Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 21, 29 September 1898, Page 9

Irish News.

ARMAGH.— St. Bridget'! Birthplace.— With the sanction of the Archbishop of the' diocese, his Eminence Cardinal Logue, a grand bazaar will be held this summer, for the completion of St. Bridget's new church of Faughart, in the parish of her birth. Faughart, on the borders of Armagh and Louth, is St. Bridget's birthplace, and, to give due honour to such a spot, his Eminence has ordered to be built a decent church in place of an old, unsightly chapel. The foundation-stone was laid by him about 12 months ago. The church is Romanesque, consisting of nave and transepts, with circular apse and Roman tower, and there is now no doubt but that, as a work of architecture, it is going to be a a great, success. ANTRIM-— Honouring the Brave.— Sir James Musgrave, chairman of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, recently presented a certificate on vellum of the Royal Humane Society, and a g)ld medal from the Belfast Otter Amateur Swimming Club, to James Kelly. The recipient, who is a son .of Mr. John Kelly, coal merchant, and a member of the Otter Club, rescued the engineer of a steamer from drowning in the Abercorn basin.

BELFAST.— More Orange Rowdyism.— The somewhat severe penalties imposed on the Orange rowdies who set law and order at defiance on the 12th July did not have the salutary effect one would have anticipated. For instance, we notice that another outburst of Orange emotionalism occurred three short weeks after the previous event. In this case the ' brethren ' found relief for their feelings in a disgraceful, not to say cowardly attack on an unoffending Catholic citizen. Ihe incident iB thus reported in the United Ireland : — ' On Monday night a number of Nationalist bands paraded the Nationalist localities playing patriotic airs, as is ouitomary on the evening of the Ist of August. A disgraceful incident is reported from Everton street, in the Crumlin road district. The house of a respectable Catholic artisan in the street was surrounded by an Orange mob and attacked with stones. Many windows were broken and a Catholic artisan was struck with a stone, which inflicted on his forehead a wound which had to be treated at the Royal Hospital. The man left the locality of the outrage under the protection of the constabulary.'

CARLOW.— Nursing Nuns in the Union.— The following tribute was recently paid by Dr. Rawson, medical officer, in a letter which he wrote to the local Government Board, and read at a recent meeting of the Guardians of the Carlow Union : — ' Permit me to add an expression of my deep sense of the magnificent devotion of the nuns. It would be impossible to surpass their energy and untiring attention, their utter forgetfulness of self, and the extraordinary rapidity with which they learn and apply any teaching I am able to give them. It is a terrific pressure for four nuns to give all the nursing and also look after all the household arrangements.' The chairman of the guardians, (Right Hon. Henry Bruen) said he was sure they all endorsed what Mr. Rawson had said about the nuns. He had always believed that the work they have to discharge is entirely too heavy for them.

CLARE.— The Devil's Work.—' The Devil's Work,' to quote Her Majesty's present Attorney -General for Ireland, seems to have become an established pastime of the landlords of Clare. ' The hunting of men ' was a recognised diversion among Southern planters in the States, in days before the Blue and Grey met in arms to decide the question for all time, but the custom in another shape survives in Ireland, where men, women, and children, are turned upon the roadside to die, whenever rent cannot be wrung from the land by the peoples' toil. A Mr. Westby in West Clare is at present engaged, says the United Ireland, in creating vacancies for grabbers, and graziers, heedless of the misery he is inflicting on a helpless people. We fear there will be many following the evil example of Mr. Westby, if in the immediate future the people do not protect themselves by organised combination, and by directing public opinion in forcible fashion to those evictions and their results. Many West Clare tenants fee now a charge on Kilrush Union ; their brethren should look TiO it to prevent any further conversion of industrious men into paupers. , . CORE. — Ecclesiastical Advancement. — Archdeacon Keller, of Youghal, has been advanced to the dignity of Dean of Cloyne in succession to the late Dean O'Regan. Every step of Dean Keller's career (says the United Ireland) is a matter of interest to the Irish people, and this further proof of the place he occupies in the estimation of his ecclesiastical superiors is a source of deep gratification to the numbers who remember with grateful pride Dean Keller's services to the cause of Ireland's faith and Ireland's nationhood.

DONEGAL.— The last of the Grand Jury.— With the advent of the forthcoming legislation (says the Berry Journal) the Grand Juries* will be deprived of 'their administrative functions which will be thenceforth merged into what is hoped to b 4 ambre satisfactory and economical system. '■ Recently his Honour Judge Webb, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the County Donegal, ' giving his decision concerning an important cess question, alluded to the Grand Jury as ' quitting this mortal scene,' and expressed a hope that their action in the particular matter in question would not be handed down as a legacy of litigation. It is difficult to say, however, what special views the Grand Jury themselves entertain on the subject. The fact, nevertheless, remains that the said Grand Jury are not only prepared to let their actions stand for the scrutiny of their descendants, ' but „ they have tangibly manifested a deßire to give them an idea of their personnel as well, for before they separated at Lifford the other day, a specially engaged photographer from the city took a number of elaborate photographs of the Grand Jurors who assembled on the broad square in the vicinity of the old derelict prison, and got into position. A considerable number of the photos were ordered by the gentlemen ' taken,' as well as by others desirous of having a souvenir of the ' last rose of summer.'

KlLDAßE.— Dwellings for the Poor.— At a special meet* ing of the Naas Town Commissioners, held to consider a proposal to form a scheme for the building of comfortable dwellings for the poorer class of the community, a letter was read from T. J. De Burgh, D.L , offering a plot of garden ground in a central position of the town to the Board for £80. The offer was accepted. The Commissioners intend building four orfivehou&ea on the plot. They also propose to make oth^r improvements in the town in the way of bettering the house accommodation in the poorer quarters.

