Excerpt from Impressions of Ireland The Gaelic League, however, starts with the principle that the economic revival can only be accomplished by means Of a thorough spiritual regeneration; and with this View the foreigner who visits Ireland must signify his hearty concurrence. England has proclaimed to the four winds that it was she who introduced into the sister island the settled forms of civilised life, to which Ireland had been a stranger; and Irishmen have seen themselves regarded for centuries, as belonging to an inferior race, inherently incapable Of organising itself into an enduring social structure. How England has vilified the tribal system' And yet, under its shade, Ireland has produced her bards and her lawgivers, her cenobites and her schools. Irish sentiment bitterly felt the rude shock of long, calculating disdain. Timid, suspicious, lacking faith in herself, mistrusting innova tion, shy Of initiative, sorrowful and resigned, with passive listlessness, or weeping in silence, she allowed the industry, the commerce, the habits Of life, and even the language of the country of Cromwell, to sweep over the land, which had witnessed the proud sway of the O' Connors and the wealth and affluence of the Maguires. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.