ORGANISED BOYCOTT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12609, 25 June 1904, Page 5 (Supplement)

ORGANISED BOYCOTT.

An organised and spreading cnwacle" against; the Jews and all things Jewinh has, been agitating Ireland for some week*. The active leader of the movement Us a Reman Catholic priest named I Creagh, who( has made /Limericks the headquarters of an ambitious revival of anti-semitic ideas.' ? In one of his numerous sermons on the subject iof the Jews, the,priest declared: — ■■+ "Are the Jews a help to religion? I do not hesitate to say that there are no greater enemies of the Catholic Church than the Jews. If you want an example, look at France. What is", going on at present in that land? The little children are being deprived of their education. No nun, monk,: or priest can teach in a sohool. The/little ones are forced to go where God's name is never mentioned—to go to godless schools. The Jews are in league with the Freemasons in France, and have succeeded in turning out of that country all the nuns and religious orders. The Redemptorist Fathers (to > the number of two hundred had been turned out of France, and that is what the. Jews would do in our own country if they are allowed to get into power." These and similar utterances were reproduced in the Limerick Echo or circulated in printed form by those who are aiding the priest in his agitation. The consequences to the, Jews, , according to statements in the London Times, , have. been most serious. i In Limerick a rigid boycott of all Jews has been put into effect, and the director 'the Irish Mission to the Jews, I. Julian. Grande, of Dublin, declares that " no Jew or Jewess can walk along the; streets of Limerick without being assaulted or insulted." The London Times comments: — "In Limerick, indeed, :and ; generally throughout Ireland,; the Jews (are; still ;few in numbers, and; for the most part, in a humble and inconspicuous condition. Not many years ago they t were practically;: nonexistent in any;.; part lof the; sister island, with the exception of Dublin and - Belfast. The census of 1871, which for the first time marked a very slight advance in the number of Jews in Ireland, showed that there were then only six in Cork, two'in Limerick (where there are now thirty-five families), and one in Waterford. But more recently the increase, though still* relatively. insignificant, has been sufficiently marked to arouse the suspicion and the.jealousy both 5 of the artisans and small trader? in the towns and of the peasantry in the country districts. They have drawn upon themselves the unfavourable notice of the Roman Catholic clergyj and t : the denunciations of some fire-; brands of the pulpit. The growth,: of a Jewish quarter in Dublin, and on a smaller scale in Cork and other towns, has been 5 watched with feelings of rancour which have at length found vent at Limerick in a series of discreditable outrages. There (seems 5 to' be no question' that; something I like i a state of terrorism is being organised, which may assume very serious proportions. ... They (the Jews) not, we understand, to any largo extent engaged in money-lend- i ; ing, and -have not come into conflict; with the agricultural population, as is so often the case in continental countries, over mortgage debts.' j They are generally engaged in the smaller branches of retail trading, such as milk-selling, and as hucksters and hawkers i in (the; rural : districts. But they; have fallen under tho boycotting ban, since some of ; the clerical firebrands s have begun (to denounce them. from the pulpit and to carry! out the persecution by those acts of ; personal and violent authority to which the Irish .priest; dealing with;an ignorant and timorous body of peasants, is unfortunately too prone. The result is, our correspondent dedares, that the majority of tin Limerick Jews are ruined and on the verge of starvation. The populace/ are , told by, their cleri- • cal guides that they/must not deal with the Jews, . and J they extend the doctrine to - in- ' elude the prohibition of payment; for goods they have already received and consumed, A ' -supporting and, in a; small (way,( an independent; and ~ prosperous/' little community, which has never before required relief; is thus thrown upon the assistance of a- : few i of the Protestants of the city, themselves l regarded with an evil eye by the organisers iof the clerical' boycott." _ !■ In reply to assertions of this kind Father Creagh and his supporters' accuse the Jews in Ireland of practising usury, and of con-' I stituting a menace to the/welfare' of Ireland in the future. (These views haveibeeri"onl( cially endorsed by the Confraternity of the Holy Family, a Roman: Catholic": organisation, which-unanimously passed the follow- ; ' intr resolution, as reported in'the Limerick' i Echo:— i '■ /That we tender* to Father Grtagh our j best thanks for his recent lectures on the! ways and means of Jewish trading, and thai this meeting, representing ( six thousand j members of the Confraternity, express their \ fullest confidence in his views." - I