Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 11 September 1913, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Killarney House, the seat of the Earl of Kenmare, overlooking the celebrated Lakes, was destroyed by fire last week. The loss is estimated at £400,000. The Right Hon. Ignatius O'Brien, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, a native of Cork, was on July 18 presented by the Corporation of that city with the freedom of the city. Rev. James E. McKenna, Adm., M.R.1.A., has been appointed parish priest of Dromore, County Tyrone, in succession to his uncle, the late Right Rev. Mgr. McKenna, P.P. '.',". Much regret is felt at the death in Waterford of Mr. Michael J. McGrath, a veteran journalist, who for many years was on the parliamentary reporting staff of the Daily News and Standard. The late Mr. P. J. O'Connor, a Swinford (County Mayo) merchant, leit personal estate valued at £ll,BOl. Amongst his bequests were £IOO to the Mother Superior of the Convent of Mercy, Swinford. § Throughout County Clare the death of the Rev. John O'Malley, Ennis, occasioned deep regret. Deceased, who was 65, ministered from time to time at Bradford, Puckane, Cusheen, and Kilcolman. , Rev. Father J. Russell, of Skerries, County Dublin, was entertained to a banquet by the Irish societies of Hoboken, New York, and presented with a solid gold chalice and a purse of 500 dollars previous to sailing from New York, where he had been visiting for some weeks. On the Sunday within the octave of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Mary's Church, Drumagarner, Kilrea, County Kerry, was re-opened, after undergoing a complete scheme of restoration and extensive improvements, involving an outlay of close upon £2OOO. Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., speaking at a Liberal demonstration at Devizes, said that the claims made by the Tories in the House of Lords were an attack not •only on Irish but on British liberty. But he was convinced that an Irish Parliament would be making laws in Dublin for Ireland before the end of next year. Mr. John Dillon, M.P., had a very cordial reception at a Liberal demonstration in Birkenhead on July 18. In a powerful speech he explained why Ireland still wanted Home Rule, and speaking of Ulster expressed the view that there would be no civil war, not because the Ulstermen were cowards, but because they were not lunatics. Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P., speaking at West Kensington, told his audience that the Orange mob of Belfast had been rioting periodically for the last halfcentury with nothing to riot for save a ferocious hatred of their fellow-countrymen who. happened to be Roman Catholics. Let them not talk to him, he said, about the religion of Belfast. There was no religion in Orange tyranny it was downright savagery. Mr. "Maurice Talbot-Crosbie, a distinguished member of a well known County Kerry Protestant family, has written, enclosing a subscription, to the Home Rule Fund:—'l become more certain every day that the only way to aevelop our country satisfactorily is for. all Irishmen to sink political differences, and to work together for this common end, and that the only way to obtain this state of affairs is by the re-estab-lishment of our native Parliament.' An interesting disclosure has been made by an analysis of the division list on the Home Rule Bill in the House of Lords. It is that a Tory Peer, the Earl of Cranbrook,'voted for the measure. Lord Cranbrook, who is aged 43, and only succeeded to the title in 1911, is a member of the family of Gathorne Hardy, with notoriously Tory traditions, one of its most noted members having been Secretary for War under Disraeli. The simple justice of the Home Rule cause is daily making converts.

