Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 22, 6 October 1898, Page 9

Irish News.

ARMAGH.— Presentation to Archbishop Carr.— The Archbishop of Melbourne, who has been staying for a few days with Cardinal Logue at Armagh, has been presented with an address by the Committee of Armagh Cathedral. In the course of his address his Grace exprejsed the hope that happiness and prosperity would dawn on Ireland in the near future, and he looked with favour on the new form of administration of local affairs which will shortly prevail in Ireland as the beginning of a system, if not complete, yet as a substantial advance towards Home Rule. BELFAST.— A New Redemptorist House.— On August 15 the Most Rev. Dr. Henry, Bishop of Down and Conor, laid the foun-dation-stone of the new Monustery of the Most Holy Redeemer, Clonard, Falls-road, Belfast. The new building will consist of confraternity room, parlours, refectories, community room, bishop's room, and infirmary. The structure will be four storeys high, and executed in Belfast compressed brick, with Giffnock stone dressings. High Mass, coram Pontijice, was celebrated by the Rev. Thomas Campbell, C.SS.R. A procession, consisting of acolytes and the Fathers of the mission, was then formed. The ceremony was witnessed by a very large gathering. His Lordship, in an address to those present, commended the work of the Fathers to the faithful in Belfast, and wished the Fathers success in their undertaking, which would be another glory to the Catholics of Belfast. The Very Rev. R. Andrew Boylan, C.SS.R., Provincial of the Order, was present. Rioting in Belfast-— Of course the Belfast Orangemen couldn't let the chance slip, and a considerable disturbance occurred in Belfast late on Monday night in conneation with the return of a large body of Nationalists, who had been attending the Wolfe Tone Demonstration in Dublin. Hostile crowds, numbering several thousands, had assembled in the locality of the Victoria street terminus, and it was with great difficulty that the police prevented a collision. After the Orange party had been driven along Howard street they armed themselves with stones and made a rush along Wellington plade, throwing missiles at the police and Nationalists hemmed in behind the Cook statue. For ten minutes a pitched battle was fought, during which much destruction of property took place. Eventually the police charged and broke up the rioters. Several policemen and civilians were injured by stone throwers, but none seriously. CARLOW.— To Those Who Fell in 1798.— The memorial to the soldiers of Ireland who fell at the Battle of Carlow in May, 1798, was unveiled at Carlow Graigue on Sunday the 25th ult., by the patriotic pastor of the parish. The occasion was a memorable one, for the surrounding counties joined hands to make it worthy of the sacrifices of the six hundred brave peasants whose blood dyed the streets of the town a hundred years ago. Already the Nationalists of Carlow have done much to restore the memory of those heroic men to its proper place in Carlow annals. On the evening of the battle the remains of the patriot dead were contemptuously flung in a heap into a pit, long afterwards known as 'the Croppies' Hole.' The pit has now been enclosed, a handsome memorial erected above it, and this ceremony celebrates the completion of the work, which has cost the sympathetic supporters over four hundred pounds. The grave lies beyond the Barrow and in the Queen's County which there meets Carlow. But the Local Government Bill extends the boundary of Carlow County over the river so as to include those parts of Carlow Union. Thus the dust of the martyrs is given back to the county that produced them, and the ceremony may be regarded us in some sort their reception. CAV AN.— Desecrating a Memorial Cross.— At the Grand Jury in the discussion of the claim for compensation for malicious injury to a cross in Ballyhaise Churchyard, which came before the Grand Jury, Mr. A. B. Edgeworth, D.L., said the poor widow who erected the cross to the memory of her husband had been saving for a long time from her narrow means to do so, hoping, doubtless, that her own lust might in due time mingle with that of her loved one under the holy emblem. Think how poignant must be her grief at the maked insult to her deir one's memory and the wreck which alone represents all her long years of privation and self-denial. Well, I consider that it is our bounden duty to mark our sense of such occurrences by giving the full amount of compensation claimed, which is the only means in our power towards discouraging and suppressing these detestable post-mortem mal -practice'*, which will infallibly end in provoking reprisals. Some Puritan fanatic*, from prejudice against the emblem of our .salvation, have arroi>at-e'l to themselves the right to def.ica or destroy crosses— forgetful that some of their own emblems, e.g., Masonic symbols, are most offensive

