The Wearing of the Green | Page 2

were careful to ensure that the sacred functions were
sought and attended for spiritual considerations, not used merely for
illegitimate political purposes; and wherever it was apprehended that
the holy rites were in danger of such use, the masses were said
privately.
And soon public feeling found yet another vent; a mode of manifesting
itself scarcely less edifying than the Requiem Masses; namely, funeral
processions. The brutal vengeance of the law consigned the bodies of
Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien to dishonoured graves; and forbade the
presence of sympathising friend or sorrowing relative who might drop a
tear above their mutilated remains. Their countrymen now, however,
determined that ample atonement should be made to the memory of the
dead for this denial of the decencies of sepulture. On Sunday, 1st
December, in Cork. Manchester, Mitchelstown, Middleton, Limerick,
and Skibbereen, funeral processions, at which thousands of persons
attended, were held; that in Cork being admittedly the most imposing,
not only in point of numbers, but in the character of the demonstration
and the demeanour of the people.
For more than twenty years Cork city has held an advanced position in
the Irish national struggle. In truth, it has been one of the great
strongholds of the national cause since 1848. Nowhere else did the
national spirit keep its hold so tenaciously and so extensively amidst
the people. In 1848 Cork city contained probably the most formidable
organization in the country; formidable, not merely in numbers, but in
the superior intelligence, earnestness, and determination of the men;

and even in the Fenian conspiracy, it is unquestionable that the
southern capital contributed to that movement men--chiefly belonging
to the mercantile and commercial classes--who, in personal worth and
standing, as well as in courage, intelligence, and patriotism, were the
flower of the organization. Finally, it must be said, that it was Cork city
by its funeral demonstration of the 1st December, that struck the first
great blow at the Manchester verdict, and set all Ireland in motion.
[Footnote: It may be truly said set the Irish race all over the world in
motion. There is probably no parallel in history for the singular
circumstance of these funeral processions being held by the dispersed
Irish in lands remote, apart, as pole from pole--in the old hemisphere
and in the new--in Europe, in America, in Australia; prosecutions being
set on foot by the English government to punish them at both ends of
the world--in Ireland and in New Zealand! In Hokatika the Irish
settlers--most patriotic of Ireland's exiles--organized a highly
impressive funeral demonstration. The government seized and
prosecuted its leaders, the Rev. Father Larkin, a Catholic clergyman,
and Mr. Wm. Manning, editor of the Hokatika Celt. A jury, terrified by
Fenian panic, brought them in "guilty," and the patriot priest and
journalist were consigned to a dungeon for the crime of mourning for
the dead and protesting against judicial murder.]
Meanwhile the Irish capital had moved, and was organizing a
demonstration destined to surpass all that had yet been witnessed. Early
in the second week of December, a committee was formed for the
purpose of organizing a funeral procession in Dublin, worthy of the
national metropolis. Dublin would have come forward sooner, but the
question of the legality of the processions that were announced to come
off the previous week in Cork and other places, had been the subject of
fierce discussion in the government press; and the national leaders were
determined to avoid the slightest infringement of the law or the least
inroad on the public peace. It was only when, on the 3rd of December,
Lord Derby, the Prime Minister, replying in the House of Lords to Lord
Dufferin, declared the opinion of the crown that the projected
processions were not illegal, that the national party in Dublin decided
to form a committee and organize a procession. The following were
Lord Derby's words:--

"He could assure the noble lord that the government would continue to
carry out the law with firmness and impartiality. The Party Processions
Act, however, did not meet the case of the funeral processions, the
parties engaged in them having, by not displaying banners or other
emblems, kept within the law as far as his information went."
Still more strong assurance was contained in the reply of the Irish Chief
Secretary, Lord Mayo, to a question put by Sir P. O'Brien in the House
of Commons. Lord Mayo publicly announced and promised that if any
new opinion as to the legality of the processions should be arrived
at--that is, should the crown see in them anything of illegality--due and
timely notice would be given by proclamation, so that no one might
offend through ignorance. Here are his words:--
"It is the wish of the government to act strictly in accordance with the
law; and