Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 13 April 1911, Page 679

Irish News

CORK—Visit of an Archbishop The Most Rev. Dr. Anselm Kenealy, 0.5.F.C., Archbishop of Simla, who was recently on a visit to Cork, was , called on by the Lord Mayor, Alderman James Simcox. The function was of an interesting character. The Lord Mayor congratulated his Grace on behalf of the citizens on the high distinction which the Holy Father had conferred upon him. Archbishop Kenealy said he was deeply indebted to the Lord Mayor, and remarked that he had never forgotten that he (the Archbishop) was by ancestry an Irishman. Death of a Well-known Lady • Much regret is felt in Cork at the death of _ Lady Harrington, wife of Sir Stanley Harrington, Commissioner of . National Education and chairman of directors of the Cork, Blackrock, and Passage Railway. The deceased lady, who was intimately associated with social and philanthropic movements in the city, belonged to a very old Cork family, having been a daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Lyons, Waterview, Passage West, founder of Messrs. T. Lyons and Co., Limited. DUBLlN—Freedom of the City On February 20 an interesting ceremony took place in the Council Chamber of the Dublin City Hall, the occasion being a special meeting of the Corporation, when Sir Charles Cameron, C. 8., M.D., F.R.C.5.1., Ph.D., attended to sign the roll of freemen, and was jiresented by the Lord Mayor with the certificate, which was contained in a beautiful and artistic casket. The Lord Mayor’s Programme In view of the action of . the Dublin Corporation : n reducing the salary of the Lord Mayor by £2OOO, and the rumors that have gained currency that there was a probability of the Mansion House as the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin being closed up for the coming year, a press representative called upon the Lord Mayor elect, and asked him what course he intended to take in view of the reduction of his salary. Alderman Farrell replied; ‘What I intend to do is to be a Lord Mayor, and a good Lord Mayor. I will endeavor to do the business of the city properly and expeditiously. I will strive to be the best Lord Mayor, not even excepting O’Connell or Harrington. I will live in my official residence —the Mansion House. I. approve of the portion of British law which points out that ‘ the Englishman’s house is his castle,’ and I will receive my friends, but I will not give any civic functions.’ Where He Found Toleration At the annual public meeting under the auspices of the Irish Association for the Prevention of Intemperance, held in the Rotunda, Dublin, on February 17, the Rev. Charles Williams* a Methodist minister, said they heard a lot about toleration up North, but he should say that when ho wanted toleration he found it mostly in the South. ' A Catholic band paraded the streets of the city for two hours, and gathered a crowd of three thousand people to listen to him, a Methodist minister, and they gave him as kindly a reception as if he were one of their own priests. They had people going- up and down that country, and other countries too, running down Ireland and the Irish, and making money out of the business. He thanked God that he had never been ashamed of his country. He thanked God that every drop of blood in his veins was Irish and every sympathy of his heart was Irish. They should not, he continued, be deterred from supporting the temperance cause through fear of being called fanatics. They called Emmet a fanatic, they called every man who had ever done anything for Ireland a —every man who had loved and toiled and lived and died for that old, fair, green land a fanatic, so they were in good company. Practical Appreciation Mr. John J. Clancy, M.P., K.C., has completed twentyfive years in Parliament, and the people of North County Dublin, whom he has faithfully represented during that long period, are about to show their appreciation of his services and give expression to the esteem in which he us held. With this object in view, a meeting of the North Dublin Executive of the United Irish League was held recently, when it was resolved to call a conference of representatives from all the public bodies in the constituency and of the clergy of all denominations. It is only right that Mr. Clancy’s silver jubilee should be fittingly honored, for while unobtrusive in manner, he has proved himself one of the most useful and capable members of the Irish Party, and his services have always been at the call of every section of the community. Indeed, long before ho entered Parliament Mr. Clancy rendered the country most valuable service as an able and staunch upholder of the popular cause. The Opponents of Home Rule Mr, Thomas Sexton, in sending a contribution of £2O to the Irish Parliamentary Fund, observes that . every new

