Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 38, 21 September 1899, Page 9

Irish News.

ANTRIM.— The Freedom of Belfast.— On Thursday (says the Irith Weekly, July 29), in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, the agreeable function of conferring on Mr. Thomas H. Ismay, the head of the White Star Line, the freedom of our city, was performed with great iolat in the presence of a company of ladies and gentlemen which, thoroughly representative of the democratic elements of the oity and associated counties, crowded the oivio room to the furthest limit of its space. The proceedings were intensely interesting, and the dulness of formality usually attaching to affairs of the kind was pleasingly non-apparent. No doubt, this fact was doe to the feeling of business kinship which swayed between the new honorary burgess and the representatives of Belfast commercial and industrial enterprise by whom he was surrounded. At any rate from first to last there was a pleasing family understanding ; and from all parts of the room jf requent and hearty cheers were raised during the 70 minutes or so through which the mutual laudations lasted.

Death of a Veteran Masician. — The death took place at Dalkey reoently of Mr. R. M. Levey, the veteran Dublin musician. For over 40 years Mr. Levey was conductor of the orchestra in the old Royal under the management first of Calcraf t and then of Harris. He was very popular, and was full of personal reminiscences of the great Thespians of long ago.

DUBLlN.— Proposed Arts and Crafts Exhibition.— An Arts and tJraf ts Exhibition will be held this year in Dublin. It will open in November. The Senate of the Royal University of Ireland have kindly granted the use of the Royal University Buildings, Earlsfort-terrace, for the exhibition, which will consist of contemporary original work in decorative design and handicraft.

A Belated Postal Delivery.— a postman, whilst engaged emptying a letter box at the Chamber of Commerce, Dublin, recently, had his attention drawn to a piece of -$rhita material protruding through the boards at the bottom of the letter-box. In attempting to bring it up, the object, which proved to be a postcard, slipped out of sight between the boards. The matter was reported to the postal authorities, who despatched workmen to investigate the interior of the reoeptacla. As the result of their operations 16 postcards, some bearing dates nearly 20 years ago were found in ia lower portion of the letter-box, where they had fallen through a crevice at the joining of the boards.

The President of Blackrock College— The Rev. John T. Murphy, C.S. Sp., has been appointed President of Blackrock College. Father Murphy goes back to his Alma Mater in the prime and vigour of manhood, coupled with a ripe and varied experience of nearly 27 years' teaching in the eastern and western hemispheres. When he had completed his studies in 1872 he taught for some time at Blackrock, but soon after was called upon to join the staff of St. Mary's College, Trinidad, West Indies. In 1879 he was called to Rockwell College, Tipperary, where he filled the office of Dean of Studies nntil 1886, when he was promoted to the presidency of the Holy Ghost College, Pittsburgh, United States, which office he held for thirteen years. As showing the high estimation in which his attainments are held, he was selected to read the first paper on the ideal college at a convention of 52 delegates from Catholio colleges held in Chicago a few months ago. At the conclusion of the convention Father Murphy waß elected secretary of the Btanding committee.

Looking for Family Portraits.— in. a recent issue of the Irish Times there appeared an advertisement offering a reward for the recovery of family portraits sold in 1819, on the death of Mr. John Giff^rd, of Dromartin, Dundrum. Mr. John Giffard was the grandfather of the Earl of Halsbury, the present Lord Chancellor of England. He began life as an apothecary in Dublin, but eventually acquired the sole editorial oontrol of an influential paper, the Dublin Journal, whioh had been started and for 50 years ably edited by George Faulkner, the friend of Swift and Chesterfield. John Giffard was a well-known public man in Ireland at the close of the last and the beginning of the present century. His paper, which was a Castle organ, in whose columns the first authoritative announcement of the Union was made in Ireland, was known as the Dogs' Journal, and Giffard himself was called 'The Dog in Office.' He held a lucrative post in the Irish Revenue Department, and was for many years Sub-Sheriff of the City of Dublin. In 1816 he ceased to edit the Dublin Journal, an event whioh was thus noted in about 20 numbers of that paper : ' Since Mr. Giffard ceased on July 1, 1816, to have, directly or indirectly, any concern with this paper, it has rapidly inoreased in circulation, and we are now satisfied the public oan fairly appreciate the value of an independent print whioh wishes to soothe and not to irritate the angry passions whioh have so long agitated the oountry.' Mr. Giffard amassed a large fortune and built a handsome residence known as Dromartin Castle, Dundrum.

KILDARE. — A Brave Woman. — In a letter to the Kildare Observer the Very Rev. Dr. Gowing, P.P., points out that Miss Teresa M'Grath, who was reoently decorated by the Queen with the Royal Red Cross, the war medal, and two clasps for special attention and competency in nursing the siok and wounded during the recent campaign in the Soudan, is a native of the parish of Kill, where her mother still resides. The theory frequently put forward that a Cathopo University of Ireland would be a failure through lack of youthful Catholio support falls to the ground when one considers that in the smallest parish in Leinster an energetio and discriminating pastor like Dr. Gowing was able to find such talent m would do houonr to any University.

