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people; on the dignity and independence of the human mind; on the abstract duties of superiors and exaggerated abuses of authority—fatal speculations, disastrous theories not more subversive of social order and happiness than destructive of •principle of the Christian religion … submission to established authority and obedience to the laws are amongst the duties prescribed by religion; every violation of these duties is highly criminal. Wherefore if any amongst you have been unfortunately seduced into a combination against the state … without this sincere sorrow and amendment you cannot expect absolution in the tribunal of penance nor mercy from Government. … Resolve then we beseech you to deliver up your arms … unite with all your loyal and peaceable fellow subjects to crush the wicked spirit of insurrection. … JOHN TROY, Archbishop of Dublin."
This pronouncement was published in the Dublin news¬ papers the following day (upon which Father Murphy gained his first victory) and was signed by every Catholic archbishop and bishop in Ireland, with the sole exception of Bishop Hussey, of Waterford.
Those priests who favoured the rebels were suspended from the performance of their religious duties, and Dr. Caulfield, Bishop of Ferns, has left it on record that while Wexford Town was in the hands of the British troops it was crowded with priests who had fled before the rebels.
Equally false is it to assert like Lord Plunkett that ’98 was a "Protestant Rebellion," because, while it is true that the leadership of the United Irishmen was almost exclusively Protestant and included several Presbyterian clergymen (who were also frowned upon by their Synod), it was Catholic blood drenched the plains of Kildare and Wexford, just as Protestant blood stained the gallows in Belfast and dyed the slopes of Ballinahinch. In short, the rebellion was neither Catholic nor Protestant; not a war for the predominance of any particular creed but a National rising of the great common people of Ireland, Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, for full civil and religious liberty as a principle of the rights of man in an Irish Republic.
"ACT AS BRAVE A PART."
The heroes of '98 sleep in their graves. The task to which they set their hands has still to be accomplished. To-day, when there is so much talk of perpetuating their
