PROTESTANT BURIAL IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 272, 19 July 1878, Page 9

PROTESTANT BURIAL IN IRELAND.

Ax industrious person in Ireland— lris name, Mr. R. Barry O'Brien, deserves lo be recorded — Las been spending some superfluous postage stamps, strategy, and time which docs not appear to be very valuable, in interviewing by letters various Protestants connected with Ireland, on the very singular question whether it is true that " the grave of a Protestant has no sanctity for the Irish." We presume that no sane person who knew Ireland or the Irish could have any doubt on the point, and if any others had such doubts it was scarcely worth while to hopelessly try to disabuse them. Nevertheless, the absurd question has been an excuse for various more or less public Protestants saying some complimentary things of their Irish fellow-countrymen, and as it is somewhat more useful to find the Protestant Irish talking well of the Catholic Irish than to find the latter acting decently at the Protestant graves, we notice some of the comments. Mr. W. H. E. Lecky says : " I know nothing about St. Michan's except that it is situated in one of the most disreputable parts of Dublin ; but surely the general assertion that ' the grave of a Protestant has no sanctity for the Irish,' hardly requires a serious answer. Everyone who knows Ireland knows that this is untrue. The Irish law of burial is much more liberal than the English law, and its very satisfactory working is one of the best arguments of English Liberals. Probably the most imposing memorial monument erected "of late years in Ireland is the noble cross erected to the memory of Mr. Herbert of Muckross.by a tenantry who are chiefly Catholic. Protestant landlords have long been the most popular members in a large number of the most Catholic constituencies in Ireland, and when an agrarian war has subsisted between landlord and tenant it has always shown itself quite irrespective of creed. The funeral of Lord Leitrim was a great scandal, and the language employed about Lord Leitrim in Parliament has been, if possible, still more disgraceful, but the former at best is not unparallclled. When Lord Londonderry committed suicide in 1822 his coffin was borne to Westminster Abbey amid the insults of the crowd, and in the Gentlemen's Magazine of 17S8 you may find an account of a very similar scene which took place at the funeral of Bishop Burnct."' Lord Inchiquin, not a very Irish peer, in reference to the same matter says : " So far as my experience goes, the statement that the ' grave of a Protestant has no sanctity for the Irish ' is perfectly unwarrantable. The funerals of Protestants are nearly always attended b} r large numbers of Roman Catholics, and their graves are treated with equal respect." Lord Leconfield writes : " During the few years that I have become more directly intimate and acquainted with the Irish people, no instance, to my knowledge, has occurred of any outrage on the grave of a Protestant by a fellow-countryman of the Roman Catholic religion.* 1 Lord Waterf ord writes from Curraghmore :—": — " As far as the south of Ireland goes I quite agree with the remarks you make in your letter. There are, unfortunately, people in this country who live by agitation, and would try and teach the people to believe that because a man is a landlord and a Protestant he must therefore be their enemy. These agitators give Ireland a bad name, and, as far as I have ever seen, not at all deserved." Lord Devon has no hesitation in stating that, so far as his experience of Iribh life extends, he does not believe that there " are any grounds" for the assertion that the " grave of a Protestant has no sanctity for the Irish." A very respectable Protestant clergyman of Dublin, Rev. W. £>. Carroll, writes : "My own experience o£ over thirty years' ministry enables me to say that I never knew an instance of Catholic hostility or disrespect at a Protestant funeral. I have seen in the papers accounts of disturbances at funerals in Ireland as well as in England, and in both countries, I dare say, the disturbances were owing to local causes, and in the accounts of both there may have been exaggeration. For instance, at Sir John Grey's funeral, at which I officiated, it was reported that there was very bad behaviour, and that I was assaulted, &c. There was no bad behaviour beyond an unseemly eagerness and crushing to get near the coffin after the service was over ; and so far as the assault on me, they made way for me to pass out. Whatever Mr. Long says you may depend upon ; but the rowdyism of tipsy corner boys of the North Liberties of Dublin is a slight premise for a universal conclusion. Possibly some extra sectarian rancour may survive amongst that class in Saint Michan's parish from the fact that thf Iri&h Church Missions wore cradled there. If the Rcdemptorist Fathers were to open a Mission in Sandy-row, Belfast, would you be surprised at a shindy ?" — Catholic lievien: