IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 16 August 1917, Page 37

IRISH NEWS

Messrs. T. P. -O'Connor, R. Hazleton, and Daniel Boyle, M.P.'s, have been despatched to the United States to collect funds for the Irish Party mainly for the purpose of fighting electoral contests in Ireland at the next General Election. The London Gazette announces that Captain W. A. Redmond, M.P., has been transferred from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers to the Irish Guards, in which corps he will hold a similar rank. The transfer took effect as from the 12th May. The undermentioned priests have been appointed to the forces (4th class) —Fathers Cornelius Michael Creed, Timothy O'Connell, Edward McGrath, Francis Sebastian Burns, Michael Joseph Lalor, George William O'Neill, James McCann, John Ninian MacDonald, Edward O'Hart, and Austin Aloysius Joseph Askew. Bishop Mcllugh, of Derry, in a letter to the Irish papers denounces the constitution of the Irish Convention, and calls for an elected and constitutional Irish assembly instead. The Bishop was a leading figure in the anti-partisan agitation, and was practically the founder of the Irish Nation League. Mrs. Susanna Lennane, of Dublin, a mineral water manufacturer, who died lately, left estate valued at over £33,000. Among other bequests she left £IOOO to the Rev. Peter Finlay; £3OOO for Masses; £IOOO to the Ursuline Convent, Thurles, and £SOO each to other 25 institutions in Ireland. The residue goes to Catholic education in Ireland and the relief of the Dublin poor. Archbishop Walsh is one of the signatories to a statement published recently in the Irish Times expressing general agreement with the conclusions reached by Mr. Geo. Russell (better known by his pen name, "yE") in a memorandum written by him regarding the Irish Convention, and outlining a scheme of settlement for the Irish difficulty. Mr. Russell is a Dublin Protestant and a protege of Sir Horace Plunkett. Though not much known in politics, he is one of Ireland's foremost intellectuals and a great litterateur. Speaking at the second annual meeting of the Co. Galway War Fund Association, at which Lord Killanin presided, Captain Stephen Gwynn, M.P., on behalf of the troops thanked the Association for the comforts they sent out. Nothing they could do to bring in a ray of comfort to these men was too great. The Irish Division to which he belonged was joined by the men who joined for the sake of Ireland. They thought that was the best way to serve Ireland. He referred to the fraternity and comradeship that existed between the Ulster and the Irish Divisions, adding that it might be in that way these men had done a service to Ireland that they did not contemplate or expect. A great Irish priest has gone to his reward in the person of Venerable Wm. Archdeacon Hutch, D.D., P.P., Midleton, Co. Cork, who died in the Mercy Hospital, Cork, on Thursday night, June 7. Born at Buttevant in 1844, and trained in the Irish College, Rome, he was for a time curate at Doneraile and Professor (afterwards President) of the Diocesan College of Fermoy. For the last 25 years he had been the zealous pastor of Midleton. He was a staunch and active Nationalist and a supporter of Redmond and the Irish Party. Had he lived to December he would have attained his sacerdotal golden jubilee. The funeral took place at Midleton, the cortege being nearly two miles long. In the death of Alderman Cotton, M.P., which occurred recently at his residence, Roebuck, County Dublin, the Irish Party loses one of its influential members. He was never much of an orator, but a man of considerable position in Dublin commerce. First secretary and then chairman of the Alliance Gas Company, Dublin, he stood against Captain Cooper in South Dublin, in January, 1910, but the Unionist won. In the following December, however, the Alderman beat the Captain, and has since held the seat. He was Lord

Mayor of Dublin in .1911. His majority in South Dublin was only 133, so that any dissension in the Nationalist camp now would hand the seat to a Tory. The Alderman was in his 76th year. The Independent pillories Messrs. T. P. O'Connor and Pat O'Brien for having voted for the closuring of Mr. Ginnell when on the eve of the Whitsuntide adjournment he was ventilating the position regardir.«£ the continued imprisonment of Mr. McGuinness, 5 the newly-elected member for South Longford. The closure was carried only by a margin of four votes, and? two of these were given by the members named. We take very little stock in Mr. Ginnell or Mr. McGuinness or their political peculiarities. Politically they are our opponents. But even an opponent should be heard. Both have been elected by Irish constituencies, and have (still )a majority of their constituents supporting them. It ought not to be the concern of any Nationalist to gag any compatriot, however they differ. Fortunately at least a dozen other Irish members adhered to the principle that the Irish Party should always vote against the closure. Nationalist opinion generally, we believe, will side with them. Since G. K. Chesterton began to edit the New Witness its editorials show here and there characteristic flashes of his brilliancy. In a recent article dealing with the Conservative cosmopolitans who may be more ruinous than any revolutionist and their attack on Nationalism, reference is made to Lord Hugh Cecil, who wishes to keep the Irish under an alien ascendancy. Then comes this fine piece of sarcasm:—"All the most agreeable representatives of our success in Ireland from Castlereagh to Clanricarde would testify that a Nationalist is always a most unchristian character. The most bigoted thing on earth may blossom into broad-mindedness and wear the Orange flower of a blameless international life. Men too narrow to own their own nation will always be wide enough to call in the world against it." Dean Inge, "the gloomy Dean," gets a touch, too, for his assertion that "Nationalism is an open revolt against the Gospel." He is told that "when men like Dean Inge have suffered even a little for their new theology of what the Poles and the Irish have suffered for their old theology, they will be competent to judge of what they have also suffered for their native land." The Cabinet have swung back towards Mr. O'Brien's ideal in fixing the size of the Irish Convention (says the Glasgow Observer) between fifty and sixty representatives. Politicians pure and simple will constitute only about one-fifth of the assembly. Nobody will desire to say a word to embarrass, endanger, or hinder the success of the Convention, but the wisdom of such a wholesale exclusion of politicians in open to argument. After all the politician is the man who has taken interest in politics, knows the history, technique, and necessities of the position. To hand over a supreme political crisis to the settlement of the man who has kept out of politics is a daring experiment. Let us hope for the best. The Convention is to have a secretary "who will be an expert in Colonial precedents." It might have been worth while including some "experts" in its membership too. The same paper comments thus on Carson:—"Sir Edward Carson was accused of having advised the Prime Minister to release the Irish insurrection prisoners. He denies the vile impeachment, and authorises the publication of its denial. Now we can all breathe freely again, for things are what they seemed after all, and there are no visions about. For a moment it looked as if Carson might manifest some gleam of statesmanship, a thing he has never done before. But no. He is a boss bully in politics, a swashbuckler of the swaggerest, but that is all,"