AN IRISH PRIEST'S VIEWS OF WHAT HE SAW IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 39, 22 January 1886, Page 5

AN IRISH PRIEST'S VIEWS OF WHAT HE SAW IN AMERICA.

Rev. Charles Flynn, of Kiltyclogher, Ireland, who was recently in this country on a collecting tour, was interviewed the other week by the Sligo Champion, which paper asked him among other things. 14 Daring your time you had an opportunity of making yourself acquainted with the condition of the Irish- American people, their feelings about present politics at home, and their social condition t " " Tes ; I have had some opportunity of doing so. No man had a better chance of knowing all about them than the • collectorgeneral' from Ireland. He comes in contact with all classes of Irish in America, and Irish-Americans. Take them all in all you snail not meet their like. They an friendly, hospitable, open-hearted and generous ; without them religion in America would be of very small dimensions ; wherever a few of them gather, there, in the midti of them, a Catholic church will very soon be erected . They have raised magnificent edifices for the glory of God in the great cities, town* and hamlets all over the country. As Macaulay says of the Catholic Church, ' Her acquisitions of the New World have more than compensated for what she has lost in the Old.' Irish priests and Irish people have performed wonderful things there. The expatriation of the Irish race seems to have been according to the ways of Providence, in order that the one true church might be established and the ' clean oblation ' offered everywhere on the face of that vast continent. Their work in that direction is rapid ; and now it seems that God is turning the scale in their favour, driving away their enemies and bringing about a state ot things which will enable them to ' live and thrive.' They are an acknowledged power in their adopted country. An Irishman and a Catholic is mayor of the Puritan city of Boston. The same is to be taid of New York, Scranton, Pa., and various othtr cities. The votes of the Irish people placed a Democrat in the Presidential Chair, a position incomparably higher than that of Queen Victoria. Their feelings about present politics at home are of the most hopeful and best kind. They feel that Parnell and his gallant band are honest and sincere ; that they mean what they say, and that they 'do and dare ' what is practical. They believe that the Irish at home are ' up and doing,' and that they mean to persevere until they regain the management of their own affairs. All believe in the Parnellita policy and deprecate physical force. An insignificant few advocate dynamite. O'Donovan Kossa's name is seldom mentioned but in jest. The editor of the Irish World is sinking out of sight since be went in for the Republican Presidential candidate at the last election ; our friends in America abbor crime. Every outrage perpetrated by the people they justly consider to be not only wrong, but injurious to the cause. They are aware that oar enemies sometimes commit crime and then saddle it on the leaguers. They approve of boycotting only in necessary cases, and w hen there is grave cause. They think the ' boycott' weapon should be used judiciously and that its edge should not be blunted by striking every little block we meet. A committee-man in the league is not, in their opinion, to use his power against a neighbour through private spleen, trade jealousy, or for his own private advantage. I think I have answered all your questions in globo."