LOUTH.— A Clerical Change-— The Very Rey. A.S. O'Kelly, 0.P., who has been attached to St. Malachy's Dominican Priory, Dundalk, for the past ten years, has left for Siigo, having been appointed Prior of the Community there. TIPPERARY.— The High Sherriff of Greater New York. — Mr. J. J. Long, eiitor of the Nationalist, Glomnel, prints a letter he has just received from Mr. Thoa. Dunn, the High Sheriff of Greater New York, on the occasion of the death of his mother, Mra. Dunn, a native of Tipperary The editor of the Nationalist ad is the amusing information that after Mr. Dunn had been elected Higd Sheriff last year by a majority of 90,000, in returning thanks to tie electors for the honour conferred on him, he mentioned a message he had just received from his mother in Clonmel, ' Dear Tom,' she wrote : ' If there's any hanging in the office, have nothing to do with it.' He told his hearers that he made the old lady happy by satisfy* ing her that ' there was no hanging in it.'

GENERAL.

The Irish Language-— 'Processor Poderaen, the well-known Danish Philologist, of the University of Copenhagen, in a communication to the Rev. Father Hennebry of the Catholio University, America, writes thus concerning the Irish language :— ' lam very glad to hear that you are promoting the cause of the Irish language. I would be very sorry if the Irish language should die out, for thereby Irishmen would lose their own nationality and. beoome Englishmen. For as soon as the Irish language ceases to exist there will be no Irish nation more. And that would be a great loss, for it is the Irish nation that bestowed mediaeval learning upon Europe. It is the Irish nation that possesses the mo3t wonderful mediaeval literature, and the Iriah language is the most interesting language in Europe. lam a Dane, and I should be very sorry if the nation that was once our teacher should cease to exist. For lam convinoed that if Irishmen continue their national existence they will contribute largely to human civilisation.'

An Ancient Demand Revived.— The demand for the establishment of a Catholio University in Ireland is 300 years old. It was the seventh artiole of the twenty-two propositions for peaoe sent by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to Queen Elizabeth. This we (New Era) learn from the report on the manuscripts of the Duke of Buooleuoh and Queensberry, K.G., K.T., preserved at Montagu House, Whitehall. These papers are very valuable, aa they contain much information about Irish matters that has not hitherto been published. The Earl of Tyrone's proposals are contained in a paper endorsed, ' Tyrone's Propositions, 1599.'

Count Plunket and the Irish Race.— The Irish and Breton visitors to the Welsh National Eisteddfod were entertained at a farewell breakfast given by Lord Windsor. Addresses were given by the Marquis de L'Estoarbeillon, Brittany, and Count Plunket, of Ireland. The latter, in the course of a particularly striking address, expressed his sincere thanks for the cordial reoeption that had been aooorded the visitors to the Eisteddfod. One touch of nature, it was said, made the whole world kin, and that one touch of nature bound the whole Celtic race in one family. The reunion of the branches of the race gave honour to Ireland, but it would not be completed until it was completed in Ireland. He wished he could take back to Ireland some of the feeling that dominated all classes in Wales. He wished he could say to the landlord and the Irish tenant : ' Why do you not unite and form one nation as the Welsh nation has done.' No barrier should exist between one Irishman and another who loved their country, and no barrier could ever be raised between those who loved the Celtic race. They would return home from Wales with many lessons in their hearts. The Irish people were following in the steps of the Welsh ; they hai many things in common, and the same fervour dominated them to keep the national ideas alive. There were many divergencies of language, but not of the heart. They felt that in the great storehouse of their literature, and that the Irish, the Welsh, and the Breton legends stood together and might be said to be bound up together. In conclusion, he expressed the thanks of the Irish and extended a hearty welcome to the Welsh people to Ireland. His heart was full of gratitude to the Welsh people, and he hoped that next year the Irish people would be able to recognise the kindliness and the thoroughness of the reoeption their representatives had received here. They were people poor in everything but kindness, and that was all that they could put at their disposal.

Next Year's FeiS Cceil-— The programme of the Feis Coeil of 1900, which ia to take place in Belfast in May, has been issued. The principal prize, £30, is for the best cantata on an Irish subject by, an Irish author. Ten pounds are offered for the best composition for a full orchestra, ten pounds for the best arrangement of Irish airs for a brass and reed band, and ten pounds for the best string quartette, and five pounds for the best anthem or Latin motet with or without organ accompaniment. Prizes are also offered for original songs, pianoforte, harp and organ compositions, arrange* ments of Irish airs, etc. The last date for receiving compositions will be January 1, 1900. The coming Feis will be the fourth, and it is very gratifying to see how securely it has been established in so short a time as a national institution which has knit in harmonious bonds north and south.

