Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 17, 23 August 1895, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From contemporaries.)

On the Feast of Corpus Ohristi bit Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant arrived in Thurles from Mount Melleray at 1.42, and witnessed tbe procession from the steps of tbe cathedral. The Archbishop of Casbel presided at the Mass, and bore ths Blessed Sacrament in tbe procession through tbe college grounds, which, dressed in their festive buntiog, and freshened by tbe morning's rain, were looking more than usually bf autiful. The Vice-regal party were shown over the cathedral and college by the Very Rev Otnon Arthur Ryan, and when the cathedral ceremonies were over visited bis Grace the Most Rev Dr Oroke, who received them most cordially, and gave them luncheon. His Excellency and party left by the 3 4 train on tbeir way, ti which they were respectfully greeted by tbe crowds that had come into town to take part in the procession. Among tbe lovers of freedom worthy of mention is the founder of the Fenian movement, John O'Mabony, born in Connty Cork in 1816. His fatbar had been a United liisbman, and from him, doubtless, tbe young man first imbibed hie love of liberty. John O'Mahony was educated at Trinity Col leg*, Dublin, where he distinguished him* •elf by scholarly attainments, and was an accomplished Irish scholar. He joined tbe Repeal movement in 1843, and in 1848 was associated with William Smith O'Brien, after wbose failure he went to France, and subsequently to America, where he met with and became the friend of Mitchell. While in New York he turned his Gaelic scholarship to account by translating Eeating's History of Ireland, v»itb notes from O' Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters. His whole heart was in tbe one fixed longing for " freedom for Ireland." On the failure of the Fenian movement be devotsd bis entire time to literature, but fell into great poverty, vfcich be hid from all. He died in 1877 at New York, and his remains were brought over to Ireland. At tbe weekly meeting of the Athlone Board of Guardians on June 16, a communication was read from the Local Government Board respecting tbe appointment of nuns as trained nurses in the hospital attached to the union we rk house. Recently an inquiry wa 8 held here respecting the management of tbe hospitals, and tbt Local Government Board, amongst other things, recommended ths appointment of a qualified trained nurse. Tbe Guard iaoi, at a former meeting, decided, by a majority, to appoint Sister de Sales G'Connell, of the Convent of Mercy, Moate, but the Local Government Board refused to sanction the appointment, and threatened, in tbe event of the Guardians not carrying oat taair directions to dissolve the Boaid. Bis tar de Sales, though she has not a certificate as a qualified nurse has had considerable exp'rienee in that capacity, and the action of the Loct<l Government Board in withholding tbeir sanction baß created very unfavourable comment. In the course of tbe protracted discussion which took place at the weekly meeting, the chairman, Mr A. Moone, read tbe following telegram from the Lord Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise : " I will take Sisters from hospital if a lay nurse be appointed. The Sisters are already trained, and a certificate was not amongst tbe requirements of either Board (tbe Guardians or the Local Government Board) when the Sisters were appointed. Give them entiie control to nurse or say ' Go.' Uce this.— Bishop." The Board decided to adhere to the appointment made, and refused to appoint a lay nurse. County Court Judge Shaw, whose jurisdiction is the Kingdom of Kerry, was presented with white gloves on June 8 at Killarney Quarter Sessions. He was also presented with white gloves three months ago. This, of course, means that there were no criminal cases to go before the Grand Jury, all of whom had, therefore, the pleasure of going back immediately to their business. The testimony to the peaceable character of the district is unimpeachable, for we all know that if there was a case to b« had in the whole district of Kil. larney it would have been beard of. When tbe present Government decided to put ths pen through tbe application of tbe Crimes Act to any part of Ireland thtrj was an indignant protest raised from the Tory (benches in the House .of Commons, and it was prophesied what would happen when the coercive powers of the police wert withdrawn. It was also said that peace ia every disturbed part of Ireland (Kerry, of course, included) was secured through the instrumentality of the Crimes Act, and that without this powerful aid order could not be kept. Tbe presentation of white gloves to the County Court Judge of Kerry twice in immedinte succession, proves the accuracy of the judgment formed on advice by the present Chief Secretary, Mr Morley, when he made up his mind to cancel the Crimes Act. For three years now that hitela! and obnoxious statnte has bean practically a dead letter, and we see that the result has been to prove that as coercion is less and less resorted to peacu grows more and more profound, until at present there is no crime whatever in Ireland, except such as may be found among the thieves, burglars, and pickpockets that are to be found in and around the commercial centres.

Aa interestiog and suggestive correspondence has just passed between Mr Jerom* Boyee, J.P., of Donegal, and Mr Justin M'Oartby, M.P, on a subject that mast be dear to the hearts of all Irishmen; Mr Boyoa bag in bia time rendered signal service to the cause of Irelard, and he at present acts as Federation County Delegate for the land of Tyrconnell. Mr Boyce, It seams, has lately been reading the beautiful translation from the Irish of the "Life of Hogh Roe ODonnell," by He* Dr Murphy, 8.J., and it has occurred to him that the story therein embodied would, if woven into dramatic form, become, aa he pots it, "one of the most popular and spirit-stirring dramas evsr written on aoy Irish subject." He, therefore, venture* to suggest that Mr M'Oarthy might be able among the circles of literary men by whom he is surrounded to find " seme sympathetic hand capable of doing justice to the subject." Needless to remark,. Mr MOartby gives sympathetic replies. •• I have long" be says, " thought the career of Hugh Boe O'Donnell on» of the most brilliant and fascinating in Irish history ; " and be adds :— '« That there aredramatic possibilities in such a thrilling story of heroic devotion and patriotic enterprise must, I think, be self-evident." Bat, while ganting that, and promising to talk over the suggestion with hi* friends, be feels " greatly afraid that, for the present, at leaf t, the creation of historical drama is a lost art." Now, Mr Boyce is not by any means the first to form llate the idea that the splendid scenes of danntless and undaunted Hugh's life might with great advantage bs transferred to the stage, nor is Mr M'Cartby the first to disciver or to declare the creation of historical drama to be an art that has been lost. It seems strange, indeed, that while fairly admirable, though sometimes not historically truthful, works like Tennyson's " Becket," or, to come to a much lower ground, so well known a drama as the lsteW. Q. Wills' "A Royal Divorce," are well in favour with all classes of people, there should not be anvng playwrights a desire ta realise for us in some dagree a few of the great episodes that light up the pages of Irish history. It is said that Mr Wills, himself, an Irishman, completed a glorious work in which Robert Emmet is the central figure, and that it lies pigeon-holed by Sir Henry Irving awaiting the passage of stern political conflict for its due present* - tion to the public. Sir Henry is even credited with a strong desire to " create " the character of Boimet— a character, we should say^ that must t zeroise a wonderful influence on the mind of an artißt whose keynote ia so distinctive.