Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 11 April 1912, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL.

Mr. Thomas Tackaberry, a native of Tomagaddy, County Wexford, has died .at his residence, Dungannon .Workhouse, of which he had been Master since 1869. , : The Irish Independent states: that a big cotton industry is about to be started in the Boyne Valley by one of the largest firms of cotton , bleachers and dyers in Lancashire, It is said that the, firm, providing a question of , freight can be settled, is ready to go on with the work at once and employ 150 to start with, local labor being employed as far as possible. At a recent meeting of the Committee of Technical Instruction in County Cork, a resolution was passed congratulating Sir Bertram Windle on his recent reception of a knighthood. The resolution was moved by Canon Courtenay Moore, a Protestant cleric, and seconded by a Mr. Williams—a pleasing evidence of le good feeling and good relations that exist between Catholics and Protestants in the tolerant province of Munster. . Amongst the many remarkable examples of longevity in the West of Ireland there are few more remarkable than that of Thomas Malley, a respectable farmer, who lives within view of the deep-sounding Atlantic waves, at the village of Ailebrack, about eight Tnal fr Chfden, and who has just celebrated his 106th birthday. Still hale an hearty Malley has a son who is now qualified for an old-age pension, and bis great grandchildren are attending the local school. , - AN ENORMOUS GATHERING. One hundred thousand people attended a Home Rule demonstration in Dublin on March 31. Every parish in Ireland was represented, and sixty special trains were necessary to convey the participants from the country to the metropolis. It was expected that Mr. Lloyd George would be present, but the cable does not say if he attended. Mr. Redmond made reference to, the forthcoming Home Rule, Bill, and said that his personal opinion was that it would be satisfactory. . He added that the Bill would shortly be submitted to the National Convention. LONDON’S HOME RULE DEMONSTRATION. Mr. W. C. G. Gladstone, M.P., was the principal speaker at a great meeting held in Trafalgar Square, London, on February 17, organised by the National Radical League. The U.I.L. branches of London, some League of the Cross , representatives, and a great many English Labor organisations took part in the demonstration. The Rev. Dr. Clifford, who is an uncompromising opponent of what he calls ‘Rome on the a es, . was present on the platform, as were some London Irish priests. Mr. Gladstone, in his speech, dealt with the objection of Unionist Ulster to Home Rule. He pointed out that as nearly as possible half Ulster sin favor o Home Rule. Meeting the allegation that Home Rule would mean the persecution of Protestants, he reminded them that, the founder of the Home Rule movement was Isaac Butt, a Protestant;, its greatest leader, Charles Stewart Parnell, another Protestant. Ihe Irish Party comprised a number of Protestant members, such as Swift Mac Neill and Richard McGhee, ihe Liberal Party at present is absolutely solid for I n. ■■ me m, e ’ ' 16 time of secession and desertion is ver. .: there are no; secessions to-day. Mr T W :HbS R^°-n d n d r a g f eat deal ' of ’damage ‘to the early Home Rule Bills, only the other . day contested South Tyrone as a . Home Ruler and won If Home Rule is r 'T tv ram how did it come to pass that Lord Pirne, who pays £20,000 a week in wages ,in a Home Ruler ? The . democracy of Britain had saved the cause of Home Rule, and, the credit for having solved the Irish problem would not be given by posterity to; the men of rank or to the : men of money, bub t ,° , th ® democracy of the country. Other speakers included Messrs. Fitzgibbon, M.P., O’Malley M P

