Lord Dudley on Sectarianism

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 5, 4 February 1904, Page 6

Lord Dudley on Sectarianism

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (says the Glasgow 1 Observer ') received extravagant praise for his recent declaration in favor of religious tolerence in Ireland. To Lord Dudley, as an individual, such views are a credit To the Lord Lieutenant, as the head of the English system in lieland, such views are not creditable, for if the Lord Lieutenant holds them, he should put them into force Mr Labouchere has sharply brought his Excellency to book for indulgence in empty and misleading platitudes. Writing in ' Truth ' Mr. Labouchere say s . 'In Lord Dudley's speech he took a curious view, not at all consistent with the facts of Irish history, either past or present. He treated religious animosity in Ireland as a thing at which England looked on, but had no part. But Protestant ascendancy in Catholic Ireland was not a Rome growth. Without outside backing it would have been impossible, and is dying when deprived of it. Irish Catholics do not admit that their demand to be on a footing of equality in their own country with their Protestant countrymen is an expression of leligious animosity. In the matter ol education they ask nothing which is not, strictly within the bounds of common-sense and justice. They have nothing to say against a Protestant University for Protestants ; they have a great deal to say in favor of a Catholic Univeisity for Catholics. Everyone is free to hold his own religious tenets in a free country When his religion is not illegal, it is logically absurd that it should deprive him of equal rights with every one else in the Kingdom ' It is all very well for Lord Dudley to talk so nicely as he did, but fine words butter no parsnips. Within a day or two ago of His Excellency's speech, Dublin Castle appointed twelve leading legal officials for Ireland. Eleven of them were Protestants. Enough said.