Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 13 March 1913, Page 39

Irish News

; ' GENERAL. The Toronto branch of the United Irish League cabled to Mr. John Redmond, M.P., as follows: ‘ Congratulations on your victory. Toronto sends 2000 dollars to sustain the cause.’ The newly-renovated Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kanturk, has been re-opened by Most Rev. Dr. Brown, Bishop of Cloyne. The sacred edifice cost originally £II,OOO, and now some £6OOO has been spent on renovating and repairing it. The late Mr. Henry Bedford Sleeman, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, left £2OO each to the Mater Misericordise Hospital and the Hospice for the Dying, Dublin ; £SO each for the Sisters of Mercy, Tuam, the Sisters of Mercy, Claremorris, and St. Joseph’s Convent, Longford, for the poor; £IOO each to the Coombe Lying-in Hospital and the Bishop of Limerick, for the poor; and a like sum to the Superior of the Christian Brothers’ Schools, Limerick. A special meeting of the Dublin Corporation have decided to apply £22,000 out of the rates towards the erection and maintenance of a new art gallery provided sufficient private subscriptions were received to present the municipality with a site fre.e of charge and a further £3OOO. The scheme arises out of the terms attached by Sir Hugh Lane to his gift of pictures to the city.

TOLERANCE IN THE SOUTH. Mr. Robert W. Evans, Carker House, Doueraile, in a letter to a contemporary, as a South of Ireland Protestant expresses approval of the Irish Protest Committee, and condemnation of the slanders hinted on English platforms against his Catholic fellow-country-men. In his locality, he says, Unionists are represented both on the County and District Councils by Protestant gentlemen, it being obvious that religion was not an issue in the contest since the proportion of Catholics to Protestants among the electorate was about 14 to 1. Mr. Evans points out that Protestants and Catholics are indiscriminately involved in the management of the vast majority of public companies in Cork City, so that, even if so minded, it would be impossible for an Irish Parliament to hit the pockets of well-to-do Protestants without at the same time mulcting their Catholic associates.

WHO ARE THE PERSECUTORS ? Colonel Magrath, of Wexford, is apparently in fear and trembling with regard to the future prospects of his co-religionists. He has written to Mr. Montmorency, hon. treasurer of the Protestant Home Rule Committee, to ask him if he were aware that ‘ the Roman Hierarchy whenever they had the power to do so were sworn to persecute Protestants/ and if he expected that they would make a solitary exception of Ireland when they got the power which some Protestants were helping them to obtain ? Mr. Montmorency, in the course of a trenchant answer, tells the Colonel that there never has been any persecution of Protestants by Catholics in Ireland, but there is to-day, he points out, a great deal of persecution of Catholics by Protestants; to wit, the wholesale bullying and intimidation of Catholic workmen in the shipyards of Belfast.

THE NEW BISHOP OF ELPHIN. The nomination of the Very Rev. Bernard Canon Coyne, one of the Vicars-General of the diocese of Elphin, as Bishop of Elphin in succession to the late Most Rev. Dr. Clancy, has given widespread satisfaction throughout that diocese, and particularly in the town of Boyle, County Roscommon, where he has been parish priest for the past twenty-two years. Following his early education in Old Summer hill,’ near Athlone, Dr. Coyne passed on to Maynooth, Sound ability and great strength of character marked his career at the noted seat of learning and in due course he was or-

dained in 1880. He was stationed in various parts of the diocese over which he has now been called to rule, and on the death of the late Very- Rev. Charles O'Malley, of Boyle, he was appointed Administrator, and subsequently parish priest of Boyle. The dignity of a Canon of the diocese of Elphin was bestowed on him shortly afterwards, and for some years past he has been Theologian to the Chapter of the Diocese.

A CREW SAVED FROM DEATH. Owing to the prompt assistance rendered by Rev. John O Shea and the men of, the Helvic Head lifeboat, the crew, consisting of twenty-four men, of the French barque Marechal de Noailles, which was wrecked off Mine Head, Co. Waterford, on January 14, were saved from almost certain death. The moment news of the disaster arrived sturdy dwellers by the sea set out with their rocket apparatus and tramped over fourteen-miles of a rough road. Arrived at the scene of the disaster, they threw a line on to the vessel but those on board did not know how to use it. There was nothing to do but to stand utterly helpless until a megaphone was procured. By its aid the crew were told how to work the apparatus, and were landed safely. The shipwrecked mariners were treated hospitably and conveyed to Dungarvan, where their wants were provided for. Interviewed by a press representative the master of the vessel, before leaving for France, spoke highly of the bravery of Father O’Shea, and of the kindness shown the crew by the keeper of the lighthouse. It may be mentioned that this heroic priest, and some of those who accompanied him, have already been decorated with medals by the King for saving life at imminent risk. ■r■ ‘ . «

