But of
late there was a growing feeling of discontent among the younger
generation. They lacked the respect their elders so willingly gave.
They asked questions instead of answering them. They began to throw
themselves, against Father Cahill's express wishes and commands,
into the fight for Home Rule under the masterly statesmanship of
Charles Stuart Parnell. Already more than one prominent speaker had
come into the little village and sown the seeds of temporal and
spiritual unrest. Father Cahill opposed these men to the utmost of
his power. He saw, as so many far-sighted priests did, the legacy of
bloodshed and desolation that would follow any direct action by the
Irish against the British Government. Though the blood of the
patriot beat in Father Cahill's veins, the well-being of the people
who had grown up with him was near to his heart. He was their Priest
and he could not bear to think of men he had known as children being
beaten and maimed by constabulary, and sent to prison afterwards, in
the, apparently, vain fight for self-government.
To his horror that day he met Frank Owen O'Connell, one of the most
notorious of all the younger agitators, in the main street of the
little village.
O'Connell's back sliding had been one of Father Cahill's bitterest
regrets.
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