People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 13 April 1911, Page 681

People We Hear About

A cable message states that the Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) has conferred a Civil pension of £l5O per annum on Mr. W. B. Yeats, the poet. Mr. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Dublin, in 1865, and is son of Mr. J. B. Yeats, R.H.A. He has been crowned by acclamation as the greatest living Irish lyric poet. His first book of verse, Masada, was published in Dublin in 1885. In the very many appreciative memoirs of the Most Rev. Dr. Ryan, Archbishop of Philadelphia, which his lamented death has produced, it has been stated (says the' Freeman’s Journal ) that his Grace, who in his boyhood presented an address to O’Connell when a prisoner in the Richmond Bridewell, was the last remaining link between this period and the epoch of the Liberator. This is not the case. We have here in Dublin in our midst, known and beloved by all sorts and conditions of men, including the Protestants who have the privilege of his friendship, the Right Rev. Dr. Donnelly, Bishop of Canea, and parish priest of Haddington road, whose father and mother were intimate friends of O’Connell’s. One of the Bishop’s earliest recollections is that of being brought in very tender years to a reception in the Rotunda given in honor of O’Connell, who took special notice of the future prelate. In a Coronation year the Earl Marshal is one of the most important men in England. He has almost supreme control of the great ceremony. For the second time the Duke of Norfolk undertakes the grave responsibility. If all the length and breadth of the Empire were searched for a man (says the World’s Work) who by temperament and training is able to undertake this work, no better could possibly be found than Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk. He is a Tory of the Tories, and is not afraid to fight valiantly for his order and his beliefs. The Duke has served his country long and well in quite other duties than those pertaining to his hereditary office. He has taken the obligations of his great inheritance very seriously, and has in turn occupied various posts from that of Postmaster-General to Mayor of Sheffield. He was prompt in volunteering for service" in South Africa in 1900. ‘ Very notable (says the Freeman’s Journal in a comment on the Home Rule debate in the House of Commons) was the maiden speech of Mr. William Redmond, jun., who made a rare success for a perfectly new Parliamentary hand. Mr. Redmond has a firm grip of the essentials of Home Rule polemics, has quiet self-confidence, a most agreeable voice, great command of language, a good style and presence. He spoke, indeed, with a resource, a readiness, and an aplomb that most old Parliamentary hands might well envy. His father listened to the speech from under the Gallery, and was the object of many congratulations even during its progress. The achievement of his son was one of which he had the best reason to be proud, and nothing could have been in better taste than the well deserved compliment which Sir Edward Carson paid him on the brilliant success of his son. Another maiden speech which the House listened to with great interest was that of Mr. ‘ John Fitzgibßon, a robust and confident utterance, based on the life-long knowledge and experience of the realities of Irish life* and requirements.’ Mr. T. I). Sullivan, the author of ‘ God Save Ireland ’ and other stirring Irish ballads, was born in the town of Bantry 84 years ago. T. D. Sullivan, like the rest of his brothers, though brought up in a small and remote town (writes T. P. O’Connor), had an opportunity of receiving a good education in the best sense of the word, and the family was essentially literary as well as national in its tendencies. . The Sullivans were closely associated with another Bantry household, which was destined by and by to give a prominent figure to the Irish history of the present day. The chief and the best schoolmaster of the town was Mr. Healy, the grandfather of T. M. and Maurice. It was from Mr. Healy that Mr. Sullivan learned probably the most of what he knows. The ties between the two families were afterwards drawn still closer when T. D. Sullivan married Miss Kate, Healy, the daughter of his teacher. Though A. M. Sullivan was younger than T. D., he was the first to leave home and seek fortune abroad. After trying his hand as an artist, A. M. ultimately adopted journalism as a profession, and became connected with the Dublin Nation. T.D. meanwhile had also allowed his mind to run into dreams of a literary future, and had filled a whole volume with his compositions; but with the secrecy which youth loves, he had. not confided , his transgression to anyone. Two or three of the pieces had appeared in print, but it was not till he went to Dublin and began to write in the Nation that the poetical genius of T. D. Sullivan sought recognition. Into the columns of that journal he began at once to pour the verses which he had hitherto so religiously kept secret, arid from the first his songs attracted attention. From this time forward the name of T. D. Sullivan is inextricably associated with the Nation . s ’