Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 26 January 1911, Page 161

Irish News

ANTRIM—The West Belfast Seat On Monday evening, December 5, St. Mary's Hall, Belfast, was the scene of a most unique gathering in the history of ; that building. The occasion was a meeting of Protestaut .working-men of West Belfast, assembled for the purpose of hearing an address from Mr. Joseph Devlin. The large hall was filled in all parts, the attendance being confined almost entirely to Protestant artisans and laborers. They gave Mr. Devlin quite as rousing a reception as he ever received from his Nationalist and Catholic colleagues in the same building, and,followed with deep interest his magnificent speech, punctuating his remarks with vigorous cheers. Intimidation in Belfast The fact that intolerance is kept up in Belfast in the interests of the landlords and the capitalists has been brought out very clearly during the contest for the representation of the southern division of the city (says the Catholic Times). Mr. Sloan, in opposing Mr. Chambers, has reminded the electors of his former' services in Parliament. His doctrine as a Protestant was considered strong enough and he had other qualifications which were deemed fitting for a member of Parliament, but he committed some unpardonable sins. He was guilty of voting for Old Age Pensions, for the betterment of the condition of town tenants, and for the improvement of the dwellings of farm laborers, for the removal of the Poor Law disqualification. Worse still, he supported measures to enable the farmers of Ireland to own the soil cultivate. Worst sin: of all, he proclaimed that he desired to see sectarian fad-' tionism at an end and peace established between Irishmen of every creed and class. For this Mr. Sloan was boycotted by the Orangemen at the instigation of their leaders, who do not want any representative to betray the slightest symptom of sympathy with popular demands. Cabals were formed against him, but he is a gentleman whose energy is not easily repressed, and upon entering upon his candidature he boldly announced that one of his chief objects was to put down boycotting and intimidation in Belfast. A Liberal Manifesto .The manifesto in favor of Irish self-government which has been issued by Lord Pirrie, Sir Hugh Mack, and other leading. Protestants in Ulster, is a noteworthy document. It is frank, straightforward, and transfused by a true Christian spirit. The manifesto also breathes hope for Ireland. Fierce quarrels about religion are evidently dying out. Like Mr. Joseph P. O'Kane, who contributes an article on the same subject to the Irish News of Belfast, the signatories bring out clearly the fact that the only argument upon which the Unionists rely, namely, that Irish Catholics cannot be trusted to be just to their Protestant fellow-countrymen, is baseless. Their language is a severe rebuke to the politicians who have been exerting themselves to create discord between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics. 'For our own part,' they say,. ' zealous Protestants as we are, we have perfect confidence in our Catholic fellow-countrymen. In the South and West of Ireland goodwill and brotherly kindness are universal. Religious dissensions are unknown. We confess with shame that it is only in Protestant Ulster that intolerance and bigotry have a vigorous growth. But even in Ulster many changes have taken place since 1895. Moderate men are everywhere awakening to a true sense of their responsibility as Irishmen, and we trust that the union of Irishmen of all creeds is being slowly cemented in an enduring bond.' CLARE—A Generous Subscription Right Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, has sent a generous subscription to the .fund which is being raised for the families of the Kilkee fishermen who lost their lives recently while pursuing their dangerous calling. His Lordship says many and many a good day of health and pleasure he owes to the Kilkee fishermen, simple, kindly, hard-work-ing folk. CORK—The Necessity of Unity The Right Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, in the course of a letter read at a meeting of Captain Donelan's supporters, writes: ' Your meeting is not necessary to assure Captain Donelan that in his candidature he will have the undivided support of our Queenstown voters. This fact is already well known to him and all concerned. Ingratitude is a vice hateful to Irishmen, and we should be rightly charged with shameful ingratitude if we wavered in our -support of the man who has served East Cork for the last eighteen years with a spirit of devotion to the interests of his constituents that does credit to our .Irish Parliamentary representation. His care has been given equally to every part and class of his constituency, without distinction of place or creed, but owing to the special circumstances of Queenstown the splendid results of his advocacy are particularly apparent in the town. In conclusion Dr. Browne says that he places even above Captain Donelan's personal claims as their trusty representative