An Irish Athlete in the United States Army.— A New York paper states that on board the transport Sheridan, bound for the Philippines, is Thomas P. Conneff, formerly the middle-distance ohampion runner of the world. He has carried the emblemß of both the New York and the Manhattan Athletic Clubs to viotory in international and home championship contests on the cinder track. Conneff was one of the first men up San Juan hill, and he served, with distinction in the Santiago campaign, earning his corporal's ohevrons. Conneff is a member of the Sixteenth Infantry. Conneff is an Irishman by birth and had a world-wide reputation before he arrived in the United States.

Projected Memorial to a War Correspondent— A. proposal has been made to honour the memory of Mr. Frank Power, the young Irish journalist who represented tke Times at Khartoum just before the capture of the place by the Mahdi, in connection with the projected Gordon College. Young Power left Ireland to accompany his gifted countryman, Mr. Edmund O'Donovan, to the Soudan. They both started with Hioks Pasha on his ill-fated march to SI Obeid, but Power was invalided back, and so lived to meet-a fate different from that of his colleague, but equally tragic. When the Mahdists surrounded the town ' Ghazi ' Power, as he was known in Dublin, was the only English-speaking civilian in the place. He was appointed Times correspondent and British Consul, and in both capacities did his duty in the terrible days of the siege in a way that reflected credit on his race and on his profession. His murder, with Colonel Stuart, on an island in the Nile, was perhaps the first indication Europe received that the end had come for Khartoum and for Gordon. ' Ghazi ' had not been long enough in the position of a war correspondent to prove what a dashing 1 and original journalist he was, but he did enough to show that he was possessed of the qualities that make Irishmen always a success •when they are placed in positions of emergency or peril. The honour that is proposed to be done to him in the Gordon College at Khartoum is well deserved, for he proved himself to be a man when a man was wanted, and was one of Gordon's last support.

Another Piece of Intolerance .—Some time ago (writes a Dublin correspondent) I called attention to the appointment of a Protestant in succession to a Catholic as President of the Queen's College, Galway, situate in the midst of an almost exclusively Catholic population. The excuse made for this appointment, an exouße as false as it was insulting, waa that there was no Catholic qualified by University distinction for the post. But, assuming this excuse to be true, it would be, of course, only one more conclusive reason for the concession of Catholic University education to Ireland. I have just heard the news, though lam loth to oredit it, of another contemplated job in the same college. The Chair of Mental Philosophy is vacant, and it is in contemplation, if I am rightly informed, to fill the post by the appointment of a Trinity College-educated Protestant of no special distinction, though several Catholics of the very highest qualifications have been recommended by an eminent Catholic lay authority to the Lord-Lieutenant for the position. In the making these appointments, it is believed that Lord Cadogan is under the absolute domination of the reactionary Provost of Trinity College. If this job be perpetrated there will be but three Catholics on the entire working staff of the Queen's College, Galway, and only two, both medical men, on the Governing Council.

work done for the State. The Church of Rome started late in the field, but the surprising energy and wisdom which her servants brought to the task that was Bet them has placed her in the first rank amongst religious bodies. Nor is that at all surprising. Where there is unity of action and of aim there will always be success. Where there are dissensions and biokering there can be no effectual progress. There are some few still living who can remember the day of small things when Father Murphy — for Father he was always addressed by Protestants as well as Catholics — commenced his labours in Graham's Town where now a ttately cathedral keeps alive his memory. Removed to Port Elizabeth he was not satisfied until he had reared a church befitting a great emporium of trade, and established schools of a very high order where, as in Natal and elsewhere, Protestants are as welcome to the benefits they bes J x)w as Catholics. As a member of the Hospital Board and of other pnblio bodies, Father Murphy was regarded as an invaluable colleague, and when at' last he returned from his native oountry only to die, Port Elizabeth marked its sense of the loss it had sustained by according him a pnblio funeral. The name of Bishop Ricards was a household word throughout the Eastern Province. A man of vast reading, the resources of his mind were always at disposal for any good object for which money was needed. When it waa known that he was about to visit any town, the first thought of the inhabitants was to get him to deliver a lecture or give a reading of the works of some popular author. He was a man 'of infinite jest,' and at the same time full of feeling and of the tenderest sympathies. He could render the celebrated Bardell trial in Pickwick until laughter held both iti sides, and he could read the pathetic story of Richard Doubledick with a depth of feeling which brought tears to the eyes of his audience. With one exception, the heads of the Church of Rome in South Africa have kept themselves strictly aloof from politics. That one exception was the late Bishop Moran, afterwards Bishop of Dunedin, than whom Responsible Government for the Cape Colony had no stronger or more vigorous opponent. A speech whioh he delivered at Graham's Town at a public banquet, when he ventured to predict some of the consequences of self-government is still remembered by many. When he left for New Zealand his removal was regarded as a public loss though it made room for Dr. Ricards as his successor in the See. Inflexible in all that concerns their faith, the Roman ecclesiastics in this country have ever shown a tolerance for the religious opinions of other denominations whioh has gained them universal respect.