The New York Meeting

The reception to the Gaelic League envoys on last Sunday evening at the Grand Central Palace, this city, say the “Gaelic American,” was creditable to the Irish element of the population of New York. The large hall was filled. The platform and the boxes were occupied by men prominent in the business and social life of New York.

Among those in the boxes were Supreme Court Justices Martin J. Keogh, John W. Goff, and Victor J. Dowling. John D. Crimmins, Michael J. Drummond and Daniel F. Cohalan. When Father O'Flanagan and Mr. Fionan MacColum came on the platform they were cheered for several minutes.

The Irish Volunteers' Band enlivened the proceedings by playing a choice/selection of Irish airs. Miss Norah Power and Mr. George Potter rendered Irish and Anglo-Irish songs and the singers were again and again encored.

Mr. Denis A. Spellissy introduced the Chairman of the evening, Mr. George J. Gillespie. Mr. Gillespie briefly outlined the objects of the meeting and then introduced Father O'Flanagan. Father O'Flanagan spoke in Irish for about five minutes. Then he spoke in English.

Nearly every sentence elicited applause and frequently his flights of oratory aroused the audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The audience was visibly impressed, and the collection which followed showed that his words had stirred the hearts of the people, and it was not surprising that many pieces of jewellery were deposited in the collection baskets.

The total of the New York collect-tion will, when completed, be about $10,000. The larger contributions announced at the meeting were : —Mr. James Byrne. $500 ; Philo-Celtic Society, $360 ; Father J. W. Power, $250 ; Miss Murphy, $200 ; Shamrock Club, $100. There were several hundred $5 contributions.

Mr. William MacAdoo, Chief City Magistrate, gave an interesting account of his experience in a recent visit to his native Donegal. He said Ireland had lost much by her slavish imitation of English educational methods, which were far inferior to those of every civilized country in the world. Mr. Fionan MacColum delivered an address in Irish which was understood by a large proportion of the audience. The following is Father O'Flanagan's address in part : —

FATHER O'FLANAGAN'S ADDRESS

My first business here tonight is to explain the capacity in which I appear before you. I do not come to express the views of a private individual upon any subject whatever. I come to you as the delegate of the Gaelic League to interpret to you its views upon a question of vital importance to Ireland.

I do not wish to speak to you as a priest, or even as a Catholic. The spokesman of the Gaelic League on the last occasion that a delegation came to America was not merely a layman, but a Protestant.

Neither shall my views be coloured in any way by any political opinions regarding Ireland which I may hold. The Gaelic League counts among its supporters men of all shades of political opinion, Unionist, Federalist, Home Ruler and Separatist.

So keenly do I feel my position in this respect that not merely on the public platform, but even in private, while I am the delegate of the Gaelic League, I propose to keep always in view my one sole object of making known and understood the clear, straight, definite doctrine of the Irish-Ireland movement.

It must not, however, be concluded from what I have said that the Gaelic League is a mere literary or linguistic, or even a mere educational movement.

It is all of these things, but it is first and foremost and above all other things, an Irish national movement. It is not, however, a national movement in that its business is to claim for Ireland that political standard which is the God-given birthright of each separate national entity.

Its task is the more fundamental one of rehabilitating and preserving those elements that go to make up the nationhood of Ireland. It is the tide that carries down from past age; the energy and the glow of Ireland's heroic past. It is the main artery that carries from the heart of Ireland to brain and muscle the rich red blood of Ireland's distinctive life.