Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 13 May 1915, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Mr. W. H. Davey, 8.L., a well-known Ulster Protestant Home Roller, and editor of the Ulster Guardian, has joined the colors and received a commission in the Tyneside Irish Regiment. Great regret is felt in Dublin at the death of Mr. Brendon Fottrell, a Dublin solicitor, who has just been killed on the field of honor in France. Mr. Fottrell, who was the son of a Dublin solicitor, was one of the earliest promoters of the Irish Volunteer movement. At the annual social reunion in connection with Lishurn parish, an illuminated album address, and a splendid Enfield Coupe, 10 h.p. two-seater car of the newest type were presented to the Very Rev. Mark McCashin, P.P., V.F., on his recovery from a. severe illness. Father O'Hare, of Newry, in the course of an inspection of Irish National Volunteers held in Newry, * said that since the outbreak of war the Irish National Volunteers in Newry had been reduced by more than half because of the number of its members who have gone to serve with the colors at the front, a splendid record for the town of Mitchel and Martin. The Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, in a letter to the press, states that inquiries, so far as they proceeded, showed that the purchase of the contemplated site alone for the new Cathedral in Dublin would cost between £50,000 and £60,000. That was final. The Archbishop denies a newspaper report to the effect that he has acquired a site for the Cathedral. Tie is not aware that such a site can be purchased. A GIFT FROM ARCHBISHOP CLUNE. The consecration of the new high —which is of beautiful design, some of the choicest marbles obtainable having been used in the different portions of the work—in the new church at Euan, County Clare, took place on St. Patrick's Day, the impressive ceremony being performed by the Right Rev. Dr. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe. The altar is the gift of his Grace Archbishop Chine, of Perth, who is a native of the parish of Ruan. A GENEROUS SUBSCRIPTION FROM NEW ZEALAND. Captain Esmonde, M.P., has received a generous gift of £IOO for the equipment of the Nenagh Battalion, N.V., through Sir Thomas Esmonde, M.P., from a friend in New Zealand, who has been a life-long sympathiser with the Irish National movement ■ and a staunch supporter of the Irish Party. He specially desires that his generous gift should be made anonymously, and Sir Thomas Esmonde regrets exceedingly that, in deference to his friend's wish, he is precluded from publishing the most interesting letter which accompanies his munificent donation. THE SHAMROCK IN LONDON. Never before has the shamrock been worn so generally in London on St. Patrick's Day (writes the correspondent of the Freeman's Journal). In every part of the metropolis, East and West, wherever one went, .everyone carried a green buttonhole, and it was easy to be seen that every section of the population, whether Irish, English, Scotch, or Welsh, had remembered the feast day of Ireland's National Saint. For several years the 'wearing of the green has been on the increase in London, but this year it was as universal as is the wearing of the red rose on Queen Alexandra's birthday. This was due to more than one reason, the primary cause being 'the wonderful hold the stories of the prowess of the Irish regiments at the front have had upon' the average Londoner's imagination. Thanks to the energy of Lady Limerick, there were hundreds of society ladies selling the shamrock in the West End, and purchasers had not to be coaxed, but walked up to the sellers in the morning, paying high prices—in one case £5 was handed over— for a sprig. Half-sovereigns were not rare, but a shilling was the ordinary coin given.

The proceeds will go to the fund for the provision of refreshments for soldiers and sailors arriving at the big London termini. "i%. ",."., - " "J; DRUMMER KENNY. V.C. On St. Patrick's Day the freedom of the ancient city of Drogheda was conferred on Drummer, now Lance-Corporal William Kenny, one of the Irish heroes recently decorated with the Victoria Cross for conspicuous valor on the field of battle. An extraordinary demonstration was witnessed—a procession of Volunteers, Hibernians, Foresters, and trades bodies being included in the demonstration. No such spectacle has ever before been witnessed in an Irish National city, and it can be said that the humble soldier honored is worthy of the great tribute paid him. The resolution conferring the freedom of the city ran :—' That to mark our recognition, and the recognition of his fellow-towns-men, of his winning the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery on October 23, near Ypres, in rescuing wounded men on five occasions under heavy fire in the most fearless manner, for twice previously saving some machine guns by carrying them out of action, and on numerous occasions conveying urgent messages under very dangerous circumstances over fire-swept ground, we, the Municipal Council of Drogheda, in the exercise of the powers conferred by the Municipal Privileges Act, 1876, do hereby admit Lance-Corporal William Kenny, V.C, Green Hills, Drogheda, an honorary freeman of the borough of Drogheda.' It need not now be said that Kenny,"though serving in a Scotch regiment, is a native of Drogheda, and amongst the spectators of the ceremonial on St. Patrick's Day were his aged father and mother. A SIGNIFICANT PARAGRAPH. One of the most interesting columns of 'gossip' published is that contributed weekly to the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury by ' A Club Member.' The writers errs on occasions when he wanders outside the limits of his own domain ; but he knows the feelings and records the chatter of his own immediate circle with unfailing accuracy. We {lrish News) take the following paragraph from 'A Club Member's' column of our Liverpool contemporary :—" The