THE NUN OF KENMARE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 408, 4 February 1881, Page 11

THE NUN OF KENMARE.

The following letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph appeared in that journal of Tuesday, November 23 :—: — tiir, — I do not know why Lord Fitzmaurice is so anxious co bring me into the controversy between himself and Mr. Russell ; I was not even aware that he proposed visiting me until he called at the convent. I could not, therefore, be his principal witness. Facts are his principal witnesses, and Mr. Russell will, no doubt, defend his facts. As no one was present en the occasion of my interview with Mr. Trench, mentioned in Lord Fitzmaurice's letter in your issue of Nov, 19, 1 am at a loss to know hoy» any one can be called on to deny the words used except the persons concerned.

I am not " hostile " to Mr. Trench, as Lord Fitzmaurice states. He does both Mr. Trench and myself injustice in saying so. But I am hostile, and shall always be hostile, to a system which treats the people as serfs, and uses them solely as rent-producing machines. I was not aware that I had any difference with Mr. Trench ; he has always treated me with marked personal courtesy, and. if I needed an act of personal kindness to-morrow, I would ask it from him as readily as from any one in Ireland Recrimination and personalities are not argument, and can only be used when there is a bad case. It is quite true Mr. Trench and I differed very widely on the subject of the distress in Kerry. Mr. Trench denied the distress, and, if he could have prevented it, would not have allowed any relief committee to be formed here. But I have yet to learn that Mr. Trench is personally infallible ; he was the only gentleman in or around the Marquis of Laud&downe's estate who denied the distress. His personal friend, and one who also, I believe, shares his peculiar i eligious views, Mr. Mahoney, J.P., of Dromore, asked to join the relief committee here. As it was through the efforts I made that this committee was enabled to assist the poor here so largely, I wrote to him asking how he could wish to avail himself of the funds I had collected when his friend Mr Trench so persistently denied the distress. His reply is before me as I write. He said he had not asked to join the committee until he had impoverished himself by assisting his tenants. I repeat again this letter is addressed to myself, and is in my possession, and I know that iv many places landlords and land agents have denied the distress point blank,

though their tenants have beon fed and clothed by relief committees and saved from starvation. Further, I received a letter of thanks from Mr O'Connell, J.P ,of Derrvnane Abbey. Also, I was ho pressed by the relief committee here for help that I was almost worn out by correspondence ; but when I received earnest appeals from them, there was no more to be said but to try and save the people. I sent also large sums of money to Canon Brosnan, of Cahirciveen, tvher Mr Trench is also ngent, and received from him the following letter : " There are upwards of 800 destitute families here. How we are to struggle thiough the next five or six months I know not; as for clothing. £800 would not supply the barely necessary want, whilst some 500 children are unfit to appear in school through thi 8 want. Dear sister, do all you can to help me in this great work of need and charity. — Praying God to send you more and more, I am yours most truly, "J. Canon Brosnan." Irish landlords lost a golden opportunity of securing the aftVctions and devotion of their tenants in the famine year, and I deeply regret that a nobleman like the Marquis of Lausdowue, whose rente ate not excessive and whose heart is good — if he will pardon me for saying so— should have missed such an opportunity. How feeding and clothing the poor could increase the distress I am at a loss to imagine. I have no wish for newspaper or any controversy, or I could give details of what was done in that way here and the dire necessity for it. — Your obedient servant, Sister Mahy Francis Cla.be. (M. F. Cusack.) Kennjaie, co. Kerry.