Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 21 April 1910, Page 627

Irish News

■—: ———▼ , ——— - -•.: t CORK—-Tory Supporters Lady Fitzgerald Arnott, widow of the late Sir John Arnott, and mother of the present baronet of the same name, has subscribed £SOO towards the establishment of Mr. Wm. O’Brien’s projected new paper in Cork (says the Irish Weekly). The present Sir John Arnott is the principal proprietor of the Irish Times, which is the leading organ of Irish Unionism. - A Note of Warning The Right Rev. Dr. O’Callaghan, Bishop of Cork, has ordered a note of warning to be read at all the churches in the. diocese. It appears that the Mormons are at present holding meetings in the city, with the object. of inducing young girls to emigrate to the Mormon settlements in Canada; hence the Bishop has deemed it necessary to place before the people the dangers that lay in store for those who pay any heed to the words of these people. Irish Soil for America Mr. Edward M. Lahiff, of Monkstown, County Cork, received early in March the following cablegram from the Chicago Tribune :—‘President Taft coming to Chicago, Patrick’s Day; guest of Irish Fellowship Club. "Want him to stand on Irish soil. Ship immediately by express twelve square feet best possible Irish sod with shamrocks growing, also historic blackthorn. Cable when shipped.— Tribune.’ Mr. Lahiff shipped the twelve square feet of sod on the St. Louis. ■ DUBLlN—Maynooth College The Senate of the National University met on February 24 and again on the 25th, the Most Rev. Dr. Walsh presiding. The reports of the governing body of University College, Dublin, and of the General Board of Studies of the University itself, recommending that St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, he recognised as a college of the National University, were considered, and it was decided to recognise the college as recommended. The National University In the Mansion House, Dublin, on February 24, Mr. Shane Leslie delivered an interesting lecture on 1 Nationalism in Universities.’ In the course of his remarks the lecturer said a university should not be a forcing house, but it should be a soil in which ideas, and the best ideas, should be freely planted, and he had always imagined, rightly or wrongly, that the great movements that do spring from time to time from universities spring not from the cold mortar of the regulations that were laid upon it so much as from the function of the students themselves. He believed in what Newman called the free and unswayed commerce of young men. Perhaps when he was older he might modify the opinion. At present he should say that he would regard giving young men their heads the first instalment towards giving them their brains. How much more far-reaching their great national movements would have been if Irish students had acted as a force of experimental enthusiasm they could never judge. They had learned—they at leastthat the chill lecture room, an annual examination, and a pompous anniversary did not constitute a university; and they had learned, and would learn, perhaps, that Nationalism could not be taught; that there was no more a professorship of Nationalism than there could be a grinder of true poetry or a demonstrator in chivalry. There were some things in which they must do the professing for themselves; and Nationalism was one of them. A Peculiar Legacy Judgment was given in the King’s Bench Division, Dublin, on Thursday, February 24, in the case of the Attorney-General v. Henry and Charles F. Becker, executors of the will of Elizabeth Mary Stewart, late of Stonehenge, Killiney, County Dublin,' who bequeathed to the Irish . Church Missions a sum of £IOO for the ‘salvation of Irish Catholics.’ The Court, which consisted of the Lord Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Gibson, decided that the bequest was for a purely charitable purpose, and, therefore, exempt from the legacy duty claimed by the Inland Revenue authorities. FERMANAGHThe ‘Prior of Lough Derg Very Rev. Canon McKenna, P.P., known as the Prior of Lough Derg, died on February 24 at the Parochial House, Brookeborough, County-Fermanagh. The Canon, whose name is familiar to thousands of pilgrims who visited the holy island, was born in.Donagh, County Monaghan, in 1825. As far back as 1856 Canon McKenna was Assistant Prior at that far-famed pilgrimage, and he told the late Canon - O’Connor, author of ‘ St. Patrick’s Purgatory,’ that during that year 10,000 pilgrims had made the Station. Through his efforts the present beautiful presbytery .on the island was rebuilt in 1864, at a cost of £164, and the present.St. Mary’s Church was erected at a- cost of £SOO in 1870, in which year Pope Pius IX. renewed the Indulgences accorded to the pilgrimage.

