Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 41, 8 October 1903, Page 9

Irish News

ANTRIM,— A Belfast Disaster Fairbairn and Lawson's moulding shop, Belfast, collapsed last week, and fifteen persons were entombed, only a few of whom were rescued alive. DERRY.— Orange Factions f The anniversary of the Relief ol Derry was celebrated by the Orangemen of the city and district. Belfast sent two opposing contingents of the Sloanites and Trewites, but both sections were prohibited from participating in the public procession of the Order. The Orangemen, later in the day, began to quarrel among themselves, and there was a good deal of bloodshed, but eventually the police got the combatants to the railway station land cleared them out o,f the city. King Edward was denounced as a ' Popish King ' at a meeting held by Trew. DOWN. — Pronouncement by the Irish Leader Mr. J. E. Redmond, speaking at Newcastle last week said if the Irish Land Act was intelligently worked it would end the agrarian question in a few years. The next session must be devoted to the interests of the laborers, to whom the Nationalists' cause owed so much. The Nationalists had in their hands the Ministry's life or death. They would use their power without compunction to forward the Irish cause. In connection with Mr. Redmond's views it is interesting to note that the ' Irish Times,' the Dublin Unionist organ, holds somewhat similar opinions. It says :— We have "spoken of the 103 representatives of Ireland as a whole, and not of the 20 Unionists or the 83 Nationalists as separate parties, because it seems to us most desirable that on this issue Irishmen should speak with no uncertain sound, Hut should support a common policy solely directed to the benefit of Irish interests. England has never been governed in deciding upon her fiscal policy by any special consideration for the interests of Ireland, and we see no reason why in this matter Ireland should show herself more altruistic than her neighbor. In the eighteenth century the nascent manufactures of Ireland were deliberately hampered and destroyed by the restrictions plaiced upon them in the interests of English traders : in the nineteenth century England, to suit herself, repealed the corn-laws, and thereby deprived the ohief remaining industry in Ireland of such advantage as it reaped from their, continuance. Ireland may now have the deciding voice in determining what the fiscal policy of Great Britain sihall be for the next half-century. Let her look to it that, after full consrderation of the circumstances, she raises her voice on the jside of that policy which promises' the greatest good'to her own people. DUBLIN —Death of a Baronet Sir Percy Grace, Bart , died recently at his residence, Boley, Monkstown The deceased baronet, who was a member of an old Catholic family, was connected with various public bodies. He was a director of the Hibernian Bank, and of the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway Company. He was also a Commissioner of the National Education Board, and of the Irish Lights Board and the Board of Charitable Donations and Bequests He was Governor of the Koyal Hibernian Military School and of Shiel's Institute. Trustees Appointed The following trustees have been appointed for the distribution amongst the Dublin hospitals of the gift of ujO, ooo which Lord Iveagh generously gave in connection with the King's visit to Dublin i: Lord O'Brien, of Kilfenora (chairman), Mr. Charles E. Martin, D L., J.P , of 12 Fitzwilliam place ; the Right Hon Jonathan Hog^, wine merchant, 12 Cope street ; Mr. Joseph Todhunter Pirn, 22 William street ; and Lieutenant-Colonel Adderly, a director of Guinness's Brewery. QALWAY.— The Blake Clan Mr. Thomas Blake, who headed the amateur escort of tenant-farmers on their ponies which accompanied the King during his recent visit to Galway, is the eldest son of Sir Valentine/- Blake, of Menlo, the picturesque ivycovered seat that towers above the Corrib waters near Galway. 'I tie Blakes are a great clan in Galway, and this baronetcy dates from 1622, its first holder having been Mayor of Galway. The Blakes were Cavaliers, and Sir Walter Blake was a captain in Dillon's regiment in the army of James 11. in Ireland, but 'obtained' the benefit of the articles of capitulation at Galway in 1691, when' William Hl.'s cause finally triumphed. They have done their share of fighting since, and have married Lynches and Burkes, the other great Connemara clans The present, the fourteenth baronet, is over 60. His son Thomas was born in 1870, and was formerly a lieutenant in the Koyal Artillery. His sister, Miss Florence Blake, had rather a sad story. In 1894 Mr. Roland Cot-

