The manner in which the national feeling was demonstrated on this occasion was one peculiarly characteristic of a nation in which the sentiments of religion and patriotism are so closely blended.  No stormy “indignation meetings” were held; no tumult, no violence, no cries for vengeance arose.  In all probability—­nay, to a certainty—­all this would have happened, and these ebullitions of popular passion would have been heard, had the victims not passed into eternity.  But now, they were gone where prayer alone could follow; and in the presence of this solemn fact the religious sentiment overbore all others with the Irish people.  Cries of anger, imprecations, and threats of vengeance, could not avail the dead; but happily religion gave a vent to the pent-up feelings of the living.  By prayer and mourning they could at once, most fitly and most successfully, demonstrate their horror of the guilty deed, and their sympathy with the innocent victims.

Requiem Masses forthwith were announced and celebrated in several churches; and were attended by crowds everywhere too vast for the sacred edifices to contain.  The churches in several instances were draped with black, and the ceremonies conducted with more than ordinary solemnity.  In every case, however, the authorities of the Catholic church were careful to ensure that the sacred functions were sought and attended for spiritual considerations, not used merely for illegitimate political purposes; and wherever it was apprehended that the holy rites were in danger of such use, the masses were said privately.

And soon public feeling found yet another vent; a mode of manifesting itself scarcely less edifying than the Requiem Masses; namely, funeral processions.  The brutal vengeance of the law consigned the bodies of Allen, Larkin, and O’Brien to dishonoured graves; and forbade the presence of sympathising friend or sorrowing relative who might drop a tear above their mutilated remains.  Their countrymen now, however, determined that ample atonement should be made to the memory of the dead for this denial of the decencies of sepulture.  On Sunday, 1st December, in Cork.  Manchester, Mitchelstown, Middleton, Limerick, and Skibbereen, funeral processions, at which thousands of persons attended, were held; that in Cork being admittedly the most imposing, not only in point of numbers, but in the character of the demonstration and the demeanour of the people.

For more than twenty years Cork city has held an advanced position in the Irish national struggle.  In truth, it has been one of the great strongholds of the national cause since 1848.  Nowhere else did the national spirit keep its hold so tenaciously and so extensively amidst the people.  In 1848 Cork city contained probably the most formidable organization in the country; formidable, not merely in numbers, but in the superior intelligence, earnestness, and determination of the men; and even in the Fenian conspiracy, it is unquestionable