Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 27, Issue 21, 27 May 1909, Page 827

Irish News

CAVAN— A Comparision In Cavan 79,000 Catholics and 18,000 Protestants return a Council exclusively Catholic and Nationalist. Yet this Council employs 26 Protestants as against 30 Catholics. A Protestant official .gets £600 a year ; no Catholic more than £300. In Belfast, Catholics are a third of the population, but the Corporation pays £51,405 in a year in salaries, of which only £640 goes to Catholics. It can be confidently asserted — First, that Nationalist Ireland has set to Unionist Ireland a much-needed example of religious and political toleration. Secondly, that wherever Protestants are in a minority, however small, they receive their full proportional share of representation on committees, and more than their full share of salaries; and that wherever Unionists are in a majority, they use it to exclude the Catholic minority so far as possible from either influence or preferment. CORK — A Serious Loss to Queenstown Gieat indignation is felt in Ireland at the proposal that the big Cuiiarders should sail direct from Liverpool to New York without calling at Queenstown. DONEGAL— Death of a Priest The death occurred, on April 6 of the parish priest of Raphoe, Rev. Edward McDevitt, who had previously ministered at Stranorlar before the pastorate of Raphoe was conferred upon him. Father McDevitt, who was highly esteemed throughout Most Rev. Dr. O'Donnell's diocese, was a native of Milford, County Donegal, and a member of a highly respected family of that district. DUBLIN— A Lady Professor The Board of Trinity College, Dublin, has appointed a young lady as assistant to the Professor of Modern History. Miss Maxwellj who has had a distinguished undergraduate course, is the first woman to become a member of the teaching staff of Trinity, and her appointment marks a notable step by Dublin University in recognition of women's claims. A Vacant Knighthood The appointment of the Earl of Granard to the vacant Knighthood of St. Patrick restores the Irish Order to the position in which it stood before the late Earl Kenmare'a death, in that it has once again a Catholic member. There was a time when a member of that faith could not well be a Knight of St. Patrick, for down to the disestablishment of the so-called Irish Church part of the ceremony of installation consisted of a religious service in the Protestant Cathedral of St. Patrick. The last surviving Knight who participated in that service is his Majesty the King, who was installed as an ordinary member of the Order in 1863, the function being a very brilliant one. As the Earl "of Granard is not only a member of the .Government, but fills the position of Master of the Horse in his Majesty's household, it will be interesting to note the attitude of his brother Knights when the cer.emony of installation takes place in Dublin Castle. The present Government have already appointed two Knights, and when they were installed the majority of the existing Knights absented themselves from the Chapter meeting. Chad 'able Bequests The late Mrs. Marcella Bermingham, Adelaide Road, Glenageary, left personal estate valued at £18,254. .She bequeathed the following sums for charitable purposes : — £2500 to the Home of the Sacred Heart, Drumcondra ; £900 for Masses; £200 to the Convent of the Sisters of the Assumption, Dublin; £500 to the Hospice for the Dying, Harold's Cross; £300 each to St. Kevin's Club and Resident Home for Catholic Business Girls, Dublin; the Convent, Boston Spa, Leeds; the Maternity Hospital, Holies street ; £200 each- to the Police- Aided Children's Clothing Society and the Drumshambo Convent, County Leitrim; £100 to the Rev. Herbert Gray, of Fakenham, Norfolk, for establishing a mission in Northampton; £500 for such of the fishermen around the coast of Ireland as the executors may consider deserving of help in order to enable them to purchase and repair their nets and boats; £200 to the Superioress of the Convent of the Holy Faith, Eccles street; £200 each to the Christian Brothers' Schools, -Richmond street, Kingstown, and \Westland Row; and £500 towards paying off the debt on the Church of St. Michael, Kingstown. QALWAY— A Myth The practical joker is not, as a rule (says the Catholic Times), much troubled about teaching useful lessons, but

