Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 25 April 1912, Page 39

Irish News

. GENERAL. Booterstown,mear Dublin, Ireland, has a Catholic Church which is said to be the oldest church in which Mass has been continuously celebrated in Ireland., yMr. Edward Jenks, an eminent authority on public economy and an examiner a number of English and Irish Universities, has proclaimed his conversion to Home Rule as a consequence of the extreme language and action of Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster Unionist Party. The Belfast Corporation will this year receive from municipal trading concerns subscriptions to the rates equal to tenpence in the pound of the rateable value of the city*. The tramways will have a gross profit of £32,000, and the gas undertaking is paying in all £21,000 in relief of the rates. There is also a profit in the electric lighting undertaking. * Lord -Pirrie, in a letter read at the meeting of the Limerick Corporation’s Standing Committee in reference to the Corporation’s offer of the lands of Corkanree as a shipyard, said , he was much obliged by the offer and information furnished the site and the other facilities for shipbuilding. His Lordship added ‘ It would indeed be a great pleasure to me if I could see my way to the establishment of a . shipyard on the Shannon, but just at the present I have my hands full in other directions, and fear, therefore, it will be impossible to seriously consider the suggestion so kindly made by the council. I will, however, keep the letter and the map before me in case of any possible developments in the future.

A TIMELY MANIFESTO. Mr. John Mackie, hon. secretary of the executive committee of the Dublin and Counties Liberal Association, representing progressive policy in Ireland, sends to the press the text of a manifesto lately issued by that Association. - The manifesto states that the Association, having carefully'-weighed the arguments advanced against the proposed grant of self-government to Ireland, believes that the time has arrived when it should clearly state its attitude with regard to this important measure. The large majority of the members of the Association are Protestants, and, as such, living, in the midst" of a predominantly Catholic population, they desire especially to protest against the statement that Protestants have experienced intolerance at the hands of; their Catholic neighbors, or that under an Irish Parliament they have any reason to fear such intolerance. On the contrary, they are of opinion that the grant of self-government will promote the normal relationship that ought to exist between religion andr politics, to the great benefit of this country, and that under any reasonably constituted Irish Parliament Protestants will be able effectively to protect their own legitimate interests. W The. Association is firmly convinced that self-government will prove of immense industrial advantage, not only to Ireland but also to Great Britain,, in the elimination of mutual interference with purely local concerns, in the ecouragement of industry: in natural directions, and in putting an end to the existing system of practically separate government through Departments which are almost entirely irresponsible to the Irifh public* The Association is equally convinced that a full and generous measure of selfgovernment, leading to the formation of natural, industrial, social, and political bonds, and the break-up of the present artificial divisions, will harmonise the national life, by promoting goodwill amongst all classes.

THE EIGHTY CLUB AND HOME RULE. Mr.; Redmond was entertained to dinner by the Eighty Club in the Hotel Cecil on; March 2* the guests also including Mr. Dillon, Mr. Devlin, and Mr. William Redmond. Mr. Winston Churchill presided, and, in an eloquent speech, paid a strong tribute to the. Par -

liamentary reputation of Mr. Redmond, who in the House 'of Commons had devoted to the service of, the Irish cause Parliamentary gifts which almost * rivalled all that had been written in some quarters about the Parliamentary gifts of Mr. Bonar Law. Governments had come and gone, parties had changed, leaders had advanced from obscurity and descended into obloquy, but the Irish Party remained in all their long period constant to their cause, consistent, persistent, unswerving, and unalterable in stating the demand of the people of Ireland for self-government. He could tell Mr. Redmond that the Liberal Party and Mr. Redmond together after a long pilgrimage had reached the threshold of success. In reply, Mr. Redmond said the time for arguing in favor of Home Rule had almost ended. The latest contention of the Tories was that Ireland was prosperous, and therefore had no need for Home Rule it was peaceful, and therefore, was apathetic, and did not want Home Rule. These arguments were ludicrous, coming from a Party which twenty years ago declared that Ireland was a pauper, and should therefore not get Home Rule; was tumultuous, disorderly, and criminal, and therefore unfit Home Rule. Ireland was prosperous compared with ■ their own miserable past, but compared with England, Scotland, or Wales, or any progressive country in Europe, the statement that Ireland is prosperous is absolutely untrue. She was still probably the most povertystricken and unprogressive nation in Europe. If Home Rule were rejected, it would be speedily seen whether the Irish people were apathetic, for in such an event the country would instantly be thrown back into the welter of coercion and confusion. ' * ££< ■ - -

