IRELAND TO-DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 33, 9 February 1927, Page 14

IRELAND TO-DAY

GROWTH OF INDUSTRY

REPUBLICANISM DEAD

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "Th« Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Bay

An optimistic impression of the Irish Free State has been, formed by the Bey. Father Gallagher, of Akaroa, who returned by the lonic yesterday from a visit to his native land. He said that as the result of the Imperial Conference the. financial difficulties between England and Ireland had been settled amicably, and Ireland was now able to develop her industries.

"Ireland, both North and South, is a changed land," added Father Gallagher. "The poverty that has always been so noticeable still exists, but is gradually disappearing. The people are imbued with a new spirit, the system of government is progressive and trusted, and there is a strong desire among all sections for conciliation and advancement. It is patent to the most pessimistic visitor that a bright and prosperous future is in store for a once sorely troubled land."

The remarkable growth of industry was one of the most interesting impressions he had gathered. The South of Ireland, he said, was no longer exclusively agricultural. Secondary industries were springing up almost everywhere. It was pleasing to him, in view of the speculation on the opportunities for the same enterprise in New Zealand, to notice the success of a beet sugar refining factory that had been established in County Carlaw. It was turning out a splendid product under profitable conditions and providing employment for 1700 workers.

"The unemployment situation is, in fact, practically trifling," observed Father Gallagher. "This is largely the result of the new phase of industrial activity. . The greatest step has been the harnessing of the Shannon for hydro-electric power, which was a wonderful feat for a small country in such a parlous condition as the Free State was when the project was so courageously undertaken. The waters of the Shannon, which have inspired so much music and poetry, are now, it seems, to take the prosaic. but vital role of being the chief factor in Ireland's material progress."

Asked if the Republican movement retained any hold on the country, Father Gallagher, who was a pupil of Mr. Eamon de Valera when the Eepublican leader was a professor at Maynooth, replied that it was "as dead as the dodo." The movement had split into two sections, he said, one of which, with Mr. .de Valera at its head, based its whole • campaign on an alternative parliamentary oath framed by Mr. de Valera, which- contained only a hairsplitting difference from the constitutional form. The other section consisted of the extreme type, with whom no good citizen could associate.