CHAPTER XX.

SECRET SOCIETIES IN" lEELAND.
In my book, "100 Tage in Europa/^ describing my visit to Ireland in the fall of 1894, and speaking about the persecution the people of Ireland had to endure for centuries, I say on page 22 ff. that I could easily understand, how, in order to get rid of an offensive gov- ernment, the people of Ireland associated in political secret societies: and, that for this reason the Irish- American is more favorably inclined to affiliate himself with secret organizations.
For this reason I deem it expedient to give a brief liistory of secret societies in Ireland and their offsprings in this country. What I have to say is based on histor- ical documents.
In the history of Ireland we find that during the middle of the eighteenth century the peasant tenants were deprived by their landlords of the right of free pasture for their cows, and that fiscal oppression was also YeTj great. A society was formed calling itself the '^White Boys/' taking its name from the fact that the members wore over their dress a white shirt in order to disguise themselves. The object of this society was pri- marily to cut down fences and enclosures around pas- tures. They also called themselves "Levellers," but on account of the many excesses they committed were dis- solved and about 1787 replaced by the "Right Boys."
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This society aimed, by Ig gal means, to obtain the reduc- tion of taxes, higher wages, the abolitioft of degrading personal services and the erection of a Roman Cath- olic Church for every Protestant Church in Ireland. The penal laws were still on the statute books, and Catholics were not eligible to offices of trust; were not allowed to serve in the army or navy, nor to possess arms, nor to exercise many other rights of citizenship. The American Revolution had its effect on the op- pressed of Ireland, and, when the French Revolution broke out, the people of Ireland hailed it as the dawn of their own independence. The "Right Boys" became quite powerful in political affairs, and as they were composed of only Catholics, Protestants formed soci- eties of their own. The first one of them called itself the "Oak Boys,'^ taking for their emblem the oak leaves. When this association could not obtain by legal means what it aimed at, it had recourse to arms, and was de- feated by the troops of England. Numerous societies arose about 1790 in Ireland, especially the "Heart of Steel," so-called in order to indicate their perseverance with which they intended to pursue the revenge against those who had succeeded the ejected tenants on land, by murdering them, burning their farms, and destroying their harvest. The "Threshers" objected to what they called the exorbitant dues claimed by clergymen of both creeds. Then arose the "Break-of-Day Boys," who at da^A^l of day committeed all sorts of excesses against Roman Catholics, burning their huts and destroying their agricultural implements and produce. Religious animosity being thus aroused, the Catholics formed the societies of the "Defenders," and the "United Irishmen," and they called upon France for aid. The recourse to
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arms contemplated b}" them was brought to a premature oulmination by the English government. In March, 1798, Ireland was declared under martial law by the viceroy, Lord Camden, and in the uprising which fol- lowed a civil war ensued, lasting for over five months, at the cost to England of $200,000,000 and about 20,-
000 .men.
Though the "United Irishmen" were defeated, the society reappeared under the name of "Ribbonmen,^' so-called because they recognized each other by certain ribbons. As the "Ribbonmen" were composed of Cath- olics, the Protestants organized the "Orangemen.'* These two opposing bodies were soon involved in fierce hostility with each other, and nearly all the pcasantr}', for a time, belonged to either the one or the other. From the ranks of the "Ribbonmen" issued a new so- ciety called "St. Patrick's Boys." Their oath was : "I swear that my right hand be cut off and be nailed to the door of the prison at Armagh, rather than to deceive or betray a brother ; and to persevere in the cause to which
1 deliberately devote myself ; to pardon neither sex nor age, should it be in the way of my vengeance against the Orangemen."