THE IRISHMEN OF LONDON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 111, 12 June 1875, Page 9

THE IRISHMEN OF LONDON.

+4 The London 'Daily Telegraph' recently said: "There are more Irishmen m London than in Dublin ; and consequently in the districts of the town affected by the lower class of immigrants, such as the Commercial Road m the East Drury Lane, and its offshoots of back slums, the Dials, and up and about Marylebone, there was more than . usual animation on Saturday night, in preparation for the national festival. It used to be the custom with Pat to drown the shamrock on Patrick s eve— that is to say, to get glorious, in deference to the saint who banished the toads and snakes from the bogs of Ireland A happier habit of self-respect is coming on, thanks to the exertions of some of the Catholic clergy of London. A few years ago a system was introduced by those gentlemen to accept a spray of shamrock around the stem of which was twisted the following words •— ' The Truce of God. Three hundred days' Indulgence, I promise, in honor of St. Patrick, to abstain from intoxicating liquors (except at meal times) from twelve o'clock at noon the 16th of March, till twelve o clock at noon the 18th of March, and I offer this act of mortification tor the good of my soul, and to avert the anger of God, so justly deserved on account of the prevalence of the sin of drunkenness/ Ihe pretty name chosen for this novel form of pledge was borrowed from mediteval times of almost continuous warfare, when a Truce during which it was not lawful to shed blood, was imposed by the Church from Curfew, on Saturday to Monday morning. Grace to this truce of God, the 17th of March, of recent years, is scarcely noticeable in the addition of charges to the police sheet of the following day j and honest, hard-working Paddy is learning to enjoy himself in the present without laying up a store of headaches for the future."