Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 32, 8 December 1893, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

Thjb Irish Land Act of 1887, under which lease-holding tenants ire entitled to go into the Land Ooart to have a fair rent fixed, expires on the 31st of December next. Mr James Clancy, an evicted tenant since 1881 on the Miltownhouse property, died on Thursday, October 12. He had been in failing health lor the paßt 12 months. He was imprisoned under Mr Forster's Coercion Act for five months, and since that time has suffsred various terms of imprisonment under the different Coercion lots. He was a P.L.Q for the electoral division of Miltownally, in tb« Knnistymon Union, and was president under the Land and National Leagues. His funeral to-day was the largest seen here for year*, and his remains were carried on the shonlders of bis brother Nationalists a distance of six Irish miles under a heavy rain downpour. Hie Wood was the first shed in Clare during the land agitation. A short time after bis own eviction he was felled with a baton stroke, leaving him prostrate and unconscious for tome time. He attended all the public demonstrations held in Clare and Limerick. The prayers at the grave were offered by ths Bey Father Vaughan CO. We (Cork Examiner) ranst congratulate the people of St Finbarr'a parish on the admirable way they are about to celebrate the birthday of Father Matbew. A fine hill is to be thrown open, which has been erected on a site where the Apistle of Temperance long laboured. Its purpose is to offer a club to workingmen that ought to have an attraction far greater than the public house, and which without doubt will be largely availed of. In the quiet, unostentatious way in which all his good works are wrought, the Bey Oanon Maguire had the building almost completed before bis parishioners were aware that it bad begun, and before they had been asked to subscribe for its erection, For the past three weiks Captain Stokes, D.M. has been in the Eillarney district, and ig, as I (correspondent Cork JEmaminer) understand, engaged in making enquiries on the part of the Govsrnment as to whether the 13th clause of the Land Purchase Act would be availed of by the evicted tenants, principally on the Kenmare estate. I have been informed that Captain Stokes, with this view. has visited all the evicted farms and made minute enquiries as to the circumstances of each case. There are about twenty evicted tenants trom this estate. Their farms are worked by the landlord, and notwithstanding the peaceable state of the diatrict, the caretakers are nnder the protection of the police, directly or indirectly. Were it not for this class of duty a considerable diminution could be safely made in the police force of the district. Within the last few nights the attention of ths police has been particularly directed towards the evicted farms. An idea got into their heads, or some others, that the evicted tenants were to take forcible possession of their farms. In order to copa with this anticipated " rebellion " all the available force of police waa distributed through the district and with loaded rifles guardnd the farms throughout the night. Needless to say, the evicted tenants did not " iise " and consequently no encounters took place. It is impossible to fiad out why these extraordinary precautions were taken that night above all other nights past. Thongh the evicted tenants, as far as I know, are only too anxious to be reinstated in their holdings on reasonable terms, nothing is further from their thoughts than a move such as that anticipated. Mr Leonard, the agent over the property, has been giveo a second policeman to 1 protect " bim for the winter. This new departure is attributed by some to the belief that Mr Leonard has lately been the recipient of threatening letters. The Gaelic League, for the preservation of the Irish language as a living tongue (says the Freeman) is going ahead by leaps and bounds. Never in the history of the various movements started for a similar purpose has such enthusiasm been evoked as this band of practical enthusiasts can aheady boast of having roused in the metropolis. At the weekly meetings batches of new members, representing the professional and mercantile classes as well as the clergymen of different denominations, continue to be elected. The apostles of the not altogether new doctrine of preserving Irish as a living language are to be commended for the firmness and consistency they display in their rigid adherence to their original programmr, and their rejection of all questions not immediately connected therewith. They nave before them work which hitherto has never been undertaken by capable hands, if it has ever been undertaken. Their meetings are open to all who take even the remotest interest in the living Irish tongue. They converse freely in Irish with all comers. They teach and lecture in the National language as if they never knew any other, and yet they speak Eoglish with astonishing fluency and accuracy! Indeed, it might safely be said that the bilingual members of the League speak the tongue of the stranger bs well, if not better, than thote who were foolish enough to think that the Irish brogue would be an obstacle to tbe acquisition of the 8»xon twang. This was well exemplified by a member of the Council who, at a late meeting, read a long poem io Irish, and translated it word for word, and line for line, at the same time keeping ap a running commentary in both

tongues on the delicate shades of meaning on tbe border ground! of almost synonymons terms. The discussion that followed enormotuly enhanced the value of the treat to the large gathering attracted by the reputation of the League. One speaker disposed once and, we would hope, for ever, so far as those present are concerned, of the mischievons misrepresentations of alleged serions dialectical differences between the Irish speakers of tbe four provinces. He stated that he was a Connaughtman ; that be had just heard an Irish poem composed by a Munsterman, read by a Munsterman, and that be had understood every word of it as well as if he had been brought up In tbe company of tbe author or the reader. All present were of the same opinion, and •mud with this encouraging aasnrano* the younger and less informed, but certainly not less ardent, members of the Le«gne will be able to wear down all supporters of advene criticism, and to show the futility of wasting time over unimportant differences. If the League did nothing else bat dispose for ever of of the misrepresentations about the alleged existence of dialects widely different, it would be entitled to the gratitude of all lorers of the sweet tongue of oar sires, of onr bards, and our sages.