for eighteen years, his unvarying adhesion to the only principle that can win for the country any notable advantage, namely, the principle of a united, pledge-bound* Irish Parliamentary Party. The Bishop does not understand how any man of common sense can imagine Home Rule can be gained on any other principle. The letter does credit both to the patriotic Bishop of Cloyne and to Captain Donelan, and should help to end the false cry about the persecution of Protestants which is being raised at the present moment in many places for purely party purposes. Little or No Difference Colonel Hutchinson Poe has subscribed £IOO each to the Unionist and the All for Ireland exchequers. In the course of a letter explaining his views the Colonel says he sees little or no difference between the two policies, while, as might be expected, Home Rule, as advocatd by Mr. Redmond, and the Irish Party, would be wholly unacceptable to him. • A Valuable Souvenir As a souvenir of her visit to Cork during the general election, Mrs. William Redmond was presented with an antique silver bowl over a hundred years old, and also a pair of cut-glass decanters, manufactured in Cork over a century ago. Mr. A. Roche made the presentation. DUBLIN—Death of a Marist Father The Marist Fathers in Dublin have sustained a deep loss in the death of the Rev. P. J. Larney, S.M., of the Catholic University School, who passed' away recently in his fortieth year. QALWAY—The Housing of the People . The Right Rev. Dr. O'Dea, Bishop^of ir Galway, is interesting himself in a very practical manner, not only in the spiritual welfare, but also in the bodily welfare of his flock. The other day he acted as spokesman for the Clifden and Qughterard District Councils to the Congested Districts Board, calling attention to the very undesirable state of matters prevailing in the districts. His Lordship spoke very strongly on the matter, quoting some startling cases of 'housing' within his own experience—but common cases withal. Dr. O'Dea urged that it is essential that the .Board should deal with this problem. KILDARE—Death of a Carthusian Many friends and old acquaintances, both at home and abroad (writes a Dublin correspondent), will regret to learn of the death of Father Columban (formerly Joseph) Dowling of the Carthusian Order, who has passed away at La Ceryara,' San Margerita Ligure, Italy. He came of a fine old family at Allen, County Kildare, and studied at Maynooth College for his native diocese. But at the end of his college course he volunteered for the Australian mission, where he spent ten years as a hard-working priest in the diocese of Goulburn. He then joined the Reclemptorist Congregation, and for years he was a most successful missionary in England and Ireland. Some twenty-two years ago, wishing to give himself up to the contemplative life, he joined the Carthusian Order, and in this, by years of silence, prayer, and penance, he prepared tor the end. LIMERICK— Persecution Bogey a ™ At o great Nationalist meeting in Cork on December 4 Mr Samuel P. Harris, R.D.C., Adamstown, Knocklong, a Protestant Nationalist, was enthusiastically cheered. Mr Harris holds one of the most extensive agricultural farms in Limerick County. He said he came: there as a poor persecuted, Protestant Nationalist from the County Limerick, to raise his voice as strongly as he could in protest against the calumnies that had been circulated for consumption in England by poor William O'Brien, that once sterling irishman, who he was sorry to say, had sunk so low as to calumnate his Catholic fellow-countrymen by attributing to them that they would persecute and injure the Protestant Nationalists of Munster. Seeing the use that was made of these calumnies in the English Torv press > he (Mr. Harris) felt compelled to come there and protest against these statements. When he told them that he had been living m the midst of a Catholic population all hrs t IffV-rf l°\ aho f T ? nine y« ars that he spen? innfJ e cK StateS ' be thou^ t the would see that he could speak from experience Sf the treatment that was meted out to the Protestants of Munster by their Catholic fellow-countrymen. The carious way that they found of persecuting such a man as himself was by electing him to he District Council in Kilmallock. Though, oppose? at the triennial election for the last nine ylars?he came out at the hd of the poll, although there were not two Protestant votes in the electoral division for which he was K lect^ d ' ,fe e the United Irish League had blen JtortS if' William + O'Brien, he had been chairman of the local branch of the league; he acted as secretary of the Last Limerick Executive of the Leaeue since that bodv was established and within the lastUK^years he was efecS unanimously as chairman of that body. 'Only a m the town of Kilmallock, when the Protectant ReS' Chancellor Hackett, was leaving the parish th P firs ' that suggests a testimonial tf him.was a CatlS??'™ a 5 when the list of subscribers was published it iSSfc? 1?' and that out of 140 subscribers abouHo were* oKi B,

