Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 14 November 1912, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. - A Blue-book ‘ shows that Ireland in 1911 exported and imported goods of the value of £131,940,725, an increase of £474,159 over the previous year. The sum of a quarter of a million pounds is to be expended on the Olympic, in fitting her with a new ‘ skin,’ which will, it is hoped, render her practically unsinkable. The death of Mrs. Clancy, wife of Mr. J. J. Clancy, K.C., M.P, for North County Dublin, drew forth a remarkable expression of sympathy from public bodies and representative Irishmen of all grades. Mr. J. W. Everitt, of Felixstowe, has just sold his champion Irish wolfhound Gweebarra to Mr. G. G. Moore, South Carolina, for £225, which eclipses by a considerable amount the previous highest figure for an Irish wolfhound. Gweebarra is the biggest Irish wolfhound known. He has also won eight championships, forty first and special prizes. The new Church of St. Patrick, Maghera, was dedicated by the Right Rev. Dr. McHugh, Bishop of Derry, on Sunday, September 22, in presence of a large congregation. The new church, which is a handsome structure, beautifully situated in the valley of Glenshore, has been erected mainly through the efforts of the Right Rev. Mgr. McGurk, P.P., now past his eightieth year. The first aviation fatality to occur in Ireland was that which horrified a crowd of 10,000 people at Balmoral, Belfast, on September 21, when Astley, who with Valentine was giving exhibition flights, came down while executing a sharp turn, narrowly missed crashing into the crowd, and struck the track which encircles the ground, wrecking the machine and sustaining fatal injuries. Sir Hugh Mack, one of the leaders of Belfast commerce and a Protestant, asked in the course of an interview by the Daily Chronicle’s correspondent what, to use his own words, ‘a handful of lawyers who have no connection with Ulster’ are fighting for in the Ulster campaign, said: ‘ That is quite easy to see. If they can frighten Parliament by their antics’ and defeat the Governmeilt, then Sir Edward Carson will be Attorney-General, Mr. Campbell Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and the other lawyers will get their jobs. CATHOLICS AT PUBLIC COMPETITIONS. Prominent Irish Catholics did remarkably well in the recent public competition for inspectorships (senior and assistant) under the National Health Insurance Commission for Ireland. Two of the senior posts (salary £350 to £500) were gained by Mr. Francis Guy, a nephew of the Most Rev. Dr. Healy, Archbishop of Tuam, and formerly a professor at St. Jarlath College, Tuam; and Mr. James Clandillon, the well-known Gaelic Leaguer and traditional Irish singer. Amongst _ those who secured assistant inspectorships (out of sixty-two competitors) were Mr. R. Vincent Walker, Professor in Blackrock College, C.S.Sp Dubhn, and hon. secretary of the Coll. Union; and Mr Edmund Hutchinson, secretary to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and one of the pioneers and a member of the n X v^r V o committee of St. Columba’s branch of the v • j* • JVjL • u • IRISH COLLEGE, SALAMANCA. Rev. Richard Fitzgerald, S.T.L., who has been for some time Professor of Dogmatic Theology in St. Kieran s College, Kilkenny, has iust been appointed Vice-Rector of the Irish College, Salamanca. This Sw sStltut5 Stltutl ™ n was founded by an Irish Jesuit, Father Thomas White, of Clonmel, in the diocese of Lismore in the year 1592, just 320 years ago. By the Kina Vh-V he 4 oun £ da o tion ’ due to the munificence of Pal o Spam., it was entitled ‘EI Real Colegio de Nobles Irlandeses,’ and the students were

privileged to attend the lectures at the University of Salamanca. This Royal College for Irish students was dedicated to St. Patrick, and was governed by Irish Jesuits until the suppression of the Order in 1773. It was then given over to the secular clergy, and, in 1780, Rev. Dr. Curtis was appointed Rector, a position which he held until 1817, when he became Archbishop of Armagh. DERRY CITY. . ' ' I The next Parliamentary contest in Derry City should be exceptionally interesting. As already announced, the Marquess of Hamilton has decided ' to resign his seat. The Unionists hope to find his successor. But all the probabilities point to the winning of the constituency for Home Rule. The city, despite the Abercorn interest, would never have been captured by the Unionists but for the neglect of the register by the Nationalists. On three occasions the representation of Derry City was secured by a Home Rule candidate. At present the total population of the city is 40,780, and the Catholics number 22,923, or 56.2 per cent. There is no doubt whatever that the Nationalists on the voters’ lists outnumber the Unionists. . FORGETTING ESSENTIALS. Canon Berry (Protestant), in a sermon delivered in Booterstown Church, declared, according to the Church of Ireland Gazette, that a statement that the Church must be prepared to resist legislation at present proposed for this country,’ involved ‘a forgetfulness of some essential elements in the Faith of Christ.’ No civil legislation, he argued, could touch the real interest of the Church. ‘ What,’ he asked, ‘ is the pathway of power, of victory? Is it in meeting blow with blow? Is it in threats of armed resistance? Is it in violent speeches and intolerant reprisals ‘ln the past,’ proceeded Canon Berry, ‘ the Church has frequently intervened in politics and entered the arena of civil strife. Can it be maintained that such action ever aided the real power and influence of the Church ? Is it not a fact of history that the spiritual force of the Church has been in direct proportion to its non-inter-ference in matters of that kind ?’ ‘ It is not legislation,’ the Canon concluded, that we have to dread in our Church of Ireland. But when our leaders use the opportunity of a Synod to deliver what is at least a semi-political address, to the exclusion in many cases of the grave spiritual and practical problems which intimately concern the life and usefulness of the Church ; when they attend and participate in political demonstrations, then, indeed, the fear is suggested that the weapons which are being used may recoil upon the Church.’ ' r FICTIONS FOR BRITISH AUDIENCES. We ( Catholic Times) have on several occasions called attention to the misrepresentations of the Catholics of Ireland indulged in by Unionists who speak from public platforms in Great Britain. Apparently the capacity of the romancers is boundless. Despite correction and protest, they continue to pour forth slanders. The religious element is introduced in order that the prejudices of Protestants may be successfully worked upon. The case of Mr. Thomas E. Foster, who has a mill at Ballinsaloe, has been described as a hard one. He was stated to be the victim of a rigorous boycott simply because he is a Protestant and a Unionist. The United Irish League, on learning of the charge, requested Mr. P. Quinn, hon. secretary of the North Longford executive, to make inquiries as to whether it was true. The result of the investigations i s . the same as that of all the other enquiries of the kind._ Mr. Quinn sought information from the police and influential residents in the locality, and was informed that, so far from being boycotted, Mr Foster was very popular amongst the Catholics. He wrote to Mr. Foster himself and has received from him a denial of the Unionist fiction couched in emphatic terms ‘I am not boycotted,’ writes Mr. Foster, ‘nor did I give any person or party authority to say that I am On the contrary, I am happy to say that I eniov the

confidence and patronage of many people of every class in' the County Longford.’ This story will no longer be of any use, but the imagination that concocted it will probably supply a fresh one without delay. V THE FREEDOM OF CORK. The Very Rev. Canon O’Leary, Castlelyons, and Professor Kuno Meyer, Professor of Celtic in Berlin University, attended a special meeting of the Cork Corporation . recently and signed the roll of Freemen, the honorary freedom of the city having been conferred, upon them recently by a unanimous vote of the Municipal Council, in recognition of their services to the Irish language and literature. On their arrival in Cork the two distinguished visitors were accorded a most enthusiastic reception,, and presented with addresses of welcome on behalf of the workers in the Irish language movement in the south, visitors were met at the station by the Lord Mayor and a distinguished gathering of clergy and laity. The Christian Brothers’ Pageant Choir sang Dr. Bergin’s ‘Auran Dochuish,’ after which the procession, in which thousands of school children with bands and banners took part, marched to the City Hall, where the ceremony of signing the roll of freedom took place. Canon O’Leary briefly returned thanks in Irish, Professor Meyer, in thanking the Lord Mayor and Corporation for the honor done him, referred to the power of a national language and literature for bringing unity into nations, and said that the young people in Ireland desired this common ground upon which all could meet. * I believe that even in Ulster this feeling exists, and is so very widespread and strong that if the people there had been left to themselves better counsels would have preyailed. They would have chosen to cast in their lot with the rest of the motherland and to stand or fall with it. But an English party out of office, clinging to the one plank that is left to them, have once more interfered us hope, for the last time—-in the affairs of this country, and are trying to fan ancient animosities into a flare. There might be some who would think it ill of him a foreigner, to interfere in national politics, but the action of the Corporation had made him half an Irishman, and thus he might be allowed to give expression to feelings and convictions which he shared with all patriotic Irishmen. INTOLERANCE IN THE BELFAST SHIPYARDS. An illuminating confession is that which has been made to a deputation from the expelled workers’ committee, Belfast, by Mr. McMillan, the general manager of Messrs. Workman and Clark’s. Mr. McMillan said he would not advise his own brother, were he a Catholic, to return to work there. He had given certain assurances when the deputation was last with him, but he was sorry to say he had at present no hope of carrying them out. He agreed, so sure was he of the hopelessness of trying to get any of the expelled workers back, that the apprentices who had been driven out of their work should receive their apprentice premiums. Judging by an incident which took place on September 16, Mr. McMillan’s account of the intolerance of the Orangemen was quite accurate. When they are a hundred to one there is scarcely a limit to their aggressiveness and violence. A man named Maguire, who is, or was believed to be, a Catholic, ventured to go to work at Messrs. Workman and Clark’s, and at the breakfast hour, after having been kicked and beaten, he was taken to the hospital in an unconscious condition. The incitements of the Conservative leaders have had their natural results. They have worked upon the fanaticism, folly, and brutal instincts of the Orangemen in the shipyards, and have rendered vain the hopes of peace upon which were based the assurances which Mr. McMillan now finds he cannot make good.