GALWAY—' to the Irish Party In a letter to Mr. Redmond the Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea, Bishop of Galway, says:‘lf there are any believers,in a united Irish Party as an essential element in the recovery of Irish freedom by Constitutional action who believe, at the same time, that the recent attacks on the party, either secret or open, make for its efficiency or will result in the creation of a new and more efficient party, I am not one of them. On the contrary, I have always believed the Irish Party to be honest, and not the tail of any English party, as so many critics have opprobriously alleged ; • and, believing this, and believing also in the competency of the party, I trust their judgment, regard their relations with English parties as the result of the closest study and fuller opportunities than we in Ireland can command, and I consider I am serving Ireland best, and not only Ireland, but, in a measure, higher interests as well, by giving the party my whole-hearted support, and thrusting from my own door the suspicions and aspersions with which they are assailed. In token of this trust in the party, and because of the unusual demand on the party funds in the present crisis, I double my usual subscription this year.’ KERRY—School Disinfection In the report submitted to the first annual meeting of the Killarney branch of the Women’s National Health Association, at which the Very Rev. Father Fuller, Adm,, presided, attention was drawn to the beneficial effect of the introduction by the branch of a scheme for school disinfection and weekly cleaning. To the Killarney Committee belongs the credit of initiating this work, , and letters received from all parts of the country requesting particulars of the operation, of the scheme suggest that the example will be widely imitated. All the schools within a radius of four miles of Killarney are being dealt with at the expense of the committee, and the teachers report that the best results have attended the use of the sprayers employed in disinfecting the rooms. LIMERICK—A Relative of Gerald Griffin The death is announced of the Rev. Thomas Pope Hodnett, one of the most prominent Catholic priests in Chicago. Father Hodnett was a native of, Glin, County Limerick, and was a near relative of. Gerald Griffin. Technical Education v _ . •-f steps taken for the erection of a Technical Institute in Limerick are referred to in the annual report presented by the Principal, Mr. Comerton, at the distribution of prizes in the Municipal Technical Schools of that city. A Limerick contractor has perfected a bond to hand over to the Corporation the new Technical Institute complete within eighteen months, and masters and students look forward to being installed in the new class rooms in September, 1911. Although Local Government Board regulations have constrained the friends of the scheme to modify it for the present the proposed expenditure of £15,000 be : ng reduced by £SOOO, the promoters can be congratulated on the success with which they overcame exceptional difficulties. Absolutely False and Utterly Groundless 0 At a meeting held at Kingstown Town Hall on January 25 in support of - the Unionist candidate, Captain Bryan Cooper, for South Dublin, Mr. D. M. Wilson, K.C., in the course of his speech, said:— lam a native of Limerick I was brought up there, and knew what toleration meant there. It meant that unless you became members of the United Irish League you were simply foreigners even in your native city. I appeal to the electors of South - County Dublin not to betray their trust on this occasion. They should leave nothing undone to ensure that every elector records his vote in favor of Captain Bryan Cooper.’ This statement was referred to at the installing at a special meeting of the Corporation of Limerick of Mr. W. Lambe Stokes, a Protestant and Unionist, as High Sheriff of the city. The Mayor said it must be very satisfactory to Mr. Stokes to find that, he was High Sheriff of a crimeless city, winch has been the unique distinction of that "rand old borough. They had been very free from crime “for some time past, and he was sure they all rejoiced, and nobody more than the High Sheriff, that Limerick enjoyed that singular and grand distinction. The High'Sheriff in acknowledging the honor, said: ‘ I have merely to repeat now as I have done on former occasions, that this is only one further act of kindness and generosity that has been extended to me by the will of the citizens of Limerick It was a very pleasant duty for me after I was elected to fill the office for the present year, and when my name had been accepted by his Excellency, to be in a position to repudiate with your worthy self, sir, with the Town Clerk and the member for this city, some charges that were made with regard to the “intolerance” that prevails in Limerick I was very pleased and gratified that that was one of the" first duties that fell to my lot after I was again elected as your High Sheriff. I have only to say now, as I said on that , occasion, that these statements were absolutely false utterly groundless, and without the slightest foundation. And the gentleman who made use of these remarks, being a gentleman who had lived in Limerick for a very considerable time should have known more of the citizens of Limerick Than to make a charge so utterly unfounded. He was the son of

