Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 18 September 1913, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. By a vote of 24 to 10 the Cork Corporation have decided to close all cinema shows on Sunday. The death has occurred at Stonebridge, Clones, of Mrs. Mary Keelagher, in her 106th year. She was the widow of- a laborer, and has descendants to the fourth generation in most parts of the English-speak-ing world. On July 28 Most Rev. Dr. Healy, Archbishop of Tuam, opened a bazaar in the Town Hall, Westport, to liquidate the debt which had been incurred in the renovation of the parish church, the centenary of the erection of which will be celebrated shortly. Mr. Walter R. Crawford, The Priory, Tullyhogue, Co. Tyrone, a well-known shorthorn breeder and exhibitor, has been appointed by Leeds University as Live Stock Adviser for Yorkshire at £SOO a year and £2OO for expenses. He was selected for the position out of a long list of applicants. The Right Rev. Dr. Plunkett, Protestant Bishop of Tuam, who opened the annual Synod, in the course of his address said he could tell them that he was very much at home with the people of the West. He had experienced nothing but kindness and good-will from his Catholic countrymen since he came to Tuam. The Dowager Countess of Desart had a hearty welcome at the Convent of Mercy, Callan, where she presented three silver watches to the three pupils who won the inter-class competition at Kilkenny Feis. Her ladyship exhorted the girls, even though, they found themselves in foreign lands, to cherish a love for their own country and its language, and to f speak Irish whenever they could. Rev. John O'Shanahan, S.J., died recently at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and the fifty-fourth of his religious life. Born in County Kerry, he resigned-a professorship in Ennis College to enter the Society of Jesus, and having completed his scholastic and ecclesiastical studies in France, Belgium, and England, became a noted professor of rhetoric in the college of the New Orleans province and a successful pastor and missionary worker in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. At a recent meeting of the Central Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Dublin it was decided: (1) To devote a sum sufficient to erect in front of the Cathedral in Thurles a statue similar to that erected to the Most. Rev. Dr. Leahy—the materials and work to be Irish; (2) To grant a sum of £3OO towards rebuilding the Thurles Confraternity Hall, recently destroyed by fire —this sum to be added to the insurance amount of £loooprovided the hall be called and known as the Croke Memorial Hall. (3) That the balance of the Croke Memorial Tournament funds be devoted to securing a playing ground in Dublin to be called the Croke Memorial Park. ,

Mr. John Ryan, a well-known Irish-Australian, is at present on a visit to his native country, and quite recently visited Doon, Co. Limerick (says an Irish exchange). Mr. Ryan was born at Loughisle, Kilcommon, Tipperary, 42 years ago, and has spent 25 years in Australia, where, we understand, he has made a name for himself in business and social circles. He is a splendid type of Irishman, and has proved himself to be a good all-round athlete. He has always taken an active interest in the public affairs of the land of his adoption, but this has not lessened his love for the land of his birth. He returns to Brisbane in the course of a month to take charge of his business in that city. Mr. Ryan belongs to a grand old Tipperary stock, and during his stay in Ireland he visited quite a number of relatives and friends. There are, however, relatives in other lands that he has never met, including the Aherne Brothers, of Chicago apd 4i the Quinlan Brothers, of Greymouth, New Zealand, and especially his cousin, M. J. Quinlan, of the latter town. Mr.

