Ireland, the abject condition of the poor is its
unmistakable result, and that where there are priests in Ireland there
are ignorance and dirt in exact proportion. They have compared the
clean cottages of the North with the filthy hovels of the South, and
they have drawn their own conclusions. But to descend to detail. What
do the Tuamites deny? "Not a particle of truth in the whole letter!"
Father Humphreys said my Tipperary letter was "a pure invention,"
without a syllable of truth. Since then Father Humphreys has been
compelled to admit, in writing, that all I said was true, and that he
"could not have believed it possible." That was his apology.

Turning to the Tuam letter, I find these words--

"The educated Catholics are excellent people--none better anywhere,
none more tolerant." This is construed into "a gross insult on our
holy priests, and particularly on our Archbishop," who, by the way,
was not mentioned or made the subject of any allusion, however remote.
Do the Tuamites deny that "many of the streets are wretchedly built,"
and "the Galway road shows how easily the Catholic poor are
satisfied?" Do they deny that the cabins in this district are
"aboriginal in build, and also indescribably filthy," and that "the
condition of the inmates is not one whit higher than that obtaining in
the wigwams of the native Americans?" Do they deny that "the hooded
women, barefooted, bronzed, and tanned by constant exposure, are
wonderfully like the squaws brought from the Far West by Buffalo
Bill?"

All this I reiterate and firmly maintain, with the addition of the
statement that the squaws were in a condition of compulsory
cleanliness the like of which seems never to be attained by the ladies
of the Galway Road, Tuam. The meeting is called a "monster" meeting.
How many people does the Tuam Town Hall hold? The fact is that the
Town Hall of Tuam, with the entire population of Tuam thrown in, could
be put into the Town Hall of Birmingham. Do the Tuamites deny that Mr.
Strachan, one of their most worthy citizens, is unable to walk the
streets of the town wherein live the people he has benefited, without
a guard of policemen to protect him from the cut-throat emissaries of
the Land League? So it was when I visited Tuam, Mr. Strachan's crimes
being the purchase of a farm in the Land Court and his Protestant
creed. Do they deny the scenes of persecution I described as having
taken place in former days? All this I had from a sou