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THE TOMAHAWK. A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATI...
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No. 150.] LONDON, MARCH 19, 1870. [Price...
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THE CURSE OF IRELAND !
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There is no use now for our Patron Saint...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Tomahawk. A Saturday Journal Of Sati...
THE TOMAHAWK . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . dEtiiteti tip frxtfynx 0 & $ ** feett v I . o " INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRiETERIT . "
No. 150.] London, March 19, 1870. [Price...
No . 150 . ] LONDON , MARCH 19 , 1870 . [ Price Twopence .
The Curse Of Ireland !
THE CURSE OF IRELAND !
There Is No Use Now For Our Patron Saint...
There is no use now for our Patron Saints , save perhaps to figure in the opening of a pantomimeor to serve as a die for , the reverse of a five-shilling piece . Good St . George—he who ' slew the Dragon in years gone by—in that charmed time known by us as the mist of ages—lives only in the name of a once fashionable church , and a now impoverished hospital . St . Andrew fares no better—he presides over insurance companies and Scottish institutions . As for St . David , he is absolutely nowhere . He never was very popular , even in his own principality , for his countrymen ever had a sneaking kindness for Druidism in preference to Christianity . The Welsh have always been Conservative . Their heathen ancestors were in the habit of visiting Satan , then why should they ( those ancestors ' descendants ) go to Heaven ? This being the state of feeling in the West of Britain , it is not difficult to discover why Christian St . David lacked popularity . However , there is one of our Patron Saints who has ever been respected with noisy affection . In his name limbs have been fractured , heads broken , and noses smashed to jellies . His priests have flourished shillelaghs ; and battered hats , torn coats , and disabled houses have been freely sacrificed before his shrine . St . Patrick , Irish St . Patrick , is the one grand exception to the neglect of the century . Who thinks of shouting "St . George for Merrie England , " even in the wildest revelry ? What brave Highlander cares a dump for " St . Andrew of Cannie Scotland ? " No , if we must have our rallying cry " £ s . d . " is the Englishman ' s pass word , and "bonnie bawbees" the Scotchman ' s . The Irishman still sticks to " St . Patrick "—a name which ( with the aid of a fair allowance of whiskey ) will bring the salt tears into his eyes—the choking lump into his throat—the full heart into his mouth . And we honour him for it . Yea , the " Saxon " bows down before the enthusiasm ( tempered with pure whiskey and true religion ) of the " Celt . " Praises be to Paddy , for he sets Jack and Sawnie a good example . Having admitted that the Irishman ' s love of St . Patrick is a holy , and , consequently , good thing , we wish to say further , that such a good thing should not be so sadly thrown away—like a pearl cast to the pigs—like a copy of the Tomahawk presented to the readers of Mr . Garibaldi ' s last indecency , " The Rule of the Monk . " To make our meaning plainer , the Irishman loves St . Patrick , and yet disregards the lessons inculcated by that holiest of holy men . A good old legend is told of the Patron Saint of Ireland
which should be remembered in these latter days of trouble and "botheration . " St . Patrick , when he visited the Emerald Isle found it inhabited by loathsome crawling reptiles . He tried every thing in turn to rid his adopted country of the pest . Sticks , arguments , threats , were of no avail . An ancient chronicle ( to be found by those who search diligently in the British Museum ) informs us that , these gentle means having failed , " ye good and holie man then beginneth to preach a sermon , upon hearing of which ye unclean beasts and reptiles did utter a troubled crie , and did bolt away , leaving ye good and holie man preaching to ye slumbering faithful . " Now-a-days for- geries of documents are so rife , that it is almost impossible to ^ say what is true and what is false , so that the old chronicle from which we quote may be fictitious , still , on the face of it , the miraculous effect of the Saint's discourse seems to point to the genuineness of the venerable document . Be that , however , as it may , the holy man certainly got rid of the Irish reptiles of his day . Why do not his disciples follow his pious example , and turn out the loathsome crawling things of the age we live in ? Unhappily , there are but too many . Creatures that blight the land with their loathsome presence . Creatures that have turned the " land of saints " into the " island of devils . " It is not a pleasant thing to have to catalogue the pests of the earth , still we will do our best to point out the brutes that call for the sermons of the modern St . Patrick . First , then , and foremost , there is Fenianism , cowardly , brutal , infernal Fenianism ; the worst , the meanest , the most contemptible institution that the world has ever seen . Silent as the grave , yet as pestiferous as the grave ' s contents . The patriotism of traitors , the faith of Atheists , the justice of bullies . Why have we no St . Patrick to turn this loathsome pest from the land ? Next ( and the monster is only one degree better than the first ) , there is Orangeism . Blatant , loud-voiced , traitorous Orangeism . The worst form of bigotry , the meanest kind of superstition , the spirit of despotism in its most ignorant , contemptible mood . Oh , why have we no modern St . Patrick to turn this pest from the land ? To recount the other curses that afflict poor suffering Ireland , would fill these pages to the exclusion of all other matter . This being the case , our cartoonist has sketched with his pencil what we have omitted with our pen to supply . To him , then , we refer our readers for instruction and warning . Erin implores her sister Britannia to aid her . St . Patrick is no more ; the great O'Connor is gathered together with his
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Citation
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Tomahawk (1867-1870), March 19, 1870, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_19031870/page/3/
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