THE AMERICAN FENIANS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2453, 31 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE AMERICAN FENIANS.

Violent Speech by Father McGrlynn. A muktint, was held in New York on 23nl November (reports an English paper), to celebrate the anniversary of the execution at Manchester of the three Fetii>uis who were concerned in the murder of S .irgca nt Brett. Home of the features of the meeting were unusually significant. One speaker referreil to Patrick Forrl as a traitor, because, lately, his dynamite doctrines have been less prominent, and because he did not support Mr Henry George's recent candidature in the State elections. This disclosed the double fact that the large audience wa3 mostly composed of Mr (■■r.orgo's adherents, and that they are also dynamiters. Ford's name was roundly hissed, and when a man among the audience rose to defend him disorder followed, and resulted in the forcible ejection of several persons. The excommunicated priest, McGlynn, shocked many people by the levity of his references to the Pope and startled all by the boldness of his advocacy of violence. For instance, he said :— "Irishmen and Irishwomen, here and everywhere, assert your rights to the laud God gave you. Deliberate plots for the liberation of your country for the assertion of your inalienable rights, so that no power on earth or in hell can effectually frustrate them. (Applause.) If priest, bishop or propaganda say yon are doing wrong, tell him to mind his own business—that you are as good a judge of that as he Fenianism ami the C'lerkenwcll explosion helped the Irish causc more than all the speeches that had been delivered for a long time. (Applause.) Let Irishmen help Ireland with all the means which God and nature have given them ; or lot us cease applauding fights for freedom in any laud until wo applaud Irish patriots such as those whose memory we honour to-night." Immense cheering accompanied and followed this speech. Besides indicating the unsuspected recrudescence of dynamite doctrines, this meeting, says a correspondent, attests the depth and persistence of a politico-religous schism which is quite sufficent to be a factor in the national politics. The adherents of Mr Blaine must be dismayed by the open repudiation of Patrick Ford, who was subsidised to foment the defection of the Irish Catholics from the Demacntie party in the statu of New York, where the election is often decided by a majority of a thousand in a poll of one million.