Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1911, Page 583

Irish News

CARLOW— Presentation Order The centenary of the Presentation Convent, Carlow, was celebrated in the Cathedral of that town on February 1. The celebration brought together, great numbers of clerical and lay friends of the community. The history of the Presentation Nuns since their house was established in Carlow in 1811 is an unbroken record of splendid work done in the cause of religion and charity. Their success as teachers has been particularly marked, and in this department they have conferred untold benefits on the children of the poor. CAVAN—A Practical Proof of Appreciation In a letter enclosing his annual subscription to the treasurers of the Irish Party Fund, the Eight Rev. Dr. Finegan, Bishop of Kilmore, states that an unprecedented opportunity has been created for the winning from the British' Parliament of full self-government for Ireland in purely Irish affairs. His Lordship holds that the Irish people should make the fund of 1911 a fresh and practical proof of their appreciation of the work of the Party, and of their confidence in its power to crown its record of service by the achievement of Home Rule. CORK— University College In a letter to the press, Professor Windle, President Cork University College, dealing with.the number of students on the books of the University, states that the net number has risen to 404, so that all records have now been beaten. He points out that by the Irish Universities Act of 1908 Belfast, which had never asked for it, had a University pressed upon its acceptance. Cork, which had clamored for one for sixty years, was refused the boon. The reason alleged was, Professor Windle states, that Belfast, by the number of its students, had merited the distinction, whilst Cork had not. Most people who thought about it at all felt quite sure that Cork would show as good a roll as Belfast once a chance was given it. As a matter of fact, remarks Professor Windle, the number of students in Belfast College during 1907-8 —that is during the years in which the Bill was prepared 406. Cork had now 404, and will have more before the session closes, he (Professor Windle) had no doubt. Death of a Well-known Lady Much regret has been felt in Cork at the death of Mrs. Mary O'Mahony, which occurred on February 4. The deceased was the widow of the late Mr. John F. O'Mahony, who was for many years associated with the Crawford Municipal School of Art. She was the mother of the late Mr. John O'Mahony, 8.L., and another son is Mr. D. J. O'Mahony, Public Analyst for the City and County of Cork. A Memorial A memorial about to be erected by his numerous friend.-? and admirers to the late Dr. Keane, of Queenstown, is to take the shape of a stained-glass window in St. Colman's Cathedral. DOWN — Generous Benefactors St. Mary's Church, Newcastle, County Down, which has lately been repaired, is being further renovated at the instance of generous parishioners. Three splendid altars, wrought and designed in Carrara marble, have been erected, these being the gifts of Mr. W. King, J.P., and Miss King, who resided recently in Drumcondra, Dublin, whilst outside over the entrance door is a marble statue of the Blessed Virgin, presented by Mr. Charles McManus, Manor House, Newcastle. DUBLIN— Court at the Castle _ The Dublin correspondent of Truth writes: —The King's visit to Dublin is an event that casts a long shadow before. The Court to be held at Dublin Castle is still six months distant, and the exact date not yet fixed. Still it engages interested attention in the capital and in society. Royal Courts have been very few and far between in Ireland since the first King from across the Channel, Henry 11., held his Court in a wicker pavilion erected outside the city of Dublin in 1.172. The next Court properly socalled was that held by Queen Victoria at the beginning of her long reign. Thirty-six years later the Prince and Princess of Wales were deputed by the Queen to hold a Drawing-room or Court as it is now styled, attendance at which gave all the privileges obtained by attending the Sovereign's Court. The ' Court' held at Dublin Castle by King Edward and Queen Alexandra during the term of Lord Dudley's Viceroyalty is still fresh in our minds. LIMERICK— Eminent Official's Sudden Death The Right Hon. Michael Finucane, one of the Estates Commissioners, died somewhat suddenly on February 4 at his residence in Monkstown, County Dublin, to the intense regret of a large circle of friends. Deceased, who had a distinguished career in the Indian Civil was a native of Limerick, where his people were held in much esteem. Educated at Cork Queen's College, he graduated