man who presented the address and purse of sovereigns was a Catholic, who said that he was delighted to be asked to make the presentation, because it showed the pleasant relations that existed between the Catholics of Munster and their Protestant fellow-countrymen. TIPPERARY— Roscrea Railway Accident A Dublin City special jury awarded £llOO damages to Rev. Patrick Flynn, of Glasson, near Athlone, in respect of personal injuries received in the Roscrea railway accident on July 19 last. The defenders, the Great Southern and Western Railway, admitted negligence, but denied liability. Margaret Mary Gleeson (14), who sued through her father, was awarded £SOO damages against the company in respect of injuries sustained by her in the same accident. GENERAL The Cardinal-Archbishop of Sydney Mr. John Redmond on December 5 received the following telegram from Cardinal Moran: —'Cabling Bank of Commerce, London, 100 guineas, my subscription to Irish Parliamentary Party. Australia, with America and Canada, wishes the party complete electoral success to obtain forthwith for Ireland the Home Rule under the Crown which we enjoy freely and loyally in Australia.' Praise for the Irish Party In a speech delivered at a meeting in Pudsey to promote his candidature for the division, Mr. Ogden (L.) paid a hearty tribute to the honesty of the Irish Nationalist members of Parliament. The Irish Party, he said, for singleness of purpose, for purity of motive, and for disinterestedness of service would bear comparison with any other political party. Every penny they got, from whatever source, was published. Which of the other parties, either Liberal or Conservative, could bear the same publicity? Centenarians In the old Franciscan Abbey, close to Donegal town, recently there were laid to rest the remains of two centenarians, Mr. William Warke, Winterhill, and Miss Margaret Melly, of Donegal. The former just exceeded the century ? but Miss Melly had passed her one hundred and sixth birthday. Both were very highly respected in the district. Felix o'Boyle, who resided all his life at Drumkeerin, County Antrim, died on December 2, at the age of 103 years, his demise calling forth great regret from a very wide circle of friends. Credence may be put in one report, which says, referring to the centenarian, that he possessed a healthy constitution.' What Home Rule Means In the course of an address at Walsall (England) during the general election, Mr. John Redmond said: 'By Home Rule I mean what Parnell meant, what Gladstone meant. I mean this, and this only— there shall be created, by Statute of the Imperial Parliament, a Parliament in Ireland elected by the Irish people, charged solely with the duty of managing purely Irish affairs, with an executive responsible to it for the administration of those affairs, subject, as every Home Rule Parliament within the Empire is to-day, to the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament.' If he understood this question of Federalism, of which they were now hearing something, it meant that each of the countries in the United Kingdom should have self-government, 'jfhe scheme he had defined was not inconsistent with such a Federal system. What he objected to was that Ireland should have to wait until England and Scotland and Wales were ready for Parliaments. In his judgment, the only solution of the Irish problem was selfgovernment. England had tried every conceivable means of governing Ireland. < She had tried conciliation and concession, but conciliation had always come at the wrong time _ and her concessions and reforms were too late, and were ignorant. England had never trusted the people of Ireland. They asked her to trust the people, a brilliant and brave race, a race that had shown their willingness to make great sacrifices of their prosperity, their liberties, their lives for what they held to be high principles that had shown in every land except their own, where they were denied the opportunity, the qualities necessary for the most successful exercise of the arts of government.' Politics in Ulster Steps should be taken without delay (says the Irish News) to impress a vital fact of the Irish situation upon the public in Great Britain: the fact that the ' manifesto '- manufacturers calling themselves the { Ulster Unionist Council ' and many other names, have no more authority to speak for the Province of Ulster, or for a majority of its people, than for Munster or Carnarvon, Caithness, or Cornwall. At least one-half of the entire population of Ulster are openly and totally opposed to the political party on whose behalf the* Ulster Unionist Council' are daily issuing their pitiful whines and ridiculous threats and it is equally certain that seven-eighths of the men who have hitherto voted Unionist in the North of Ireland, owing to hereditary prejudice and the influence of' the calumnies poured into their ears by the landlord gang, look upon the moans and splutterings of the ' Council' of rack-renters and placemen with feelings of amused contempt.