Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 31 July 1913, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Mr. P. J. Meehan, son of the lately deceased member for the Leix Division of Queen’s County, was returned unopposed as M.P. for that constituency. Many police barracks have been done away with, recently throughout the country. The latest to be closed is one which was established at Crossdoney, Co. Cavan, in 1867. . Sir Michael Francis Dwyer, whose name is contained in the Indian honors list, is an old student of the Jesuit College, Tullabeg, and also of the Royal University of Ireland, where he had a brilliant career. His Honor Judge Green, on being • presented with white gloves at Drogheda Quarter Sessions, warmly congratulated the people of the ancient borough on the excellent state of things which prevails in the district. Judge Todd, K.C., addressing the Grand Jury at the Grown Sessions for the Derry division of the Co. Derry on June 7, congratulated them upon the comparative absence of crime from that part of the country. Returning thanks for the white gloves presented to him at Donegal Quarter Sessions, Judge Cooke said such presentations were becoming an almost regular occurrence in Donegal, a fact which reflected great credit on such a large district. Innishowen, as is well known, is one of the most Catholic areas in Ireland. Its Board of Guardians has only one Protestant member, Mr. John Scott, whose colleagues have shown their ‘ intolerance by re-electing him lately vice-chairman of the board. The Urban Council of Carrick-on-Suir have decided to present an illuminated address to the nuns of the Presentation Convent of the town on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the Order in the district, an event which takes place in a few weeks. Lord Clanricarde, who is resisting the compulsory acquisition • of 45,000 acres of his land in Ireland by the Congested Districts Board, has had judgment given in his favor in the Irish Chancery Division, the procedure adopted by the board being held to be irregular. The Master of the Rolls stated, however, that his decision would not interfere with the board in proceeding legally to acquire the estates. It has now become known that the rifles shipped to Ireland lately to create a Unionist scare against the second reading of the Home Rule Bill were long ago .‘spotted’ by the English police in London. From London the arms were transferred to Birmingham, and then again to Manchester prior to shipment to Ireland. At every stage the transport of the goods was so carried out as to suggest that discovery and publicity were not merely desired, but also rendered unavoidable. CATHOLIC TOLERATION IN DONEGAL. Mr. Irvine, the only Protestant member of the Dunfanaghy Board of Guardians, was re-elected chairman at the last annual meeting of that body. Mr. Daniel Call, J.P., who proposed his re-election, said the fact that they had elected him to the chair for nine years in succession did not speak badly for them, and furnished an answer to those who prated about ‘ Catholic intolerance,’ and made a habit of slandering their fellow-countrymen. Mr. Irvine, in returning thanks, said if he wanted to talk of toleration he could go back for forty years, during which he had lived amongst Catholics when none of his own religion were within many miles of him. It was then that he felt the toleration of his Catholic neighbors. Even though he was competing with them in business, ho got more than his share of anything that was going. THE EVILS OF PERNICIOUS LITERATURE. An ’ imposing public demonstration on (Sunday, June 8, under the auspices of the Dublin Vigilance Committee, was the culmination of the steady uphill

work which has been carried on in Dublin against the dissemination of evil publications during the past 18 months. From every standpoint it was one of the finest and most orderly processions which* has ever, been seen in the Irish capital. The contingents .included large numbers of members of the city sodalities and confraternities, the G.Y.M.S., the A.0.H., Catholic Boys Brigade, etc. A mass meeting was held in the Mansion House at the close of the procession, and the spacious Round Room could only accommodate a small proportion of the vast assemblynecessitating the holding of an overflow meeting. There was a very large number of the secular and regular clergy of the city at each meeting. The secretary read a number of letters j strongly supporting the crusade in favor of clean literature. Letters were received from his Eminence the Cardinal Primate, from the archbishops, from ten bishops, from the four M.P.’s for Dublin city, and from representative Catholic laymen. A resolution pledging all present not to buy or read any publication of an immoral character or to purchase anything in any places where evil publications are sold was carried amidst, great enthusiasm: The following cablegram was sent, to his Holiness the Pope by the Right Hon. the Lord. Mayor of Dublin ; —‘ Mass meeting of Catholic citizens: of Dublin, assembled in Mansion House to denounce the circulation of immoral publications, send respectful expression of filial devotion to your Holiness, .and heartycongratulations on recent recovery.’ • - A PROTEST BY A UNIONIST. In the Daily Telegraph of June 10 Sir Mark Sykes protests against that paper’s special correspondent’s remarks' in an article entitled ‘ The Mind of Ulster.