People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 9 February 1911, Page 251

People We Hear About

Mr. W. A. Redmond, 8.L., who succeeds Professor Kettle in the representative of East Tyrone, is a son of Mr. ( John Redmond, the Irish leader. The late Mr. Michael Cudahy, the Irish-American millionaire of Chicago, was a Catholic who always took a deep interest in all Catholic movements. He was a friend and patron of the Catholic University, of whose governing board he was a member, and to which he donated large sums. The will disposes of estate amounting to £2,250,00.0, of which £SOOO is bequeathed to charities. The charity fund is divided into numerous small bequests, principally for orphan asylums. The millionaire's widow receives an annuity of £6OOO. The rest of the fortune is ordered to be held in trust for the benefit of Mr. Cudahy's four sons and three daughters for five years, and is then to be distributed. The Duke of Connaught has a peculiar dislike of slovenliness in personal attire. To a young officer who apologised for the state of his sword upon inspection, the Duke said: Your excuse is so good that you must be an old offender, sir.' 'Sold tea, eh?' he repeated, in his hard voice, when a subaltern's grandfather's business was laughed over at an officer's mess. 'Well, that's not so bad as a grandfather who sold promotions.' The words were spoken in the presence of a general whose grandfather had been notoriously venal. A dispute as to the sobriety of a certain colonel was summarily settled by his Highness. ' Just able to walk straight, was he ?' repeated the Duke. , ' That's sober enough "for a civilian, 'but it's very drunk for a soldier.' There is no member of the House of Commons who has had a more adventurous career than Mr. J. J. O'Kelly, the representative of Roscommon North, the story of whose career before he became a legislator is more thrilling than fiction. To give but a few examples. When Mr. O'Kelly was a young man he was correspondent of a Cuban paper at a time when that country was in the throes of civil war. He was arrested as a spy, sentenced "to death, and was actually facing the rifles of the firing party when the United States Consul arrived on the scene for his rescue a few seconds before the fatal command to fire would have been given. He fought gallantly with the French against the Prussians, saved the life of the Empress of Brazil, had a hundred hairbreadth escapes from death in Canada, Mexico, and Algiers, and was lost for a whole year in the bouclan.

Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves tells in a little book just published the story of the origin of his famous song, ‘Father 0 llynn ’ The sprightly air to which his words are wedded, and which has long enjoyed wide popularity, is stated to be the Kerry version of ‘ The top of Cork Road.’ Mr Graves first heard it played on an old fiddle by a celebrated Munster fiddler named James Buckley, and the great delight ot his early boyhood was to dance a jig to its accompaniment. he air lingered in his thoughts with many recollections of his Munster home, and it was when he met an Irish priest .who was of the old school and who possessed the cumulative humanities of the old stock, that he penned his rollicking eulogy, and ’twined it with that air which put Ins feet in rhythmic movement in the days of his'youth. In the spring of 1875, Mr. Graves first conceived the idea of writing ‘Father O’Flynn.’ The words came into his head as he walked to the Home Office from Eastbourne terrace. On reaching his desk he wrote down the verses and sent them to the Spectator, by which it was first printed. was not published until 1882, when it appeared in its author s well-known collection, Songs of Old Ireland. Hie success thereafter was assured. . v

the Last week (says the Melbourne Advocate) we announced StJ + i U t 0 10 Commonwealth of the Rev. Brother lieac y , the founder, and for very many years the Superior, of the Order of Christian Brothers in Australia. ) An IS i- corres P° n I c l e nt furnishes us with the following information regarding Brother Treacy’s return to this to remair 11, Rle Y* . Brother Tr ? ac y has come to Australia to remain. He is the revered pioneer of the Order of Christian Brothers in Australia. He, with two companions, commenced the gigantic work of building and equipping schools where sound religious knowledge, accompanied by a thorough and efficient secular training w 7 as to be carried on. Very few men engaged in missionary work have travelled more of the Australian continent or undergone so many and such self-sacrificing labors, as Brother Treacy. Monuments of his zeal, in the shape of wealth’ ar w n T f°i be founcl M lr i every State of the Commonwealth He had been recalled to Ireland fifteen years asm to assist the Superior-General in matters connected with the Order throughout the world, but last year owing to S advanced age (85 years), he resigned his onerous It is his intention to spend the evening of his life in Aus - tralia, so dear to his heart, and where he W lofJTw untiringly for nearly fifty years. Brother Treacy intends' making a stay of six months in est Australia and after likely ™L P ™ eei *° SUth "hir a e n he tt wl