Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 28 August 1913, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Twenty .converts to Catholicity were confirmed at St. Joseph's Church, Limerick, on Sunday, July 6. The Presentation Convent, Carrick-on-Suir, celebrated on July 2 the 100th anniversary of its foundation. ' The death took place recently of Professor Edward Roche, who for many years was Professor of Music at St. Patrick's College, Cullies, Cavan. The death took place somewhat suddenly on July 6 of the Very Rev. Francis Maclnerney, of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, City Quay, Dublin. Only two Nationalist members, Mr. John Roche and Mr. J. P. Farrell, who are very seriously ill, were absent from the third reading division of the Home Rule Bill. ' x Mr. Harold Spender, a prominent London journalist, is actively promoting a project for the purchase of the Table and the Speaker’s Chair used in the Irish Parliament 100 years ago. The proposal is to present them to the Irish Party for use in the Home Rule Parliament. The Irish Catholic states from an authoritative source that it had been Archbishop Fennelly’s desire to retire for a ' considerable time, as he had lost the necessary physical activity for administrative work. -He never liked being a Bishop, but accepted the office because the Holy See named him. The proprietors of the Daily Sketch have notified Miss Mary Ellen Kinsella, a 15-year-old school girl, of Rathellen, County Carlow, that she has won the National Scholarship prize, value £IOO, given this year by that paper. This talented young lady received her training at the Presentation Convent Schools, Bagnalstbwn. , At the Catholic Congress m Plymouth, Mr. Cameron, a member of the theatrical profession and of the Catholic Stage Guild, said that the Irish public was more discriminating in stage plays than their British neighbors. Doubtful passages, which created screams of laughter in Britain, were cut out of plays produced in Dublin so as to avoid adverse demonstration. On the motion of Mr. Wm. Doherty, J.P., Donegal County Council adopted a resolution that the sum of £IO,OOO supplemental to a grant of £25,000 offered by the Development Commission for the proposed improvement of Rathmullan and Buncrana piers, charged on the security of the rates of the county, be borrowed from the Board of Works on the best terms procurable. Mr. J. H. D. Miller, Brookfield street, Belfast (evidently a non-Catholic), in a letter to the Manchester Guardian of July 9, discussing education in Belfast, makes this statement: —‘ In Belfast, where there are more than 10,000 Protestant children without school accommodation, there is not a single ,Catholic child 's© circumstanced. The Catholic people here have subscribed voluntarily the money to meet all building requirements.’ It is now established that the heirs to the large real and personal estate of the late James Mahoney, who died recently in South Carolina, U.S.A., are James White, his nephews, John and James White, and his niece, Lizzie White, of Midleton, County Cork; and his niece, Mrs, Kate Shaw, of Dumfries, Scotland. When the Westport Guardians, by 10 votes to 9, decided to give Dr. Croly, Medical Officer in Achill, the maximum pension of £B4 a year, the Rev. M. Colleran, Achill, said he came there that day because Dr. Croly was a Protestant. It had been alleged that the Protestants of the West and South had a grievance against Catholics, and were afraid to express them. He was glad to think that they would tell the calumniators that day that there was a Protestant who had been nearly half a century in Achill, and had no complaint. Dr. Croly said he could repudiate with pleasure the insinuation of ill-treatment of Protestants by Catholics.

’ The Official Gazette of the University .College, Cork, .'publishes an article by the President, Sir B. Windle, announcing the purchase - by , the • College Governing Body of the .Celtic Library of the late Professor D’Arbon de Jubainville, and stating that it will be available in Cork after the summer vacation. The collection includes works not only relating to Ireland and the Irish language, but dealing with Scotch-Gaelic, Manx, Ancient Cornish, and Breton.; The entire range of Celtic study, historical, folk-lore, (linguistic and literary), is, in fact, embraced in the collection. CONNEMARA ISLANDERS. ' A recent outbreak of fever in the ConnemaraIslands, Galway, prompted, the Irish Independent toinaugurate a fund for the relief of the distress prevailing among the people in their island homes,’ and the response to its appeal, both by English as well as Irish, readers, has been so generous and ungrudging , that when the Independent announced the close of the fund the sum of £1853 Is 3d had been subscribed. The result of the praiseworthy action of the Independent will be to place the inhabitants of these lonely islands in a position of comparative comfort, and incidentally has been the means of focussing Government attention on the long neglected condition of the people, for Mr. Birrell has now promised to do something on their behalf. ‘ . X THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CASHEL. At a meeting of the clergy of the archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, in St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, the following resolution was proposed by Very Rev. Canon O’Neill, P.P., D.D., Lattin, Tipperary, Vicar Capitular of the archdiocese, seconded by Very Rev, Canon Maurice Power, P.P., Emly, and passed unanimously:—‘That we, the priests of Cashel and Emly, assembled here in Thurles College for our annual retreat, before departing wish to record our deep senseof sorrow and regret at the resignation of our latebeloved and highly esteemed Archbishop, Dr. Fennelly,. His fine, generous quafities, his large-heartedness,., his; great common sense and wise government of this greatarchdiocese made upon us a deep and lasting impression, and we feel sorrowful at losing him. It consoles; us somewhat that he is still to reside amongst us, an we pray that he may enjoy a long and happy life in his retirement.’ BISHOP O’DONNELL’S PLEA FOR IRISH. 8 Speaking at the annual Feis of Tirconnail, held in Glenties, County Donegal, the Right Rev. Dr. O’Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, said that many of them remembered the time when all’ the older men of every religious denomination in that wide area could speak Irish as well as or better than English, but, unfortunately, that was no longer the case. It was the people in the mountain glens who now, as a body, retained for their children the precious inheritance of the language. Still, there were many centres around them where Irish was in daily use, and it was creditable that Glenties and Ardara retained so much of it. If the young people did not learn Irish now they would not have the excuse of those who grew up before the revival movement began. The language was still in the air there. It was in the blast that blew from the mountains, and it was their duty to see that it was in the breeze that found the plains. THE DUBLIN CASTLE GROWN JEWELS. It will be generally felt that, considering the very serious nature of the London Mail's libel on Sir Arthur Vicars, who was Ulster King-at-Arms when the Crown Jewels were stolen from Dublin Castle in 1907, the amount of the damages awarded him by the jury—■ £sooo—was not at all too high. Sir Arthur’s evidence during the hearing of the case afforded an interesting sidelight into the method adopted to keep the jewels safe (says the Catholic Times). When he took up his office at the Castle, he said, he was not aware that he had .to guard these treasures. They were in an old iron box, and the key was kept by the messenger. The box was ‘ a common old thing and could not by any

stretch of imagination be called a safe. When the key was handed to him he at once requisitioned the Board of Works for a safe, and they sent him a second-hand one from another office. A strong room was built, but the-door was too small to allow of the removal "of the safe into it. By the expenditure of £2 10s, the safe could have been made the proper size, but the money was not spent. So the safe was left in the outer office, and. the strong room was used for storing records and manuscripts. Evidently the confidence felt in the honesty of all who had access to the outer office was not limited. GATE RECEIPTS AT THE ALL-IRELAND FINAL At the quarterly meeting of the Central Council, G.A.A., the secretary (Mr. O’Toole) reported that he had drafted a rough balance sheet in connection with the Croke Memorial matches. The figures submitted —Total gate receipts, £2735 3s 4|d; expenditure, £862 17s Id, showing a profit of £1872 5s 4d, amount in the hands of the Council making a net profit of £2365 11s 7£d. The Council took into consideration the work the secretary (Mr. O’Toole) had in connection with the -carrying through of the fixtures, and the Council unanimously granted him a bonus of £IOO. '* HOME RULE-FINANCE. The debate on the financial resolution in connection with the Home Rule Bill was remarkable for the speeches of Mr. John Dillon and Mr. Herbert Samuel, who - had little difficulty in disposing of the criticism of the opponents of the Bill. It will be remembered that Mr. T. M. Healy, M.P., denounced the finance of the Bill, and that his and Mr. Wm. O’Brien’s denunciations of it were quoted against it by the Tories in the House of Lords and in the country. To the astonishment of everybody, Mr. Healy, when the financial resolution came on again, expressed himself gratified and appeased by Mr. Birrell’s speech in moving it? Why? Because ‘for the first time, a Minister had admitted that many of the financial propositions in this measure must be regarded as provisional.’ Why, as Mr. Dillon pointed out, not only was the fact stated by the Prime Minister and the Postmaster-General in the debates' on the Bill, but it was in the Bill itself ! One of the most effective passages of Mr. Dillon’s speech was that in which he exposed the factionist allegation that the Lloyd-George Budget of 1909 imposed an extra two millions a year of taxation on Ireland. BELFAST AND THE PARLIAMENTARY FUND. The Belfast Nationalists have met to organise a collection for the Home Rule fund, and over £4OO was subscribed on the spot. Last year they subscribed £I2OO to the fund, and this year they will make their contribution as large, if not larger, than last year. Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., the member for West Belfast, who presided, paid a very just tribute to the patriotism of the Belfast Nationalists and to their marvellous patience, discipline, and self-control under all the provocation to which they have been subjected during the past two years. CATHOLICS PENALISED. The London Tablet says that a correspondent supplies some comparative statistics, which show that in Ireland, with its great Catholic Bar, including many of the most distinguished lawyers in the country alike on the Chancery and Common Law side, Catholics still fail to obtain their fair share of the rewards of their profession. After 84 years after Emancipation, there are twelve Catholic Benchers of King’s Inns out of a total of 47; 18 Catholic Resident Magistrates cut of 63; 24 Catholic Crown and Sessional Crown Solicitors out of 62 ; 13 Catholic Clerks of Crown and Peace to 23 Protestants; 27 Circuit Crown Counsel who are Catholics to 37 who are not. Among the eleven chief officials of the Probate Court and Chancery Court there is no Catholic of them all.