Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 2 September 1909, Page 25

Irish News

ANTRIM— Non-Churchgoers Rev. Canon Moore, of Holywood, speaking on -Sunday, - July 11, in connection with the Orange celebrations, said: ' The institution, from a religious standpoint, was hardly as influential as it might have been. Take the matter of church attendance. Belfast in 1906 had a population of 358,000. Of these about 270,000 belonged to the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian, and Methodist bodies. About 70,000 of these might .be put down as old people and little children who could not attend church. That left 200,000 people, roughly. Now, sitting accommodation in Belfast churches was available for 100,000. They knew that the churches were never full, so that they might take it that about 100,000 people in Belfast never went to a place cf worship.' Boycotting and Intimidation Mr. T. H. Sloan, M.P., speaking at an Orange demonstration near Belfast on July 12, said he was a strong opponent of boycotting and intimidation, but there was more of it in Ulster and in their own city than in the South and West. The day might come when Belfast would be placarded with posters giving the names of good Unionists who had suffered at the hands of supposed defenders of civil and religious liberty. CORK— President of University College Dr. Windle, President of Cork University College, has been appointed a Knight of St. Gregory by his Holiness Pope Pius X. DOWN— Extremely Satisfactory The Summer Assizes for County Down were opened in Downpatrick on July 13 by Mr. Justice Wright. Addressing the Grand Jury, his Lordship said he would only occupy a few moments of their time in reference to the cases which came before them, the fact being that they were few • in number, while none of them represented any great degree of- crime, and offered no great difficulty either in law or fact. The general condition of the county was extremely satisfactory, and he must heartily congratulate them. GALWAY— lhe New Bishop The Most Rev. Dr. ODea, Bishop of Clonfert, having duly received from Rome the Bulls constituting him Bishop of Galway and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and Kilmacduagh, entered into possession of his new See on JuJy 8 The day of his induction was observed as a general holiday in the City of the Tribes, and a public reception on a grand scale was organised by the citizens for his Lordship. Hospice for Infirm Clergy Official intimation has been given that a hospice, under the control of the Catholic Bishops of Ireland, will be opened and ready for the reception of infirm clergy at Moyne Park, Ballygluin, County Gahvay, on Thursday, September 30. This institution, beautifully situated, in an immense demesne, will be in charge of the Fathers of the Order cf St. Camillus de Lellis, who had to fly from their noble work in France during the recent persecution of the clergy in that country. KERRY— Centenary Celebration The Presentation- Convent, Tralee, celebrated early in July the centenary of its establishment. KILKENNY— Death of a Public Man The death took place last month in Kilkenny, after a brief illness, of Mr. C. J. Kenealy, T.C., P.L.G., editor of the Kilkenny Journal. The deceased gentleman, who was a well-known journalist, was a son of the late Mr. William Kenealy, a former Mayor of Kilkenny, who took a prominent part in the early stages of the Home Rule agitation. Parliamentary Representation Mr. Matthew Keating, a Nationalist, has been returned, unopposed, for Kilkenny South, the seat recently vacated by Mr. N. J. Murphy, a member of the Irish Party, who resigned. LIMERICK— The Jesuit Order In connection with the golden jubilee of the Jesuit Order in Limerick, a number of prominent citizens' presented the Community with a sum of £300, subscribed chiefly by past pupils of the Sacred Heart College, who eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by the jubilee to help in wiping off the debt due on the Sacred Heart Church. Proposed Memorial For the memorial* to the late Father- Casey, of Abbeyfeale, a sum of £920 has now been collected. The subscription list Jias not been closed, and it is certain that a monument worthy of .the object will be raised to his memory.

