Let them think of Tone; think of his boyhood
and young manhood in Dublin and in Kildare; think of his adventurous
spirit and plans, think of his glorious failure at the bar, and his
healthy contempt for what he called a foolish wig and gown, think how
the call of Ireland came to him; think how he obeyed that call; think
how he put virility into the Catholic movement; think how this heretic
toiled to make freemen of Catholic helots (applause). Think how he
grew to love the real and historic Irish nation, and then there came
to him that clear conception that there must be in Ireland not three
nations but one; that Protestant and Dissenter must close in amity
with Catholic, and Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter must unite to
achieve freedom for all (applause). Let them consider the sacrifices
Tone had made; he had to leave so much. Never was there a man who was
so richly endowed as he was, he had so much love in his warm heart. He
(speaker) would rather have known Tone than any other man of whom he
ever read or heard. He never read of any one man who had more in him
of the heroic stuff than Tone had; how gaily and gallantly he had set
about the doing of a mighty thing. He (speaker) had always loved the
very name of Thomas Russell because Tone so loved him. To be Tone's
friend! What a privilege! for Tone had for his friends an immense
love, an immense charity. He had such love for his wife and children!
But such was the destiny of the heroes of their nation; they had
to stifle in their hearts all that love and tha