ature such as that--each in succession
went down to defeat; but Sir Thomas has not done yet. Like King
Bruce, he is going to try again, and Shamrock IV. is to do battle
with the best that America can range against her. All honor to Lord
Dunraven and to Sir Thomas Lipton for their persistent efforts to
engage in generous rivalry with the yachtsmen across the sea.

Lawn-tennis, cricket, and golf we play, and play well; to rowing many
of us are enthusiastically devoted; and at handball our young
men--and some not so young--are signally expert. The champion
handball player has always been of Irish blood. Baseball we
invented--and called it rounders. It is significant that the great
American ball game is still played according to a code which is
scarcely modified from that which may be seen in force any summer day
on an Irish school field or village green. Perhaps something of
hereditary instinct is to be traced in the fact that many of the best
exponents of American baseball are the bearers of fine old Irish
names.

This brief and cursory review of Ireland at Play must now conclude.
It is scarcely more than a glossary, and not a complete one at that.
It may, however, serve to show that Ireland's record in sport, like
her record in so many other things set forth in this book, is great
and glorious enough to warrant the insertion of this short chapter
among those which tell of old achievements and feats of high emprize.

REFERENCES:

Racing--Irish Racing Calendar: 1790-1914, 124 vols. (Dublin, Brindley
and Son); The Racing Calendar: 1774-1914 (London, Weatherby and
Sons). Breeding--The General Stud Book: 1908-1913, 22 vols. (London,
Weatherby and Sons). Racing and Breeding Generally--Cox: Notes on the
History of the Irish Horse (Dublin, 1897). Boxing and
Athletics--Files of _Sport_ and _Freeman's Journal_.

THE FIGHTING RACE

By JOSEPH I.C. CLARKE,

_President, American Irish Historical Society_.

I.--THE FIGHTING RACE AT HOME.

"War was the ruling passion of this people," says MacGeoghegan,
meaning the Milesians who were the latest of the peoples that overran
ancient Ireland up to the coming of Christ. How many races had
preceded them remains an enigma of history not profitable to examine
here, but whoever they were, or in what succession they arrived, they
must, like all migrating people, have been prepared to establish
themselves at the point of the spear and the edge of the sword. Two
races certainly