BISHOP LENIHAN IN LIVERPOOL

New Zealand Tablet, 19 November 1908, Page 12

BISHOP LENIHAN IN LIVERPOOL

COMPLIMENTARY BANQUET

The Irish Nationalists of Liverpool on Tuesday evening, September 29, entertained the Right Rev. Dr. Lenihan, Bishop of Auckland, at a banquet in the State Restaurant in recognition of his services to the cause of Irish Nationalism. Additional interest was given to the occasion by the presence of Mr. J. C, Swift MacNeiil, K.C., M.P., who for so many years has been 1 prominent figure in the movement.

Mr. Austin Harford, J.P., (chairman), in proposing Ihe toast ' Ireland a Nation ' said they were pleased to welcome such a fearless supporter of the Irish cause as the Bishop of Auckland. They also extended a cordial welcome to Mr. Swrt MacNeiil, a Protestant member of Parliament returned by on' of the most Catholic constituencies in Irelat d.

Aldeimar. Purrell, J P., proposed the toast of the evening 'Our Guest ' They had entertained in Liverpool, . he said, distinguished Irish <■ lories t-nd literacy men. but they had nr-vu before had the privilege of entertaining an Irish National! .I Bishop. Whilst disavowing any <lesirc to speak fulsomelv, he yet felt bound to give expression to their appreciation of his Lordship's many good Lju^lities.

The toast was leceived with cheers, and his Lordship in acknowledging the heaviness of his reception said he came Irorr. the most democratic cou.itry in ths world. They had govoir.. ment of the people by the people, and they co-..1d fully understand, therefore, that the people of Ireland would never be ronter.tH until they had the same system of government as New Zealand so happily enjoyed. Prejudice was a nasty word, but he feared England was full of it ; even some English Catholics joined with the Orangemen in the cry that Home Rule would mean Rome Rule. He could not understand this attitute of mind. In New Zealand they knew nothing of it. He repudiated the charge ",.f disloyalty. He had yet to learn they had cut off a king's hea 1. yet from time to time some of the highest in England had givtn their aid to treason. His Lordship could not bedieve that he Imperial Parliament would much longer consent to be conce.-i.e.l with petty details. The time was coming when Home Ru!*» would be granted necessarily to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales also. But who would be the authors of it? Those memoes of the Irish Nationalist Party who will never rest until they see that their country attains its ambition, namely, Home Rule" After eulogising the Irish Party his Lordship spoke of the large Irish Catholic population of New 2ea.land, whose sympathies were entirely with them. If the need arose let them send out. their envoys, and their fellow-countrymen would help them, as they hatl helped them before.

Mr. T. Burke, J.P., C.C., proposing rh2 toast of the ' Irish Parliamentary Paity,' said that rightly or wrongly they repTssented the majority of his countrymen, and although- he iniphr not agree with all they said or did, yet he supported them becai'is?he wanted to see Ireland govern itself. He agreed with Edmund Burke that a country never yet was wrong in its expression of Nationalist feeling. In asking them to drink fo the Irish Party,

he coupled the toast with the name of that distinguished professor of constitutional law and able representative of Ireland Mr. Swift MacNeiil. *

In acknowledging the toast, Mr. Swift MacNeiil, who was accorded an ovation, said it gave him great pleasure to assM at a festival in honor of a Catholic Bishop, althouglThe kn.-lt at another altar. They* had differences of creed in Ireland, b.it there was no difference of nationality. He, though a non-Cath-ohc, felt perhaps as keenly as any Catholic in the land the slitfV which had been put upon the Catholic religion "in connection with the procession at the recent Congress. ' If that procession had been held in Ireland there would have been no such insult They heard sometimes cl.arges of intolerar.ee brought again* Irish Protestants. The* 4 charges were true, but lhe sncent»v» had come from Government sources whose desire V-«! been to set the Irish against each other for the purpose of th-r common subjugation. What was the attitude of the Irish r ar . Lament? This Pailiament, o.f which no Catholic was permitted to be a member, extended the franchise to the Catholic popu.jtion, Ihey admitted Catholics to tha.Grand Jury and to the B-.r —they passed a full and complete Catholic Emancipation Ad. with no reservations. That Act was rendered inoperative Ihiough English influence, and O'Connell, who was a barrister of uTo years standing at tha jessing of the Union, said in lh> first speech he ever made that he would sooner trust his own I rot'stant countrymen to giv> full rights to the Catholics than he would trust the Union; and thirty years afterwards he aceu 5,d5 ,d that Union of having retarded Catholic Emancipation for a generation He (the speaker) was not of a sanguine dtaporf. tion, but he was as certain as he was of his own existence of the near establishment of the Parliament in College Green in all its pristine glory. Everything was making for it. Those who read the signs of the times could see that it would be a race between the Tory and the Radical Parties which should give it them. He believed at the present thne the House of Commons would vote for Home Rule by a majority of two hundred. It was being held back by two or three gentlemen who, in their anxiety to get within the Cabinet, had given pledges, which were M mv »' Sh ° Uld be '"° H ° me Rule this 'ime.' Mr. MacNeiil resumed his seat amidst general 'cheering After the toast of ' The Visitors,' proposed by Councillor John Oeraghty (Bootle), and responded to by the Rev. T. G. Rathe 0.5.8., an enjoyable evening was brought to a close. '