Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 7, 13 February 1902, Page 9

Irish News.

ANTRlM.— Probable Candidate. A rumor has been extensively circulated that the Belfast Catholic Association have decided to invite Count Plunkett to contest West Belfast against the present member, Mill. O. Arnold-Foster, Secretary to the Admiralty. Death of a priest. The death is announced of the Rev. R. O'Kane, P.P., Dunloy, County Antrim, one of the most distinguished priests in the diocese of Down and Connor. DONEGAL.— Diocesan Chapter. Now that the diocese of Raphoe has its Cathedral, that Cathedral is to have its Chapter, comprising a dean, an archdeacon, and 10 canons. In the ' Irish Ecclesiastical Record ' for December there is published the text of the two decrees from the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome conveying the authority to erect the Chapter and placing the Cathedral under the patronage of St. Eunan and St. Columbkille. Plots for fishermen. The Congested Districts Board is completing negotiations for the purchase of about 500 acres of grass lands in the Killybegs district of County Donegal from the landlord, Mr. Tredennick, of Ballyshannon. It is understood that the intention of the Board is to divide the acreage into plots of four or five acres, and give one plot each to the hardy fishermen of the district. Sale of an estate. In County Donegal, Ireland, a few weeks ago the Rathmullen estate was sold. On this property was, anciently, the ruins of the great Carmelite houso built long before the Reformation ; also, the ruins of tho great castle of McSweeney, of Falnad, whose better half, ' Mary, daughter of O'Malley, and wife of McSweeney, of Fanad,' once held the castle intact two long weeks against 500 picked English troops. It is said that the new owner may take steps to preserve the rums of the priory built in old days by McSweeney for the Carmelites. DUBLIN. — An appointment. The Rev. Edward J. Byrne, of the diocese of Dublin, has been appointed Vice-Rector of the Irish College, Rome. Father Byrne, who is a distinguished past student of the Irish College, has for some time been attached to the parish of Booterstow n and Blackrock. Death of a religious. The death took place recently, in the Sienna (Convent of Dominican Nuns, Drogheda, of Mother Do Ricci, aunt of Mr. John Dillon, M.P., at an advanced age. LIMERICK.— Day labor. At a recent meeting of the Limerick County Council tho Local Government Board circular as to tho action to be taken by the Council in regard to substituting direct labor for the maintenance of public roads, instead of the present contract system, was discussed at considerable length. A scheme of direct labor on all the roads in the county was ultimately adopted. MEATH.— Tara Hill. The farm on Tara Hill was recently put up for public auction at the Navan Courthouse, Mr. John Clarke, solicitor, Dame street, having carriage of sale. There were only two bidders — Mr. S. Wilson, Oberstown, and Mr. MacDermott, Kilmessan. The highest amount offered was £.2920. This not being considered enough, the executors of the late Mr. M'Nally reserved tho farm for private offer^,

