Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 18, 30 March 1899, Page 9

Irish News.

ANTRlM.— Religious Liberty in Belfast.— A correspondent of the Belfast Xews-Letter calls attention to what he terms the 'significant fact' that the Lord Mayor of Belfast is a Jew, the Chairman of the Harbour Board is a Presbyterian, the Chairman of the Board of Guardians is a member of the Church of Ireland, and the Chairman of the Water Commissioners is a member of the Society of Friends. ' Judged by these appointments,' he says, ' the citizens of Belfast are as tolerant and broad-minded as those of any city in the United Kingdom.' But somehow there is no mention of any Catholic in the list. Nor is such mention to be found in any similar list in the records of the city. This surely is strange in a ' tolerant and broad minded city,' of which nearly a third of the population are Catholic. CAVAN.— Ejectment Notices— Our latest Home exchanges report that ejectment notices were being scattered broadcast throughout the County. ° CLARE— Great Meeting in Favour of the Catholic University- — A great meeting iD support of an Irish Catholic University was held in the Courthouse, Ennis, recently. The Bishop of Killaloe presided and delivered an address. CORK— Election Of Mayor.— Mr. Crean, M.P., has been elected Mayor of Cork. His opponent was Alberman Blake, who formerly stood for the city as a Parnellite. Mr. Blake had the bulk of the Tory party at his ba?k— no new affinity— but Mr. Crean polled the Labour Councillors in his favour and won. DERRY.-The St- Vincent de Paul Society.— The Derry branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society spent £1000 during the past year in relieving destitute poor. The city conferences assisted 196 poor families, consisting of 723 individuals, distributing 5576 relief tickets, and paid 9731 visits to the poor at their homes. The Irish Society, London, which draws immense revenues from the locality, firmly refused to contribute towards the funds. This very ungenerous action of a very wealthy body has been widely commented upon by all who recognise the noble work done by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. DUBLIN.— Nuns as Hospital Nurses— The annual meeting of the Irish Workhonse Association was held on February 2, at the Mansion House, Dublin, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor. The adoption of the annual report, which was of a very satisfactory nature, was moved by Lord Monteagle, in the course of which the committee expressed their appreciation of the generous aotion of Borne members of the Irish Roman Catholic hierarchy, who had engaged ladies of the highest professional skill to train and assist the nuns working- in their poor law hospitals, without any expense to the guardians, with results that were most striking and satisfactory. Mr. Cooke Trench, D.L., and Dr. Moore, President of the Royal College of Physicians, paid deserved tributes to the services of the nuns as nurses in the workhouse hospital. A Well-known Bank Manager Dead.— By the death of Mr. Thomas Quill at Kingston the National Bank of Ireland has lost its oldest official. Mr. Quill had reached the ripe age of \)2 years, and had spent over sixty years in the service of that institution. He owed his appointment in the bank to Daniel O'Connell, who, as we all know, was the founder ; and having spent several years as manager in Tralee, and over twenty years as manager in the Wexford branch, he was finally transferred to Kingstown. where for thirty-two years he also fillfd the responsible office of manager. He letiral after this lon£ period of active ser\ice only a couple of years ago. GAL WAY -Death of the Right Hon. C. T. Redington. — The death of the Right Hon. Christopher Talbot Redington, at his residence near Dublin, took place on February 4. The late Mr. Redington was born on the 30th September, 384 7. He was the eldest son of Sir ThomaH Redington, K.C.B , Kilcornan Castle, Oranmore. County Gal way, formerly Under Secretary for Ireland, who was married to Eliza, eldest daughter of the late John H. Talbot, of Talbot Hall, County Wexford. The deceased gent'eraan was first cousin of Mr. James Talbot Power, D.L , and was educated at Oscott College, Birmingham, and had a most distinguisned literary career. For many years after his return to Ireland he resided at Kilcornan Castle, which is one of the most magnificent mansions in the West of Ireland. He was a member of the Privy Council, and a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of the County Galwoy, and was High Sheriff in 1873. In 1894 he became Vice-Chancellor of the Royal University, and on the death of Sir Patrick Keenan was

