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Manners, J. Hartley, 1870-1928

"Peg O' My Heart"

I love to listen to ye. Don't stop."
"I'll tell ye what will happen! Back will go the Irishmen in tens o'
thousands from all the other counthries they were dhriven to in the
days o' famine an' oppression an' coercion an' buck-shot--back they
will go to their mother counthry. An' can ye see far enough into the
future to realise what THAT will do? Ye can't. Well, I'll tell ye
that, too. The exiled Irish, who have lived their lives abroad--
takin' their wives, like as not, from the people o' the counthry
they lived in an' not from their own stock--when they go back to
Ireland with different outlooks, with different manners an' with
different tastes, so long as they've kept the hearts o' them thrue
an' loyal--just so long as they've done that--an' kept the Faith o
'their forefathers--they'll form a new NATION, an' a NATION with all
the best o' the old--the great big Faith an' Hope o' the old--added
to the prosperity an' education an' business-like principles an'
statesmanship o' the NEW--an' it's the BLOOD o' the great OLD an'
the POWER o' the great NEW that'll make the Ireland o' the future
one o' the greatest NATIONS in PEACE as she has always been in WAR."
O'Connell's voice died away as he looked out across the years to
come.


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