ROSCOMMON.— Coercion Act. Mr. John Haydon, M.P., was a few days before Christmas Day sentenced to 21 days' imprisonment under the Coercion Act for a speech delivered at Ballinlough, County Roscommon. Other sentences were : Messrs. Owens, 14 days , Higgins, 21 days ; Delaney, one month, Cunntine, one month ; Regan, one month and Brett, 14 days. The magistrates consented to state a case as to jurisdiction, and the defendants gave security for their attendance when called on. SLIGO. — A presentation. Mr. John O'Dowd.M.P. for South Sligo, and chairman of the Sligo County Council, has been made the recipient of an interesting presentation, which took the form of a substantial sum in gold in a beautifully worked silk purse in recognition of his services in the public interest. Very Rev. Canon Loftus, P P. Ballymote, presided on the occasion, and the presentation was made by Rev. 1). J. O'Grady, P.P. Kash, who with Mr. James Hannan, J P , acted as joint treasurer to the testimonial. GENERAL. Certain to fail. The ' Westminster Gazette,' commenting on the revival of coercion, as instanced by the Castlebar prosecutions, writes : ' But the particular facts are of less importance than the broad fact that we seem now drifting back into an attempt to govern Ireland by coercion. The attempt is as certain to fail as it has failed before. Compulsory sale. The prosecutions initiated in the West of Ireland by the Castle < writes a Dublin correspondent) have references to the differences between Lord de Freyne and his tenantry Tho tenantry claim a reduction of rent, and his Lordship refuses it The United League and its leaders bid tho tenants hold out The Government calls this an illegal conspiracy or incitement. Hence the prosecutions. But the tenants are perfectly law-abiding, as their letter to Lord do Freyne shows. They are unable to pay his Lordship all he demands, but they ofter him all he can justly claim and all they can possibly pay. Adjoining the de Freyne estate is the Dillon estate. Loid Dillon agreed some time ago to sell his interest in the land to the tenants on it, and did so. The Government, under the Land Purchase Act, found the money and advanced it to tho tenants on loan Lord Dillon got his price and gives no further trouble. Ho is clone with the business. The tenants are paying back the loan to the Government in annual instalments, and are making their payments with unfailing regularity, the Government itself having tixed the amount of the instalments. But these annual payments are much less in amount than the annual rents demanded by Lord de Freyne from his tenantry on lands immediately adjoining. The de Freyne tenantry cannot pay more than the Dillon tenantry, for they sell in the same markets, and have no advantage over their neighbors. They must go on paying for evermore, while the Dillon tenantry will have to pay only till they wipe out their loans Hence the crux. The de Freyne tenantry offer their landlord the Dillon scale of payment, but Lord do Freyne stands out for his ' rights.' Hence the friction and the agitation and the prosecutions. If Compulsory Sale were enacted, his Lordship would have to sell at a fixed price, and there would be no trouble. The United League leaders under prosecution are really the proto-martyrs of Compulsory Sale. What they are being prosecuted for to-day will be the law of the land presently. Home Rule Cause. Mr. John Redmond and the other delegates who have been visiting the

United States (says the ' Catholic Times ') have had a very enthusiastic reception on their return. It must have been peculiarly gratifying to thorn. When they were leaving for the States there were not wanting prophets to foretell that their mission would prove a failure. The Irish-Americans, it was said, would no longer give them any sympathy or support, and they would come back grievously disappointed. Exactly the reverse of this has happened As the ' Cork Examiner ' observes, Irish-America has broken all its records in its generosity towards the representatives of the Irish people. The leading men of the race in the States have made themselves responsible for £20,000 towards the Parliamentary funds, and there is a practical assurance that as long as the Parliamentary forces continue united and capable of doing good work a similar amount may safely be reckoned on by those who are marshalling the National forces. The Churchand the poor. A correspondent of the London C atholic Times ' gives the following extract taken from a recent issue of the ' Guardian ' (Anglican) :— ■ • • Would that we could learn their secret (the Catholic Church in Ireland) of gaining the obedience— nay, the affection and jealous loyalty —of the poor. Rome can stoop, as the (Anglican) Church in Ireland cannot, down to the uneducated and poor and simple, and bring religion —real, practical, vital religion— within the comprehension and into the lives of the little ones of Christ's Church. Would that we could learn something of her power of dogmatic instruction, her recognition of the house of God as a house of prayer, her work among communicants, her sense of the power and presence of •sin, ht>r discipline, and her belief in hi'i self.' Distribution. Mr. Ernest Gardner, the Conservative member for the Wokingham Division of Berkshire, evidently does not agree with Mr. Chamberlain's announcement of policy with regard to Irish representation, nidging from the following extract from a speech delivered at Workingham a few weeks since. Mr. Gardner said he confessed he was not one of those who largely advocated alterations in Parliamentary procedure or a very great stiengthenmg of the majority over the lights of the minority. There was a party in the House' of Commons whose conduct was very exasperating, but at the same time he could not help remembering that the House of Commons, of all places, was the British home of free speech! They would think he was treading dangerously close to party politics, but they must remember that they might not always be the maiority. He could picture the time when the minority of the House of Commons nnqht be the body that had the patriotic feeling of the country, and he was not prepared, without great consideration, to support any alteration that would give the majority n1 some future time the opportunity of treading upon the minority, which might, after all, bo right, as' minorities sometimes were. This led him to the question of the Trish representation in the FTouse of Commons, and here again he was 1 not an eager supporter of any proposal -or dealing drastically with the Irish Party. It was impossible to deal with the Irish representation from a' punitive point of mow, though ho admitted that they greatly n bused their freedom. He had had the pleasure of conversing with many members of the Irish Party, and he had never found them other than gentlemanly and courteous men, though they did give expression to their feelings in the manner that outraged their fel-low-members in the House of Commons and a great many people in

