Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 4 June 1914, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. The Most Rev. Dr. Harty has appointed the Rev. M. Banuon, Adm., Thurles, to be parish priest of Emly (in room of the late Canon Maurice Power), and Rev. M. Ryan, Thurles, to be Administrator, Thurles; It is perhaps some consolation to temperance advocates to learn from the report of the secretary of the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance that- there is less drink per head consumed in Ireland than in England, Scotland,- or ’ "although far too much money is spent on alcoholic liquor. The Anglican Bishop of London, addressing the congregation at St. Paul's Cathedral on Good Friday, said that if Ulstermen were absolutely just to the Nationalists, without taking any side, or saying which is right, there would be a far easier and better chance of a righteous and lasting peace. The Catholic people of Kenmare, County Kerry, have decided to present the Rev. Mr. McCutcheon, who is retiring from the rectorship of that town, with an illuminated address to mark the cordial relations which have always existed between the rev. gentleman and the residents of the district. Mr. Devlin, M.P., presided recently at a sale of work in aid of new schools which the Catholics have erected at Newington, Belfast, at a time when the local Protestant denominations are asking the Corporation to build schools for 20,000 of their children who are without school accommodation. The Bishop, Right Rev. Dr. Tohill, paid a warm tribute to Mr. Devlin’s devotion to the true Catholic principles of education. The late Very Rev. Peter S. Casey, pastor of St. Peter’s, San Francisco, bequeathed his beautiful gold and richly-jewelled presentation chalice to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Templemore—his native place. Reporting to the Old Age Pensions Committee of the Cork Corporation, the Town Clerk states that pensions granted during the fifteen months that have elapsed since January 1, 1913, represent a sum of £4388 per annum. When a resolution congratulating Mr. John Redmond and the Irish Party was proposed at a meeting of .the New Ross (County Wexford) Council, Mr. Thorpe said that as a Protestant he had great pleasure in supporting the resolution, and availed himself of the opportunity of declaring that the most friendly relations existed between the Protestants and Catholics in the district, and even in the adjoining counties with which he was acquainted. , ■ •• At the City of Dublin Commission the other day, before Mr. Justice Molony, Captain White, D. 5.0., son of the defender of Ladysmith, pleaded not guilty to indictments charging him with having on the 13th ’March, at Eden quay, assaulted Inspector Purcell, Constable Forde, and James Cregan, a mail-van driver. At the conclusion of the Crown case, Mr. Forde, who appeared for the prisoner, said that Captain White now believed that there was a misunderstanding on the occasion; and if the prosecution withdrew their charges against him he would withdraw his charges against the police. Mr.' Powell, on behalf of the police, assented to this course.. Sergeant MacSweeny, on behalf of the Crown, entered a nolle ■prosequi in the cases against Captain White, and the jury were discharged, and Captain White left the court. POLITICS AND BUSINESS, The Ulster opponents of Home Rule are in a thoughtful frame of mind these days, according to the Belfast correspondent of the Toronto Globe. In a ..cable letter recently he said; —'It is within the power of the Nationalist South of Ireland' to cripple Ulster trade. [As an illustration The Irish Nationalists’ deposits in the Ulster bank branches aggregate more [than the combined capital of three Ulster banks doing

business in the'South of Ireland, Excluding Ulster deposits, the Ulster branch banks ; have £33,000,000 at a" conservative estimate, two-thirds of which are the deposits of Nationalist farmers, merchants, and - the Catholic' Church. If suddenly withdrawn they would strike a, heavy blow at Ulster’s industrial prosperity. To their credit the Nationalists have resisted £ the temptation for dramatic reprisals so far; but/ the power of the Nationalists to retaliate in kind hash sobering effect upon the Ulster Unionists, with so much at stake. The boycott of Protestant Home , Rulers in Ulster extends even to clergymen in Belfast, and a prominent merchant informs me that a deputation of Carsonites will wait privately on the Unionists to persuade them to cease to do business with men who refuse to sign the covenant. In some cases business men have had their mortgages foreclosed, and have endured other forms of persecution. Many, therefore, - who give service to the Carson movement are Home' Rulers at heart, and are praying for the speedy passage of the Bill.’ f CATHOLIC TOLERATION. Mr. W. C. Doherty, West Clare, writes as follows in the Freeman’s Journal: — ‘l feel it is my duty to enter a public protest against the false charges of intolerance made by the Unionist speakers in Ulster f and ■ elsewhere against Irish Catholics. I am a Protestant living in West Clare, which has a population 98. per cent. Catholic. Yet this community, intensely Catholic as it is,, has elected me for six years a member of Kilrush Rural District Council and Kilkee