SUNDAY WITH THE IRISH AGITATORS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 221, 9 November 1880, Page 4

SUNDAY WITH THE IRISH AGITATORS.

A special correspondent of tbe «' Dublin Evening Mail " says : — " lam writing fro^i TburlfS, affpr having driven thirteen milea to Ballingarry and thirteen mites bark, a'ter no other refreshment between whi'ea than tbe platform utterances of the Land League sneakers. Alas for great (-xpectations ! How often are we cheated ! The Kildare Thunderer, tbe late John Dillon, Tipperary's choice, was absent, BaVlingarry is a village finely situated on a slope of hills, from which there is a grand panorama of the land of Tipperary. Slievenarnore vises in the landscape some miles away, and on a clear day no better view can be had of the country than from the very field outside the village where the platform was erected. There was no fear ofthe platform coming clown, for a dozen stout posts, rooted in the soil, upheld the little band of orators and around them gathered about three o'clock between 800 and 1,000 people, amongst them a number of woll-dressed farmers' wives and daughters, evidently out rather for a day's enjoyment than in quest of political faith. For an hour before tlie meeting commenced the field (about three acres iu size) was the scene of various amusements. Some gossoons played cricket in one corner, a ballad-singer shouted out to an admiring circle some stanzas (not yet published), the refrain of which declared that ' Parnell was a man to gain the tenant right for every Irishmau" A band consisting of three drums and two fifes marched to and from the village and cheered up our spirits as much • as possible under the circumstanoes. At three o'clock: the strains ofthe Fethard brass hand, were heard, and on their arrival in front of the platform the land leaguers mounted it to the air of " See the conquering Boyton comes.' The igreen flag of Fethard floated in the mountain village. Our calico flag had 'Grod save Ireland' on it, and another the ambiguous and suggestive word ' Strike' ; — nothing more. The audience was quiet and undemonstrative, aud gave ihe Tipperary, 'whoop' at stated intervals, more as a hospitable ■welcome and a mark of civility than . anything else. In fact the people got bored a good deal, and their apathy was so. great at one period tbat one of the platform leaders Mullaly, waxed ex- . ceedingly wroth, and stepping forward in the middle of another man's speech, said — ' A I—you,1 — you, can't you give a cheer ?' t have heard a pood deal of pnblic speaking of various kinds, from Mr Gladstone in the House of Commons down to an artisan at .ths, Fleet.street Cogerß's Debating Club, but I never heard worse rhetoric and more balderdash talking in an hour and a half than at Ballingary. The parish priest wae not, present. The curate took fche chair and opened the proceedings in a moderate address. Then came forward & big stout-built farmer with a large red beard. From the outset it was quite evident he was a novice in the art of addressing a crowd. His action was uncout';, grotesque, and laughable —a palpable piece ot acting. Flowers of rl.etoric culled overnight were thrown over tbe platform railings regardless of grammar, and on the whole a more wretched exhibition of tall talk I never heerd. The eecond speaker was a little better, and seemed to believe what he said. Soon came the professional stumper — Sergeant Boy ton, a small, \ spare man, with a biggish voice, 'With which he struggled vio-

lently. On this occasion I don't thick he awakened any enthusiasm in tbe ' Irish nation.' But if the gallant exsoldier had wakened up his audience a little all tbe effect must bave been destroyed when a beardless boy of about nineteen leaned over tbe rails of the platform and began a tirade against landlords, one of the effects of wbicb wes to send away all those present to the telegraphic offiee. To bear a boy out of a provincial newspaper office quoting tbe words of the Saviour, and then parodying them to illustrate a Socialistic theory, is nothing less than rank blasphemy, and lam surprised at any clerpymßn sitting by and listening to it. In Tipperary it seemed to me as if the people locked upon tbe whole thing as a sort of play, and each man wbo came forward as an actor was treated very much in the enme way as actors are (re ited by a good humored audience in a theatre.