Rourke was a patriotic Irishman, and in this
respect I could never have made the same comparison between the
patriotism of the two men, Barry Sullivan and him, as I did between them
as actors. _Both_ were patriotic Irishmen. It will be remembered that in
an early chapter of this book I have mentioned that Barry Sullivan once
offered himself to our committee as an Irish Nationalist candidate for
the parliamentary representation of Liverpool.

Dion Boucicault, too, is one, I am sure, who would have profited by
anything Thomas Davis might have written on the subject of the drama. I
am quite satisfied that though he was severely criticised for the wake
scene in his play of "The Shaughraun" at the time it was first produced,
the objectionable features in this were more the fault of the actors
than of the dramatist; but the subject was an exceedingly risky one,
even for a man like Boucicault, and would have been better avoided
altogether.

Besides Barry Sullivan and Falconer, other Irish actors I knew were
Barry Aylmer, James Foster O'Neill, and Hubert O'Grady. They were
impersonators of what were known as "Irish parts," and being genuine
Irish Nationalists, as well as actors, did much to elevate the character
of such performances. For with them, all the wit and drollery were
retained, while they helped, by their example, to banish the buffoonery
that used to characterise the "Stage Irishman."

I am reminded by a criticism on one of his pieces in a London daily
paper that we can claim, as a fellow-countryman, perhaps the most
brilliant writer at the present time for the British stage--George
Bernard Shaw. From a conversation I had with him once, I would certainly
gather that he was a patriotic Irishman.

I have done something in the way of dramatic production myself, one of
the pieces I wrote being at the request of Father Nugent, to assist him
in the great temperance movement he had started in Liverpool. He engaged
a large hall in Bevington Bush, where every Monday night he gave the
total abstinence pledge against intoxicating liquors to large numbers of
people. I was then carrying on the "Catholic Times" for him, and he
asked me to be the first to take the pledge from him at his public
inauguration of the movement. Although, as he was aware, I was already a
pledged teetotaler to Father Mathew, I was greatly pleased to agree to
assist him all I could in his great work.

He believed in providing a counter-attraction to t