Priests and People in Ireland.'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 52, 25 December 1902, Page 1

Priests and People in Ireland.'

In last Thursday's issue of the' Otago Daily Times' there appeared a two-column review, reprinted from the Melbourne 1 Age,' of a work bearing the above title and written by one Michael J. F. McCarthy, 8.A., of Trinity College, Dublin. The book is a scurrilous and almost hysterical attack on the Catholic priesthood of Ireland and it was not at all surprising therefore that it should receive a warm welcome from the 'Age ' reviewer. He professes, indeed, not to express any opinion as to the truth or otherwise of Mr McCarthy's statements but he simply cannot conceal his enthusiastic admiration for the author and his work. He begins by pointing out that a

similarly abusive book, previously published by McCarthy entitled * Five years in Ireland,' was pronounced *by one of the most influential of the leading journals in Germany to be "one of those works which announce a revolution in public opinion and a new epoch in the history of Ireland." ' It might t av^. °J: curre d to the reviewer as, at least, curious that Mr McCarthy should have to fall back on a German paper as an authority for a book published on Ireland. The reviewer then goes on to quote at great length a lot of terrible twaddle from Mr McCarthy, referring to that gentleman variously as ' a Catholic and an Irishman,' ' a good Catholic,' « an educated and patriotic Irishman, who is also a Catholic,' etc. The book, he declares, • is bound to make a great stir both at home and abroad.' One would have thought that after the Galton fiasco our anti-Catholic friends would have fought rather shy of alleged ' revolts ' amongst Catholics, but the wish is so entirely father to the thought that their judgment is blinded ; and so we find th>s reviewer surmising that this book ' may be the first note of a revolt of the educated classes against the " sacerdotal domination," which this writer so passionately condemns.' 1 AH great movements of this kind,' he sagely observes, 'are rightly described as being "in the air," and when they get there it is quite impossible to predict when or where they will stop. The publication of such a book at such a time is sure to provoke a storm of controversy, and this, by presenting both sides of the question, will help to educate the public mind upon a subject which is not unlikely to become a very prominent one.'