* In his letter he points out,that no Catholic citizen of the British Empire (no matter what his politics) can well remain silent in the face of the statement that the* Catholic clergy in Ireland exercise a monstrous despotism over the people, and that the priesthood is a tyrant over the body and soul of the nation. The history of Ireland for the last two hundred years is a. sufficient refutation of such cruel libels on the fair fame of a noble and devoted body of men. If the Irish clergy have faults, they are so near akin to virtues, that no man need be ashamed of them. ANCIENT IRISH MUSIC. The Irish Literary Society was founded in 1892, and so is celebrating its majority. Mr. W. B. Yeats presided at a meeting at University College, Dublin, recently. Mr. T. W. Rolleston read a paper on ‘ Irish Thought and Irish Art for Twenty-one Years,’ members of the Abbey Theatre Company gave recitations, and Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves read a paper on ‘lreland’s Share in the Folk-song Revival.’ He claimed that, especially in the sixth century, when the national instrument was the harp of from thirty to sixty strings, the old songs were set to music and committed to manuscript. St. Columba recorded that the monks sang canticles in four parts. Ireland was at that time fullof music, and its war-pipes were the prototype of the modern bagpipes. Irish music was heard during the* Crusades Dante spoke enthusiastically of it and it could be claimed that Ireland, was the school of music for Scotland and a large part of Wales. Its characteristics were gaiety, illustrated by the jig, and solemnity' and mournfulness, as shown by the crooning of the laments and the lullabies. TEMPERANCE DEMONSTRATION. His Eminence Cardinal Logue presided at a great public meeting held in Drogheda on Sunday, June 8, for the furtherance of the cause of temperance in that part of the diocese of Armagh. Previous to the public meeting a remarkable demonstration of imposing dimensions took place through the principal streets of the historic town, which had been decorated for the occasion. In the course of an inspiring temperance addressCardinal Logue, referring to the remarkable progress of the cause throughout Ireland, said that if this move- ; ment Went on as it had for years past, the day was notfar distant when the Irish people would be marked out,.

not only as the most religious and virtuous people in the whole universe, but also as the most sober people. Addresses were also delivered by Archdeacon Segrave, P.P., Rev. Father Moore, Australia, and Rev. Bather Laurence, 0.5.F.C., Dublin. A DIAMOND JUBILEE. The diamond jubilee of Right Rev. Mgr. O’Leary, P.P., V.G., Castieisland, was celebrated on June 3 with befitting solemnity, and the ceremonies in connection with the event were very largely attended. Right Rev. Dr. Mangan, Bishop of Kerry, presided at High Mass, with which the celebrations commenced in Castleisland parish church. Subsequently Monsignor O’Leary was the recipient of numerous congratulations. Addresses were presented to him from the people of the three combined parishes, extolling his good work in providing a beautiful spire for the Castieisland church, and building a new convent and schools, and in always taking the deepest interest in the welfare of the people, spiritually .and materially. Addresses were read from the national teachers, male and female, and from the members, of the Sacred Heart Association, to each of which Monsignor O’Leary replied in suitable terms. ANTI-CATHOLIC PREJUDICE. During the hearing, in Dublin, of the evidence in the action of McCullough and others v. the North. West of Ireland Printing and Publishing Company, which resulted, on June 5, in the disagreement of the jury, three noteworthy facts became-dear: (1) That people who signed the ‘ Ulster Covenant did so without the slightest intention of ever fighting in arms against the concession of Home Rule; (2) that anti-Catholic prejudice was the main cause of their signing the document; (3) that there is no ground whatever for the existence of this prejudice. The action was brought by Mr. Joseph McCullough, Mr. Joseph Porter, and Mr. Robert Rowland on the ground that they had been libelled by the Frontier Sentinel, in an article criticising their conduct in signing the ‘Covenant.’ Mr. McCullough stated in the witness-box that he did not mean to fight, and did not believe that rebellion was intended, that he signed the Covenant because he thought the Catholics would persecute the Protestants . under Home Rule; and that he is at present employed as a teacher in a technical school presided over by a Catholic prelate. Mr. Porter and Mr. Rowland also admitted that they had no sympathy with the talk .about fighting, and said that though they had signed the ‘Covenant,’ which asserted that Home Rule would be subversive of their religious freedom, they had been treated kindly by their Catholic neighbors. Mr. Rowland was unanimously co-opted as a Poor Law Guardian in 1911 by a body the vast majority of whose members were Catholics and Nationalists. Manifestly, Sir Edward Carson relies on bigotry which has no basis in fact. AMERICA AND HOME RULE. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American millionaire, who is a champion of the cause of international peace, was interviewed by a Daily Chronicle representative on his arrival in London. We quote from the interview : ‘ Has the feeling of Irish Americans against this country died down?’ .our representative asked. ‘lt survives only in the minds of a very few old men,’ was the reply, ‘ men embittered by the remembrance of days that have now happily passed. I am bound to confess that they were not without cause for that feeling, for Great Britain was not treating Ireland with that liberality she is now doing. Now, since she has shown her determination to give Ireland a, measure of Home Rule which is satisfactory to the vast majority of the Irish people, almost all the Irishmen of the United States are favorable to a good understanding between the two countries.’