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Show THE OWNER OF THE SHAMROCK SIR THOMAS UPTON", CHALLENGER CHAL-LENGER OF THE CUP. A Native of County Managhan, Ireland, Ire-land, and a Sincere Irish Sympathizer Sympa-thizer His Ambition. The leading topic of conversation in this country is the international yacht race between Great Britain and America, Amer-ica, which is to come off at New York City the fir i week in October. The representative of Great Britain is the Shamrock; of. America, the Columbia. Sir Thomas Lipton, the owner of the Shamrock, has spent a fortune on his yacht. Many of the newspapers are referring re-ferring to him as a Scotchman, because he was born in Glasgow, Scotland. The fact 1s that he is a full-blooded Irishman. Irish-man. A correspondent, writing to the New-York New-York Sun, says: The man who is now attracting so much attention in two hemispheres may not be , unknown personally to many of your North of Ireland readers. read-ers. Sir Thomas Lipton, yachtsman, philanthropist, merchant and seeker after the American cup. is particularly idolized by, the people of Monaghan county, Ireland. Sir Thomas' parents first saw the light of day in Clones, the j same to wn which Sir Jordan Da vies I mentions, in 1607. as his having lodged j "the second night not far from the j Abbey of Clonays." . LIPTON S ANCESTRY. The maiden name of the mother of the titled sportsman, who follows in Lord Dunraven's footsteps in seeking to wrest away the yachting cup, was ; Johnston. Sir Thomas' father and mother belonged to the respectable Protestant farming class, and their sn came to the Clones markets to buy his butter when he first started on his successful suc-cessful career in Glasgow. Scotland, in the provision line. In the churchyard at Clones Sir Thomas Lipton's grandfather grand-father is buried, and the one wor 1 "Lipton" 13 cut on the stone over tho grave. Though the people of Clones 1 may differ, argue and quarrel as to religion re-ligion and politics, they are all of one , accord in hoping that the Shamrock will show a clean pair of marine heels to the American flyer. The Clones people are very fond of j having Americans visit their ancient . town and of showing them Lough Erne, that beautiful and picturesque sheet cf Irish water which washes "an island for every day of the year." Tiiy aver that Killarney cannot hold a candle to the pretty, winding, 'restless Lake Erne. HIS IRISH SYMPATHIES. Sir Thomas Lipton has more o? th spirit and impulses of a genuine Irishman Irish-man in him than has generally betn supposed. The fact tha the Shamrock was neither built nor manned in Ireland, Ire-land, that there was not, indeed, a sSngle Irish officer or sailor in her crev. made Irishmen rather indifferent as to her fate in New York bay. They looked upon her more. as an EpJli-sh'. than an Irish challenger. But a ery interesting account just given to one of the papers by Sir Thomas of the orisrin and evolution of his idea of challenging chal-lenging for the cup sh'ows him to be possessed of unsutpected national sentiments sen-timents and racial pride. Besides, if he should win the cup, it wiil presumably presum-ably be held in Ireland, for his challenge chal-lenge was issued through the Roval Yacht club of Belfast. In his interview- in the London- Daily News Weekly, Sir Thomas says: WANTED AN IRISH YACHT. "My desire to try and bring back the America's cup to the oiTi country has been with me more than ten years. Yes, it is over ten years ago .hat I wrote to W. J. Lane, at that time member mem-ber of parliament for East Cork, that if he could find me an Irish designer and an Irish builder I would find all the funds required to sail an Irish I boat, with no one on board her but ; Irishmen. After some little time Mr. 1 Lane replied that such a thing was im- , possible. I was anxious to challenge with an Irteh boat and an Irish crew, and to compete for the cup in the name of Ireland, and --when I found I could not get an Irish designer for the boat, that fettled the matter, and I let the subject drop until after the -defeat of the Valkyrie. Years ago I had mentioned men-tioned my ambition to Mr. Fife when we were crossing the Atlantic together. I now consulted Mr. Fife and decided i to make the challenge. It was accepted. ac-cepted. WENT TO ENGLAND. I still wished to have the boat built in Ireland, but at the moment when I was carefully considering the luestion. my friend. Mr. Pirrie, of Harland & Wolff, shipbuilders, said to me: 'We can build a boat, but I feel if I were in your shoes I would put aside all sentiment sen-timent and go to Thornycrof t. who, I I am sure, will make a better job than we could do.' I soon convinced myself that his advice was sound, and that to forego any advantage on purely senti- r mental grounds would be simply a waste of time." |