THE IRISH LEADER’S MANIFESTO. Through the Daily Ohronicle , Mr. John Redmond sent the following message the British nation; ‘On behalf of the Irish Party and the Irish people whom they represent, I heartily congratulate the British nation on the passage of the third Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons, and. tender to the Liberal and Labor Parties, to the Scottish and Welsh members, and to their supporters, both in and out of Parliament, our gratitude for the fidelity with which they have championed to victory the cause of justice to Ireland. The Home Rule Bill is a charter of liberty foi Ireland, and an act of appeasement and reconciliation on the part of Great Britain, and as such it will be accepted by the Irish nation at home and in exile. he passage of the Bill into law is assured, and the effect of its operation in Ireland will be not only to inaugurate a new era of peace and prosperity, but to weld together Irishmen of every class and of every creed in an indissoluble bond of brotherhood and of affection for the promotion of the welfare and the happiness of their motherland. The granting of Home Rule to Ireland will add immeasurably to the strength of the Empire, and it will be hailed with enthusiasm, not only by the self-governing Dominions under the British flag, but by the friends of justice and of liberty in every sovereign State in the world/

UNEQUAL REPRESENTATION. That the Catholics of Ireland are not over represented on the Commission of the Peace is adequately proved by the Parliamentary White Paper published recently. According to -this document, the religious census has given the following figures:Catholics, 3,242,670; Episcopalians, 576,611 ; Presbyterians’ 440,525 ; Methodists, 62,382; all others, 68,031. This gives 1,147,549 non-Catholics, against 3,242,670 Catholics. But, while Catholics represent slightly less than 74 per cent, of the population, non-Catholics count for slightly over 60 per cent, of the magistracy, as the following figures show:—6o74 persons hold the Commission of the Peace, of whom 2396 are Catholics and 3656 are non-Catholics, including 2817 Episcopalians, 638 Presbyterians, and 130 Methodists. In addition’ there are eight Jews, and ten cases in which the religion of the magistrate is not stated.

IN THE HOUR OF VICTORY. Mr. Redmnd has received the following letter from Lady Agatha Russell, the daughter of the famous statesman, Lord John Russell, who afterwards became Earl Russell: —‘Dear Mr. Redmond,Although I have not the pleasure of knowing you personally I cannot help writing a few lines of most hearty congratulation on the splendid triumph of your cause in the House of Commons. The vivid recollections of past days long ago during the early struggles of Home Rule, when- my mother and I felt such keen interest and deep sympathy with your country, impels me to write now in the Hour of victory. So I hope, though you must be overburdened with correspondence, that you will not feel it an intrusion. Our constant and friendly intercourse with many Nationalist members in the old days at Pembroke Lodge is now long past, and I live entirely in the country, away from the scenes of strife, but my sympathy with the cause is as deep and strong as ever, and I earnestly hope that, though difficulties must arise under any scheme, there is at last now a good prospect of a happy solution and of a gradually deepening and increasing friendliness between our two nations working together, as we must hope they will, towards all that is best on the uphill path of progress. It is most grievous to read of the hostile and bitter spirit in some parts of Ulster, and still worse the incitements to strife from Ulster on this side of the water, from whom a better influence might have been expected. It makes one so dread that it may be met in the future by bitterness on your side, and thus prevent the happy co-operation of all creeds and classes which one longs to see in the Ireland of the future, and which would do at most more than can now be imagined to refute the hostile arguments of anti-Nationalists. With” again most cordial congratulations on this grand result of your unwearied labors for Ireland, believe me, yours sincerely.’

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS. The value, of the estate of the late Mr. Christopher Langan, tea merchant, North King street, Dublin, who died some weeks ago, has been computed at about £203,000. In his will he directed that the following legacies be paid: —Mother Magdalen, Convent of Mercy, Trim, for her school, £1000; Little Sisters of the Assumption, Camden street, £2OO, for the charitable purposes in Dublin of their institution. £SOO to be distributed by his executors amongst the deserving poor of North King street and parish of St. Michan. £IOOO each to the parish priest or superior of St. Audoen’s; parish priest or superior of St. Mary of the Angels’, Church street; parish priest of St. Columba’s, Drumcondra; parish priest of St. Agatha’s, North William street; parish priest of St. Patrick’s, Ringsend; parish priest of St. Gabriel’s, Aughrim street parish priest of St. Michan’s, Halston street; parish priest of St. Michael and John’s, Lower - Exchange street, for repair, rebuilding, improvement, or enlargement of said churches respectively. There are other charitable legacies of £IOOO, amounting in all to £44,000.