when ho victimised Mr. William Moore, M.P., one of the representatives of the Irish Orangemen, he conveyed to Parliament and the public a moral which all who run may read. Mr. Moore is a gentleman who takes a genuine delight in endeavoring to make the inhabitants of Great Britain believe that the wickedness of the people of Ireland, the country where he represents a constituency, is past imagining. No matter how pleasant or how peaceable the Irish Catholic may look, he is always, in Mr. Moore's opinion, brewing mischief. Mr. Mooore's parliamentary life, therefore, consists of a daily array of questions as to what measures the Government have taken or intend to take in order to prevent this or that crime, or to punish this or that criminal. On Thursday, March 11, he enquired in tragic accents what the Government meant to do with Mr. James Hogan,- J.P., of Kinvara. Mr. Hogan, he stated, was a plague in the community. He was a boycotter and oppressor, and had been' inflicting suffering on innocent people. The law-breaker had been brought before the magistrates for his misdeeds, but being of his religious and political belief, they acquitted him. . The Resident Magistrate had unavailingly protested against the scandal, and the County Inspector had urged the institution of further proceedings. The Attorney-General for Ireland had, however, refused to act on the suggestion, and the audacious Mr. Hogan, of Kinvara, was still at liberty. Mr. Redmond Barry, amidst the laughter of the House, informed the-hon. member that Mr. James Hogan, J.P., was a myth — that no such person exists at Kinvara, a Galway village, by the way, made' famous through- one of Mr. Frank Fahy's songs. The moral is very plain— that anti-Irish members are perfectly reckless as to the grounds upon which they prefer charges against Irish Catholics and Nationalists. MEATH— The Bishop of Ballarat The Right Rev. Dr. Higgins, Bishop of Ballarat, who is visiting his native land after twenty years' absence (writes a Dublin correspondent), was recently presented by his clerical friends of the diocese of. Meath — his fellowworkers in the sacred ministry before his appointment to an Australian Bishopric — with a beautifully executed portrait of himself, as a token of their esteem and affection for him. The presentation took place at the residence of his Lordship's old friend and colleague, the Very Rev. Dr. Dooley, P.P., V.G., Kells, and was attended by a large number of clergymen, gathered together from every corner of the diocese, who were anxious to take part in paying a tribute to a distinguished son of the Church. In accepting the gift — presented afterwards to St. Finian's Seminary, Navan, of which he was president for seventeen years — Dr. Higgins delivered a touching reply in the course of which he said that amidst the busy scenes of labor which awaited him in that stinny land wherein he* was destined to spend the closing years of his life, his thoughts would often return to Meath to gather new strength for the fulfilment of his duties from the recollection of those bright examples of priestly zeal and brotherly love of which the past was so full for him. LIMERICK— A Successful Exile Mexico lost one of her foremost capitalists in the death of William Purcell. He was a native of Limerick, emigrating to Mexico a penniless lad in 1861, and succeeded in amassing a fortune estimated at £600,000. He bore the reputation of a philanthropist, , and his charities were numerous. LONG FORD— A Serious Fire . The Longford Workhouse was destroyed by fire on Monday, March 29. The damage is estimated at £10,000. The Most Rev. Dr. Hoare, Bishop of Ardagh, visited the scene shortly after the outbreak, and gave instructions to utilise the local chapel as a temporary shelter for the aged inmates of the workhouse. TIPPER ARY— A Ballycohey Memorial On April 4, Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., performed the ceremony of unveiling a memorial erected in Soldghead churchyard, County Tipperary, over the grave of Michael O'Dwyer, whose name will live long in Irish history in connection with the Ballycobey episode: In the course of his address Mr. Devlin dealt with the tyrannical powers exercised by landlord's in Ireland as late as forty years ago. He said : — Scully had rackrented the tenantry to the last possible farthing; and they had paid and not cried out. The worm had not yet turned. And then came the Ballycohey leases. The terms of these leases seem astonishing in our day. But they are worth recalling, if only to remind the present generation of the power of an Irish landlord so late as forty years ago. A half-year's rent was to be paid in advance; the rent was to be paid quarterly; the holding was to be surrendered on twenty-one days' notice at the end of any quarter; the tenants were to forego all

