Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 15 August 1912, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Official announcement is made of the appointment of Mr. Ignatius O’Brien, K.C., as Attorney-General for Ireland, and of Mr. T. F. Molony, K.C., as Solicitor-General for Ireland. In a preface to a book on The Home Rule Bill , published by Messrs. Cassell at one shilling, Mr. John Redmond declares that he and his colleagues, far from desiring to ‘ stifle discussion ’ or to ‘ smuggle ■’■ the Bill into law, are most anxious that the fullest and freest discussion should take place in every hole and corner of the United Kingdom. The Commissioners of Irish National Education have awarded the Carlisle and Blake premium to Mrs. McAuliffe, Principal of the Castlejordan Girls’ School, County Meath, and Mrs. Morrissey, Principal Caherlistrane Girls’ Schools, Tuam. This is the third time Mrs. Morrissey has won the coveted distinction, her school having received ‘ excellent ’ reports for twenty years in succession. A remarkable discovery has been made on the Corlara bog, Carrick-on-Shannon, where a number of men were engaged in turf-cutting. When they came to a depth of thirty-two feet below the surface their slanes came in contact with some hard substance, and after the peat was cleared away, copper battleaxe heads, the battered remains of what was once armor which bore traces of rich inlaying, and various other fragments of military weapons were unearthed. Mr. P. J. Brady, M.P., in a letter to the London Times, states that in reference to the rumor that Messrs. Jacob intended to remove their works from Dublin under lack of security under ‘ a Dublin Parliament,’ the firm has written to him saying that ‘no political motives entered into our consideration of the scheme, which would have been carried out in any case, quite irrespective of whether there was any Home Rule question before the county or not.’ Messrs. Jacob do not propose removing from Dublin at all. They merely meditate establishing a branch near Liverpool. ORDINATIONS. In St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, on June 20, eighty-one students were ordained subdeacons, and on the following day sixty were ordained deacons. On Sunday, June 23, fifty-seven students were ordained priests by the Right Rev. Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Ross. On the same date in All Hallows College, Dublin, Right Rev. Dr, Morrisroe, Bishop of Achonry, ordained twenty-three students to the priesthood. An ordination ceremony took place at St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny, on June 23, when seven students were raised to the priesthood.

APPOINTMENTS AT MAYNOOTH COLLEGE. At a meeting of the Hierarchy at Maynooth College on June 25, the following appointments were made to the staff;—The Rev. John P. Donaghey, Ph.D., to Professorship of Physics; the 5 Rev. Patrick M. MacSweeney, M.A., to Professorship of English; and the Rev. J. F. Dalton, D.D., M.A., to Professorship of Classics. The three rev. gentlemen have had distinguished University careers. Father Donaghey completed a very successful ecclesiastical course in the Dunboyne establishment in Maynooth, securing degrees in theology and Canon Law, then he went for three years to the German Universities, dividing his time between Bonn and Munich. At the latter University Rontgen, of X-Ray fame, was one of his masters. To secure his degree in science he wrote a dissertation in German on the result of his own original research. Since he left Germany he has been Professor of Experimental Science in St. Eunan’s College, Letterkenny. Father Mac Sweeney is the son of the late Librarian of the Royal Irish Academy. He won the Chancellor’s gold medal for English prose in the Royal University.

