Irish' News

New Zealand Tablet, 25 September 1913, Page 39

Irish' News

- GENERAL. In the archdiocese of Dublin the Peter’s Pence collection made for this year amounts to £1554. Reynolds’s Newspaper says that a big syndicate is in process of formation with the object of constructing a port at Blacksod Bay, County Mayo, for, an express lineof steamers, between that point and Cape St. Charles, in South Labrador, whence another Transcontinental railway is to be built, bringing Canada within five days of London. The annual Convention of the Irish National Foresters was opened in the Town Hall, Cavan, on August 4, after a special Mass celebrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.- Mr. James Moran, Liverpool, Grand High Chief Ranger, presided. In the course of an interesting address he referred to the great progress made by the society, and said that in 1901 they had some 29,000 members; now they had 50,000.

Lord Ashbourne, speaking at a meeting in Galway in support of the Irish language movement, said that in Galway he heard people who knew Irish talking English to their children. Was not that a shame? He had been asked in the public press whether, now that he was a peer, he would speak Irish in the House of Lords. He answered: The House of Lords was in England, and what good was it for him to talk Irish to Englishmen while the Irish people of Galway spoke English to one another? Let them speak Irish in Galway, and he promised them that he would not be afraid to speak it in the House of Lords.

The movement to utilise Irish coal is spreading. TheCallan Guardians are anxious that the coalfields in their Union should be exploited, and they have addressed the Chief Secretary, the Department of Agriculture, and the county members on the subject. The coal is near the surface, the shafts are sunk, but the owners will neither work the mine themselves nor allow others to take it in hand. The local institutions are anxious to use this coal at the low rates it could be sold at so close to the pit's mouth, and there is, a large demand for it in the town and the district around.

The County Kilkenny Committee of Agriculture. are about to increase their prizes to small holders. The prizes are awarded for neatness and excellence of farm work, and with a view to encourage tillage especially. It was reported at the last meeting that the interest - in the competitions is dying out because the prizes are too low. There are three prizes, ranging from £2 10s to 10s. The county is divided into seven prize districts, each consisting of a groups of five parishes, and there is one set of prizes for each group. It was pointed out that in Meath, where a valuation basis is used for classification, prizes as high as £ls are offered, and in some of the classes a £3O prize was offered. THE BISHOP OF GALWAY’S ADVICE. Speaking at a large open-air meeting held in Galway, in support of the Irish language movement, the Bishop of Galway, who presided, spoke in Irish. He said when he was young everyone could speak Irish in the district where he was born. Now nobody spoke it there, and Irish had been lost in that little corner of Ireland. Unless they looked to it, the language would be lost in the same way in the districts that were yet Irish-speaking. He was certain that unless Irish was spoken to the young it would be lost. He thought there was no better advice for the people of Galway than —to speak Irish always among themselves, and not to speak a word of English where the people were able to speak Irish. If they did that there was not the slightest fear of the language dying out. - ———— MASQUERADING AS IRISHMEN. It is not alone in New Zealand that criminals masquerade as Irishmen and -Catholics. According to