claims to their own crops that might be in the soil; and they were to pay all rates and taxes whatsoever. Whoever refused to accept these terms must quit ! It was a terrible alternative. Let us try to recall, if we can, the scene in Dobbyn's Hotel, in Tipperary town, on that day, in June, 1868, when Scully attended to receive the May rents, and to get his tenants to sign the new leases. Be is seated at a table, with a loaded revolver oh each hand, and a policeman, with rifle end sabre, close by. Only four tenants come in person. The others have sent their rent by messengers. Even the four tenants who come in person refuse to sign the leases. Scully swears at them. They actually defy him. The worm has turned at last. _In that room in Dobbyn's Hotel, Irish landlordism had thrown down the gauntlet, and the men of Ballycohey had picked it up. There is" a point beyond which human endurance cannot go, a point where patience becomes cowardice, and that point had now been reached. WICKLOW— A Loss to Arklow A good deal of alarm 'has been caused at Arklow owin^ to the fact that over 100, employees of Messrs. Kynoch and Co., the local chemical and cordite factories, have been dismissed. The manager of the works states that work could not be found for the hands, and that there is no likelihood of them being taken on again. The wages of the men affected range from 18s to 25s per week. An Irish Riviera The Countess of Aberdeen, in opening a tuberculosis exhibition at Bray, said 'that if the people on the other side of the water could have seen Bray during the month of February, in the bright fresh sunshine, day by day, they would go no more, she was sure, to the Riviera in search of early summer, but there would result instead a very large influx of spring visitors to this, the Irish Riviera. GENERAL Ireland's Freedom from Crime At the opening of the Commission on April 1 (writes a Dublin correspondent), Judge Kenny congratulated the grand juries of the Dublin City and County on the almost complete immunity from crime of both. At Cork Criminal Sessions, on the same date, the Recorder was presented with white gloves. The same ceremony took place recently at Limerick City and County Assizes,— Monaghan, Wicklow, and other places. The instances in which the criminal calendars comprised not more than one, two, or. three cases are very numerous. It would be most interesting if a return giving the records presented all over Ireland at the Spring Assizes were compiled and published far and wide. The Parliamentary Fund Within six weeks of the issue of the appeal to the people of Ireland, -published by the National Trustees n accprdance_with the resolution at the National Convention, we (Irish News) acknowledge a ' first instalment ' of £1147 2s 2d towards the United Irish National and Parliamentary Fund, 1909. Several circumstances must be taken into account if the encouraging significance of the list and the total in another page is to be fully appreciated. When -the appeal was issued, Irish Nationalists were looking forward with disgust and apprehension to a recrudescence of factional squabbling and, perhaps, a period of political stagnation as a consequence. For five or six weeks the . country was threatened with another ' Split ' — of a minor character, no doubt, but still a ' Split ' annoying and disheartening. Only those whose faith rose above difficulties and to whom political insight revealed the necessity for immediate practical action, cared to respond while the future appeared uncertain. Under these circumstances this week's long list is more than satisfactory : it is inspiring. As a record of the people's confidence in the capacity, fidelity, and unstained honor of. their elected representatives it challenges recognition from friends and enemies. Catholic Disabilities Bill We were informed by cable last week that the second reading of the Catholic Disabilities Bill, moved by Mr. W. Redmond,/ M.P., was carried in the House of Commons by 138 votes to 123. The measure seeks the removal of the 1 embargo on .the eligibility of Catholics for the offices of Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and Lord Lieutenant f Ireland, and the omission of the offensive sentence from the King's Accession Oath. After the second reading the Bill was sent to a committee of the whole House, which is equivalent to shelving it. The Prime Minister, Mr. As- ' quith, approved of the opening of- the Lord Chancellorship and the Viceroyalty of Ireland to Catholics. He said the Accession Declaration was the flimsiest and most unnecessary safeguard. Mr. Asquith suggested the appointment of 9 committee to find a form of declaration that would be inoffensive to any religious susceptibilities.