the country. He could not bring his mind to support the reduction of tho Irish members unless it were done as a whole measure from one end of the United Kingdom to tho other. Undoubtedly there was overrepresentation m England ; at Hereford and Rochester, for instance, among other towns m England, and therefore if they had such a measure they must have justice behind it. The land question. The ' Birmingham Daily Post,' the Liberal Unionist organ of the landlords, and usually designated as Mr. Chamberlain's paper, has in a late issue a most discriminating review of Mr. Russell's book, '-Ireland and the Empire.' The land question is treated thus :— ' The chapter that deserves, and will doubtless receive, most attention is that in which he advocates those views upon the Irish land question, for the sake of which he sacrificed his position in the Unionist Government. " Compulsory sale of the landlord's interest in the land is," he says, " the only way out." Without attempting any discussion of Mr. Russell's project we may say that, sooner or later, it will be forced on the attention of all politicians, and that the case m its favor could not be more cflectively and eloquently stated than in the book before us.' Irish Industries. An Irish Industries exhibition was opened in Manchester about the middle of December. These exhibitions are really sales of work, and are conducted purely on business lines. They show that agriculture is not the only industry practised in Ireland. .Some beautiful goods were shown, all tho work of poor people Mho h\e in t lie countiy disti icts of Ireland. Since this association was first started by .Lady Aberdeen, sonicSi exhibitions and sales ha\e been organised in London and elsewhere, and the nett total of the sales is £6. r: ?,161 The money has mostly gone to the poor people m Ireland, but Irish ladies of reduced circumstances h«i\e also benefited by the operations of the association. At the Exhibition m Manchester there were many stalls j resided o\er (by Irish ladies. The Curraghmore Knitting Industry stall was presided o\er by the Marchioness of Viaterford, and she*was assisted by x^ady Susan Beresford, Lady Aileen Roberts, Mrs. Vaudrey, and Miss Edith Miller. The Ulster Ladies' Woi k Society stall had for its president the Marchioness of Dufferm and A\a, and amongst those assisting was the Countess of Annesley. The County of Meath stall was attended by the Countess of Fingall Other stalls were the Castlebar stall (Countess of Lucan's), Garry Hill Cottage industry, the IvilUrney Furniture and Castlerosse School of Industry stall, Irish Distressed Ladies, Gentlewomen's Guild of Handicraft, (Juniton and Strangford Cottage Industry, Cushendall, Glens of Antrim Toy Industry, Turbotson Cottage Industry, Dunleckneg, Marfield. and Borris, County C.irlow Industi ics. etc. The opening ceicnion.v on Thins day was performed by the Countess of Cadogan, and it was giaccd by the presence of many influential notabilities. On Friday the Countess of Aberdeen opened the exhibition, when there was again a great gathering. To enumerate the different articles on each stall, and to attempt a more criticism would require space that we "could not possibly give, and even then it would be but a feeble effort The- work oflered for sale was varied, embracing lace, in galore. antique embroideries, dress and furnishings, ci ocliet, sprigged muslin, tatted work, weaving and tweeds, etc Some of the work done in convent schools came m for great praise, which was- richly deserved. On the whole the exhibition ■was considered a great success, and the takings amounted to o»er £4000.