Town Com- ’ missioners. In dne of the contests I was elected pa head of the poll against Catholics. A greater honor still has been conferred by unanimously electing me for the fourth time chairman of Town Commissioners of Kilkee, ‘the only Protestant member of the body. Never have I known a Protestant to be injured in • person, property, position, or repute in Ireland because of his religion. , . I ask my co-religionists, and they number many 1 thousands in the" South and West of Ireland, to come out manfully and condemn those wicked slanders on our Catholic fellow-country-men. We have lived without religious differences amongst Catholics. They have always treated us with respect, and I certainly think it is the duty of every self-respecting Protestant to speak out now and put an end to a campaign of malice against a generous and kindly Catholic people,’ IRELAND AND THE PARTY. ’ ' Never in the history of the Irish Party (says the Irish Press Agency) has there been such an outpouring of resolutions of confidence in the Party and its leader as during the past few weeks. From all parts of Ireland, public bodies of every description County Councils, Town. Councils, Rural District Councils, Boards of Guardians, / branches of the United Irish League, divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, branches’ of the Irish National Foresters, Town Tenants’ Associations, Farmers’, Associations, Labor organisations, and so forth—resolutions have been, . and are* still forthcoming, pledging full trust and confidence in Mr. Redmond and the Party, now and in the future. This, with a record subscription to the Home .Rule fund, is Ireland’s answer to those who assert that she is weakening in her demand for Home Rule. The other, day the special correspondent of the Tory Morning Post , the London organ of Carsonism, alluding to the spontaneous movement in Derry City for the formation of . Irish National Volunteers, warned the Unionist Party not to mistake the significance of this sign of the times. He was right. But a much greater mistake would be for British Unionists to mistake the present temper - of the Irish people. That way madness lies. 1 - A WAR CORRESPONDENT ON ULSTER. |fc Mr. Francis McCullagh, the war correspondent, writing in the New York.. American , described the Ulster question as having ‘become;. an amazing and

alarming muddle, more worthy of Mexico than of Eng-:, land,’ its outcome being ‘known to no man,’ and the question itself being ‘ bluff that may soon be bloodshed.’ For a hundred years the Orangemen savagely persecuted the Catholics, behaving worse than the Turks, while not a single instance of religious persecution mars the history of Irish Catholics.’ The moral drawn from this by the Tories is, Mr. McCullagh argues, that ‘ the Catholics are persecutors, and, therefore, “No Home Rule.” ’ The whole Ulster campaign has been characterised by a perversion of reasoning on the Tory side, in Mr. McCullagh’s opinion ; and he goes on to remark that ‘ although a Home Ruler, I was born in Ulster and am descended from one of those Scotsmen planted in Tyrone by James the First.’ In Ulster, he says, ‘ there are real Orange fanatics, armed with half a dozen different kinds of rifles, for which they paid exorbitant prices and got the wrong ammunition. There are 82,000 Covenanters in all. Exactly 57,000 of these will make a wild bolt for it as soon as the first British shell bursts anywhere near them. The fanatics may stand their ground, but they will be rounded up and forced to surrender before they can even sec the redcoats. I have been in many wars and am a professional war correspondent ; this is my opinion, of what will happen if it comes to fighting.’ Mr. McCullagh believes the Liberals ‘ will sweep away every stupid Tory officer in the Army—and an extremely good riddance it will be.’ The officer,’ he asserts, ‘ is the one weak spot in the British Army.’ UNIONIST TACTICS IN ULSTER In most of. the British Unionist journals Ulster is pictured as a province seething with fierce hostility to Home Rule. As about half the population are Catholics and the majority of the people Home Rulers, the misrepresentation is obvious enough. But, according to a letter from Mr. James Mayne, of Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, it is only by a deliberate system of coercion and anti-Catholic slander the anti-Home Rule movement is kept up. Under threats of being ruined in their business farmers are forced to participate in the Volunteer evolutions, and the same methods of compulsion are applied to shopkeepers. To stimulate bigotry false accusations are preferred against Catholics Sunday after Sunday from Protestant pulpits, and blood-curdling stories are told .about them in private conversation. As an instance, Mr. Mayne relates that in' appealing to an Ulster Presbyterian recently to sign the Covenant, a young lady assured him that she had been in Waterford and had there heard Mr. John Redmond make a speech in which he said the first duty of the Nationalists under Home Rule would be to burn the Presbyterian churches of the country. If fairy tales ensured success the anti-Home Rule campaign would not have failed. Unionist' funds have been liberally drawn upon to circulate them not only in Ulster, but throughout every part of Great Britain.