Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 2 May 1912, Page 39

Irish News

■■ « —— GENERAL

Our Home exchanges report' the death of; the Rev. Father Kennedy, of Fermoy/ one of the best known priests in the South of Ireland.

Mr, Redmond has received. cablegrams from the Archbishops of Sydney and Melbourne and the Bishops in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and New Zealand approving of Home Rule.

The Midleton Guardians have awarded a pension of £7O a year to Mrs. M. Sullivan, school teacher in the Workhouse, who has filled that position for 37 years. It is stated 'that this is the highest pension that, has been paid to a school teacher in Ireland. •

On the occasion of his visit to Fermanagh on Assize business, Mr. Justice Dodd was presented with white gloves. This was, his Lordship said, the first time that so gratifying an incident had happened to him. •

At recently opened exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, was to be seen an admirable portrait of Dr. O’Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, by the talented Franciscan artist, Father Ephrem Hickey, who has already made his mark as a portrait painter of no mean standing.

The report of the General Council of the Irish County Councils says that' the financial clauses of the Home Rule Bill are unsatisfactory, and need drastic amendment. The minimum demand must include Ireland’s retention of all her taxes, subject to a 9 per cent, contribution to Great Britain, and the Irish Parliament must control, all the Irish services.

Mr. Martin Kennedy, K.S.G., Wellington, chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, sent the following cablegram to Mr. John Redmond, president of the Convention of all Ireland which was held in Dublin to consider the Home Rule Bill: — * New Zealand Home Rulers send congratulations on the splendid outcome of your work. Ireland’s great . heart can forgive past oppressions, and she will be enabled through;' the Bill to accept her rightful place in the great Empire to which we are proud to belong.’ -

The death has just occurred in Galway, at the age of eighty years, of Mr. P. Perrin Skerrett, the last of his name in the city. He had for a long time been a collector of Harbor dues, and retired with an honorarium of £3OO. The Tribes;of Galway, which were of ancient lineage, with associations in many -European countries, are thus given in rhyme: . Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Dean, Darcy, Lynch, Joyce, Kirwan, Morris, Martin, Skerrett,/Ffrench.

IRISH NATIONAL CONVENTION.

Mr. J. E. Redmond presided at the National Convention held in Dublin last week. He said the Bill was the greatest and most satisfactory one that had ever been offered them. It implied the disappearance of Dublin Castle, with all its evil and blood-stained traditions. They would be a nation of fools not to accept the Bill. He was aware that safeguards against religious ascendancy were. unnecessary, but as long as anyone in Ireland had honest doubts concerning this he was ready to accept them. The Bill gave Ireland immediate control of ninth-tenths of the Irish services, and eventually the whole. He insisted that the Bill’s finance was far better than either -of its predecessors. He moved the acceptance of the Bill. The Lord Mayor of Cork seconded the motion, which was carried, amid the greatest enthusiasm and the unfurling of the green flag of Ireland simultaneously. 3 .. . v /;•/.. ;r, Three thousand delegates attended the Convention, Mr. Redmond declared that the passionate desire to do justice to the Irish minority had won his approval of the principle of a nominated Senate. He hoped it would include representatives of science, art, and literature. Mr. Gladstone had a great reception. The Conference decided to leave the question of the amendment of the Bill ! in the hands of a party of three.

FURTHER TESTIMONY TO CATHOLIC TOLERANCE. . '

*7 At a recent meeting of the North Sligo Executive of the U.1.L., Mr. William Fraser, the vice-president, who occupied the chair, and who is an Irish Protestant Home Ruler, made an important and significant statement with regard to the question of ’ how Protestants are likely to fare under Home Rule in Ireland. In his speech, Mr. Fraser said:"— ‘He differed from the members in creed was a Protestant Nationalist' in politics ‘ Now, as to this question of bigotry that we hear so much about/ proceeded the chairman, ‘ well; I have my own opinion about that. There is not a Protestant in Sligo, so far as I know, who is one bib afraid of Home Rule. .. Twenty . years ago a great number of ignorant Protestants were frightened that if Home Rule were granted Ireland they would be hunted out of the country. .That bigotry was preached from the landlord source for th£ benefit of the landlords themselves,, and to work up class against class. There is bigotry preached in Belfast, and, I need hot tell you, there is an object in that, but when Home Rule comes, and it must come within the next two years, that will gradually fizzle out and die a natural death. Things, then will fall back to their normal condition both Protestants and Catholics will live in peace, happiness, and ..prosperity, just as they do in America or any other free country. ; You have : again and ; again elected me, a Protestant, as your vice-president, and I shall again and again use my every endeavor in furtherance of the National cause.’ ' v

METHODISTS AND HOME RULE.

