Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 50, 16 December 1925, Page 47

Irish News

jjfe GENERAL.—CATHOLIC TOLERANCE COGNISED .—AN OUTSPOKEN M.P \ THE IRISH IN SCOTLAND.—STATEMEN T BY THE IRISH HIERARCHY.

(> ; : Sleeping sickness made its appearance in VI Cork during last September. ;' The General Transport Workers' Union in i Derry demanded a rise from 27/- to 48/-. The Ballycastle Guardians complain of the destruction of salmon and trout by flax water allowed to flow into Bush river. •;-. Great potato crops are reported from Co. Monaghan. Although the hedges are bare the "Murphies" are still growing. The older people remember nothing like it before. J. Molloy, Ennis, was recently buried by a fall of earth which kept him prisoner in a : : cave for thirty-one hours. All that time his greyhound remained on the spot trying to release him, and eventuality attracted rescuers. Anxiety grows in Limerick over the dispute between organised labor and the contractors for the Shannon scheme. North Tipperary netted nearly a thousand pounds for motor taxes during the year end- . ing on September 30. The golden jubilee of Mother Mary Raphael O'Loughlin was recently celebrated at the Good Shepherd Convent, Waterford. : The last season's barley fetched 20/- a barrel at Kinsale; 18/6 at Waterford; and 18/9 at Bagnalstown. Black oats bring from 9/6 to 10/6 .in Carlow. A private company has been formed to take over the paper mills at Inchicore. Known as the Kileen Mills, they formerly manufactured \_ hand-made paper for banknotes. "v Athy fair was remarkable for its large supply of pigs. Over 570 changed hands at a. price of 75/-. Bonhams sold for 50/- and 52/-. " Preaching at Longford, Bishop Hoare warned his flock against the demoralising effect of all-night dances, reminding parents - of their obligation of safeguarding their children. Great distress prevails at Wolf hill, Leix, owing to the closing down of the Wolfhill Collieries. Over 150 men have been thrown out of employment. Fifty men are employed on the Rathdowney waterworks scheme, and good progress has already been made. The Wexford County Board of Health declined to comply with the Government Department's order to enforce the vaccination law. v Archbishop Mannix paid a brief visit to Carrick on his way to receive the freedom of the Borough of Sligo. Mr. Edward Molloy, Mullaghroe, Sligo, protests that gravel is being imported for cement while the best pits in the world are available at Mullaghroe, within easy distance of the railway. A regular boat service has been inaugurated between BallyTongford and Kilrush. The f distance by water is seven miles, while to go ; ' v - by road people had to travel 90 miles. Rev. James Monaghan, Ballygawley, Ty- %, rone, having read a distinguished course at '•: Propaganda College, is going to Corpus

Christi College, Galesburg, Illinois, where he has been appointed professor. Tom Casement, brother to the late Sir Roger, was recently arrested by the Northern police and searched for seditious documents. After a brief detention he was put across the border. • • • Writing in the current number of the Irish Presbyterian, Miss L. Rentoul, who is a member of a well-known Ulster family, refers to a statement made previously in the same paper that Presbyterians had been persecuted in the Co. Donegal, and asks leave, as a native of that county and in constant touch with the eastern part of it, to say that "she has never heard of any ill-will on the part of Catholics towards Protestantsnot even during ' the troubles,' nor of any Presbyterian family who left the county since these ( troubles ' began." * * * ■ Mr. George Henderson, M.P., the champion of the Unbought Tenants in the Six Counties, who sits in the Northern Parliament for Co. Antrim, made an excellent impression on a large audience at a recent function in the Irish Club, London. He is a tall, robust man, characteristically Ulster in physiognomy and accent; he speaks carefully, though with ample fluency; and he takes an optimistic view of the Irish situation, holding that the people of the country must soon realise the folly' and futility of maintaining two expensive Governments, with duplicated Departments and wholly unnecessary brigades of officials, to the detriment of the country's interests apart from questions of expense. It was not a long speech; but every word was to the point. The Irish Club is by no means an aggressively national institution nowadays, but the visitor from Antrim roused its members to unwonted enthusiasm. Finally, Mr. Henderson ventured to tell Colonel Grant Morden, M.P., Mr. Bartley Denniss, K.C., Sir E. Bellingham, Baron French, and other aristocratic diners that "There was growing up in Ireland a new and better spirit of confidence and goodwill which, if continued, would gradually lead to a solution of their difficulties." Apparently, that was a horrible assertion and blasphemous aspiration; for the local evening paper recalls Sir James Craig's "warning note" against the Independent M.P.'s sounded at Duncairn on October 2, and says: "The remarks of Mr. George Henderson . .• . are sufficient justification for the recommendation to caution." Sir James Craig, at Duncairn, branded the Independent members of the Northern Parliament as "traitors to the cause that they ought to be baching up"; and the Prime Minister's Chairman of Committees declares that the insulting and deadly epithet traitor, applied to Mr. George Henderson was amply justified by that M.P.'s expression of his hope that the spirit of peace

arid goodwill would prevail in Ireland h As i a revelation of crooked and perverted political mentality, the newspaper's ; charge against Mr. Henderson is more significant i than even Sir James Craig's peculiar outburst. But "he who runs may read.". Now:,,' we know what "traitor" means in the vocabulary of the Northern Government. • a a An article in the current Nineteenth Gen- ; tunj, by Mr. Lewis Spence, has attracted - some attention. Mr. Spence discusses "Modern Tendencies in Scotland." He refers,; though not as an alarmist, to the growth of"the Irish element" in and around Glasgow and Central Scotland. The first Scots were Irish; the modern Irish emigrants to Scotland "feel at home." According to Mr." Spence, in no European country does such, conflict of social and political opinion at pre-, sent exist as in Scotland. The upper classes'; in the cities, so he says, are segregated from the mass of the people, almost as sharply as they were in Tsarist Russia. In other words, apparently, the population of the Scotland of to-day consists, on the one hand, of a minority thoroughly imbued with the culture of England and speaking the English of England, and on the other hand, a large majority who continue to manifest the ancient national self-consciousness of the Scot. Mr. Spence dwells on the enormous volume of emigration to the Dominions. He even considers it not improbable that during the next decade onefifth of the best of the industrial classes will have gone abroad. His picture of the outlook is gloomy; and he suggests a Royal Commission. It is quite probable that in the near future Scotland may seek to obtain the control of her own affairs, under the Crown. Mr. Spence's own feeling plainly leans to Scottish Home Rule. a a a The Irish Catholic Hierarchy at their latest meeting i n Maynooth adopted a. statement of entreating advice and instruction "lest the name which the chivalrous honor of Irish boys and the Christian reserve of Irish maidens made in the country should be lost." "Purity and faith," it says, "go together, and both virtues are in danger, the former more directly than the latter." The danger was from the picture papers, and drink. The statement condemns improper company, and refers to the dancing-hall as the worst fomenter of evil. "Amusement is legitimate," says the appeal, "though some of our people are overgiven to play. Sin itself is the attendant of night dances in particular. Exceptions are comparatively few. Dances of an evil kind, the surroundings of the dancing-hall, withdrawal from the hall for intervals and the back ways home, have been the destruction of virtue in every part of Ireland. ,"