Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/115

 To him, struggling for his home was emancipating his fatherland. Irishmen, Welshmen and Highlanders passionately love their native soil-its outward natural beauty, its hills and valleys, its crags and brooks, its sea-coast and its landscape. It finds expression in such songs as this of Thomas Davis, the poet of Young Ireland:—

She is a rich and rare land, Oh she's a fresh and fair land, She is a dear and rare land,
 * This native land of mine.

No men than hers are braver, Her women's hearts ne'er waver I'd freely die to save her
 * And think my lot divine.

She's not a dull and cold land, No! she's a warm and bold land, Oh! she's a true and old land,
 * This native land of mine.

Could beauty ever guard her, And virtue still reward her, No foe would cross her border,
 * No friend within it pine!

Oh! she's a fresh and fair land, Oh! she's a rich and rare land, Yes, she's a rich and fair land,
 * This native land of mine."

Through all the poetry and song of my own native land of Wales there runs this strain of love of fatherland, of its outward natural