Lynch, M.P., Joyce, M.P., Keating, M.P., Dr.„ E& monde, M.P., Sir William Byles, M.P., Mr. C. J; Matthews : (Mr. Dillon’s brother-in-law), - Mr. Martin’ M.P., and Councillor Brogan.- v w;; - ■■■ i ■ NO FEAR OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT.A special correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle has had an . interesting interview with ..his Eminence Cardinal Logue regarding the . position, of Irish Protestants under .a Home Rule Government; Asked how he regarded the present anti-Catholic agitation in Ulster, his Eminence said: ‘ I think I can understand it, though I cannot justify it. I 'believe it - is inspired, unconsciously perhaps, but not less truly, not so much by a fear of religious persecution at ,the hands of Irish Catholics, as by. a fear of losing the ascendancy and almost complete monopoly of public patronage and positions which the prime movers in the agitation have long enjoyed. I know of nothing ; in the past or present dealings of Irish Catholics with their Protestant fellow-countrymen which would justify a fear of r religious persecution, v : * Can your; Eminence conceive of any decree from Rome in the future under Home Rule , which would lead to Catholic tyranny I cannot, said the Cardinal, ‘ conceive of any decree from Rome under Home Rule : which would lead to Catholic tyranny. No decree is likely to proceed from Rome under Horae Rule which would not equally proceed from Rome if Home Rule never existed. Any decree proceeding from Rome will be ; for the instruction and direction of Catholics, not for the purpose of creating tyranny and persecution. Of course, I cannot be sure that the Orange party with their well-known love of the Pope and the need of a party : cry may not pervert to their purpose decrees which do not in the least affect them, as in , the case of the recent “ Motu Proprio,” which does not concern them directly or indirectly. The Catholics of Ireland,’ added his Eminence, ‘ are now, as they ever have been, perfectly willing to co-operate with the Protestants for the general welfare of the country. I have found all: over ' the South of Ireland Catholics and Protestants working side by side and with the utmost goodwill for the prosperity of the people. This is universal all over Ireland, even in Ulster. . _ It is only in Belfast—certain parts of Belfast that ignorance and bigotry conduce to definite cleavage,’ Asked if he foresaw the possibility of religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants under Home Rule, Cardinal Logue said ‘lt is not easy to forecast the future, but I do not see any reason for religious conflict more than there is at present. In fact, I believe there would be less if both parties had the true interests of the country at heart.’ A DANGER TO THE CHURCH. , Very McCaffrey, Maynooth, r speaking 6 Catholic dents of Queen’s : University, Belfast, said some people were inclined to take too gloomy a view of the future of religion in Ireland and abroad, and to prophesy all kinds of disaster for the Catholic Church. In justification of such an attitude they pointed to the alarming spread of irreligion in so many of the countries of Europe, to the open or veiled hostility of Governments- and rulers, to the rise and development of Socialism among. the laboring classes, and to the apparent alliance which had been concluded between science, or what science, and atheism. H they contrasted the position, of the Catholic Church in the 18th century and now they would find that she gained rather than lost ground during the 19th century. Ihe great danger of the present day was the spirit of indifference to religion, and as a, consequence ' the secularist movement which tended to drive religion- from the schools ? and from the public life of the world. TOLERATION IN MEATH. 'O V v ur?° vi “ g at Kells Rural Council -that Mr. J V Pof • i be co-opted to a vacancy on the Council, Mr’ ff fh° k *}* den of the Council, and one of the oldest Nationalists in Meath, ‘said by co-outing Mr. Kellett the Council would be giving a fitting answer

to the Craigs and Carsons of the North, who said they in Royal Meath were intolerant. Mr. Kellett’s grandfather was a Protestant gentleman, and in the old times did many , good ; acts in the neighborhood ; that would not be forgotten. " Royal Meath was ' not bigoted, as was seen by its people making choice of John Martin as their member in preference to the representative of an -old Qatholic family, Mr. Plunkett, and in later years of Parnell and Pierce Mahony. They had four Protestants on the Council, and he hoped they would add a fifth in the person of Mr. Kellett. The chairman said he would also- propose a Protestant Mr. William Shackleton. Mr. Harte seconded Mr.. Shackleton’s co-option, and he was declared elected by nine votes to seven. AN EFFECTIVE ANSWER. : • As a Protestant Nationalist, Mr. Swift Mac Neill, M.P., has replied to Dr. Horton in the Times. He quotes O’Connell who, writing to an Irish Protestant and Dissenter, said: ‘ I hate bigotry of every kind, Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter.’ But for Protestants the most effective part of his answer is that in \yhich he recounts his own experience of the tolerance of his Catholic fellow-countrymen. For a quarter of a century he has represented in the House of Commons South Donegal, one of the most Catholic constituencies in the British Empire. At his first election for it he defeated a Catholic Unionist by a thousand votes. The authorities of the National University of Ireland have placed him and several other Protestants in positions of trust for the teaching of their students. They have given him the office of Clerk of Convocation, one of the duties of which is to act as assessor to the Chancellor, the Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Mr. Swift Mac Neill’s treatment by Irish Catholics is the same as many other Protestants have met with. When Protestants voice their sentiments on public questions the Catholics of Ireland are as just and generous towards them as they are to their own coreligionists. If they do not elect Protestant Unionists to political positions it is for the same reason that Unionists refuse to elect Liberals and Nationalists. IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN GOODS. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Cork Industrial Association, the Lord Mayor of Cork said it sounded almost incredible, but it was true nevertheless, -that this island of barely four million inhabitants imported annually foreign-made articles to the estimated value of £65,000,000. To make their people contented at home their first duty was to provide remunerative employment for them at home. Sir Bertram Windle said the Irish Trade Mark had succeeded in wiping out hundreds of persons who traded upon the Irish love of national emblems and names to impose upon them inferior goods under some taking caption which might lure Irish money from Irish pockets into their own. WANTED NOTHING BUT EQUALITY. At a large and enthusiastic meeting of Enniskillen Nationalists under the auspices of the local branch of the United Irish League, Father Tierney, who presided, in the course of an able address, referred to the cry of intolerance raised at the present time by the Unionists. He pointed out that in Fermanagh there were 36,000 Catholics, while the total non-Catholic population numbered only 29,000, and yet the Catholics m the employment of the County Council of Fermanagh, on which there was a majority of Unionists, received only £156 per annum, while non-Catholics were paid the enormous sum of £3400. The Nationalists did not want to persecute anyone, but they wanted equality, and they would be satisfied with nothing less.