OUR IRISH LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 26 May 1904, Page 9

OUR IRISH LETTER

(From our own correspondent.) Dublin, March, 1904. At long last, the festival of our Patron, St. Patrick, is officially declared a ' Bank Holiday, ' that is, a public holiday for all classes and creeds. Uf course, the 17ith of March has always been kept holy by the Irish Catholics, but this year, for the first time, the day ib a State Holiday, and it is a pleasure to record that,> although the State permits, nay, encourages the opening of drink-shops on Sundays and- festivals, the exceptions amongst the publicans in Ireland were those who did not comply with the appeals of our bishops and priests and of the Gaelic League to close drink-shops on St. Patrick's Day. General sobriety honored our great Ajpostle's feast, almost every publichouse displaying a the Gaelic League card announcing that the establishment would be closed for 'La Feile Padruig.' Surely the Catholic clergy are doing well in joining hands with the Gaelic League for the common good and for the protection of many things that the present-day spirit of materialism seeks to make its own even here in IrelantU This effort to have our National Festival kept as a day of strict sobriety is one of the good works in which the clergy and the Gaelic League work hand in hand, and they have, so far, succeeded splendidly, in spite of strenuous opposition, for it moist be remembered that they have to work against two strong forces : the Government, which stands just now so much in need of money, and which at all times derives so large a share of its revenue from the drink trade that it lately refused to pass a Bill prohibiting the manufacture or the sale of ' silent spirits, 1 which, in plain language, is a deadly poison ; and the selfish greed that so besets many amongst the licensed traders that they fight a hard battle against eivery movement that would take e\en one day's profits from them, although that one day be the festival of; our great Apostle. H,owe\er, it is a splendid thing to ,know that comparatively few publicans braved public opinion by keeping open house, and St. Patrick's Day was celebrated as it should be, with piety and sobriety. Adulterated Drink. It is a painful thing to reflect that the Government refuses to give facilities for passing this particular Liquor Bill, in spite of the facts and statistics brought forward by the medical profession and by temperance advocates of every class and creed to prove that much, if not most of the awful increase of insanity in these islands is well known to be due to the sale of poisonous stuff instead of genuine whisky, stuff that is openly prepared in and sent out from Government bonded stores, with the full knowledge of the authorities. Over and over it has been proved that nine tenths of the cases treated as drunkenness are really cases of temporary insanity produced after drinking what would be a very moderate amount of spirits, if pure, and that the repeated use of this really moderate quantity of drink finally produces hopeless lunacy and nearly all the crime that is committed in the country. I myself know of a case that will illustrate this. A gentleman, a land surveyor, out with his assistant on a raw day in winter, turned into an inn and called for a glass of whisky for himself and one for his man. He saw that the man got one glass , and only one, but he recollected subsequently that it had not been served from the same bottle that he had been served from. They went their way, the surveyor not in the least injured or affected by" the dram he had taken, b>it before half am hour elapsed his companion was, not drunk, but absolutely mad for the time being from the effects of ' killed spirits.' The poor fellow had committed no excess, yet he was in a condition of frenzy that produces so many crimes. These things are well known ; year by year, the lunatic asylums have to be enlarged, but it all brings more and more money to the publican and to the exchequer, and so it is up-hill work, desperate work for the clergy and laity who are striving to rave the people from degradation and the madhouse 1 . One would sometimes be almost tempted to fear we are a doomed race, so much is done to exterminate us. Everything is done to encourage drinking and emigration — tlhe two drains on the manhood and womalnhood of the country. Emigration. The very schools have been found to be emigration agency offices ; schoolmasters, if not avowed, certainly secret agents for the emigration companies, which must