IRISH READINGS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 46, 2 December 1925, Page 7

IRISH READINGS

(Edited by A. M. Sullivan, M.P., and T. D. Sullivan, M.P.)

THE MISSION OF WOMEN. (From the Nation of October 19, 1844.)

To the women of Ireland it is thought fit, in these days of our strife for liberty, to address a word of affectionate remonstrance. That they have a part, and an important part, in the work to be done, we hope and desire to prove to them. Once awakened to the knowledge that there is a duty which they have overlooked, we are assured that it will be religiously fulfilled. We are constantly hearing that "women have no business with politics." This we deny. If politics be, as a great woman has most justly defined them, "Moralsi.e., of equal concern to all," it is not only the business but the duty of every woman to be cognisant of what implicates and determines her own happiness, and that of all dear to her. But we take a broader ground than even thisone more befitting, as it seems to us, the disinterested nature of women. We conceive that in her pure and noble heart should be found a principle second only in strength to her devotion to God —the love of her native land. Why is man to engross a feeling to which both sexes have so obviously an equal title? Every high and lofty affection is found far purer and more intense in woman than in man. With her no love of gain, no self-seek-ing, mingles with the holy strength of her impulses. But, alas! with rare exceptions, women have been taught to fear the cherishing of the purest earthly affection. They dread the sneers of "the world." They fear to tear aside the tissue of false prejudice in which the great fact has been enwrapped and concealed, that active patriotism is a duty bearing equally upon man and woman. Wc want to teach them that there is something far higher than this world-applause—-something which amply compensates for its sneers. The world says, too, that "women are not to meddle in politics"; and if by this is meant meddling publicly, the world is right. This is not a woman's sphere, and we should more deeply regret to see her so "unsex" herself than we now deplore the unfulfilled duty which is in her province. But it is not needed. God has placed woman in a sphere by which it is plain that He intends her to influence man to all that is good and holy. In every stage of her life she has this to do; and in every stage of her life she does exert an incalculable influence either to the well-being or prejudice of those around her. This every man feels, let him admit it

or not —and it is the extreme importance of this influence being well directed that we wish to awaken our countrywomen. A woman's sphere is her home —her school her fireside, where she has all holy things to teach. Why has one great lesson been so constantly forgotten? We every day see woman among the objects of her influence — her pupils, in short, though she and they may know it not —and we see. her eye brighten and her cheek flush as she reads or tells of some brave man's struggle for the freedom of his fatherland ! The names of those men are heroes with her, as they ought to be. She worships Washington, Hofer, Tell, and such as they, with all a woman's beautiful enthusiasm; but it too seldom occurs to her that she, too, has a country to loveto cherishas they loved theirs, and that ir she fulfilled her "mission" well and rightly, some of her own dear ones might go down to all ages with names as brilliant, as soul-stirring, as those she reverences, as examples to all time. No one denies, at all events, the fact, that every man ought to be a patriot, whatever meaning he may attach to that word. Everybody respects and admires a man who knows he has a duty to fulfil by his country, and who does fulfil it according to his views. Who is so fit to instil one feeling more, which will elevate and purify the heart which receives it rightly, as she who teaches all else? Let us not be told that the subject is too deep or grave for her. There are deeper and graver ones' which (amid all the heresies put forth against the mission of women) we have never heard her right to impart denied her. This is but one of the many of the false theories by which the sphere, of woman's usefulness has been limited and narrowed, which have been received without inquiry or examination as established facts, and which need but a little investigation to fall to pieces. We maintain that a woman's sphere and duty are to teach all things good and ennobling. To do this well, a woman must do more than feel. Irishwomen ! you who have husbands, brothers, and sons, look and see whether the love and reverence they bear you does not sway ' them towards your opinions—you, who can teach them by your gentle influence to love God, His laws, charity, peace, purity, affection, why should you deem it

beneath or beyond your sphere to implant in their hearts the seed of one more Holy dutyto love, to work for, to live, and if necessary to be prepared to die, for their fatherland ? , Enthusiasm alone will not do this beneficially. There must be head as well as heart W. the work, and for this purpose Irishwomen must read. In these days of studies and accomplishments, this will not be a hard task among our countrywomen of the wealthier . class —and it is precisely this class whose influence we are most anxious to secure. The women of the laboring and very poor class exert an unconscious influence over their families, as great as is needed —the influence 'of suffering. No poor man who sees that his sweat and toil fail to give sufficient daily food to his wife or his daughter, wants any spur from them to do all he can to alter this. He knows that he cannot be worse off than he is and has been, and he has sense enough to perceive that the men who are working to effect this change for him have already given him substantial advantages as pledges for their future measures; and if he did need to be stimulated, there is less apathy and more unselfishness among that class of our countrywomen than any other. It is to the women surrounded by men whose circumstances of ease might prompt apathywhose objects in life might tempt to an overlooking of principle for interestthat Ave more particularly address our words. It is among these that the" .influence of a well-informed, regulated, and enthusiastic woman would be most felt, and most needed.

We are sure of the poor men while they suffer as they do; but the men we want are leaders to these —the powerful, the Wealthy, the independent—above all, the leaders among the intellectual and educated men of, Ireland. The aid of women in their homes would lie a powerful agent to procure us these men; but we would wish to see that influence exertedas all influence, to be effectual, must bereasonably, not blindly. Irishwomen who can and do afford time, trouble, and- money, to study the language and the history of almost every country in Europe, surely could convince themselves, by a 'moment’s reflection, that there is something which is more important for them to know —something about themselves , their own history, their own character, their own resources, their own music-why not their own language? We want Irishwomen to read about Ireland to give themselves reasons why they love her, and why they should put to work the engine of her silent-power to help her.

We want no blind enthusiasm — is not lasting nor useful. We want knowledge, instead of the grossest ignorance amongst Irishwomen about what concerns them most. We ' want them, too, to turn to the never-closed books of human nature and visible things, to learn from them. Let them study the character of the people let them observe their sufferings—let them look abroad and see how beautiful and rhb t" God has made the land for them to dwell in; then, looking on man's part below, ask their hearts what curse it is that has blighted and marred so fair a —that has given hunger and cold, desolation and misery, in the

midst of a land to which God gave all fertility P ... Let the Irish woman assist us in our peaceful battle with oppression, and when (as, / please God, soon she shall) she sees her countrymen free and happy, employing the natural resources of their own soil for their own

benefitwhen tyranny and bigotry, and the iron hand of unjust laws, are things that are past, and that the pure spirits of love and liberty abide among uswhen her dear nafive land has its place among the free na* tions of the world, let her, in thanking God) exult and say, “I helped this work.”