Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 11 February 1915, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL*

The Auxiliary Bishop of Malines (Right Rev. Mgr. de Wachter) has written his Grace the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly warmly thanking him for the generous contributions of his diocese towards the relief of distress of Belgium, and promising to send the amount by a safe messenger to his Eminence Cardinal Mercier.

The Bishop of Cloyne, in a letter addressed to the promoters of a volunteering meeting in Limerick, says that Ireland has multiplied reasons to be grateful to Mr. Redmond and the Irish Party for their successful and faithful services of recent years. . His Lordship adds that Mr. Redmond’s action in organising and consolidating the Irish Volunteers on a safe and sound basis, is one of his most notable services to Ireland.

NATIONAL VOLUNTEERS IN BELFAST. . Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., addressed a public meeting recently in Belfast, in connection with the Irish National Volunteers (Belfast Regiment). The rally of the Belfast Volunteers to the standard of the Irish Brigade has considerably depleted the ranks of the organisation in the Northern capital, and the meeting was held for the purpose of hitting on a re-organisation scheme that would meet the wastage, and maintain the regiment as an efficient unit of' the Irish. National Volunteers. In the course of a rousing speech Mr. Devlin said what was urgently needed was sufficient funds for uniform and equipment, and he had no doubt that these would be forthcoming. It was their proud iccoid that from Belfast had gone the largest number from any one centre in Ireland of Nationalist recruits for the Irish Brigade. These men were fighting not only for the sanctity of contracts, and ‘ scraps of paper, as between Belgium and Germany, but as between Ireland and Great Britain, and when they retuined victorious from the battlefields of Europe they would be no less loyal to Ireland than they had been to Belgium and the Empire.

THE HOLY FATHER AND IRELAND

Cardinal Logue has received from Cardinal Gasparri, Secretary of State to the Holy Father, a communication intimating that a letter which he forwarded to his Holiness in his own name and that of the bishops of Ireland assembled with him in general meeting has much gratified the august Pontiff. The Cardinal Secretary at the same time sent the following autograph letter from the Holy Father, taking occasion to assure his Eminence Cardinal Logue of his own feeling of the deepest veneration;

‘To Our beloved son Michael, Cardinal Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, health and Apostolic Benediction.

‘ The joint letter of the Bishops of Ireland which We received from you some days ago delighted Us beyond measure. We rejoiced at the loyal greeting of most devoted brothers which it contained. We rejoiced at the prayer to God that Our career in the exalted dignity of the Apostolic See to which We have been raised might be a fruitful and blameless one. Such is the gravity of the times, and so great the consciousness of Our own shortcomings, the responsibilities of the high office entrusted to Our charge fill Us with the greatest anxiety. Still, We confidently put Our trust in*Him Who has called Us in to foster and nourish the Church which He has purchased by His Blood, and Who, whether its course be in adversity or prosperity, never ceases to jealously defend and watch over it. We are grateful to you, our beloved son, and to you all, for those testimonies of your loyal affection, and while reciprocating your good wishes, as a pledge of Heavenly assistance and an evidence of Our goodwill, We lovingly impart to each of you the Apostolic Benediction.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, on the 20th day of November, .1914, in the first year of Our Pontificate.

‘BENEDICT XV.’

A NOTED ATHLETE FOR THE FRONT. A correspondent of an Irish paper, in calling attention to the superior class of Irishmen who are volunteering for the front, proceeds to deal with the career of a distinguished athlete, who has. just joined the Irish Brigade: The announcement was made last week that one of our most prominent athletes for over twenty years, Laurence Roche, of Bruree, had joined the Irish Brigade and had been appointed captain in one of the legiments comprising it. Ido not know even to the year how long ago it is since I first met Mr. Roche. It is, perhaps, twenty-two or twenty-three years ago. That would take us back to the early ’nineties.. I was on my way to Limerick on the line from Charleville, and on looking out at Bruree I saw a tall strapping, wellbu! t youngster walking the platform. He looked an athlete all over, and when he had reached the compartment I was travelling in he entered and took a seat opposite me. 1 kept staring in admiration at the wellbuilt lad, for in form and feature, face and limb, he was one of the best-looking youngsters you could meet and being then up to my neck in admiration for anything in the way of a promising athlete I was anxious to know who my companion was. He broke the ice himself; he knew me, and introduced himself by tellinome he was a nephew of one of the greatest athletes that Ireland was ever proud of, Mr. Bob Coll, of Dromin. He could not have a better introduction to me, and I felt not a little proud of my judgment, even before young Roche told me he could do a bit at weights. I have written several times in these columns of Robert Coll as an athlete. I referred to him as late as last July in my notice of the athletic championships of the Gaelic Association. Here is what I said of Captain Roche’s uncle: ‘You sweep into Charleville only to knock up against the Leahy family, and down at Bruree you are reminded of Laurence Roche and of one of the best all-round men (his uncle, Bob Coll ,of Dromin) the world ever produced.' Bob Coll was my idol as an athlete. I remember as a little lad his great jumping feats at Kilfinane sports. I remember his running that year at Kilmallock ; and so electrified was I with that wonderful man that it was to see him compete I made my first journey to Limerick city. Heie he cleareed out the programme with the exception of a couple of events, that were won by T. M. Malone, that all-round champion of the ’seventies and ’eighties! I have often stated that if there had been a governing body for athletics in Ireland then those world’s records made by Bob Coll would be still standing to his credit. Laurence Roche proved himself an athlete from his boyhood. Being of powerful build, as a boy he made a study of weights, and to keep himself fit he played football. At both he shone. He won the All-Ireland Championship of the 161 b shot in 1897, and the previous ear he won the All-Ireland Championship of pushing the 561 b, both under Gaelic laws. In 1894 he won, under I.A.A. A. laws, the 561 b between the legs without follow or run championship, and many other events at various sports’ meetings. I remember that famous dash of Laurence Roche. I could -liken it to nothing better than to the dash in the old days of horses of the Dublin Fire Brigade before the introduction of motors, when every one cleared the way for the horses, and all stood in admiration at their splendid gallop. He was a member of the Limerick Commercial football team that won the All-Ireland Football Championship in February, 1898, from the Dublin Young Irelands at Jones’s road, and when that match is spoken of by anyone they refer to the dash of young Roche at mid-field. If the new captain of the Irish Brigade distinguishes himself at the front as he did on the athletic field he will be mentioned in the despatches of Sir John French. I have no doubt about his success in his new sphere, for he is possessed of all the boldness, all the courage, and all the ability that make a gallant officer,