Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 3 April 1913, Page 39

Irish News

" GENERAL. The Sligo Corporation has granted a site on the city square, opposite the Post Office, for the proposed statue to the late P. A. McHugh, M.P. The Oblate Fathers have lost one of their most distinguished members by the demise of the Rev. Timotny Gubbins, 0.M.1. The deceased was a native of County Limerick, and had attained the age of 70 years. ■ - . " Mr. F. E. Meehan, M.P., the member for North Leitrim, made his maiden speech in the House of Commons the other day. He had, been five years member, yet this was the first occasion upon which he addressed the House. Mr. Lindsay Talbot-Crosbie, one of the most prominent of Irish Home Rulers, has sent a cheque for £IOO to the Irish Parliamentary Fund, in recognition of the great work done for Ireland by the Irish Parliamentary Party.' Right Rev. Hr. O'Connor, Bishop of Peterboro, and one of the most prominent and venerable figures in the Catholic hierarchy in Canada, died recently. Bishop O’Connor was born at Listowel on April 15, 1838. On May 1, 1889, he became Bishop of Peterboro. During a discussion at a Sligo Corporation meeting, Councillor Smylie (a Presbyterian member) said he had never had the slightest fear of the Nationalists of Ireland. ‘They have always been my friends,’ he declared, ‘ and I have no fear whatever that they would treat me unfavorably or wrongly under Home Rule.' Mr, Hogg, M.P. for Derry, in a speech at London on February 10, said the Protestants of Ireland had no cause for fear. His election for Derry and his experience of business men in the North of Ireland were to his mind sufficient answer to all gloomy forebodings of persecution towards Protestants in Ireland under Home Rule. In the House of Commons recently Mr. Masterman, replying to a question regarding health insurance contributions, said that the separate section formed in connection with the Ancient Order' of Hibernians included about 130,000 Irish members, in respect of whom about 115,000 cards had now been received. About 25,000 cards had now been received in respect of Scottish members, and the returns showed 8750 English members. The Right Rev. Dr. Morrisroe, Bishop of Achonry, in the course of his Lenten Pastoral says: signs of the times be read correctly, it seems to have been reserved with God's foresight for the present generation to behold the blessed vision for the expectation of which our country has groaned in travail for many centuries. With its advent each one will be required to give the best that is in him to bring back to the land some measure of her former greatness.’ Mother Ignatius (Caley), the Superioress of St. Paul's Convent, Kilfinane, County Limerick, celebrated her silver jubilee on February 3. A very large meeting was held in the schools, the local clergy and several ladies of the parish, together with the Sisters of the community, being present to offer their congratulations. The Children of Mary presented an address to the Rev. Mother, accompanied by a set of Antwerp ■ Stations of the Cross. In the address reference was made to the excellent work done in Kilfinane since the •Sisters came from Selly Park, Birmingham, at the request of Right Rev. Dr. O’Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, nine years ago.

A HARBINGER OF BETTER THINGS. Mr. John Redmond, in a speech at Waterford on February 9, said he would not have devoted his life to the Home Rule cause if the triumph of Home Rule simply meant a political triumph. An Irishman'to him did not mean a Catholic or a Celt, but any man born and bred in Ireland and willing to work for her

freedom or welfare. He looked forward to Home Rule as the harbinger of better feeling and the blending of all shades and creeds and classes in Ireland into one body. So far from entertaining any bitterness to opponents, he was willing to put them in the very forefront of the government of Ireland in the future. .

THE DONEGAL LIEUTENANCY. Mr. Swift Mac Neill, M.P., in a letter to the press, resents the effort that is being made for the appointment of a Unionist Lieutenant for County Donegal in room of the late Duke of Abercorn. The Lieutenancy of the county has, he says, for a period of 68 years been in the tenure of the Dukes of Abercorn, and there is ‘ a very strong desire ’ not to let it, and with it, the control of magisterial appointments, go out of the family. The county is intensely Nationalist, the present Duke has no residence, and not a single acre of land in it. The Catholic population is 133,021; all other denominations number 33,516. There are 287 magistrates, of whom 113 are Catholics and 174 Protestants. The veto of. the late Duke ‘hampered and defeated ’ recommendations on behalf of Catholics, and Mr. Mac Neill contends that the vacancy, occurring under a Radical Government, ‘should be filled by a gentleman resident in the county with views in harmony with the mass of the people and in full sympathy with national aspirations, and alludes to the present Duke’s opposing the establishment of an Irish National University,’ while mention is also made of his opposition to the repeal of the Royal Anti-Catholic Declaration as a reason why he is not fit to exercise the function of Lieutenant of so Catholic a county.