He is one of the contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia. He is an eminent linguist and an Irish scholar of prominence. Rev. Dr. Dalton is a distinguished graduate of the Royal and National Universities, and he also spent some of his time at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity in Rome. FACTS FROM GALWAY. Mr. Farrell McDonnell, of Dunmore, County Galway, in a letter to the Irish Unionist newspapers, sets forth some facts which ought to go a considerable length in countering the calumny that Protestants in the Catholic districts of Ireland are subject to boycott on account of their creed. ‘ For fifty years (says Mr. McDonnell), I have lived in County Galway, >and I never saw any animus displayed towards Protestants. Our County Council secretary was unanimously elected at a-big salary by a practically Catholic and Nationalist Council, and he is a Protestant. The District Council’s solicitor in Tuam and Glennamaddy is a Protestant. The Protestant clergymen are represented on all local committees in connection with Old Age Pensions and Agricultural Acts, and, when Conventions of the United Irish League were held for the purpose of electing Parliamentary . representatives, Protestant clergymen were allowed votes at those Conventions.’ A WISE UNIONIST. Professor Culverwell, writing in the Irish Times, says: That Home Rule, or its equivalent under another name, will come some time, and should fie squarely faced by Unionists, seems practically certain. The difficulties of maintaining a negative position are immense. You may repel an attack a dozen times, yet after one failure the negative is gone. Nor can any instance be found of the ultimate failure to carry a policy which has been definitely and successfully adopted at several General Elections by either of the great parties of the State. Nor is that all. Whether Irish Unionists like it or not, it is only" by shutting their eyes to facts that they can deny that many important members of what is called the Unionist Party have been (and, therefore, may again be) quite ready to consider a “ deal ”, on Home Rule. And that the British rank and file of the Party would follow, them, who can doubt CATHOLIC TOLERANCE. Mr. Poole, an English Nonconformist, who has spent five years in Ireland, stated, in a lecture at the Dawn of Freedom Branch of the U.1.L., Belfast, recently, that the Nonconformists of England were heart and soul with Ireland. Talking about Catholic intolerance and the enmity between Catholics and Protestants, he had never seen any of it. What was all the trouble about now ? Because those who created it were afraid that the class ascendancy that they enjoy would be broken if Home Rule became an accomplished fact. in Ireland. Talk about persecution or intolerance he had never seen it except in the Episcopalian Church in Ireland. They were the most intolerant, bigoted class of people he had even met in all his life. They seemed to think there was no good outside their own communion. STARVING IRISH EDUCATION. At the distribution of prizes in St. Columb’s Col-le-oe Derry, Right Rev. Dr. McHugh, Bishop of Derry, referring to the direction of Intermediate education in Ireland, asked if the directors of any ordinary business firm would go on changing their system from year to year, discarding this year as a hopeless failure what was put forward last year as the nearest possible approach to perfection? What would the shareholders do ? They would drive the directors from office at the first possible opportunity. Unfortunately, however, for those who had the greatest interest in Irish Intermediate education, they had no voice in deciding who were to be directors. Viewed from the financial aspect,

Intermediate education at the present time was in a most critical position, and the danger was that unless redress be had for the grievances before the Home Rule Bill passedas they all hoped R would —they could have little hope of bettering their position for years to come. The anomalous position of Ireland in regard to secondary education had been explained to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Birrell last year announced that a substantial sum would be set aside to meet the situation. So far, however, no provision had been made. With a surplus of 6| millions sterling the Government could not plead want of means to ; meet what was admitted to be a just and pressing claim. Once Home Rule became an accomplished fact, Intermediate education could be raised, from its present starved condition only by taxing the people, and in the early days of its administration an Irish Parliament would have too many calls on its resources to pay due attention to the needs of Intermediate education. A BAD PRECEDENT. - Sir Edward Carson proclaimed to the Countesses at the Queen’s Hall, London, on June 24, that he intended when he went over to Ulster ‘ to break every law that was possible. Let the Government take their own course. He was not a bit afraid of them.’ We (Catholic Times ) feel sure the only person the valiant knight need fear is Sir Edward Carson. It is Sir Edward Carson whose ranting has deprived his words of any weight they ever had and ruined his chances of ever again occupying a position in the government of the country. Childish and absurd as these outbursts may appear, they are pernicious inasmuch as respect for the law is one of the greatest safeguards of the Constitution. Sir Edward knows that amongst the Orangemen of the North of Ireland there is religious fanaticism and he deliberately endeavours to excite it. What a contrast to this is presented by the action of the • Irish Catholics. At a meeting of the Clonakilty Urban Council the other day amongst the letters read was one from the local Methodist body recognising the council’s generosity in offering a piece of ground at a nominal rent to be used as a passage to the back of the Methodist Church. Sir Edward Carson would be much better employed if during his visits to Ulster he devoted himself to the promotion of such a kindly feeling amongst the Protestants towards the Catholics instead of breaking the law.

DECREASE IN EMIGRATION. , Emigration in the past five months of the present year is 2502 less than what it amounted to in the corressponding months of 1911 (remarks the Freeman's Journal}. hat is a decline of about 18 per cent. April and May are the principal months for emigration, and there was a decrease of 1663 in the month of April, or close on 30 per cent. This improved state of affairs was not maintained in the month of May, when the decrease came to only 402, or about 8 per cent. only. It is worthy of note that the decline in emigration this year is mainly in the number of men emigrants. The number of male emigrants who left Ireland in the five months is 1732 less than in the same period of last year, whilst the number of women emigrants is only 775 less. The decrease in emigration is prettv evenly proportioned between the provinces. The total emigration in the five months is 14,170, as compared with 16,577 last year, and ten thousand, or more than two-thirds, of the emigrants went to the United States, being 2291 less than last year’s exodus to America.