People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 14 December 1911, Page 2541

People We Hear About

Mr. John Cassidy, whose design for a statue of King Edward has been accepted by the Manchester memorial a committee, is a native of Slane, Co, Meath. Mr. Cassidy now occupies a prominent position among the sculptors of England. When “completed the memorial will be the largest bronze statue in the United Kingdom. Mr. Cassidy executed the Statue of Queen Victoria which now stands in front of the Royal Jubilee School in Belfast.

A prominent light of the Irish revival is Mr. Shane Leslie. He is all, perhaps, that his antecedents and ancestry might have precluded him from being. For generations the Leslie family have been landlords in County Monaghan, Protestant in religion and Tory in politics. Shane was born heir to the old estate and of an English mother, through whom he is related to that most brilliant of all rising statesmen in England to-day —Winston Churchill. Of all English families of the passing generation the Churchills have produced the most remarkable galaxy of talented men and women —especially women. Shane may have inherited something of this from his mother,; but she in turn must have been one of those who became ‘ more Irish than the Irish themselves.' Thus born a Protestant, a Tory, and a landlord, he was sent to the English University of Cambridge, of which he is a graduate. On leaving Cambridge he was engaged Anglican Social Missions in the London slums, and became a convert to Catholicism while working among the Irish poor.

The success, of the rebels in China reminds us that the Celestial Empire, one of the oldest of nations, is. ruled, if. the expression may be allowed, by the youngest of sovereigns. He is a nephew of the late Emperor, and until his accession bore the name of Pu-yi, although the royal astrologers have selected as his official title, Hsuan-t’ung, which means ‘General • Proclamation.’ The boy is delicate in health, and the Chinese are inclined to attribute this to his birth on the unlucky thirteenth day of the first moon. In order to escape the evil influence as far as possible, it has been decreed that his birthdate shall be celebrated on the fourteenth of the month. Further, he is to be brought up more hygienically than his predecessor was. He will have plenty of fresh air, and will not be expected to appear at the midnight audiences which are the fashion at the Chinese Court. His first appearance in publicat his enthronementwas not a success, for he cried loudly; and henceforth his father, the Prince Regent,, will attend all official functions alone, will receive dignitaries of State, and offer up the required prayers for snow or rain. But the little Emperor, although relieved from these duties, will not be allowed to forget that he is an official baby. He may no longer live with his own family, or see his parents except in the presence of the whole Court. The new Solicitor-General for Ireland, Mr. Ignatius O’Brien, K.C., was, in early life a reporter on the staff of the Freeman's Journal. The journalist in Ireland certainly gets his share of the honors in the way of judicial preferment, and Mr. O’Brien’s promotion continues the usage of years (says the Catholic Herald). In due time Mr. O’Brien will no doubt become a Judge in Ireland, and he will not be the first Judge O’Brien who graduated from the Press table to the Judicial Bench. The late Mr. Justice William O’Brien, a Judge of the Irish High Courts, was also a journalist on the Freeman in his early years. Mr. M. Bodkin* Mr. George Mac Sweeney, Mr. E. IT. Ennis are other names that readily occur in connection with promotion 'from the Freeman staff to the ranks of Irish Justiciary. There is a double reason why such transitions are rather common in Ireland.' In the first place, Irish barristers are prone to journalism. In- the second place, Irish journalists are specially keen to become barristers. ' A former editor of the Irish: News in Belfast is now Mr. P. J. Kelly, Resident Magistrate, and his successor in the editorial chair in Belfast, Mr. T. J. Campbell, is now a barrister in large practice, who will no doubt come in for valuable legal preferment in due time.