IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 26, 5 July 1923, Page 43

IRISH NEWS

EMIGRATING FROM IRELAND. \ Emigration from Ireland to the United States has V increased 100 per cent, during the past six months as jn compared with the corresponding period last year. At . the American Consulate in Dublin the daily issue of vises averaged about 50 a day, but within the past week there has been a falling off. According to the American Immigration Laws the yearly quota of immigrants 'permitted to enter the U.S. from Ireland, England, and Scotland together is 7 ,342. The quota year ends on June 30, and the shipping companies have booked up to the limit of the quota, but that for vises is not yet exhausted. ■X><X~X><X~X> BELFAST AMENITIES. After a discussion marked by much sarcastic wit,. Belfast Corporation approved the principle of payment of salaries to its members, following the precedent of the Six-County Parliament. The sarcasm was directed against the members of the Belfast Parliament, Mr. Alexander remarking that the only duties they performed was showering unlimited praise on each other a Mutual Admiration Society. Aid. Jamieson said their M.P.’s attended about 208 hours in the year, or about four weeks of the ordinary man’s working year, and their salaries amounted to £SO a week. WWW IRISH RAILWAYS REOPENED. A return to normal conditions is indicated by the wonderful improvement in the railway services throughout the Free State. Practically all the railways are again working. The services on the main lines arc now being maintained without any interruption. Nearly all the branch lines are maintaining almost full services, as also those of the smaller companies in Cork. ho rapid progress made in restoring and maintaining communication is due to the splendid work of the Bailway Protection, Repairs, and Maintenance Corps, a body whose feats of bridge repairing, etc., have won universal admiration. The National Army is now in a position to provide adequate protection in any part of the country for the railways. <~X*XXX~XX> BLOW TO ORANGEISM: WEST BELFAST ELECTION RESULT. With a majority of close on 8000 votes, Colonel Woods, the Independent candidate in West Belfast, has delivered a staggering blow at the official Unionist Party in the Six Counties. The defeat of Sir William Davison, Grand Master of the Belfast Orange Lodge, was a foregone conclusion, but few expected that the margin would have been so large. There were extraordinary scenes when the result was declared. The Unionists took their defeat in a very poor spirit, and the defeated candidate pointedly refused to shake hands with the Colonel. “I am a disappointed man,” he confessed. Feeling ran very high at night, and hundreds of police were drafted into the constituency to preserve order. In a speech to his jubilant followers, Colonel Woods declared that they had struck a blow at ascendency. The polling figures were Woods (Independent) 27 219 Davison (Unionist 19 ggp Anti-Orange Majority 7,859 'X~X-C~X~X> f MONSIGNOR LUZIO’S FAREWELL: THANKS TO V “PRIESTS, PEOPLE, AND THE PRESS.” ' Monsignor Luzio left Dublin on Saturday morning on his return to Rome (says the Catholic Herald for May 12). He was accompanied to the pier at Dun Laoghaire by Rev. Dr. Conry and a number of friends.

In reply to a question, Mgr. Luzio’s secretary said the former had nothing to say beyond the farewell message which appeared in Saturday morning’s papers. The following is the text of the farewell message: “The Papal Envoy leaves Ireland to-morrow (Saturday) morning on his way to Rome. He takes this opportunity of thanking all with whom he has been brought into contact during his stay in this country—priests, people* and the press. Once more he has experienced that the real Irish soul is as good and as genial and as hospitable as ever. “Mgr. Luzio, loving Ireland as he does, as his second fatherland, earnestly hopes that the blessing of complete peace may speedily raise this noble nation to the highest degree of greatness and prosperity.” EXILES RETURNING: IRISH PEOPLE LEAVING LONDON FOR HOMELAND. A Home paper of recent date says: In spite of all that one hears of the large bands of Irish emigrants that are leaving Cobh and other ports for America and Australia, many Irish people who, through force of circumstance, have been compelled to seek employment in England, are going back to their native land. Many transfers, too, have been made from Loudon to Irish districts of Irish members of the Post Office staff. Similar transfers have taken place recently in the Customs and Excise departments. One of our London representatives learned that the Prudential Assurance Company intends to extend its offices to Dublin. This will necessitate a transfer of close on a score of the female members of the staff to the Irish capital. These Irish girls will probably depart in about two months’ time. IRISH PROTESTANTS AND A CATHOLIC PRIEST. An incident took place a few days ago in the parish of Kiltallagh, diocese of Tuam, which shows how grossly the Irish people are libelled by papers in this country which represent the relations between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland as hostile (says the London Catholic limes of recent date). On the occasion of the visitation of the parish by the Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr. Gilmartin, the Protestants of the district sent a deputation to present an address and a costly chalice to the parish priest, Rev. Francis MacDermott. In the address they assured Father MacDermott that their gift was a symbol of that great bond which should bind all Christians in a common brotherhood, and that they trusted that in a brighter future Irishmen of all classes and creeds would unite to make their country contented and happy. Father MacDermott, in gratefully accepting the presentation, said he would treasure it as a. testimony to their kindly disposition towards their Catholic neighbors. The Archbishop, who was present, expressed the hope that the kindly relations would long continue. THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. The suggestion made some days ago by the Irish News, a Nationalist paper published in Belfast, that the Boundary Commission was not destined to materialise, has stirred once more the interest of the public in the Ulster frontier problem, and elicited important statements from Mr. Devlin and Mr. K. O’Shiel, -Assistant legal Adviser to the Irish Government. Mr. O’Sheil, himself an Ulsterman, has declared with the utmost emphasis that the Free State has no intention of abandoning its rights in connection with the Boundary Commission and Mr. Devlin, speaking for Ulster Nationalists of the older school, has definitely ranged himself on the side of those who hope to free themselves from the tyrannies of the Northern Administration by means of the machinery provided for in the Anglo-Irish Treaty. At the moment the Free State case for the Boundary Commission is practically completed, and we have it on the authority of Mr. Blythe, Minister'for Local Government, that the whole problem will be dealt with when stability has been firmly re-established in the South. Thus there is no reason for misgiving among the Nationalists of Ulster, whose impatience may be understood however, by all acquainted with the circumstances in which they are compelled to live.