VIEWS OP TWO PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN. Rev. Canon Courtenay Moore, Mitchelstown, writing to the Belfast Witness in defence of the action of the Irish Protestant Protest Committee, says that, as a result of long residence in the South of Ireland, he believes the prophecies of evil in regard to Home Rule will be falsified, as similar prophecies were falsified in the case of Church Disestablishment and land. ‘.Personally,’ declares Canon Moore, ‘ I have never experienced anything but kindness and consideration in th« South, where I have lived in what Newman called ‘ A dominant circumambient atmosphere of Rome that is the simple truth. We ought to look this question fairly and squarely in the face. Home Rule cannot now be put back it has to be reckoned with. The majority of Irishmen have two indestructible ideals— Faith and Fatherland; the minority, it may be replied, have equally so theirs—Faith and Empire. The problem, please God, will be worked out, and, judging from my long past experience of Irish life, I believe will be worked out in due time.’ Addressing an Orange meeting at Cooneen-Brooke-borough, Rev. Walter Browne, M.A., said the English people were fair-minded and true, and they said, as the majority of the people in Ireland were asking' for Home Rule, the majority should rule. They did not blame the English people when they saw the result of the Derry election the other day, which was such a knock-out blow to Unionists as should make them pause an 1 ask themselves how they stood. f

COMING GREAT POLITICAL CHANGES. The Right Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, in his Lenten Pastoral, states that just now in Ireland the crisis through which we are passing, with its immeasurable possibilities, should throw us back more than ever on God, and move us to invoke the protection of His Providence for our country by fervent prayer, and to deserve it by our fidelity to His service. We are apparently on the eve of great political changes which must exercise a profound influence on every phase of our national existence. Forces, the nature and strength of which none of us can foresee, will be let loose, and God alone can tell their ultimate issue, xet, Wmle it is an anxious, it is also a hopeful time. It is only natural that a country on which God has stamped the individual features vol a nation, and in which through centuries the feelings and aspirations of nationhood have never died, should get into its own

hands the management of some part at least of its own domestic concerns and the shaping of its own fortunes. And there is no reason to think that the Irish people have ever forfeited that elementary right, or to fear that when it is vindicated they will not use it with judgment and moderation.

THE PEER AND THE PEASANT. • In his’ speech in the Home Rule debate Lord Lansdowne gave vent to his sentiments respecting men who toil witn their hands. ‘ One word,’ said he, ‘as to the body of electors who support this demand. The large majority of them are peasants, and I venture to think that tbe Irish peasant is not a very good judge of the kind of political issues which the Bill raises; and certainly, wnen it comps to matters affecting the United Kingdom, we may well hesitate before we allow the Irish peasant to have a determining voice with regard to them.’ ‘ The Irish peasant” (declares the Belfast Irish News) was wise enough and brave enough to shatter the yoke of the Lansdownes and CJanricardes; hence the calumnies flung at him by the despoilers whom he has beaten. If the “peasants” in Ireland did not display an infinitely greater amount of capacity and intelligence in their own sphere than the Marquis of Lansdowne has shown as a “statesman ” and ruler, this country would have been sunk in irretrievable bankruptcy many years ago.’

v THE DERRY VICTOR. Mr. Winston Churchill presided at a dinner given in the Hotel Cecil, London, on February 1, in honor of Mr. David C. Hogg, the victor of Derry. The Lord Advocate and a number of Liberal M.P.’s were present. So also was Mr. Redmond. Mr. Churchill, in his speech, said the Derry victory was one less of partisanship than of conciliation and good-will. Speaking of the Ulster minority, Mr. Churcnill said that in the Home Rule discussions in the House of Commons they had heard nothing but hot-house hatred and incubated bigotry. At no time had they seen any desire to face the facts of the situation of the real needs of the case. Contrasting the position of Mr. Bonar Law, whom he severely criticised, with that of Mr. Redmond, Mr. Churchill said that history would reveal in another age the attitudes of the Unionist and Nationalist leaders. On the one hand, folly, spite and venom, and defeat; on the other, statecraft, generosity, and good-will, march'ng to victory. Mr. Redmond, in a brief speech, said that anything which would safeguard the interests and liberties of the Unionist minority in Ulster, Nationalists would be the first to accept. He denied, however, the right of any section to dictate to a nation. No community rebelled unless against oppression. There was no oppression in Ulster, and therefore no resistance.

CASTLEDAWSON CONTRADICTIONS. Mr. John Muldoon, M.P., has written a very effective letter to the Daily Chronicle regarding the telegram from the Rev. Robert Barron read by Captain Craig in the House of Commons, and giving the names of seven children alleged to have been injured in the Castledawson affray. Mr. Muldoon points out that on August 7, 1912, Mr. Barron wrote to the Times in these words: ‘So far as I know, no woman or child was struck or stabbed, but many of them received serious injury from shock.’ Four months later, examined in Derry Assize Court, Mr. Barron was asked by Justice Wright whether he had seen or observed any injury to women or children. The answer was that he had not. On Mr. Barron’s own showing, then, his present assertion is that what he said on August 7 was not in accordance with fact, that what he swore on December 19 was not in accordance with fact, that his statement contained in the telegram to Captain Craig gives the actual and accurate facts —and for the 1 first time.