advance of the National movement is met by its opponents with a fresh outburst of expenditure, designed to exhaust its resourcesan outburst best encountered by such conclusive proof as an adequate fund affords that this cannot' be done. QALWAY—Sad Boating Disaster A sad boating disaster is reported from Roundstone, County Galway. A boat in whicli were Matthias Gorham, his son-in-law', Festus Connolly, and a third man named Hedge, capsized in the bay. Connolly and Hedge sank and were drowned. Gorham was brought ashore by a coastguard, but though he was still alive efforts to resuscitate him failed. Connolly and Hedge leave widows and eight children each. Proposed Transatlantic Port At the Midland Great Western Railway Company’s meeting, held in Dublin on February y, the'chairman in tne course of his remarks said:You will, no .doubt, expect me to say a word on the subject of Galway as a Transatlantic port. At a special meeting of shareholders which was held oil November 3 last, you authorised the directors to contribute a sum of £SOOO towards the expenses of the promotion of a Bill in Parliament for the purpose under certain conditions, one of which w as that a steamship company, able and willing to perform the sea part of the service, and also to guarantee a similar sum, should be found. I have no doubt also that you saw' in the newspapers a letter from Mr. Robert Worthington, stating that, the promoters had found it impossible to comply with the Standing Orders of Parliament in time to - lodge a Bill for this session, and also saying that the project was only postponed. Speaking in reference to this matter, Aiderman Heigh said the Galway business, he hoped, would tend to the development of traffic in that direction. He hoped that in the course of a few years they would have a railway running straight into Galway harbor, carrying to that harbor for transport the traffic of the Empire. That would be an important matter for the company —it would be the salvation of their line, and would place in a permanent position one of the main routes of the world’s traffic. He believed that Canada and other portions of the Empire would be disposed to subsidise the carrying of traffic through Galway. If a scheme to effect that was carried out most of the traffic would pass through Dublin, and where traffic passed it always left something behind it. Mr. Sullivan, speaking of the line of steamers which he hoped they would have from Galway to Halifax, said that the matter would be practically decided at the meeting of Colonial Premiers next May. He read a letter he had received from the Prime Minister of Newfoundland, who was deeply interested in the matter, and expressed the hope that something would come out of it which would bo of interest to Ireland and Newfoundland. MAYO—The Work of the Irish Party Mr. John Dillon, M.P., received recently' the following letter from his constituents in Kiltimagh, Mayo : As usual, the members of the Kiltimagh branch of the United Irish League desire that their annual subscription to the Parliamentary Fund should appear in the first published list of the year, and they request us to forward you the enclosed cheque for £3O, out of which please pay our affiliation fee (£3), and hand the balance (£27) to the National Trustees. Never, we may add, did our people subscribe more heartily than they did this year, and this will be apparent from the fact that almost 700 members were enrolled inside of two weeks. They are quick to appreciate the issues at stake. They know' that the battle will be fierce and perhaps prolonged. They recognise, therefore, that not only is patience necessary, but also unbounded confidence in the policy of the pledge-bound Party. Neither the threats of the Ulster Orangemen 'nor the misrepresentations of Factionists, nor.. the sophistries of Lord Dunraven, will affect their confidence in the slightest degree. Needless to say, the members tender to you their gratitude and love, with a fervent prayer that you and your leader, and the other members of the party, will be strengthened and uphold to bring to a successful issue the cause for which you and they have so long and so nobly fought. WATERFORD —Congested Districts Memorials have been sent to the Estates Commissioners by the tenants on several estates in the County Waterford, asking to have them dealt with as congested estates, and the Estates Commissioners 'have taken preliminary steps in the matter. The principal estates in West Waterford in which they have been asked to apply to their compulsory powers are the Thompson-Orpin estate, Hie Stuart estate, the _ mountain portion of Sir John .Keane’s estate, and Major Chearnley’s estate. In addition to the efforts to compel a sale of the above estates, steps will soon be taken to reinstate some evicted tenants on the vacant lands on the Fuge estates, near Ardmore. ‘ The Book of Lismore ’ The Book of Lismore* is really a misnomer; it derives that name from the fact of having been discovered in the Castle of Lismore in 1814, during Some structural alterations, but the more correct name is the Book of MacCarthyreagh, for whom it was compiled—namely, Finghin MacCarthy, and his wife, Catherine, daughter of O’Connor Eighth Earl of Desmond. ' It was written by a famous