Ryan presided at Mr. Hazleton's very successful meeting in Mareeba, Queensland, and has always proved himself a staunch supporter of the Irish Parliamentary Party. ' _ __'"'- THE GAELIC LEAGUE. • The seventeenth annual Oireachtas (Congress and Festival) of the Gaelic League was opened in Galway on July 27, this being the first occasion in the history' of the league that the great annual event has been held outside the Irish capital. During the week the ancient city of Galway had been thronged with Gaels from all counties in Ireland, and Dublin contributed a highly creditable ' visitors' list to the grand total. The first day's proceedings were of a preliminary character, and consisted of ' war pipes bands' and ' individual pipes competitions in University College Grounds,, just outside the town.- Nearly fifty separate competitions were carried through during this year's Oireachtas, and the entries—all-Ireland in charactercomprised a roll of some 700 individuals. Plays in the Irish language, concerts on genuinely Irish lines, and a miniature National Exhibition of Irish goods formed some of the outstanding features of the big festival. THE IRISH PARTY AND THE GOVERNMENT. I find that there was an unfounded opinion among some good Liberals that there was an understanding between the Ministry and the Irish leaders that another general election would take place before the Irish Parliament was brought into being (writes Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., in Reynolds's Newspaper). As a matter of fact, no such understanding exists no such understanding was ever suggested; no such understanding, I add, was ever even contemplated. It would be scouted with equal vehemence by both the Liberal and the Irish leaders. The Home Rule Bill can become law on June 9 for next year. Allowing a month or two for the creation of the new Irish Cabinet, that would bring us to August 9. A general election and a Parliament can take place within four months after the Royal Assent has.been given to the Bill (continues Mr. O'Connor), and thus the Irish Parliament could come into existence in December of next year, and by the following January would already be making new laws for the Irish nation —laws, by the way, which I hope would begin by bringing some relief 'to the sweated workers of Belfast. This is what will happen, unless, indeed, the Peers try some plan of obstructing or delaying the Home Rule Bill when it gets to them, but if they try such tricks as these there are means, into which I need not now go, for dealing with such tactics. The Parliament Act is watertight; no device can break it down. THE REAL ULSTER. The reply. of the Nationalists of Belfast to Sir Edward Carson is a subscription of £520 as a first instalment to the Home Rule- Fund for 1913. The Irish News publishes the list of subscribers, which tells its own tale. The largest subscriptions are £2O from a ' Belfast Protestant' and £lO from a ' Belfast Protestant Home Ruler.' All the rest is in subscriptions of from one shilling to £5. Last year Belfast's first instalment to the fund was £350. The increase of £l7O is eloquent of the growing strength of the Home Rule cause in the Ulster capital, and a fresh illustration of the generosity and patriotism of its Nationalist citizens. PROSELYTISERS DEFEATED. The Dublin proselytisers have met with a fall. In the Chancery Division, Dublin, on July 23, before Mr. Justice Barton, in the case of Joseph, William, and Anne Tray nor, an application was made for an order to have Margaret Butler, their paternal aunt, together with the Rev. Father Stafford, Dolphin's Barn, appointed guardians of the minors, and that they be brought up Catholics, the religion of their father, Patrick Tray nor. After three days' hearing, during which officials of Souper homes gave evidence of their endeavours to pervert Catholic children, judgment was delivered., Two of the minors were rescued from the

proselytisers, and the third, who has attained the age of fifteen, is unfortunately to be left with them. In delivering judgment, his Lordship found as a matter of fact . that Patrick Traynor died a Catholic, That being so, the general principle would —namely, that the religion of the children should follow that of the father, subject to the exceptions provided for by law. If the father abdicated his right it would be otherwise, but he had not done so. As to the children in this case there was a difference clearly applicable, but it should not be overlooked that there was no reason to infer that the father wished these children to be brought up Protestants and given into the hands of strangers instead of being placed under the guardianship of his own sister and one of his own religion. The only observation'he would make was this, that institutions such as these mission schools and others should be very careful in dealing with children. The father of these children was of the Catholic religion. If people belonging to these bodies did not do that, and failed to take care, they ran the risk of coming into collision with the law. That was the only observation he felt called upon to make. The application would be granted aq f/% flip vmiTicfAr ftbildren Vint, not as to the elder bov.

CARDINAL LOGUE’S VIEWS.

Replying to an address of welcome, presented by the congregation of St. Patrick’s Church, Bradford, England, Cardinal Logue, - who had been assisting at the jubilee celebrations of the church, said it was alleged at the present day that if the people of Ireland attained control of their own affairs they would be likely to persecute some of their neighbors. He defied any person who read the history of Ireland to find a single instance where Irish Catholics had persecuted their neighbors because of their religion. He had lived among people of different denominations for the greater part of his life, and he could conscientiously say that he never intentionally or knowingly used a word to give offence to any one, and he certainly would not be a party to persecution, " If Ireland gained control of her own affairs there would be a distribution of public offices. Every man would have such rights to these offices as his capabilities and knowledge entitled him to. They had a saying in Ireland, if there was a contest for a public office, ‘Let the best horse take the jump.’ He would be sorry to exclude any one from a public office, and if a Protestant or dissenter or anyone else was bettor qualified for office than a Catholic he would support him. And in his attitude he believed he was not alone. He thought it was the general feeling of the Catholics of Ireland. Even if Sir Edward Carson raised his army and used the cast-off Italian rifles and commenced to shoot, they would not shoot back. He did not think there would be much need of shooting back, because from the quality of the rifles and the skill of the riflemen he did not think there would be much danger to any one. Pie did not interfere much in politics, but he was certainly a determined Home Ruler. He desired Home Rule, not for the benefit of Catholics, but for the welfare of the country generally. When the day came, as he believed the day would come, when this enactment was passed —and the sooner the better— thought it would be found that notwithstanding all his talk about persecution, injustice, and everything else, the people of Ireland would see their -own interests, and would work shoulder to shoulder to endeavour to improve the condition of the . country. The quarrels were kept up by politicians for their own objects, and as soon as politicians dropped them the people of the country would work harmoniously together. There could be no civil war in Ireland. It would take two parties to make a fight, and even if . one side desired to make a fight, there would be no other side to fight against, because the people of the country did not want to fight.