the Catholic Times two of the men who received long sentences for the Berkeley Hotel robbery in • London * recently, Stephen Sharman and William Fell, had records of. previous convictions extending over Several years and in many of these cases they had given and been convicted under such thoroughly Irish names as Sullivan and O’Brien, though both were Englishmen. There are other instances of criminals thus masquerading as Irishmen. In the terrible case of murder and conspiracy in connection with the New York police scandals of this year, one of the most prominent of the hired assassins was a certain John Sullivan and many, of those who read the record of the case thought that he was not only an Irishman but a Catholic. John Sullivan, however, was an immigrant German Jew, whose real name.was Jacob Reich, We believe that this assumption of Irish names by professional criminals is not uncommon. To complete the disguise they often say that they are Catholics. Every gaol chaplain finds from time to time prisoners entered on his list as ‘ Roman Catholics,’ who prove to be strangely ignorant of every Catholic doctrine and practice, and a few judicious questions reveal the fact that they first professed to be Catholics on being arrested. Sometimes it is hard to assign a motive for this, but in some cases it is the result of a widespread belief that the Catholic chaplain is likely to be more kindly and helpful than his Anglican colleague; these assumptions of Irish nationality and Catholic religion should be kept in mind in dealing with criminal statistics. THE NEW IRISH LAND BILL. -The text of the Irish Land Bill, introduced by Mr. Birr ell on July 21, was issued early in August, together with an explanatory memorandum dealing with the financial clauses of the Bill. The financial provisions with respect to new transactions may be stated as follows:—(1) Purchase annuities. are to be at the rate of 3| per cent, instead of 3-| per cent.; (2) advances are to be made half in cash and half in Guaranteed Three per Cent. Stock at its face value, the market price of which has varied in the last three weeks from 76 to 78|; (3) money required for advances is to be raised on terminable annuities running for sixty-two years' at the rate of interest of 3A per cent.; (4) the bonus is to be calculated in accordance with a scale which is set out; (5) any sums over and above the amount to be provided by purchase annuities are to be charged to the Imperial Exchequer. With regard to labourers’ cottages, an. additional million is to be made available for advances. The purchase annuities in respect thereof are to be at the rate of 3|- per cent., and 20 per cent, of the purchase annuities is to be charged to the Imperial Exechequer. SAD DROWNING FATALITY. Strand hill, a new seaside resort adjoining the town of Sligo, was on August 2 the scene of a very sad drowning fatality, as a result of which five young ladies lost their lives, being swept out to sea, it is understood, by a very strong current before help could reach them. The names of the victims are—Margaret Frayne, aged 29 years, Ballaghadereen; Lizzie Murphy, aged 27 years, and her sister,. Annie Murtagh, aged 23, of Lisacernal, Newtownforbes, Co. Longford; Lizzie Forde, Fairymount, Frenchpark, Roscommon, and Lizzie McNulty, aged 32 years, Drumsna, Co. Leitrim. - It appears that on Saturday morning the -ladies vent out for a bathe at Strandhill. Previous to going into the water they met another lady, a Miss O’Reilly, stated to be a cousin to Miss Forde, and asked her to join them, but she declined and proceeded along the strand for some considerable distance. Soon afterwards, on looking back in the direction in which the party had gone, Miss O’Reilly noticed them struggling in the water. They then suddenly disappeared. . . IRISH AMERICAN BISHOP’S ADDRESS.. Sunday, August 3, was a red-letter day in the history of the Catholic parish of Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone The church was packed by the friends of the late Edward Gunn, of Black Hill, to see and to hear his eldest

son, Most Rev. Dr. Gunn, Bishop of Natchez, United States, America. Solemn High Mass was celebrated at 11 o'clock, at which the Most Rev. Dr. McKenna, Bishop of Clogher, presided. A charity sermon was preached by the Most Rev. Dr. Gunn, and a collection was then taken up to assist in clearing off the heavy debt on the new parochial house. In the course of an eloquent address Bishop Gunn, dealing with emigration, said the causes justifying it which took four million of Ireland’s children into exile no longer exist— attractions drawing them to America as a fairyland of prosperity are a thing of the past. The past century had been a struggle to put the Irish in charge of their own domestic affairs, to give them a right to mind their own business, and now that State rights or Home Rule rights were secured, they abandoned their homes and let the stranger be benefited by the harvest of liberty almost gathered. For the sake of Ireland, its religion, and its traditions, he appealed to them to remain at home. ANOTHER SNAP DIVISION. ’ _ Mr. John Redmond knew what he was about when ho issued his appeal to the members of the Irish Party to be prepared for snap divisions towards the end of the Session. The snap came on July 30, and was beaten by 33 votes, 67 members of the Irish .Party voting with the Government. All but three Tories were accounted for. They brought men from all parts of the country. Nearly all the ‘ Ulster ’ Unionists were there, except Sir Edward Carson. Numbers of Unionists came from the Continent. One Unionist was made to come, although his father had died that morning. A secret circular advised them to hide themselves on the Terrace, Six of them hid in a bathroom. Hundreds of pounds had been wagered on the success of the plot. It is stated that at Belfast preparations had been made to celebrate the defeat of the Home Rule government, and Unionist members were observed, after voting, hurrying to the Lobby post office to wire the glad tidings. But it did not come off. ‘ Saved by the Irish !’ yelled the disappointed Tories, in response to the ironical cheers of the Home Rulers. And the Tory papers _ stated that the Irish Party had detectives at the principal points of arrival and departure all over the country to keep the Party whips advised of the movements of absent Tory members. LADY DAY IN ULSTER. There "were no Nationalist demonstrations on August 15 in Ulster. Last year, Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., advised that none should be held, lest a pretext might be given for riot or disorder, and his advice was acted on, with the best results. Mr. Devlin issued another letter, this year, in which he appeared for a continuance of this policy. Mr. Devlin says: ‘ Nothing has done more to impress the British people with the capacity of Irishmen for self-government than the marvellous patience and self-control* exhibited by the Nationalists of Belfast, and of Ulster generally, in the face of the almost intolerable provocation to which they have been subjected during the past two or three years at the hands of a small section of Ulstermen,, with whom they have no quarrel, but who have been the victims of appeals to bigotry and sectarianism on the part of interested persons, to whom unfortunately they are accustomed to look for leadership. Our friends in Ulster will realise the importance of persevering in this policy of patience and self-control and it will be all the more easy fox* them to do so when they remember that the cause for which they have sacrificed so much—the cause of Irish liberty—is every day approaching nearer to victory.’ " &