"
Towards Kilkenny they therefore took their way, haranguing the people in
soul-stirring addresses as they proceeded. At Enniscorthy and at
Graigue-na-mana their appeals were responded to with fervent enthusiasm;
they called on the people to form themselves into organized bodies, and
prepare to co-operate with the insurgents who were shortly to unfurl
their banner beneath the shadow of St. Canice's; and the crowds who hung
on their words vowed their determination to do so. But in Kilkenny, as
in every town they visited, the patriot leaders found the greatest
disinclination to take the initiative in the holy war. There as
elsewhere the people felt no unwillingness to fight; but they knew they
were ill prepared for such an emergency, and fancied the first blow
might be struck more effectively elsewhere. "Who will draw the first
blood?" asked Finton Lalor in the last number of the _Felon_; and the
question was a pertinent one; there was a decided reluctance to draw it.
It is far from our intention to cast the slightest reflection on the
spirit or courage of the nationalists of 1848. We know that it was no
selfish regard for their own safety made the leaders in Wexford,
Kilkenny, and elsewhere, shrink from counselling an immediate outbreak
in their localities; the people, as well as the men who led them, looked
forward to the rising of the harvest moon, and the cutting of their
crops, as the precursors of the herald that was to summon them to aims.
Pages:
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192