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SLAINTEI NA-=I‘l=ElREANN.
“Oh we’ve hearts and we’ve hands, boys, strong enough I ween,
To rescue and to raise again our own beloved green.”
=VoL. I.eNo. 12. BELFAST, 4TH DECEMBER, 1896. PRICE TWOPENCE.
She wanders amid winter still,
The dew of tears is on her face:
Her wounded heart takes yet its fill
Of desolation and disgrace.
God still is God I And through God she
Foreknows herjoy to be.
I Christmas and Ireland.
The golden stars give warrnthless fire,
As weary Mary goes through night :
Her feet are torn by stone and briar,
She hath no rest, no strength, no light :
0 Mary,’ weary in the snow, -
Remember IreIand’s woe I
The snows shall perish at the spring,
The flowers pour fragrance round her feet:
Ah, Jesus! Mary 2 Joseph ! bring
This mercy from the Mercy Seat 3
Send it, sweet King of Glory, born
Humbly on Christmas Morn !
LIONEL JOHNSON.‘
7 0 Joseph, sad for Mary’s sake !
Look on our earthly Mother too:
Let not the heart of Ireland break
' With agony, the ages through:
For Mary’s love, love also thou
Ireland. and save her now I
Harsh were the folk, and bitter stern,
At Bethlehem, that night of nights.
Foryazt no clzeering lzearllz slzall dam .'
We‘ltzwe no room Ilere, you no ngm.
' 0 Mary and Joseph ! hath not she,
Ireland, been even as ye?
In the Penal Days.
“They bribed the flock, they bribed the son,
To sell the priest and rob the sire ;
Their dogs were taught alike to run
Upon the scent ofwolfand friar.
Among the poor,
Or on the moor,
Were hid the pious and the truce
While traitor knave
And recreant slave
Had riches, rank, and retiuuc.”
The ancient David’s royal house
. I lVas thine, Saint Joseph! wherefore sl1e,
' Mary, thine Ever Virgin Spouse.
To thine own city went with thee.
Behold I [thy citizens disown
The heir of Da.vid’s throne I
HE turf fire had burned down to a heap of
luminous ashes, and the frost was forming
fantastic pictures on the panes, as Patrick
O’Boyle sat in the wide window seat and
Nay, more ! The Very King of kings
IVas with you, coming to His own :
They thrust Him forth to lowliest things ;
The poor meek beasts of toil alone
Stood by, when came to piteous birth
The God ofall the earth.
the track across the valley was ‘long and
rugged for the feeble feet of Father John, but in the eyes
of the boy who came with his dying mother's request
upon his lips, there was such passionate entreaty that
the tender heart of the old priest went out to both in
their trouble. VVhen had he turned a deaf ear to an
appeal, or let a sick call go unanswered, though the
journey be far and the danger he ran enough to make a
strong man quail P
sorrows; with secret hiding and the ever present dread
of bringing disaster upon those who‘ gave him shelter,
for these were the days whenplawless men walked abroad
And she, our Mother Ireland, knows
- Insult, and infamies of wrong:
‘Her innocent children clad with woes,
Her weakness trampled by the strong:
And still upon her Holy Land '
> Her pitiless foemen stand.
' From Manger unto Cross and Crown
, I.Vent Christ : and Mother Mary passed
Through Seven Sorrows, and sat down
4 Upon the Angel Throne at last. ,
-Thence, Mary! to thine‘ own Child pray,
For Ireland’s hope this day:
4:-v-w
peered anxiously into the nights [All
day heavy showers of snow had fallen,‘ and‘
He was worn with age and many.