Laborers' Cottages . Replying in the House of Commons to a question by Mr. Lundon, as to the number of laborers' cottages, that had been built in the County Limerick since the passing' of the Act, Mr. Birrell said: The number of cottages provided in each of the rural districts named in the question on March 31, the date to which the returns are annually made -up, was as follows : Kilmallock, 836 ; Limerick No. ,1, 636 ; Croom, 310; Tipperary No. 2, 176; Mitchelstown -N0., 2, 102; total, 2060. SLlQO— Electric Lighting Plant Principally owing to the energy and. encouragement of the Rev. Father O'Connor, the- village of Gurteen, County Sligo, has introduced" an electric lighting plant. TIPPERARY— Death of a Nenagh Man , ~' _ At the ripe old age of 89 years, Mr. "William Kelly passed away on July 11 at his .residence, Kilneneave; '"The deceased was father of "the great Irish prelate, the Most Rev. Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross. He possessed in an eminent degree of all" those, singularly, refined, and graceful virtues which adorned an ideal father, a devout Catholic,- by precept and example, and he had the great happiness of seeing his son raised to the dignity of Bishop. Reopening of a Seminary The Very Rev. Canon Power, of Emlyj who celebrated his golden jubilee recently, intends to reopen St. .Ailbe'a Seminary. The Emly Seminary had a" distinguished career. . Mr. M. J. Fitzgerald, 8.A., -has been appointed head master. ' " . Reward for Saying Life Michael Forde, a porter of Tipperary railway station, who bravely saved John Ronan from being" run- over by a train, is the first person in Ireland to receive' a Carrfegie hero reward and medal. TYRONE— A Light Calendar The Lord Chief Baron opened. -the Tyrone- Assizes on July- 12 at Omagh. His Lordship, addressing the -Grand Jury, said their duty at the present Assizes, would not be of a very onerous character. Eleven bills in all would be presented for their consideration.- The number was , small,, considering the extent of the county, and the ; crimes charged in the bills would present no difficulty in -investigating. There* were ten cases involved in the eleven bills. Of these, seven were of dishonesty- in some of its' various terms — larceny, breaking and entering, or obtaining money under false pretences — crimes that must occur in any large community. WEXFORD— A Sad Occurrence Mr. James Kelly, a large farmer, residing at Courtclough, Blackwater, was so seriously gored by a bull, his property, on Saturday evening, July 10, • that he died on Sunday morning. Mr. Kelly was., leading the animal through a gate when it showed temper and knocked the owner down and injured the unfortunate man badly about the body. Mrs. Kelly rushed to her husband's assistance,' and drove the animal away, but the beast turned on her, and' she was only saved from immediate death by the promptitude of a man named Pender. As it happened, Mrs. Kelly was seriously injiired, and her demise was rumored in Wexford. Mr. Kelly lived to receive the last rites of the Church.

GENERAL

Sale of Ancient Irish Coins The Irish series in the Rashleigh collection of coins, which was disposed of at Sotheby's recently, proved to contain some interesting specimens. The sum of £12 15s was paid for a penny of Queen Mary, with the crowned harp between M. and R., an excessively scarce specimen, though pierced. Rare also was the ' Irish money of necessity,' which included seven coins issued during the siege of Inchiquin in 1642, all of irregular octagonal form. They were all sold, the highest prices being £7 15s for a shilling, £7 5s for a crown, £5 2s 6d for a half-crown. A Dublin large crown, 1659, from the Russell collection, made -£11 ss; a Kilkenny half-crown, 1642, £10; a Cork shilling, 1647, £6 2s 6d; a Kilkenny crown, 1642, £4 14s; and a Cork sixpence, 1647, £3 4s. .But the gem' of the collection was a St. Patrick's farthing of gold, which, according to Nelson's ' Coinage of Ireland,' is- unique in this metal. The Land Bill The Irish Land Purchase Bill was under consideration in the House of Commons last week. The first part, dealing with finance, was disposed of in the early part of July. On that occasion Mr. John Redmond tried unsuccessfully to have the first subsection of clause I. omitted. This subsection (he said) proposed to change the purchase annuity from what it was to-day, £3 5s to £3 10s. - That was in order, to provide additional interest to enable 3 per cent, stock to be floated. The whole trouble had arisen simply from the fact that it had been found impossible to float 2$ per cent, stock for the; purpose of' .land purchase except at considerable loss. Under the Act of 1903 tv