early in life with first-class honors in classics and took the M.A. degree. He entered the Indian Civil Service by public competition in 1872. Only eight years later he was Under-Secretary to the Government of Bengal; Director of the Department of Land Records and Agriculture, Bengal, in 1884 Magistrate and Collector in the same year; Officiating Sec, Government of India, R. and A. Department, 1894; Secretary to the Board of Revenue, Bengal, 1894; Sec. Government of Bengal, 1896; Officiating Chief Sec, Government of Bengal, 1898; Officiating Sec. Government of India, Department of Revenue and Agriculture, 1898; and Member of the Legislative Council of Bengal. He was decorated for famous services, 1896-7; Commissioner of Sec, Government of Bengal, 1898; Officiating Member of the Board of Revenue, Lower Provinces of Bengal, 1903, when he retired from the Indian Civil Service and took up the office of Estates Commissioner in Ireland at the request of Sir Antony Mac Donnell, then Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant. In his new position he brought to the discharge of his duties great intellectual power, ripe experience, and deep sympathy with the Irish tenantry. He proved himself an able administrator. Mr. Finucane was married in 1889 to Lola Gertrude, daughter of LieutenantColonel Mathew. LOUTH—The Exiled Nuns The Irish Dominican Nuns who were expelled from Lisbon and Aveiro during the Portuguese Revolution last October, and who were staying at the Sienna Convent, Drogheda, were to leave on February 12 for New York, en route for Baker City, Oregon, where, under the patronage of the Right Rev. Dr. O'Reilly, Bishop of the diocese, they, will found an Irish Dominican Convent of the Third Order. The names of the nuns are: Mother Mary Dominick Murphy, a native of Dundalk, who left the Sienna Convent, Drogheda, forty years ago for Lisbon; Mother Mary Patrick Maguire, a native of Clogherhead, County Louth, who made her novitiate in the Sienna Convent, and went to Portugal over forty years ago; Sister Antoninus McCabe, a native of Dublin, who went to Portugal twenty-three years ago; Sister M. Augustine Collins, a native of Newry, who went to Lisbon three years ago; Sister Mary Catherine Clayton, a member of a well known Navan family, and a niece of Mr. Hugh J. Cullen, J.P., Secretary of the Meath County Council, who went to Portugal over three years ago. MEATH— lrish Copper Mines The Irish Industrial Journal states that copper mines in Ireland which had been derelict are working in full blast. The Beauparc Mines in Meath are doing splendidly. TIPPERARY A Venerable Priest Very Rev. Canon Cleary, Pastor of O'Callaghan's Mills, County Clare, died on February 3, at the ripe age of 83 years, over 56 of which were spent in the sacred ministry. Deceased, who was a native of Nenagh, early in life evinced a vocation for the priesthood. After a distinguished course at Maynooth he was ordained in 1854 and appointed chaplain of the Sacred Heart Convent, Roscrea. He ministered afterwards in Nenagh, Jordan, and Killaloe, in each of which parishes his great zeal for the spiritual and temporal welfare of those under his care was greatly appreciated. In 1875 Father Cleary was appointed pastor of the parish known as O'Callaghan's Mills, and ever since his whole energy had been devoted ungrudgingly to the betterment of his people. He took a great interest in educational matters and left nothing in his power undone to provide suitable schools and good teachers. He soon put an end to the Protestant proselytising system which was in vogue in the parish, as it was in many parts of the West of Ireland at the time. By tact and discretion he frequently brought landlord and tenant together and .amicably settled agrarian disputes, which otherwise might have assumed large and dangerous dimensions. WEXFORD-Co-operative Societies On the occasion of the opening of the splendid new parish hall at Cushinstown, near New Ross, an interesting address on the advancement of co-operation was given by Mr. Anderson, 1.A.0.5., who said there were in Ireland over 900 co-operative societies with a membership of nearly 100,000 farmers, a share capital of £500,000, and'a turnover of about £3,000,000 annually. The Rev. Father Phelan, P.P., delivered a most instructive address on the advantages of co-operation. The Result of an Inheritance ' It would be second death to me to leave it now after fourteen years.' So said Mrs. Farrell, who lives in a laborer's cottage in the townland of Boley, one mile from Ballycanew and about four miles from Gorey, County Wexford. The statement above was made in reply to a query respecting a notice to quit his home received by Mrs. FarrelPs husband from the Gorey District Council. The Farrells have come in for a small fortune through the death of Mrs. Farrell's brother, Michael Kinsella, who died in July, 1908 : in the Argentine, having amassed much wealth by sheep-raising. Michael Kinsella emigrated in 1861, being then but a boy. He went up country and made a fortune. It is said the portion of his estate coming to his sister, Mrs. Farrell, is over £20,000, but there are several charges, and the balance will probably amount to £14,000. Other relations, nephews to the deceased are