NO RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE. A letter from the Rev. Courtenay Moore, Protestant Rector of Mitchelstown, County Cork, which appears in a recent issue of the Saturday Review, ought to put an end once and for all to the attempts of the Unionists to persuade the people of Great Britain that under Home Rule Protestants would be persecuted by the Irish Catholics. Rev. Courtenay Moore is entitled to speak on this question with special authority, not only because he takes an impartial view, but also because he has had a great deal of experience in three of the four Irish provinces. He has lived seventeen years in Ulster, eight in Leinster, and over forty in Munster. Among the masses of the people he has come into contact with multitudes of Catholics. Day and night he has moved amongst them in the discharge of his duty, and never once has he suffered insult or molestation. His knowledge of their character and habits is such as to convince him that to call them intolerant is to bear false witness against them. Mr. Courtenay Moore objects to the unjustifiable introduction of the ‘ odium theologicum ’ into 'the Home Rule controversy. ‘Let the question,’ he says, ‘be argued out on other lines financial, political, etc., but not theological.’ Perhaps the inclination of the Unionists to appeal to religious prejudice may be accounted for by their consciousness of the weakness of the financial and political arguments. ~

PATRIOTISM AND LANGUAGE. The Rev. Canon O’Connell, M.A., Lecturer in Celtic, Queen’s University, Belfast, delivered an address at the Belfast College of Irish recently, and put forward a strong case for the study of. Irish on the ground of patriotism. In the Intermediate- examinations (he said) the boys who wasted their time in learning Irish are getting higher marks in classics than the boys who despise Irish. I am the more anxious on this score because I find that the purely English-speak-ing Irishman has no true historical perspective. For' him Irish history begins with the year ’9B or the Battle of the Boyne or the landing of Strongbow. For such short-sightedness the study of the Irish language is an excellent corrective. It enables one to realise that Irish history is not confined to the last 700 years. The study of foreign tongues has " been my favorite hobby ever since I was ten years of age, and during the last twenty years I have dabbled in many Eastern and 'Western,

living and dead, but I can honestly declare to-night as an Irishman—and I trust a patriotl love /my own the best. ; ■ ;v . . ; - - - ■ ' - • Dealing with the attitude of Protestants towards Irish, Canon O’Connell, himself a Protestant, said the attitude of the majority of Irish Protestants towards the language movement seemed to him to be utterly senseless, illogical, and inconsistent. ‘ln my opinion/ said he, ‘ the national language is the birthright of every Irishman, independent of creed or politics, and to say that we should have nothing to do with the Irish language because it is spoken principally by Catholics and Nationalists, is as sensible as though I refused to go on a tramcar and took “ shanks’s mare” because the majority of the tram conductors were Orangemen. If it is a question of religion let them be v consistent. Then, if I were an Orangeman to-morrow, I would never speak a word of English, because English is the language of Mr. Asquith, Mr. Winston Churchill, and, if I mistake not, even of Mr. John Redmond and Mr. Joseph Devlin, and there have been more disloyal sentiments expressed in the English language than ever were in Irish or ever will be. And this attitude to which I have referred is a pity, because the Irish Protestant, when sensible, is a very useful member of a nation. I need scarcely remind you that before to-day the Irish Protestant has stood in the gap of danger in the cause of Irish Nationality, and the names of Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone will not readily fade from the pages of Irish history, and in the language movement the Irish Protestant has done his share.’ AN UNANSWERABLE ARGUMENT. Sir John Simon, Solicitor-General, speaking at the dinner of the Eighty Club on March 2, said that twice in its history the club entertained Mr. Parnell. The first was in 1888, when Mr. Parnell described to the club, and, through the club, to the British people, his negotiations with Lord Carnarvon, and thereby put on record the imperishable fact that the Conservatives would be Home Rulers, like other sensible men, if it were not that they had the Orangemen tied at the end of their tail. The second time Mr. Parnell was present at one of the gatherings of the club was, almost to a day, twenty-three years —the Bth Marth, 1889. Only a fortnight before, Sir Charles Russellas great an Irishman as he was an advocate— smashed Pigott, and only ten days before that the miserable forger had confessed - his crime to the ingenious Mr. Labouchere, and only five days before had ended his wretched existence. Frank Lockwood, whose memory was still fragrant, was in the chair at the gathering, and Lord Spencer, a Liberal ex-Viceroy of Ireland, was the principal speaker. And'there occurred the thrilling moment, described at the time by Lord Rosebery as the historic hand-shake.’ There the leader of the _Nationalist Party in Ireland grasped the hand of Lord Spencer. From that day to this the Eighty Club had been a Home Rule organisation. - Its members could not deny the validity of the Irish claim put forward with -consistency and unanimity since 1884. As Liberals they were concerned that here, as elsewhere, the cure for discontent was freedom. As men of business, they thought it absurd that whilst, seven millions of people in Canada had ten Parliaments, five s millions in Australia seven Parliaments, and one and a-half millions of white men in South Africa five Parliaments, the United Kingdom, with its 45,000,000, should endeavour to do its work with one Parliament. As men of justice, they thought it terrible that Ireland should have lost her Parliament, not by any act of the British people, but by the corrupt device of a limited, select, and privileged caste in the two countries. / As Englishmen, they were ashamed that the one place where British institutions had failed was in Ireland which they were now determined to reconcile.