Speaking at a meeting of the Dublin and Counties Liberal Association on ; March 7, ; Mr. Robert Morgan, J.P., a prominent citizen, said he wished to mention a matter which would secure great publicity next week, and of which a good deal of political capital , would be made by the Tory press; ' That was the proposed socalled ‘ demonstration of the Methodist Church in Ireland,’ to be held in Belfast, against Home Rule. Now, what were the facts ? The special body that represented the Methodist Conference throughout the year at the recent meeting in Dublin determined that no public demonstration of the views of the Methodist Church .in Ireland on the subject. of Home Rule should be made, and that it should keep aloof from all political complications j but a section of ministers and laymen in -the extreme North of Ireland had resolved on their . own account to make this proposed demonstration. • He was surprised to see that the list of speakers appointed, for the various meetings included scarcely any minister or layman of any official, importance in connection with the Methodist Church. The /only minister among them who could at all be called a prominent man happened to be an Englishman; and not a single speaker, either minister or layman, had been secured to represent the Southern part of Ireland. He.had reason to know that a very great change had come over the minds of the Methodist Church in Ireland, both ministers and : laymen, as regards the attitude which the Church ought to take toward Home Rule. .. . , ' . - ~

A DOUBLED SUBSCRIPTION.

K At a public meeting held in Killarney for the purpose of starting the Home Rule Fund, the Rev. M. Fuller, Adm., presiding, a letter ‘ was read from- the Right. Rev. Dr. Mangan, Bishop of Kerry/enclosing a double ? . subscription ’ of £lO. In the course of his remarks his Lordship said: , ‘ A few,days -ago the London Times in: a leading article asserted - that the ' Catholic body m Ireland y were indifferent- regarding the success of the proposed Home Rule Bill. It, moreover, indulged in the cheap sneer that the people of Ireland were not prepared to contribute even twopence® head to itsadvancement. It seems to me that I know somethin* m«jre than the London Times of the feelings of the i people on this subject, and I most unhesitatingly say : that they are as keen and /enthusiastic'; to-day on the Home Rule question as at any period since its inception '' H the Times i or any Unionist . disbelieves - or doubts the truth 1 of thisT assertion I challenge

them to start, whenever the opportunity occurs, a Unionist candidate for . any of the four: Parliamentary divisions of Kerry, and I can assure them their candidates will not receive one hundred out of every thousand votes. We must show by our generosity in response to this appeal on behalf of Home Rule that we are not unmindful at this crucial time in our history of the sacrifices endured and the victories won by those who have gone before us.’

THE PROGRESS OF THE WEST.

Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P., delivered a lecture on ‘lrish Agriculture’ recently in London, in the course of which he said they had now in Ireland a system of agricultural education, and he recently had to chide a Cabinet Minister for robbing his hen roost of an officer of his Department. The reply was, If we want a scientific agriculturist, Ireland is now the first place we turn to.’ Mr, Russell went on to emphasise the importance of the smaller agricultural industries. He referred at some length to the provision of laborers’ cottages, on which seven millions had been spent. What the laborer wanted was some addition to what he got fsr his labor. Poultry was the great resource, and the Department were also providing bee-keeping. Then there was'nothing to hinder the Irish farmer from adding two million pounds sterling to the produce of the soil by potatoes, if he would only box and sprout his potatoes before planting them. The Department had calculated that such an increase was possible, and the people were already doing it on a large scale. As to tobacco-growing, he paid a tribute to the ability, persistency,, and success of Mr. Wm. Redmond’s work in that direction. The question was—Gould tobacco be grown without bonus or protection? and the Department had asked for a grant of £7,500 a year for ten years, in order to extend the development of tobaccogrowing, and to find out definitely whether it was possible to make it a commercial success. They were extremely likely to get that grant, and so to solve the problem. Though not a smoker, he had been extremely glad to help Mr. Redmond in his efforts, and would continue to do so, mainly because tobacco-growing was an industry which employed a large number of boys andgirls at the very time when they were apt to go away from Ireland. Continuing, Mr. Russell spoke of the warm interest he had always taken in the West of Ireland. He first visited that area more than thirty - five years ago, and was appalled by the misery and wretchedness of the people. To-day, one would not recognise the country nor the people as the same. It repaid all the trouble, sorrow, and cost of the land war. He did not hear Mr. William O’Brien speak often upon the question, but he knew Mr. O’Brien’s views, and that he was constantly charging the Government with having shut down the Land Acts and stopped land purchase. It was a curious fact that Mr. O’Brien never referred.to this western area. That was where every Land Act had been born. All the land legislation had been produced out of the woe and wretchedness of that part of the country and out of the sufferings of its people. Now, at last, they had got the Land Acts working in reality in the West. Estates worth six millions sterling had been arranged to be sold by the Congested Districts Board since Mr. Birrell’s Act of 1909. Before thatunder all the Acts—-there was not a million pounds sterling sold there altogether. He thought that when people talked about 'shutting down the Land Acts they should give the facts. He was giving them official facts. The West had been transformed ;v it had been a big job, and it would be <a big job still before it was .. finished but they saw the people of the West with their heads up, erect and confident, and a grand glint of sunshine in front of them," from the political standpoint. >•