ton, of Etwall Hall, hex lover was drowned in Gialway dock while on a visit to the Biakes. Of Mr. Thomas Blake's ' Cavalry ' the ' Times ' correspondent says — 1 A , wilder, merrier crew than this escort, with knots of red, white, and blue and green ribbons in their hats many of them riding bare-backed, , and not a few of them chattering in Irish, was surely never seen.' KERRY.— Mass on the Mountain Top Apropos of the imposing ceremony on Uroagh Patrick on Sunday, August 16, the last occasion (says the 'Freeman's Journal ') , vsOien Mass was celebrated on the top of an Irish mountain was on Sunday,, June 28th, 1868. This great function was initiated by the late Canon Brosnan, the senior curate of Tralee, an,d on that memorable Sunday quite 20,000 people, headed by Dr. Morlarty, Bishop of Kerry, ascended Brendan Mountain (over 50U0it. high) most of them starting at five o'clock a.m. from Tralee. Mass was celebrated at the base of the mount at 11 o'clock by Father Murphy, 0.P., Prior of the Dominican Convent, Tcralee, and before 12 noon the sacred ceremonies of the day commenced on the pinnacle of St. Brendan's Mountain, the Bishop celebrating Solemn Mass. Three sermons were preached, the first by Father Murphy, the second by Father Moriarty, and the ad in Irish, by Father Brosnan. KlLDARE.— Purchasing their Holdings A cable message states that the tenants have purchased the Duke of Leinster's Kuuare estates, comprising 44,000 acres, for £1,381,353. Twenty-five years is given for the payment of the purchase money. It is evident from the tenor of this message wiat the sale was not under the new Land Act but by private treaty, especially as the Act does not come into force until the beginning of next month. LEITRIM.— FataI Accident A shock was given the residents of Carrick-on-Shan-non on August 14, when the news spread that Dr. Richard B. Threlfall had bled to death early that morning from having the main artery of one of his legs severed by accident. Four doctors were immediately at the side of their popular colleague. However, all their efforts to stop the flow of blood was futile, and the once promising medical man bled to death. He was fortified by the rites of the Church, which was administered to him by n.e Rev. B. Ueragoity. LIMERICK. — Increase of Lunacy The resident medical superintendent of the Limerick Lunatic Asylum reports that tihe number of patients still keeps increasing, 18 -cases having been admitted in a m,onth, while, only 10 were discharged. MAYO. — An Imposing Ceremony Croag,h Patrick, one of the most stately of the mountain ranges of Connemara, was on Sunday, August 16, the scene of an imposing ceremony. On the highest peak, o\erlooking Clew Bay, and fully 2500 ft above the level of the sea Father McDonald, Administrator, Westport, o flexed up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the presence of a congregation which numbered over 7000, and included not a few visitors from America and Australia who happened to be in Ireland and gladly availed of the opportunity of being present. His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Healy was to have preached on the occasion, but owing to the inclemency of the weather he was unable to attend. Father McDonald announced that an Indulgence had been granted by the Holy See to everyone who assisted at the ceremony with proper dispositions. He also intimated that xMass would be celebrated on the mountain every year in future. MEATH. Convent Schools A passage occurring in the pastoral letter issued by the Bishop of Meath gives the he to the slanders insinuated in the letters of V H. U'Donnell and Michael McCarthy, that, the nuns of Ireland are backward in education, and but mdiftercntly equipped to impart it. Bishop GafEney, referring to the convent at Navan, says that one of the nuns there ' got first place in the Intermediate list of honors for successive years, afterwards matriculated for Royal University and got an exhibition for her examination She got an exhbition in First Arts, and afterwards got the Stewart prize for the excellence of her examination in First and Second Arts in open competitions with all tine schools of Ireland. She is B.A. and M.A. of the Royal University.' No wonder the Bishop goes on to add : ' It is lamentable to see the folly ofso many parents sending their daughters away— even to England— while they have such home advantages.' WATERFORD.— Lord Dudley's Opinions The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, speaking at Waterford in reference to the new Irish Land Act, remarked that it seemed to him the success of tihe measure depended largely not only on the method of administration, but in the spirit in which tihe people co-operated in bringing it into operation. Lord Dudley gave an undertaking on behalf of the Government as to the administration, and

he hoped that the same spirit would be displayed in the working of the Act as was during the debate in the House of Commons. The Act, as Mr. T. W. xvussell pointed out in the letter to his election agent in South Tyrone, does not come into operation until the Ist of November, and Mr. Russell, who is not over-sanguine as to the outcome of the Act, intends during October to hold a number of conferences with the tenants in order to arrange as to the methods of procedure under the Act, the good or evil results of which depend so rmich, as Lord Dudley says, on the spirit of reasonableness and fair-minded dealing in the negotiations. GENERAL The Linen Industry ' WhetheT Ireland is the finest country in the world for growing flax, it is beyond dispute (says ' World's Work ') the finest in the world for bleaching linen. Nowhere else can the snow-white finished fabric be turned out to rival the Irish bleach. France, Belgium, Germany, and America have all entered, into competition with us, and retired uns/uccessfuL The quality of the water, the climate, and the inherited experience of the Irish bleachers all contribute to the result. Irish in England The number of Irish in England is much larger than is generally supposed. Of the 35,000,000 persons enumerated in England and Wales, 426,565 were born in Ireland. The English county having the largest number of Irish-born persons in its population is Lancashire, which, at the time of the last census was taken, had a total of 145,301 within its borders. Of the other English counties Yorkshire follows Lancashire, with an Irish-born contribution to its population of 39,145. National Heirlooms The benches on which the members of the Irish House of Commons sat are preserved at the Royal Irish Academy, and are sometimes occupied by the members of that learned body. The mace is a treasured heirloom at Antrim Castle, inherited from Mr. Foster, the last Speaker—a determined Home Ruler— who refused to surrender ' the bauble ' to any but the constituted authority by whom it had been entrusted to his keeping. It was a familiar object to the public, for the Speaker resided some distance from the House, and used to walk, in fine weather, in his robes from his residence to the House of Commons, preceded by the Sergeant:at-Arms bearing the mace, and in his progress was usually accorded almost regal honors. The division bell found its? way to the Theatre Royal, Dublin, where it did service for over half-a-century. It perished in the fire that destroyed the theatre some twenty years ago. Reducing the Constabulary Force A Belfast paper states that concurrently with the Land Bill becoming law the Royal Irish Constabulary force will be considerably reduced. A circular has been issued to county inspectors calling upon them to retire all members of the force over a ceurtain age limit, including all ranks from head constable down. There are to be no further promotions from t?he ranks to district- inspectorships. Recruiting was stopped some time ago. A Prophecy Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., speaking at Liverpool recently, referred to the Land Bill then before Parliament as the greatest peaceful revolution ever carried out in the history of a nation, and he ventured to prophesy that in five years or less a British Minister in the House of Commons would propose a Home Rule Bill. If the Ministry wanted to make the Empire strong and united tihere was a better plan than Mr. Chamberlain's taxation of food, and that was to settle the Irish question.