THE LATE “TAY PAY”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17116, 23 November 1929, Page 3

THE LATE “TAY PAY”

AN APPRECIATION JOURNALIST AND POLITICIAN Tuesday’s news told us that T. i’. O’Connor, “Father” ot the English House of Commons, had passed into the Great Silence, and that knowledge must have flashed around the world a feeling of sorrow and bereavement, for none other had more endeared himself to English-speakipg peoples than this brilliant, lovable, great-hearted Irishman, who, unswervingly true to the principles’ lie professed, fought for them unflinchingly and unfalteringly, writes “8.M.” in the Dominion. He was a very Bayard of debate, lie fought- hard, hut he fought clean. Ho was a doughty lighter, dealing out heavy blows, "hut they were free from personal animus and they left no rankling sting behind. Here may he given a few impressions of this great journalist and politician by ono who remembers him from the far-away years of the eighties, when his eloquent voice and still more powerful pen were among the verv greatest forces working for the cause of Home Rule.

The great rilt had occurred in Hie Liberal Party over the- question of Home Rule, and a. powerful section had hived off under the leadership of Lord Hart - ingfon (afterwards Duke of .Devonshire) and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, to wage fierce war against their former chief. Hr. Gladstone, and his Home Rule proposals. Lord .llarlington was undoubtedly a sagacious statesman, hut he was one of the worst speakers that ever lived. Tn passing, it may he recalled that he was said to have stopped to yawn while delivering a speech at a public meeting. The story was freely published, and a lady friend, speaking to him afterwards, referred to the story and said she- did not believe a word of it- “All!” said his lordship, “hut vou didn’t hear the speech.” Lord

Darlington, had gone to Inverness to denounce, .Home Rule, and J, a schoolboy with no understanding of politics, was present ill the meeting. It stands out in my memory as the dreariest experience, of diale,cl ideal dullness I ever suffered, and I could believe that if the noble lord himself did not yawn during one of his own speeches, all his audience would.

A CONTRAST IN SPEAKERS. Hot on tin* trail of Lord Hartingloii appeared “Tay Pay” to deliver tho counterblast. L attended this meeting, too, and found pleasure in contrasting the. speakers and tlioir speeches. 'The speeches were quite, characteristic of the speakers. Lord Darlington waff a big man, badly or carelessly dressed, with heavy, phlegmatic features, and an air of ineffable boredom, and his'speerb was as dull as his appearance. “Tay Ray” was a big man, too. hut ho was in the. very prime of life, with line, pleasant features, and a brown moustache, and a striking figure. One sensed in a moment that here was a. big personality. His speech, too. was worthy of his magnetic presence. Eloquent in delivery, choice of diction, with ever and anon flashes of wit and touches of pathos, it, held the audience spellbound from the very first sentence. O’Connor was not a great humorous speaker, though. lie did not approach T. A!. Mealy in caustic wii, nor Willie Redmond. noi' Professor Kellie in pinyiul humor, hut the speech was wholly satisfying. ! can still recall passages from it. and remember how now and then, after devastating criticism of Lord Darlington's speech, lie would, raise the glass of water In his lips and say, “Now let us drink to his Lordship.” “Tay Pay” was the first to give me a glimpse of the fascination of politics. THE IRISH CONVENTION.

I did not hear him again for 10 years. At that time the Irish Convention, a movable feast, used to lie held annually in one of the, great cities of Britain, to expound Hie Irish Party's policy to the Irish people resident in. England

or Scotland. On this occasion the convention was being held in. Leeds, and I managed to he present, no easy matter, for the meeting was supposed to be confined to Irishmen. It was held in the largest hall in the city, and there was a j lacked audience. O’Connor was in the chair, and round him were grouped prominent Irish members, many of them long since passed away, such as Justin 11. McCarthy, the historian, and Mr. John Dillon. But the chairman was the most commanding figure of all, and Ins voice was tho most eloquent. It was fascinating how he took possession of the audience, and with the power of the born orator swayed them how he would. His first sentences captured them -I can recall them still. 1 have lately come from America, where they have a saying ‘America, first. America last, and America all the lime.’ I want to adapt that for 11 a Irish people. We should say ‘lreland first, Ireland last, and Ireland all the time.’ ” There was a roar of (heeling, enough to lift the roof off. Alter that (VComior was king of them all for (that afternoon.

But he was infinite],- greater as a journalist Ilian as a political orator, for lie was a horn journalist, one who could write upon anything and make even the driest subject interest ing. He was trained in a. very hard school and was perhaps all the better journalist for that. Beginning newspaper work in Ireland, he went, lo London at an early age, burning his boats behind him. In the Great City lie had to endure much hardship before he secured a foothold. He wrote on. all manner of subjects and turned his hand even to the writing of “penny dreadfuls.” But tho root of the matter was in him. and ho had courage and was hound to arrive. Arrive he did. succeeding as newspaper proprietor in the press world that for so long shut the door in his face. His literal",’ articles, his “Book of the Week.” a full page review of some notable hook of the moment, his character sketches, his Parliamentary impressions were wholly delightful, permeated by liis own big-hearted, genial personality.

W. T. Stead was perhaps his equal in general articles, and the late Sir Henry Lucy (“Toby, M.P.”) in Parliamentary sketches. I cannot think of others to whom I could compare him, unless it ho Air. A. G. Gardiner, who belongs to a, later generation. Men of all parties loved him. Men of all parties will mourn him, and the House of Commons will be very much poorer by the loss of this great, bright, happy soul, who was an honor to his race and to the journalistic profession, both of which he loved with the love that passeth . all understanding. Vale. Requiescat in pace.