warmth of their cradle has not yet cooled down; and, if it would
be indeed ridiculous to represent the English of the nineteenth
century as the pious subjects of Alfred or Edward, it would be
equally foolish to depict the Irish of to-day as the worldlings
and godless of France, Italy, or Spain.  The Irish patriot could
not be like them, without deserting his standard and the colors
for which his race has fought.  The nation to which he has the
honor of belonging is still Christian to the core; and, if some
few have really repudiated the love of the religion they took in
at their mother's knee, the only means left them of remaining
Irishmen, at least in appearance, is not to parade their total
lack of this, the chief characteristic of their race. 

End of Project Gutenberg's The Irish Race in the Past and the Present