IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 22 September 1921, Page 35

IRISH NEWS

GENERAL. Mr. Michael Collins, Minister of Finance, Dail Eireann, has been offered by a London publishing firm £IO,OOO for his memoirs. Mr. E. Downey, editor Waterford News, was fined £IOO by a military court, for alluding to Sir James Craig as a “carrion crow.” The phrase originated with Mr. Birrell, a Minister of the Crown. The Sligo Commandant of the Irish Republican Army, Mr. M. J. Marren, was drowned while bathing at Strandhill. He was a County Councillor, Chairman of the Boyle Guardians, and Judge of the District Republican Court. Messrs, de Valera, Griffith, Stack, and Desmond Fitzgerald attended High Mass at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark (London) on July 17, and had an enthusiastic reception from thousands of London Irish outside the church. The Protestant members of the Republican delegation attended Matins at St. Paul’s. The Irish correspondent of the London Sunday Express writes: —“The truce has been maintained with creditable loyalty on both sides. Flying columns of the I.R.A. have met and saluted forces of British troops. The Auxiliary forces go out in bathing parties unarmed, carrying towels instead of revolvers. . . The only spot in Ireland where the truce has not brought peace is in Belfast.” “I have received from a quarter in the most intimate touch with Sir James Craig confirmation of the statement that he left London sorely dissatisfied with his last interview with Mr. Lloyd George (says the London correspondent of the Independent). It is clear, therefore, that when Sir James Craig declared to a press representative before leaving for Belfast, that he was “well satisfied,” ho was uttering a terminological inexactitude.” THE ONE DARK SPOT. The known victims of the Belfast pogrom in a little over 12 months number: —Killed, 101; wounded, 770 (according to the Independent). Of these, the eight days ended at date of publication were responsible for killed, 20; wounded, 108. These are those recorded in the hospitals. It is believed that there were many deaths not recorded, and many wounded were treated in their homes. When the responsibility comes to be fixed the following facts speak for themselves; — The majority of the killed and wounded are Catholics. (2) All the houses looted, burned, or wrecked belonged to Catholics, and (3) All the persons rendered homeless are Catholics. ❖<K*X*X*X*> FRENCH VIEW OF IRISH PEACE. The Union Agricole, quoted by Young Ireland, says that there can be no peace as long as England refuses to recognise the essential unity of Ireland and repudiates the right of the Irish people to self-determination. No solution can be arrived at while the Orange minority is placed on the same footing as the rest of Ireland. Mr. Lloyd George will sooner or later be forced to recognise Dail Eireann. “What a striking victory for democratic idealism,” says the Petit Parisien, “if one could say in the near future that the war of 1914-18 .was crowned by the liberation of Ireland.” CAUSE.. OF PEACE MOVE: IS IT TO CONCILIATE . AMERICA? “It may at first sight seem to argue a weakened sense of proportion that we should bracket the Irish negotiations in the same category of importance with the world-wide project Which the President of the United States has initiated. But the truth is,” says the Saturday Beview, “that the reactions of the Irish question spread far beyond the province of domestic British politics, and that the inter-relation between what is happening in London today and what may be happening in Washington a few months hence cannot be other than close and real.

“Put the Irish problem on the road to settlement, and by such you facilitate Anglo-American co-operation on all problems. Make it easy for Great 'Britain and the United States to acquire, or to renew, the habit of working togather, and to that extent you smooth the path to an Irish peace. Should this appeal fail, as it must not and shall not fail, the worst in the Anglo-Irish past may soon be outdone by the blackness and despair of the very near future. “The broad remedy is equally old and equally simple. . . . It is to uproot the alien government now thrust upon the Irish people, and to give them instead a government of their own choosing. Our immediate duty, therefore, is . . . . to ask ourselves . . . why in Ireland, but nowhere else, we should take our cue from one-fifth of the people, and allow them to dictate our policy towards the remaining four-fifths. “What is needed is a firm offer of Dominion status of nationhood, with full fiscal and financial freedom, and with the Army and Navy left under a single Imperial control, . . There are three essentials of a durable Irish settlement.” These are — ■ 1. Recognition of Irish nationality; 2. Embodiment of Irish unity; 3. Government of Irish design. DEATH OF CANON FLANNERY, KILLALOE. We regret (says an Irish exchange) to announce the death of Very Rev. Canon Flannery, P.P., V.G., Killaloe, which occurred on June 30, after a long illness. The late Canon, a native of Monsea parish, was ordained in 1868. He was curate successively in Portroe, Monsea, Kilbarron, Toomevara, and Nenagh, to which latter place he came in 1878 and ministered till November, 1888, when he. was appointed P.P. of Ruane and Dysart, Co. Clare. During his curacy in Nenagh he took an active part in the politics of the time, and was most zealous and efficient in discharging the duties of his office. He was the first director of the Women’s' Confraternity of the Holy Family. It was mainly through his mediation that the premises of the Nenagh Gaol (which had ceased to be used as a prison) were given to the Sisters of Mercy for schools and residence. After spending some years in Ruane and Dysart he became P.P. of Silvermines, and when Canon Mclnerney, in 1905, was transferred to Kilrush, he was appointed P.P. and V.G. of Killaloe. Here, as in his other missions, he labored with zeal and success. The new church of Garronboy was erected as well as new schools for the Sisters of Mercy and improvements effected in the other churches and schools of the parish. He was partly invalided for the past two years, but he continued to the end to direct the work of the parish and took his share in the duties whenever he was able. His death is deeply regretted by the people of the many parishes in which he ministered, by his brother priests, and by all who had the happiness to know him. Two years ago the late Canon Flannery celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his priesthood, when he was the recipient of a presentation from his parishioners as a mark of appreciation in which he was held by them.