a gentleman who was respected and revered in this city—l allude to the late Mr. Wilson, who was a Presbyterian clergyman in Limerick, and who was much respected and esteemed and looked up to by all classes and every community in the city; and if he was alive he would be the first to stand up and repudiate any charge of intoleration in connection with the city of Limerick. I have now to express the hope that during my term no action of mine will in any way sully the office of High Sheriff of the city, or mar the good feeling that has existed between me and ray fellow-citizens, and that when I hand over the chain of office to my successor it will be as untarnished as when I received it, the dignity of the office will not be in any way impaired, and I at least hope to have merited the approval of you, as the Corporation, and of the citizens of Limerick generally. I thank you all most heartily and sincerely for the very kind and distinguished honor you have conferred upon me again on the present occasion.’ LOUTHDeath of a Papal Zouave The death took place on February 23 of Mr. Henry Kerr, Bar View, Carlingford. Deceased, who was the last surviving son of the late Henry Kerr, merchant, Bridge street, Dublin, and Cabra, and who joined the Papal Zouaves in 1869, died of heart failure after an illness of half an hour, fortified by the rites of the Catholic Church. MAYO—lntermediate Schools His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam on February 24 visited the Technical and Intermediate Schools which have been erected in Castlebar by Very Rev. Canon Lyons. In reply to an address of welcome from the pupils, Dr. Healy dwelt on the advantages to be derived from a secondary education, and referred to the scholarships given annually by the Agricultural Department in the College of Science, which he strongly advised the students to prepare for. He believed they had ample talent, and in that new school they had ample opportunity of preparing themselves to take by competition some of these scholarships. They were founded for the benefit of the people, and were intended for the purpose of keeping the people at home working on the land, an object which should be desired by every Irishman. MONAGHAN—Death of a Well-known Politician The death of Mr. James Daly, J.P., ex-M.P. for South Monaghan, which took place at his residence, Esraore Hall, Carrickmacross, on February* 26, was deeply regretted throughout his native county, and more especially in the southern district. Mr. Daly was largely associated with commercial life in Ulster, and until recent years carried on an extensive business establishment in Carrickmacross, now conducted by his brother, Mr. Michael Daly. The late Mr. Daly took an active part in Nationalist affairs, and represented his native constituency in Parliament from 1894 to 1902. Mr, Daly was long connected with poor-law administration in Carrickmacross Union, and since the Local Government Act came into force he enjoyed the fullest confidence as a public representative. As a magistrate he was seldom absent from the Carrickmacross petty sessions, in which court his integrity and the impartiality of his decisions were much admired. During his later years Mr. Daly devoted much time to farming, which he carried on extensively and with success, characteristic of his very useful and exemplary career. GENERAL Curiosities of Irish Coinage Among the curiosities of the coinage (says the London correspondent of the Irish Independent are the voce populi halfpence struck by Roche in Dublin in 1760, thirteen of which appeared at a coin sale at Southby’s on February 15. They are said to have been struck to supply a want occasioned by the delay in the receipt of the coinage from England, which was not issued until 1776. The halfpence were sold for £l3 10s. Half a dozen Kilkenny halfpennies struck in 1642 went' for £29 3s, the highest single price being £6 for a fine example with a broad and short sevenstringed harp on the reverse. Nine Ormonde siege pieces realised £2 10s; a Kilkenny St. Patrick’s farthing £1 18s; and a Kilkenny siege farthing sold with a Cork farthing and two others for £5 ss. The Parliamentary Fund That the Irish Parliamentary Party enjoys the confidence of the country (writes a Dublin correspondent) is clearly shown not only by such expressions of opinion as the resolutions of public bodies, but also by the response to the appeal of the National Trustees for financial support. Representative meetings have been held in many centres at which substantial subscriptions have been handed in, and promises of further support if necessary made. It will be found when a complete list of the subscribers up to date is published that Irish Nationalists have risen to the occasion.