to their Catholic brethren, who may also take the law into their own hands. And if this goes on our churchyards, instead of being places of peaceful repose, will be made the arena of fanatic iconoclasts of different sects. I propose that the full amount claimed be passed as a protest against such inhuman insults to the dead, who are Sacred in even the most savage countries. The presentment waa passed for the full sum claimed, viz., £28, in accordance with Mr. Edgeworfch'a resolution. DUBLIN.— St. Margaret's Church, Finglas.— On Sunday, says the Tablet of August 20, at St. Margaret's. Ifinglas, his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin laid the foundation-stone of a new church, which, from the beauty of its design and its splendid situation, is destined to become a modern attraction to a p wish. already rich in architectural and historical associations. The church is early English Gothic in character, the nave is to be 80 feet long by 32 feet wide, with chancel, sacristies, etc., and is capable of accommodating four hunlred persons. After the stone had boen duly laid, a great congregation assembled in the old church where the Archbishop, after pointing to the need of the new church, congratulated the people on their exceptional generosity, which he said entitled them to the help of others outside the parish. ' For my part,' continued his Grace, ' I have an unbounded faith in the generosity and --charity of the Catholics of Dublin. That faith is amply justified by the experience of the past thirteen years. It has never yet failed me in enabling me to fulfil any promise which I made of helping in the building of a church or school, or in any other work in the interests of religion or of charity. Then let me say that, especially to lawyers, this place should have a special interest, for in Dunsoghly Castle yonder waa the splendid home of that great legal family of the Plunkets, who, centuries ago, were represented on the judicial Bench in Ireland, filling even the highest and most dignified of its positions. Bat we can appeal to others too. No one who has even the least care for the ecclesiastical antiquities of the diocese can fail to take an interest in your famous old ruin of St. Margaret's Church, with its mortuary chapels and the inscriptions on its tombs, amongst them that singularly quaint one which gives notice to all concerned that " this stone and burial place belongeth to the Warrens of Cillock and his posterity these 300 years, and White hath no right to the burial place only by marriage." ' On the Bame day as the founda-tion-stone of the church at Finglas was laid the Lord Mayor of Dublin presided at a meeting in the unfinished church at Howth, held for the purpose of providing funds for the completion of the work. The building had cost £7000. About C4OO of this remains to be found, and other expenses connected with furnishing and internal decoration remain to be met. Count Plnnkett moved that the necessary funds should be found, and Mr. W. Field, M.P., proposed that this should be done by the opening of a subscription list. Over £250 was collected on the spot. A New Lifeboat- — Lady Roberts, in the unavoidable absence of Lady Cadogan, recently performed the ceremony of christening the new lifeboat for Kingstown, which was launched under the name of ' Dunleary.' The lifeboat replaces the one that was lost in the great storm of December, 18!J6, while trying to rescue the crew of the Russian barque Palme, part of whose hull is stuck fast in the sand about half a mile off Blackrock. The brave fellows that manned the lifeboat that foundered in the storm were drowned. The new lifeboat is the first built in Ireland, and is believed to be one of the safest launched under the auspices of the National Lifeboat Institution. It has nearly 300 airtight compartments, which prevent tho possibility of the boat sinking, even if it were smashed into fragments, while the keel is weighted with four tons of lead, ensuring stability. Lady Roberts christened the boat ' The Dunleary,' after the ancient name of Kingstown. LIMERICK. — Irish-American Athletes.— The athletic Flanagans of Limeriok are the sabject of an article in an American paper. The ability to throw heavy weights is an inherited gift, for the father of the first trainer of the present champion could send the oGlb weight a respectable distance in his own day. John, now the champion lfilb hammer-thrower of the world, started at athletics when he was only fifteen. His father first showed him how to handle the weighty. The lad practised and practised till he won the championship of Ireland. He invented the now famous ' double-turn,' an extra sharp swing around before delivering the missile. Then he went to America. There his fame has grown to such an extent that it has become world-wide. His most recent performance of wonder, however, was on June 1 1, at Travers Island, in the open games of the N.Y.A.C. There he broke the world's record of l.">3ft. Bin., held by the young inter-collegiate champion, M'Crackcn, by throwing the hammer 158 feet. This is a marvellous distance. John is just twenty-seven, lie is in his very prime. He expects to add ten or twelve feet to this record before he stops.

There is hardly any doubt that he will succeed, if the improvement he has Bhown w any criterion. When he went to America 125 feet was considered a wonderful throw. In Memory of Father Prendergast— An imposing celebration took place at Harristown near Monasterevan recently in memory of Father Prendergast, who was hanged in Monasterevan on June 11, 1798. The meeting took place outside Harristown graveyard, where thd patriot priest was interred on the night succeeding his execution. The execution took place in Monasterevan, in which parish the deceased was curate. That morning he was dragged out of his mother's house at Richardstown by a body of the yeomen, and he was hanged from a tree which stood in the main street of Monasterevan, nearly opposite one of the hotels. The tree has long sinse disappeared, but its site is marked out by a circle which tradition identifies, and the spot and some of the old roots still protruding above the ground there were pointed out yesterday and were objects of much attention. In the middle of the night of June 11, about half-a-dozen cut down the body from the tree, removed it to a boat whice was waiting in the river, and it was conveyed up the Barrow to ne ir Harristown where the interment took place. The procession, which started at half-past one. was headed by a contingent of horsemen numbering 250. After them marched the Monasterevau pikemen, a body 300 strong, bearing imitations of the typical weapons of '98. They stepped to the music of the Monasterevan band. One of the Athy bands came next playing at the head of another large body of the Monasterevan general contingent. One of the speakers said that Father Prendergast was dragged from his mother's home and hanged like a common felon in the streets of Monasterevan. For what crime 1 Simply because he attended and baptised one of the children of the yeomen soldiery in Colonel Bagot's camp.