IRISH ATHLETES. The ninth annual contest between Scotland and Ireland was decided at Celtic Park, Belfast. It was a complete surprise as far as the result is concerned. Scotland was expected to win the contesteven, by the odd event—but it turned out a brilliant victory for Ireland by seven events to four. A feature of the meeting was the great running of F. R. Shaw, the Dublin University crack, in the hundred yards. He had against him an even timer in W. A. Stewart, of London Hospital, but running brilliantly he beat the Scotchman by a foot in 10 sees, equalling the Irish record. He had a breeze behind him. T. F. Carroll got over 6 feet 1 inch in the high jump, and then P. Flynn (Bandon) had a glorious victory in the four miles. He was opposed by C. L. Wallash (Bolton), the Scottish champion. The latter retired after two miles, leaving Flynn to finish alone in 21 minutes 15 4-ssecs. It was a great win for Ireland. AMERICAN TRIBUTE TO IRELAND'S PRO- - GRESS. A of the American Agricultural Commission, which has been inquiring into Irish methods, paid a visit to the Munster Dairy Institute, Cork, on July 17. Replying to an address of welcome, Colonel Weinstock, of California, said they would leave Ireland with a larger conception of its people and its possibilities than ever they had before. They felt almost ashamed when they realised how much Ireland and Irishmen had accomplished in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties, and how little, comparatively, the Americans, with all their splendid opportunities, had achieved along the lines on which Irishmen were working. Only a decade ago the Irish leaders were faced with what seemed impossible difficulties. They had to deal with the keenest and direst poverty, with ignorance and illiteracy, w'th intense national prejudice and hatreds, with intense religious prejudices and internal strifes, and yet, despite all their great difficulties, he could not recall an instance in which there had been such a remarkable uplifting, such a wonderful evolution and social revolution as had taken place in Ireland. That nation was now an objectlesson to the great nations of the world. His colleagues and himself would return to America inspired and energised by what they had seen. COMPLETION OF LAND PURCHASE. Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, introduced the Bill for the completion of land purchase in Ireland in the House of Commons on July 27. After some introductory remarks, he said:—The value of land sold, or actually agreed to be sold under the Act of 1903, amounts to £85,410,602, and under the Act of 1909 the sales amount to £11,225,234. Therefore if you add these figures together the total purchase money, representing transactions either carried out or agreed to be carried out, amounts to £96,635,836. And if you add to these figures the £3,845,000 which will have to be advanced under the Loan Purchases Acts for laborers' cottages, you get a total of £IOO,481,427. If you add to that £24,000,000 representing the purchase money of transactions under the Land Acts prior to the Act of 1903 you get a total of £125,260,000. That is what I mean when I say that this great transaction is two-thirds of tho way through. That is what has been done, and the question the House has now to consider is what remains to be done, and that raises what has hitherto been called in our debates the size of the problem. It has always been a very difficult one to solve. In 1903 it was estimated by-very much the same advisers who are now by my side in Ireland that £100,000,000 would complete the transaction. Now if that estimate had been right our troubles would be nearly over, but it was not the correct estimate. I do not wonder at that in the very least considering the difficulties that then stood in the way of making that estimate, and even now at this stage of the proceedings I feel a certain hesitation in estimating what the remaining size of the problem is. I think we may pretty safely assume that the size of the problem

remaining untouched by any completed transactions may be taken at the sum of £60,000,000, but in addition to that sum; which is what we need-to complete this great and beneficent transaction, I must add another million in order to place upon a permanent and satisfactory footing a most beneficent work, the necessary corollary of land purchase—the building of laborers' cottages. Now 41,000 of these cottages have already been actually built, some of them very ugly, some of them not so ugly, and some of them really quite beautiful. But they are all of them healthy, and I think we may pronounce them a most productive expenditure, the interest of which is to be found in vigorous laborers, in healthy children responding to education, and in the revivification of the whole countryside. There are already 41,852 cottages actually built. There are some 9000 authorised but not yet built, and there are some 10,000 included in schemes not yet authorised. So that we require to complete certain transactions and to build 10,000 cottages a million, which would place this most beneficent operation on a substantial footing. IRISH COAL FIELDS. The result of Mr. Redmond's visit to the Gracefield mine, in the Wolf hill colliery district of the Queen's County, and of the articles that have been written since, is that Irish public bodies are giving more attention to the quality of Irish coal. The Wexford, Gorey, and Carrick Guardians have decided to try Irish coal, and some have accepted tenders. The Irish Industrial Journal calls attention to the fact that several manufacturers have been using Irish coal very successfully for power, both in gas engines and in steam. The percentage of sulphur in the output of many of the mines is very smallas low as one-half per cent.—and analyses made by independent analysts and also for makers of gas engines at the instance of some of their customers, describe it as ' an excellent gas coal.' It is superior in very many cases to the -Welsh anthracite for calorific purposes. - ''<■.■- THE ARMY AND HOME RULE. London Truth, commenting on the statement of the Times ' that some (Army) officers had already begun to send in their papers in anticipation of the passing of the Home Rule Bill,' says:— In plain English, there is going to be a rebellion in Ireland, and, if the rebels ■ are resisted, there is going to be a mutiny in the army, so it is high time for the Government to yield the demands of the prospective rebels and avoid driving them to extremities! Thus is the vaporing of Orange Lodges purveyed to Englishmen as the voice of a leading London journal identified with the party of law and order. These melodramatic threats and predictions of dire trouble unless the rest of the United Kingdom knuckles down to a factious gang of Belfast citizens, are so intrinsically silly that they only deserve to be laughed at.'. * r egg