certain loss was anticipated, and it was provided that that' loss should be, in the first -instance, . met . by the Irish Development Grant, which was fixed at £185,000 a year, and after . the Development Grant - the Guarantee Fund/ which really meanb the rates of -the country. It was estimated when the Act of 1903 was going through that th<* total amount required would be only £100,000,000: , Now the Government, told them that their calculation led ' them -1 o believe that something like £180,000,000 would be required for land purchase. An' additional fact to 'be faced ,was that the money market had been so bad that the Develop^ ment Fund of £185,000 had actually disappeared, and no more money could be raised for land ptirchase except by coming on the rates to pay the discount. Then there was the further fact that there were something over £50,000,000 of completed agreements waiting at that moment to be paid off. Therefore, the position in which, they found themselves was -that no money could be raised under the present law, either to pay off the completed agreements or for any single future transaction without drawing vast sums from the ratepayers of the country — sums which would amount in the case of completed agreements alone, if the money market did not materially improve, to £200,000 ' r £300,000 a year, and which, taking over the whole transaction of land purchase, would entail on the ratepayers a burden of half a million a year for 68 J years. National Education In the House of Commons on July 1, the vote of £821,921 to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge for National Education in Ireland' was considered on report and agreed to without discussion. The Economic Salvation of Ireland At a well-attended meeting of farmers, held in Tipperary Town Hall on July 3, Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P., vice-president of the Agricultural and Technical Department, delivered an address in which he showed from his point of view the effects of freetrade on Ireland as con trasted with what would happen under tariff reforvn. Having done so at much length, he said there was an enormous future for Irish agriculture if the farmer would but turn. his main attention to the smaller agricultural industries. These were often under-valued, but there was a far greater market in England for the breakfast table commodities pi reduced by the farmer than there was for what was considered the necessities of the dinner table. Poultry keeping, tho egg industry, bacon raising, and butter production, with fruit, bee-keeping, and other such adjuncts thrown ii, opened up a vista which ought to raise the Irish farmer out of the slough of despond in .which he was too often found. It was in development along these lines that the economic salvation of Ireland lay, and not in the adoption of artificial methods such as the Tariff Reformer advocated. Evicted Tenants Reinstated Mr. Birrell, replying to Mr. Lundon in the Parliamentary papers, says : The Estates Commissioners inform me that 2285 evicted tenants or their representatives have, since the passing of the Irish Land Act, 1903, been reinstated in their former holdings or provided with other holdings, 1493 by landlords, with the assistance where necessary of grants by the Commissioners, and 792 by the Commissioners on lands acquired by them. In the case "of 413 of those reinstated by landlords the restoration was the direct result of the intervention of the Commissioners, and was effected at prices suggested and sanctioned by them. The names of 1301 applicants have been provisionally noted for consideration in the allotment of untenanted land, and 5473 applications have, after inquiry, been refused. Meredith on Ireland In an article discussing George Meredith's views on Ireland, Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., writing in the Daily Mail, says : Meredith held that England's true interest lay, not in keeping Ireland disarmed and paralysed, but in having every man in Ireland able and ready to defend his portion of the United Kingdom — united imder a true union, such as that which to-day binds the Transvaal to you. I hold with him. I hold that, although after so long a contest, so swift a transformation as we have seen in South Africa, is scarcely to be^ hoped, yet Great "Britain would easily succeed in conciliating^lreland as she has conciliated her colonies, through their interest and through their pride. But that, I think, does not matter.' The 'point is that Meredith, seeing plainly that the price of Ireland's friendship is Ireland's freedom, held "that it would be richly worth the price to his own country. - „