receiving sums of £7OOO each. There is much discussion in the district in connection with the action of the Gorey District Council in evicting Mrs. Farrell and her husband from their home. The feeling in the locality is strongly in favor of their being allowed to remain. Both are very old people, and throughout their lives were most industrious. The only son of the fortunate old folk is about to be married. Recently he paid £2BOO for a place at Coolook, Gorey. ' I will cling to the old cottage as long as I can,' said Mrs. Farrell. 'lt was my home before the money came, and why should that change me? It would, break my heart to leave it.' GENERAL Afforestation The Irish Forestry Committee has been informed by Mr. T. W. Russell that the Development Commissioners have decided to make a grant of £30,000 or £40,000 for the purpose of afforestation in Ireland. The money is to be spent in the purchase and planting of land, while the annual Parliamentary grant of £6OOO will be available for the'purchase of timber that would otherwise be cut down and sent out of the country. It is hoped that the good work will be initiated within the next few months. An Object Lesson in Toleration There are few men who have done more for the Home Rule cause than Mr. Swift Mac Neill, M.P. (says the Catholic Times). He can at all times call appropriately upon a great fund of historical and political information, and to use his vast knowledge for the benefit of his country has been for him a labor of love in which he has never grown weary. Aware of this, his audience at the Manchester University Union gave him a right cordial recep- • tion, and he availed himself of the occasion to deliver a necessarily brief but essentially practical speech on Catholic toleration in Ireland. It is a subject with which Mr. Swift Mac Neill had not much difficulty in dealing. He had but to invite attention to his own case to expose the malice and untruthfulness of those who represent the Irish Catholics as likely to oppress their Protestant fellowcountrymen. He, a Protestant and the son and the grandson of Protestant clergymen, has for twenty-four years been the choice of the most Catholic constituency in the r Empire, South Donegal, and one of the first acts of the authorities of the new National University was to appoint him one of the professors. The majority of 54 to 36 by which the members of the Manchester University Union adopted a resolution in favor of Home Rule may be taken as a faithful index of public opinion on this question. The people are preponderatingly on the side of the Nationalists, and the dying efforts to arouse opposition to the Irish Party by artful appeals to bigotry have made no serious impression upon them. National Trustees' Appeal The Right Rev. Dr. O'Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, Mr. John E. Redmond, M.P., and Mr. John Fitzgibbon, M.P.. trustees of the United Irish Parliamentary and National Fund, have issued an appeal which should, and no doubt will, meet with a ready and generous response. Never, they say, since the Union has the cause of Ireland been in a position of such strength as to-day. Thanks to the policy pursued by the Irish Party, with the full approval and consent of the Irish people at home, and the generous support of their kinsmen in other lands, an unprecedented opportunity has been created for winning from the British Parliament full self-government for Ireland in all purely Irish affairs, and for the establishment of a genuine and permanent settlement between Ireland and Great Britain, not on the impossible foundation of conquest, maintained by unjust and tyrannical administration, but on the secure and lasting basis of justice, freedom, and mutual confidence and goodwill between the two peoples. Dealing with the difficulties that beset the Irish Party, the trustees say it had to meet in Parliament and in the country a campaign of calumny and misrepresentation, unequalled in its ferocity and unparalleled in its malignity, waged by a band of factionist Irishmen in combination with the whole strength of the Unionist Party in Ireland and in Great Britain, and commanding apparently unlimited financial resources for the prosecution of its aim, which was nothing less than the destruction of the Irish Party and the National Organisation. This attack taxed the financial resources of the Party to the uttermost degree, and made its work much more difficult, and, in respect to the Budget, less satisfactory than it otherwise would have been. i City High Sheriffs f The following are the names of gentlemen returned by v the corporations of the following cities, in pursuance of the provisions of the Municipal Privilege Act (Ireland), as qualified to fill the office of High Sheriff, who have been appointed by their Excellencies, the Lords Justices, to that office: —Belfast —Councillor Crawford McCullagh, Ava House, Helen's Bay, County Down. Cork —Richard Henrik Beamish, Ashbourne, Glounthane, County Cork. DublinCouncillor John M. Cogan, Leinster road, Rathmines. Limerick—William Halliday, J.P., Corbally, Limerick. Derry— Greenslead Bible, J.P., Templemore Park, Derry. Waterford —William Fitzgerald, Parnell street, Waterford. V