Introduction
American anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass visited Ireland in 1845, and loved it. But in time he came to realise that there are two kinds of nationalist: those who want freedom everywhere, and those who want it only for themselves, and will enslave any other land or people in order to get it.
IT was not long after my seeing Mr O’Connell that his health broke down, and his career ended in death.* I felt that a great champion of freedom had fallen, and that the cause of the American slave, not less than the cause of his country, had met with a great loss.
All the more was this felt, when I saw the kind of men who came to the front when the voice of O’Connell was no longer heard in Ireland. He was succeeded by the Duffys, Mitchells, Meagher, and others, — men who loved liberty for themselves and their country, but were utterly destitute of sympathy with the cause of liberty in countries other than their own.
One of the first utterances of John Mitchell on reaching the United States, from his exile and bondage, was a wish for a “slave plantation, well stocked with slaves.”*
Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) was a landowner and barrister who, following the failed Irish Rebellion of 1798, urged his fellow Irishmen to pursue independence from Westminster through peaceful constitutional change, and, above all, through classical liberal ideals and a rediscovery of Ireland’s traditional Catholic identity.
John Mitchel (1815-1875) was a firebrand Irish nationalist. Tried before judge Thomas Lefroy (at one time a friend of Jane Austen) and convicted of treason, he was sentenced to transportation to Bermuda and then Tasmania. He was maltreated and used for forced labour, but escaped in 1853 and fled to the USA, where he baffled Douglass by supporting the slave-owning South in the civil war.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Champion. Kind. Little.
2 He. Liberty. Succeed.
3 Destitute. His. Love.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding -less.
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Reach. 2. State. 3. Wish. 4. Break. 5. Felt. 6. Champion. 7. End. 8. Loss. 9. Great.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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