[Side note: The Hereditary Taint]

Another point to be insisted on is:--The crime of the drunkard
does not die with himself. Like lunacy or consumption it
transmits a sad heritage to his offspring. Ninety out of every
hundred are drunkards because they inherited tainted blood.

Parents shudder at the bare possibility of their child being born
an idiot, or with some repulsive birth-mark. Yet, before the
infant can lift its hand in protest, the parents poison its life
at the very source and send it on the world with a moral
deformity marking its nature.

[Side note: The Dawn]

These were the two sources of weakness in the past: a public
opinion that fostered, instead of smiting, the curse, and an
hereditary taint that grew stronger with every generation, while
the will to resist became more feeble. Thank God, the dawn of a
brighter day is with us: there is a healthy awakening of public
opinion. The Gaelic revival has for the first time in our history
linked sobriety with patriotism: the word has gone forth that
reconstructed Ireland must not rest on staggering pillars. The
young priest of the future has the rising tide with him, and
Ireland has seen her darkest day.

No matter how we may deplore emigration, we must deal with it as
a fact.

[Side note: Is the Emigrant Prepared]