appointed Resident Commissioner of National Education for Ireat> j « on several R °yal Commissions, including the Piera and Roads Commission, the Poor Law Relief (Ireland) Commission, the Mimng Royal usb Commission, and the Evicted Tenants Com. mission. The deceased gentleman came of an old and esteemed Catholic family.. In politics he was a Liberal Home Ruler. KILKENNY.-Death of a Noted Nationalist.-The death is announced of Mr. Thomas Harrington, Johnstown, County Kilkenny, id his <Qth year. Deceased was a true »nd consistent Nationalist. As a successful business man he was well known and highly respected throughout many counties in the south of Ireland. He * 1 lanre and extensive practice as an auctioneer in the counties oi the Kilkenny, Queen's County and Tipperary. He was the ordinal inventor and carver of the celebrated wood-cut ' The Harp Borrkol i^h • ,° Wn '' which caused prosecution by the Crown at LOUTH.— The Shrievalty.— The Lord-Lieutenant haa appointed Mr Henry J. Daly, Donecarney House, Drogheda, to the office of High Sheriff of the County Louth. LIMERICK.-The High Sheriff of the County—The Knight of Glin, D.L , of Glin Castle, was first on the list of the nominations for the office of High Sheriff of the County Limerick but declined to act. Mr. Alexander W. Shaw, J.P., Roxboro' House has, in the circumstances of the case, been appointed County Sheriff and recently he received official notation of the fact, which ha£ been heard of with much pleasure by all classes, with whom the new sheriff is a great favourite. Mr. Shaw waa at the first meeting ot the new Corporation placed second on the list of nominations for the City High Sheriff. MAYO.— The Diocesan Cathedral.— A very large and representative meeting of the people of the parish of Ballaghadereen was convened on January 29 at the Christian Brothers' Schools, under the presidency of his Lordship Most Rev. Dr. Lyster, Bishop of Achonry, for the purpose of taking steps for the organisation of a fund towards the completion of the diocesan cathedral and the erection of a a muchneeded parochial hall. There were present with his Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. Lyster, Rev. James O'Connor, Adm. : Rev. James Daly, President St. Nathy's Diocesan Seminary; Rev. Father Doherty, Rev. John Hurst, C.C. ; and Rev. M. Harte, CC The attendance of laymen was extremely large, and amongst the audience were Dr. McDermott, Dr. Boyle, and Mr. O'Brien Asa result of the meeting it was decided to hold a bazaar next year for the purpose of raising funds to carry on the work. GENERAL. A Spanish Knighthood for an Irishman.— Mr. John Boon, an Irishman, and the manager of the Exchange Telegraph Company, has received from ths Queen Regent of Spain the Knighthood ot the Royal Order of Isabel the Catholic. This title has been conferred ou only four British subjects, two of whom are the Duke ot Norfolk and Earl Spencer. The United Irish League.— A meetiug, under the auspices of the United Irish League, was held at Claremorris on January 30 Mepsr?. Dillon, Davitt, Sheehy, O' Kelly, Roche, William O'Brien' and Dr. Ambrose, M P.'s, addressed the meeting. The delegates attending numbered about 2000. Mr. William O'Brien proposed the following rules for the new League, which wore agreed to -—To obtain full national self-government for Ireland. Abolition of landlordism in Ireland by compulsory sale. Suppression of famine in the west by compulsory purchase of the grazing lands of Connaught on equitable terms as to all interests affected with the view of providing the small occupiers with liveable holdings. Reinstatement of evicted tenants. Complete educational equality for the Catholics of Ireland, including a university in whose benefits they can partic-pate. Acre allotments for the agricultural labourers and cheap and wholesome dwellings for the workmen of the towns' Election of Nationalist county, district, and urban councils Enc( uragement of Irish manufactures. Preservation of the Gaelic aa the lh ing language. The Royal Irish Constabulary.— lt was rumoured in th early part of February in Dublin that important changes affecting the constitution of the Royal Irish Constabulary were in contemplation. Is was said that the new scheme provided not only for reduction of the number of officers, the establishment of a reserve and the lessening of expenses generally, but it was also stated that the Depot at the Phoenix Park will be vacated, and that each province will be called upon to find its own police training centre. SM