KlLKENNY.— Charitable Bequest— The Very Rev. John Canon Walsh, pastor of Slieverue, Ferrybank, who died en January 3, has bequeathed £300 to Bishop Brownrigg, of Ossory, to be held by him in trust and be invested in any of the investments for the time being authorised by law for the investment of trust moneys, and to expend the income thereof as follows : Two-thirds for bread and other necessaries among the poor children attending the school at Slieverue, and the remaining one-third for the poor children attending the school at Ferrybank for the like purpose ; and to his

executors thirty pounds for a safe tabernacle and silver ciborium for the church of Slieverue. LIMERICK.— Death of Dean Hammond.— After being for a considerable period in indifferent health, the pastor of Newcastle West, the Very Rev. Dean Hammond, passed away at his residence, St. Itae, last month, his death causing 1 keen mourning in the town. He commenced at Maynooth his collegiate course, which was a remarkably distinguished one ; after which, having risen to much favour, he was appointed Dean of the College, and continued in that position until, on the death of Dean O'Brien about thirteen years ago, he was transferred by the late Bishop of the diocese, Dr. Butler, to the charge of this parish. After the death of Dean Cregan, Bruff, in 1892, he was raised to the dignity of Dean and Vicar-General. In the election for Bishop after Dr. Butler's death his name was placed dignior. He will be affectionately remembered by many past students of Maynooth and priests who are in various parts of the country— -some being Bishops— for his mild, gentle, and considerate disposition. He was seventy-eight years of age. MEATH— A Factory Shutß up.— St. Mary's Flax Spinning Factory, Drogheda, has ceased working. Between 500 and 600 people received employment in it, the great majority of whom belonged to St. Mary's parish, on the County Meath side of the River Boyne. The proprietors are Gradwell and Chad wick, two names long and intimately connected with the trade and commerce of Drogheda. A large number of the workers have left for Belfast, where they were promised immediate employment. WEXFORD.— Demonstration at Three Rocks.— The men of Wexford held a magnificent demonstration at Three Rocka at which the deeds of prowess in the cause of the Old Country were related with pride and exultation. The brilliant victory of the Wexford insurgents over the British troops was again achieved, and once more the ten thousand people who had gathered together lived in the stirring times of '98. GENERAL. White Gloves in Ireland: A New Industry.— The remarkable absence of crime in Ireland may possibly lead to the revival of an almost absolete Irish industry, says Onlooker in New Ireland. So many pairs of white gloves have, according to ancient custom, to be presented to jndges, that the time may come when it >, Stafford Street, Timaru. Repairs Carefully Executed. Machine ß It to Order, Accessories of every kind on sale.

I will be worth the while of the Limerick people to reopen their once famous glove faotory for the purpose of meeting the demand.

Catholic Colleges to the Front Again.— The Irish Catholic educational establishments (we learn from the Derry Journal) are carrying off a notable share of the distinctions awarded, on competition, by the State. From Intermediate to University it is the same story : In the race for intellectual supremacy the Celt gets to the high, place ; and this in Ireland where no ingenuity was spared to crush the life out of every Catholic effort for education, except, indeed, the people surrendered Faith and nationality. To-day, hampered as the Catholic people are and richly favoured as are their richer neighbours, they yet come to the top in splendid achievement. This is no mere general inference founded on speculative contrast of intellectual quality. It is the actual re&ult on test. This time it is the Honour Lists of the Royal University First and Second Arts' examination, and again, the Honour Lists of the Matriculation. The record would be amazing were it not that it is getting to be somewhat usual, and usual, be it remembered, whilst the competition includes on the one hand the students of the endowed State, non-sectarian or non-Catholic colleges, and on the other, of the colleges which the Catholic clergy and people themselves maintain. The State has failed to starve out the Catholic effort, or allure ' it into the paths abhorrent to the people, and the State at the same time, lavish as it does its wealth on the Queen's colleges, can't give them the victory. The unendowed voluntary Catholic colleges wrest , the laurels. Cork and Galway have miserably failed for all the great cost to the State, Cork, in the present test, being relegated to extinction.

Irreparable Loss to the Irish Cause— The Late Archbishop of Toronto— At a recent meeting of the Irish Parliamentary Party, the following resolution was unanimously adopted on the motion ojf Mr. John Dillon, seconded by Mr. Michael Davitt : 'That the Irish Party desire to place on record their deep sorrow for the death of Archbishop Walsh, of Toronto, and declare that his death is felt as a heavy blow to the Irish cause and a great loss to this party, to which he has been so loyal and generous a friend: and we tender to his Canadian fellow-countrymen our profound sympathy in the irreparable loss they have sustained.' Commenting on this, the Freeman's Journal says : ' The resolution of regret at the death of his Grace the Archbishop of Toronto, passed by the Irish members, measures in some degree the loss sustained by the Irish cause in the death of the great and patriotic Archbishop. Nothing has been more remarkable in the recent history of the Irish National movement than the steady support yielded to it in dark and evil days by the Irishmen of Canada and their many friends. Of that support Archbishop Walsh was the soul and the lnspirer. His death iB indeed a great loss at the present juncture of affairs. That the Archbishop's worth was appreciated far beyond Irish and Catholic circles is evident from the tribute paid him by the Canadian Gazette, the organ of Canadian interests in the United Kingdom. Few men in Canada— certainly none in Ontario — rendered greater services to Roman Catholicism in the Dominion, the Gazette asserts. ' Gifted with executive and administrative abilities far above the average, no mean orator, and a prelate who held large views of the part his Church should play in the political as well as the social and religious life of the country, the late Archbishop has for years past wielded considerable influence outside the purely ecclesiastical sphere.'