People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 38, 19 September 1901, Page 10

People We Hear About

The death of Lord Morria and Killanin of Galway, at one time Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, is reported at the age of 74 yean Lord Morris resigned his position of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary last year in oonsequenoe of age. The deceased oame of a very old Galway family, for we scad in the couplet that the fourteen families, who composed the 'tribes,' were Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Brown, Dean, D'Arcy, Lynch, Joyce, Kirwan, Martin, Morris, Skerrett, Ffont, Ffrench. The deceased judge had a brilliant career at Trinity College, and his rise in his profession was rapid. In 1865 he was returned as M.P. for Galway, in the Conservative interest, and oreated Solioitor and Attorney-General for Ireland. He was returned to Parliament without the formality of issuing an address, having declared that he would vacate his seat if he did not poll 90 per cent, of the electors. The following year (1867) witnessed his elevation to the Judioial Bench, and just 10 year* later he became Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, an office abolished in 1876, when its occupant became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Throughout his career he took the widest possible interest in politics and all publio movements without making a single enemy, and he gathered round him an extraordinary number of attached and admiring friends. Lord Morris was a Catholic. His son succeeded in getting elected for Galway at the general election, being a progressive Unionist in politics.

Apropai of the death of the President of the United States the following particulars regarding the M'Kinleys, whioh appeared in the New York Sun, from a correspondent, will be of interest : — Dr. Cornwall, of Brooklyn, in attempting to build a pedigree for the President, falls into error. He states that James M'Kinley, a Perthshire Scotchman, went to Ireland in 1691, as a soldier in the army of William of Orange, and fought in the battle of the Boyne. Impossible I The battle of the Boyne took place in 1690, a year earlier. Eminent Irish genealogists claim that the M'Kinleys and M'Ginleys are of old Irish stock, and I have yet to see proof to the contrary. Shamus Oge M'Kinley is heard from in Ulster in 1688, being engaged in road making on the shores of Lough Neagh. Anglicised, this name would be James M'Kinley the younger, which proves that he was not the first of the name. No living man knows how many generations of the M'Kinleys were born and lived and died in Ireland before the immigrant anoestor of the President came to those shores. David M'Kinley was a tax collector in Antrim, Ireland, in 1709. He was a son of Shamus Oge M'Kinley. One of David's Bons, William M'Kinley, was born in Ireland about 1715. James M'Kinley, son of David and grandson of Shamus Oge, migrated to America, and his son David, great-grandson of Shamus Oge, was the ancestor of the President. If there was ever any Scotch blood in the M'Kinley family, which I very much doubt, it was by that time very much thinned out. The M'Kinleys in the old land have closely identified themselves with the cause of Irish independence. One of them, Francis M'Kinley, was a member of the United Irishmen, and was executed in 1798 as a rebel to English law. This Francis left two Bons, sturdy young Irishmen, one of whom, John M'Kinley, subsequently came to the United States. Francis, the other son, waa in possession of the old homestead in Ireland down to 1838, whon he, too, came to this oountry.

The following particulars regarding Sir George O'Brien, Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of the Western Pacifio, whose autocratic rule and antagonism to the federation of Fiji with New Zealand have been the subject of much adverse comment in this Colony, will be of interest to our readers : — Sir George O'Brien (says the W. A. Record), who now, by the way, is on his return voyage to England, has expressed himnelf strongly with reference to the interference of New Zealanders in Fiji. The party he accuses of all manner of evil intentions. The local Times appears to side with the New Zealanders and gives Sir George what is commonly known as ' fits,' adding a wish that the colony may never see his face again. If, meantime, Sir George ia reticent and retiring, it is kind father for him to be so Never wan a man more retiring than the late hight Rev. Dr. O'Brien, Anglican Bishop'of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighhn, one of whose several sons Sir George is. Dr. O'Brien bad been a lellow of T.C.D., where he had the reputation of profound scholarship. He was a self-made man, who had worked. his way up from a humble position in life. Some whit marked was the general astonishment when it was announced that a dignitary of high position and good family — that is tbe late Chief Justice Pennefather, had consented to his daughter's marriage witb him. Social distinctions in the Ireland of those days were somewhat rigidly observed. Mrs. O'Brien, too, was a lady who would grace the highest position in the land. As a Bishop, Dr. O'Brien was not popular. His clergy saw very little of him. It was, however, supposed that he continued hi? erudite studies in his retirement, but not hing occurred to make this public. His only published works were of the ordinary and not very brilliant Evangelioal type. As an instance of heredity, therefore, the habits asoribed to Sir George O'Brien may be interesting.