Mr. Herbert Gladstone and Home Rule.— Mr. Herbert Gladstone, M.P reaffirmed his adherence to Home Rule in a recent address to his West Leeds constituents. He is convinced that the Local Government Act will serve to strengthen the Irish de mand for complete self-government. Touching upon the question of an Irish University, Mr. Gladstone showed himself to be favourable to the Catholic position. He considers that it is one of those questions which are best settled by the Irish people. As the Tories, however, had claimed to be able to do for Ireland all, and more than all, that Ireland can do for herself, he would leave them to settle the University question, whilst assuring them that they would receive from the Liberal 1 arty every consideration which their principles would permit. r A Conservative Estimate of Parnell.— in the course of an article, the Fortnightly Review thus sums up Mr. Parnell's worth as a political leader :— Mr. Parnell was 30 years of age when he first went into Parliament (says the Fortnightly Review), and he died at ir>. He disorganised the House of Commons ; reversed the traditional relations of the races by making Englishmen furious while he remained calm ; wrested all constitutional forms to revolutionary ends ; made Ireland ungovernable except by himself ; extorted more valuable concessions for Ireland ungovernable than Ireland submissive would ever have received ; paralysed the great Liberal majority of 1880 ; overthrew Mr. Gladstone's Government ; put Lord Salisbury and the Conservatives into power, and persuaded the constitutional party to hold remarkably civil language towards treasonable agitators; threw the Irish vote in Great Britain for the first time against the Liberal party ; attained the balance of power at a general election— was for a moment the Warwick of the Empire; forced Mr. Gladstone to capitulate; placed Mr. Gladstone again in power ; saw a Bill that would have made him autocrat of Ireland rejected by a majority of 30 only in the House of Commons ; drove the most respectable of great journals to the exotic tsourse of attacking him on charges of condoning assassination by facsimiles of letters that were forged ; defeated the Times in the last and most dramatic of his victoriesonly to be ruined by the divorce case. The Catholic University Question.— Writing in The Nnv Era the Bishop of Limerick says ;— The Church of the majority of the English people is established, and richly endowed, and its universities share its wealth, and are saturated with its Bpirit. The same rule holds good for the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, and its universities, which are instinct with its life, are richly endowed too. In Ireland the Church of the nation was stripped bare of all her possessions, she was turned out of her own churches, and an English garrison— differing in everything, language, race, religion — took possession of them, and out of our own religious endowments built up and endowed the great Protestant centre and bulwark— the university of Dublin. The descenbants of the settlers of Elizabeth and Cromwell and William 111., about 500,000 all told, now hold for their higher education one of the richest colleges in the world ; and 3,.")0( ),()()() Catholics, who out of their poverty have to support their own Church, are offered, as the sole means of getting higher education for their sons, access to this Protestant institution, with ministers of the Protestant religion fer teachers aud rulers. An Inspector of Lunatic Asylums.— Mr. George Plunkett O'Farrell, Inspector of Lunatics one of the Now Year Knights, and who has done so much to improve the Irish lunatic asylums, is an old pupil of Kuockbeg College. A Doubtful Compliment-— ln an obituary notice of the late Sir John Nugent, a London daily paper, after mentioning that Sir John was Inspector-General of Lunatic Asylums in Ireland 1547 till 18'.)(i, adds • ' This post brought him into connection with most of the nobility of Ireland.' Where Scotch Oatmeal comes from.— The latest Irish grievance is that a large proportion of the so-called ' Scotch ' oatmeal comes from Ireland and a large proportion from foreign countries. On this point a correspondent of the Catholic Herald says : • There is no oatmeal to compare with, let alone excel, Irish oatmeal. It is the finest grown. Therefore, why cannot Irish oatmeal be sold as Irish oatmeal, and why do not the public ask for it and give Ireland fair play / '