Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 37, 11 January 1895, Page 25

Dublin Notes.

CFrom contemporaries.)

Mb Swift MAcNfiILL, M.P., in hia speech on Monday, November 19, at the Drumcondra branch, noted the interesting fact that while thia Government in two years and a half have lostooly two seats, the last Government ia the same period following their accession to office lost no less than eighteen. The result of the Forfarshire election is bad ; but bad as it is it may prove a blessing in disguise if the Liberal Party in Ocotland proptrly appreciate its moral. The seat had been vacated by a distinguishtd lawyer who took office. The candidate who aspired to be his successor was a stranger to the constituency, and was opposed by a local man. The Liberals would have also preferred a local flagbearer ; but the feeling was ignored, with unfortunate results. The blunder will not be repeated, and we may trust ihe Home Rulers of Forfar to briDg back the constituency to the ranks of the friends of progress when the tocsia sounds for the next contest. The Congested Districts Board have purchased Olara Island The island is about four miles in length, and comprises 5,565 acres of land, a large portion of which is mountain held in common. The present rental is £450. Mr William O'Brien, M.P., took a warm interest in the negotiations, and I believe it is owing principally to his exenions that the Bale has now been concluded satisfactorily. This is by far tbe most important step taken by the Congested Districts Board in. the congested districts of the West, There is every prospect that by the enlargement of their holdings the islanders, whosa state hitherto hap been anything but prosperous, will now secure a means of comfortable existanca. The large commonages will probably be divided amongst the small occupiers whose holdings were altogether insufficient to maintain them.

Poor Michael Walsh, of Latteriraok, did not live long to enjoy the fund which Nationalist friends were providing to cheer his declining days. He died oa Tuesday, November 20, and was buried in Letterfrack. He was another victim to tha system of jury-packing and the horrible psnal servitude ordeal, Twelve years of prison torture broke down his health, and he was released only to die. He was only twenty -eight year* of age when he died. His death is another object lesson in British rule, which has driven so many of thi fairest and best of Ireland's youth to the prison and the grave. It is impossible to regard th^se men as belonging to the criminal clasae3. They are the flower of the nation whom wrong has diverted from the service which, under free laws, euch men always yield to the Stite.

Mr John Dillon recently delivered an address to a gathering of Donegal men resident ia Glasgow. There are few parts of the world where more unity or solidarity exists than amongst Irish exiles than in Glasgow, and there are few places as a result where they are more powerful or more respected. The Donegal men there are so numerous that they can have organisations of their own and can furnish an audience worthy of an orator. It was appropriate that in addressing such men Mr Dillon should have devoted part of his address to the value of nnity amongst the Irish raca. Mr Dillon's speech was cheered throughout, but the favourite passages were those in which he dwelt on the necessity of union, aDd declared that Home Rule did not depend on any lord, but upon a united Irish nation.

We learn that the Arklow district is likely to have aa important factory added to the existing sources of employment for Us population, to whom the news has been already very welcome. The new industry is one perfectly new to Ireland— the manuficture of the powerful explosive called cordite. A representative of the wellknown firm of cartridge manufacturers, George Kynoch and Co., Witton, near Birminghan, has been viaitmg the Arklow district with a view to securing a site for the factory, and from whit we learn it maybe taken for granted that the work will go forward. There would be an expenditure of probably from £10,000 to £12,000 on the building of sheds, etc., the site fjr which would be on the lands of the Countess of Wick'.ow, near the seashore. We believe this is the only firm outßide those already engaged in explosives manufacture that has received a cordite contract from the Government, which retains in its own bands at its factory of Waltham Abbey the manufacturt of a large share of the cirdita supply.

In St Francis Xavier'd Church, Upper Gardiner street recently, Rev R. P. Colohan reviewed the history of proselytisaa, and showed its abjict failure in Ireland, notwithstanlmg the immansa sums of money Bpent in propagating it, In Dablin aud the surrounding neighbourhooi there were twenty-one juvenile proselytising inn'itutions, In theße there w-is accommodation for abaut 1,000 children, and according to their own accoun's they were full. What became of the children taken into them 1 Th«y were not raised in any positive faith, but only in bitter hostility to the Catholic religion. A short time ago it transpired that in Glencree Reformatory out of 150 criminals, 120 had graduated in Mrs Smyly's schools. Last month a curate of St Kovin'a rescued a boy from ome of the bird's nests. The boy told the priest that at the birds nest in Kingstown there wae placed a statue of the Bessed Virgin ; again and aguin he was asked— but he refused— to spit upon the statue of the immaculate Mother of G*d. These poor children were lost to all faith. To combat this system the GathoLc Charch ia Ireland had called forth a band of Doble, brave, heroic Cithohc ladies She placed t iein unJer the leadership of the great Margaret AylwarJ, now sleeping in her peaceful grave in the consent of Glasnevin. They rescued from the handa ol the proslytisersover two thousand poor Catholic children. They set up schools in the proselytising fortresses of the city. So good was their moral (raining, that of 25,000 children

whom they had turned out, only 20 were known to have solicited alms, only 12 bad drifted to the Dublin Unions, and only 6 were known to have been convicted of crime in the courts.