Irish scribe, Angus O’Kelly, about the year 1462, and had no connection whatever with Lismore until after the year 1640, as it had been preserved in the Franciscan Friary of Timoleague, County Cork, from 1504 to 1629. In 1645 it was secreted in Lismore Castle, along with the crozier of Bishop Mac Egan, of Lismore. The crozier is still in Lismore Castle, but the ‘Book of Lismore’ was transferred to Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, by the late Duke of Devonshire in 1882. GENERAL A Notable Anniversary Monday, February 13, was a notable anniversary in parliamentary history. Mr. AV. E. Gladstone introduced his second Home Rule Bill on February 13, 1893, in a speech which will always be' ranked amongst the greatest ever delivered in the House of Commons. The Bill had been prepared by a committee composed of the aged Premier himself, Lords Spencer and Herschell, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. James Bryce, and Mr. John Morley. Mr. Bryce is now the British Ambassador at Washington; Mr. Morley is Lord Morley, a member of the House of Lords. The others have all passsed away. The Bill was debated for months, passed through the House of Commons by 34 votes at the end, and incontinently rejected by the Lords. The roll of the Upper House then held 560 peers beyond the peers of the Royal Family. Of this body of 560 no fewer than 419 voted against the Bill, and only 41 voted for it. In the division there was only one pair— Aberdeen, who was then Governor-General of Canada, pairing with his father-in-law, the first Lord Tweedmouth, Lord Aberdeen being for and Lord Tweedmouth against the Bill. The gecond Lord Tweedmouth, who died under sad circumstances a few .years ago, was the chief Liberal Whip and a convinced Home Ruler. Interesting Contrasts Incontestable evidence of Catholic toleration and broad-mindedness is afforded by Protestant representation on the public boards and in the public institutions where the Protestants are in a minority (remarks the Catholic Times). We have given the figures more than once recently. In all the southern counties Protestants have twice, thrice, and four times the number of public appointments to which their numbers would entitle them. Great is the contrast presented by the treatment the southern Protestants receive at the hands of the Catholic majority, and the treatment meted out to the Catholics in those parts of Ulster where the majority" of the people are Protestants. In Tyrone, for instance, where the County Council has a Protestant majority, 90 per cent, of the County" Council officials are Protestant, though 55 per cent, of the population is Catholic. The Protestants of the South themselves bear witness to the tolerance of their Catholic neighbors. The Protestant rector in the Catholic town of Kenmare recently attested that he could not desire to live amongst a more fair-minded people than those of the community in which he resides. In all the southern Protestants engaged in business give the same testimony. They have never found their religious views to militate against the success of their work. If the Protestant shopkeeper gives good value his customers are quite as numerous as those of his Catholic rival. Aid from South Africa • Mr. John Redmond has received the following letter from Mr. George H. O’Meara, lion, treasurer Irish Parliamentary Party Fund, at Johannesburg, dated January 30: —‘On behalf of my committee and subscribers, I have pleasure in handing you herewith draft value £2OO to assist you and your Party" in the furtherance of your great and glorious cause, the political liberty of Ireland, which the Irishmen of the Transvaal, in sympathy" with their fellow-countrymen all the world over, earnestly pray" may" be early consummated. Meetings for the collection of funds were held at Johannesburg, Boksburg, Germinston, and Krugersdorp, and I hope to be able to forward you .another draft at an early date. A list of the subscribers is now being prepared, and will reach you as soon as completed.’