brother were born there. My father was engaged for about three years as
clerk of the works for the erection of a castle for Sir Francis
Macnaghten, near Bushmills, County Antrim. This must be one of the least
Catholic parts of Ireland, for there was no resident priest, and I had
to be taken a long distance to be christened. There was a decent
Catholic workman at the castle, James MacGowan, who was my god-father,
and my Aunt Kitty had to come all the way from "our own place" in the
County Down to be my god-mother.

Brought to England, my earliest remembrances are of Liverpool, which has
a more compact and politically important Irish population than any other
town in Great Britain.

Anyone who has mixed much among our fellow-countrymen in England,
Scotland and Wales knows that, generally, the children and grandchildren
of Irish-born parents consider themselves just as much Irish as those
born on "the old sod" itself. No part of our race has shown more
determination and enthusiasm in the cause of Irish nationality. As a
rule the Irish of Great Britain have been well organised, and, during
the last sixty years and more, have been brought into constant contact
with a host of distinguished Irishmen--including the leaders of the
constitutional political organisations--from Daniel O'Connell to John
Redmond.

I have taken an active part in the various Irish movements of my time,
and it so happens that, while I know so little personally of Ireland
itself, there are few, if any, living Irishmen who have had such
experience, from actual personal contact with them, as I have had of our
people in every part of Great Britain. As will be seen, too, in the
course of these recollections, circumstances have brought me into