THE IRISH PEOPLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 4

THE IRISH PEOPLE.

! Sir, May I crave a small space, wherein |to refute the most uncalled-for aspersion on I tlio Irish people contained in "X.Y.Z.'s" jletter on Tuesday last? With his remarks 1,011 "wooden shanties" I entirely agree, as II think will most .sensible people; but when jhe goes on 'to say that, in spite of the i plethora of churches and chapels in Ire- ■ land, the •'majority of tin?. population are jliving sordid and degraded lives," then I say that his statement is utterly and entirely tinI founded. .V majority of the Irish people jar© unfortunately poverty-stricken and iff. jiiorant. Thai is their misfortune, not their i limit. They are not. and never were, " dej graded.' 'j'iie morality of he Irish people istands au!u!i|!>i the highest of any European j country-higher than either Kngiand or .Scotland, and the virtue of Irishwomen is j proverbial. The criminal records, also, with | lie one exception of agrarian crimes, are j lower than those of Kngiand. If "X.Y.Z." ,I doubts this, let him look uo statistics on the ,subject. This, of course, has nothing to do with the number of churches, for, as everyj body knows, the morality and the virtue 'were just trie same v. hen the majority of the Irish did not dare to have even a wooden . shanty to say their prayers in, when the ser- ! vices were held 011 the hill-ides and under j the hedges, and priest-hunting was an ordijtuiry occupation of the British troops. I. ! think ! may claim to know ii little about !my own country people, and I can assure i" X.Y.Z." that "degraded" is about, the | very last term that anyone who really knows I Ireland would apply to a large majority of her people. K. ( JIIJSO.V.