greatly-increased ''wearing of the green" in London on St. Patrick's Day showed how the Metropolitans appreciate the hundred thousand Nationalists who have already enlisted in the Imperial Army. Think for one moment what a peril to the Empire Ireland would have been had she not obtained Home Rule, and think, too, how splendidly she has fulfilled the pledge of Mr. Redmond. No part of the Empire is more loyal to-day. In Dublin you hear ' God Save the King ' whistled and hummed even more generally than ' Tipperary,' " wrote an Irish physician to an English one, and if the King fulfils his intention of going to Mallow to inspect the. Irish Brigade before they go to France, he is likely to be surprised at the enthusiasm with which he will be greeted. At the dinner given in London at the Irish Club, Professor Kettle came specially from Kilworth Camp to speak, and appeared as Lieutenant Kettle in khaki. Another point to be remembered is that the attitude of the vast majority of the Irish in America would have been vastly different had not Home Rule been put on the Statute Book.' ■■ A PLEA FOR UNITY. Although the Newry Regiment of Irish National Volunteers, which formerly numbered about eight hundred, has been reduced to under four hundred by the magnificent response of its members to the call for men at the outbreak of war, the movement is being kept vigorous and flourishing in the historic frontier town; and the parade held there on Sunday, March 21, when Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., and Mr. J. J. Mooney, M.P., inspected the corps, was a splendid success. Among the speakers was Mr. J. Devlin, M.P., who in the course of an inspiring speech, said:—As you are well aware, the motto of the Volunteers is Defence, not Defiance.' Their object is not to make war upon

any section of .their fellow-countrymen, to preserve and conserve ..the rights and liberties of all Irishmen It is the union of j. all Irishmen in the 5 service of our country that is the object. dearest to our hearts. It would be a strange thing if .we held or if "we preached any other gospel of Nationality here in this historic town of Newry, which holds the ; dust of that great Irish Protestant, John Mitchel, and which is inseparable from the name of John Mitchel's friend and compatriot and coreligionist, honest John Martin. In these we had examples of two Ulster Protestants, who grew to manhood in the heart of -Ulster, breathing the atmosphere of ascendancy, and acquainted with it at close quarters. Yet the whole history of Ireland may be searched in vain to find two men more passionately devoted to the ideal of Ireland a Nation, or more profoundly conscious that the surest hope for the future of Ireland was in the union of all her sons under a broad and generous system of national self-government. Mitchel and Martin and many other Protestants who thought as they did, were not only willing to work, but to die, for the liberty of their country. It was not liberty for any creed or class they sought, but for a united Irish people, and no matter what may be said to the contrary, we cannot believe otherwise than that we have with us to-day a large and an increasing measure of Protestant sympathy and support in favor of the policy of John Redmond and the Irish Party, which the Volunteers were organised to maintain. John Mitchel and John Martin believed that Irishmen were capable of managing their own affairs better than any other people in the universe, and it cannot be at this time of day there exists a contrary belief amongst any considerable section of our Protestant countrymen. Belgium is but a small nation, but under self-government it became one of the most prosperous countries in Europe, and the attachment to their national liberty of the Belgians is so great, that they have made almost unparalleled sacrifices in its defence. The heart of the Irish people without exception has gone out to the Belgians and the Poles in the heroic struggle they are making for freedom and right. The memory of that struggle can never die. It will live to thrill the hearts of freemen and of nations rightly struggling to be free so long as the world endures. YET ANOTHER IRISHMAN. Yet another Irishman!' was the general exclamation on Saturday morning, March 20, when people read at the ,end of the Admiralty's Dardanelles statement the brief announcement that Vice-Admiral Garden having been incapacitated by illness, Rear-Admiral John Michael de Robeck has succeeded him in the chief command. Thus (remarks the London correspondent of the Irish Weekly) an Irishman is succeeded by an Irishman : for, while Vice-Admiral Garden belongs to the Tipperary branch of the family of which the head is Sir John Craven Garden, Bart., Rear-Admiral de Robeck is the son of the fourth Baron de Robeck, of Naas, Co. Kildare, and brother of the present holder of the title. It was in April, 1912, that Rear-Admiral de Robeck, now 53, was appointed Admiral of Patrols, under the naval reorganisation scheme. The de'Robecks come of an old Swedish family, dating from a famous Swedish soldier of fortune who flourished in the eighteenth century. This ancestor — a quaint circumstance in view of the family service in these great days—received a pension from the French for his services against the English ; but, with the splendid impartiality of soldiers of fortune, he married soon afterwards the heiress of Lord Gowran, an Irish peer, and was himself naturalised by Act of Parliament. With Admirals Callaghan and Beatty, not to mention other notable Irish seamen of the first rank, in the Navy, and with the wealth of Irishmen of all ranks who serve under Sir John French of the Gal way, or Roscommon, family of his appropriate name, the part played by Ireland right at the head of the British forces is almost, if not quite, as notable as the share of the work done by the O'Learys, Kennys, Kelly Burkes, and Sheas, Connaught Rangers, Irish Guards, and Royal Irish Rifles in the trenches.