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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 174, 28 July 1876, Page 15

On the 16th of May a meeting of the Catholics of Armagh was held in the Catholic Reading-room, for the purpose of establishing for the city and county of Armagh, a Catholic Registration Society. The meeting was large and representative. On the motion of Mr. Hughes, d seconded by Rev. C. Quinn, P. P., the chair -was taken by the Rev. T. '• Loy, P. P., amid applause. In the course of the speeches, the Rev. J. M'Grath, P. P., said : — " We have all the same feelings ; the same political views and sympathies ; and, therefore, I think it is very desirable that we should have a general pi oTincial committee to look after the registration through the province. I think theie is no foundation for the objection raised by Father Byrne that this association will split up the tenant-right societies. Who have taken the most interest in the tenant-right question ? Was it the poor down-trodden and oppressed Catholics ? 1 remember when Sharman Crawford, the father of the present member for the County Down, contested that county, and I know very many of the Catholics who sacrificed much to return him, and they suffered afterwards for it. They made far greater sacrifices than the Presbyterians did, and I recollect at Newry that the Presbyterian party, when they saw the Catholics come forward and all promise for Sharman Crawford, slunk away, and the election was lost. I am quite sure that even now they would be quite prepared to make tB great sacrifices, but it will not be necessary. What we want is fixity of tenure at fair rent — (applause) — which, I believe, would be a settlement of the tenant-right question. Of course it is false to say that because Catholics and Piotestants have a great interest in the final settlement of this tenant-right question, this association will disunite them who should be united on tenant-right. This association will not carry out its work after a political fashion ; it only furnishes us with the means of ascertaining and combining our strength, but it leaves us all free to adopt whatever line of politics we select." (Applause.) J