Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 22 January 1914, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Addressing the Grand Jury at the opening of the Munster Winter Assizes at Cork, Mr. Justice Moloney said that having regard to the great population of the province, comprising as it did six counties, there was nothing exceptional to come before them. In all there were 49 cases for trial, which were of the ordinary character to be met with in such a community. On November 25 the Rev. Mother Thomas, of the Dominican Convent, Wicklow, celebrated her golden jubilee, and received a cablegram from his Holiness the Pope, through Cardinal Merry del Yal, sending her the Apostolic Benediction. There was a large attendance of the clergy from the diocese of Dublin, and High Mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Dunne, P.P., Celbridge. The Yen. Archdeacon Fricker, preached an eloquent sermon, and a very successful and enjoyable concert was given by the pupils in the afternoon, and the guests were hospitably entertained to luncheon by the community. THE THREAT OF CIVIL WAR. Mr. T. P. O’Connor, M.P., who was accompanied by Mr. Chas. Roberts, M.P., addressed a mass meeting in the Corn Exchange, Lincoln, on November 28, at the invitation of the Lincoln and Bracebridge Liberal Association. He referred to a recent speech by Colonel Hickman, in which that gentleman declared that the supporters of resistance in Ulster were in possession of real rifles, and that he could prove that, because he bought them himself. Where is the justice, he asked, in allowing one man (Colonel Hickman) to remain an officer of the Crown, to retain his pension, and to remain a member of Parliament, and another man (Michael Davitt) to be a convict for nine years for committing exactly the same offence ? The extraordinary gospel of civil war has been preached by the party of law and order and the party of capitalists and employers. There never was a more odious and more dangerous gospel. If it were accepted by any party in this country there would be an end of representative institutions, and an end of liberty. If it begins with Orangemen, it may spread until this nation at every moment of labor disturbance may find itself face to face with the dread and hideous prospect of bloodshed in the streets, in place of tranquil consultation in the council chambers. There is no necessity, Mr. O’Connor concluded, for civil war on the part of the people of Ulster. If their liberty should ever be assailed all the force of this mighty Empire will be at their back if a hair of their head is touched.

LARGE LEGACIES FOR CHARITY Personal estate in the United Kingdom, valued at £21,314, has been left by Professor John Campbell, M.D., F.R.C.P.1., of Hazlewood House, Dundrum, County Dublin, retired professor of chemistry, who died on September 11 last, aged 78 years. Professor Campbell bequeathed— to the Bishop of Meath towards the erection of a Catholic Cathedral in the diocese of Meath, intended to be erected at Mullingar. £SOOO to his brother-in-law, the Rev. David Morrissey, to be applied by him to charitable purposes in Ireland. £3OO to the Convent of Mercy, Navan. £3OO to the Rev. Patrick Raleigh, of St. Monica’s Priory, Hoxton square, London, for purposes connected with the said priory. He also left £2OO each to eight other Irish religious charities and £IOO each to five similar objects. Subject to a bequest of £IOO and his household he left the residue of his estate for charitable purposes in Ireland. 7 : ' - Miss Isabella Honan, of 25 Sidney place, Wellington road, Cork, who left personal estate valued at £153,331, gave— to the Cork Diocesan Fund, for Aged and Infirm Priests. £2OOO for the interior decoration of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, King street,

Cork, for stained glass windows there. £IOOO for the erection of an organ' in gt. Patrick’s Church aforesaid. £ISOO. to St. Patrick’s Incurables Hospital,- Cork. £2OOO to the North Infirmary, Cork. £ISOO to the Mercy Hospital, St. Mary of the Isles, Cork. £3OOO among certain Cork charities. The residue of her estate equally to the North Infirmary, Cork, St. Patrick’s Hospital for Incurables, and the Honan’s Heme or Hospital, Cork. ' BELFAST HOLDS ITS PLACE. The Home Rule Fund for 1913 has just been increased by the addition of £llOO from the Nationalists of the City of Belfast (says the Irish Weekly). This is the largest contribution to Ireland’s war chest subscribed by the people of any city, town, or district in the country. Belfast has held the place of honor for man y years; now its roll of honor is more representative of its Nationalist population than on any previous occasion. .The demand for self-government has weakened in no part of Ireland; on the contrary, it has grown stronger and more clamant as the years pass by. Acknowledging the receipt of the money raised for Ireland s cause by his constituents and neighbors, Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., writes, in reply to the letter addressed to him by Mr. David McCloskey, J.P., the hon. treasurer, to whose efforts not a little of the credit claimed by Belfast to-day is due: — ‘ Quite recently Mr. F. E. Smith, in the course of a recital of his “gallop-: mg experiences throughout the four homogeneous’ counties of Ulster, made the impudent declaration that the people of Ireland were neither prepared to pay for Home Rule nor fight for it. These characteristic misrepresentations can best be answered by • pointing to the fact that the response that has been made to the appeal of the National Trustees for the Home Rule Fund during the past few years has eclipsed five times over the record of previous years of the National struggle. Never, in the hey-day of the movement for legislative freedom under Mr. Parnell’s leadership, have the people rallied so unitedly or subscribed more liberally in support of their principles. From the centre of the “homogeneous” territory you send your generous contribution, exposing the utter absurdity of the contention of Mr. Smith.’ DEATH OF A POPULAR LANDLORD. Keen regret was felt throughout North Kerry on December 2 when news was received of the death of Mr. Lindsay Talbot-Crosbie, Ardfert Abbey, which occurred in London after an operation. Writing of the sad event the Irish News said: —One of the best and most truly patriotic of Irishmen has passed away ; and the people of this country will learn the sad fact with feelings of heartfelt regret. Mr. Lindsey TalbotCrosbie was a Protestant landlord—the owner of large estates in the ‘Kingdom of Kerry.’ Those Kerry landlords who became unpopular were themselves to blame; Talbot-Crosbie’s career proved it. He lived amongst his tenantry ; he watched over their interests; he was to them a protector, instructor, and friend. Therefore his rents were paid regularly, and he was one of the best-beloved members, of the community. His heart and sympathies were Irish. He was an ardent • Home Ruler, and during the present year many eloquent and statesmanlike appeals for peace and unity and a good understanding between all Irishmen were published in the Irish News from the pen of the squire of Ardfert Abbey. Few people outside his own family and the residents in the immediate neighborhood of Ardfert knew that he suffered from the disease that necessitated the operation which proved fatal; therefore* the announcement of his death came as , a startling shock to those who knew and honored him, and who looked forward to an Ireland in whose councils Lindsey TalbotCrosbie would fill a high and responsible place. His name has been added to the long -roll, of patriots who stood firmly - by Ireland in the ‘dark and evil "days ’ and were called away before the full light of freedom lit up. the Irish sky. The memory of ;these men will

not fade; the work done by Talbot-Crosbie for his native land was honest, earnest, and practical, and it will be remembered to the credit of his name by thousands outside the borders of his own county.

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CASHEL. Cashel was the first diocese in Ireland, with the exception of Armagh, to be raised to the dignity of an archiepiscopal see, that honor having been conferred upon it in the early years of the 12th century by a National Synod. The action of the Irish Synod was solemnly confirmed by the Papal Legate in 1152, when he conferred the Pallium upon Donat O’Loilerga’n, and appointed him and his successors Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Munster. Since that time many distinguished archbishops have presided over the destinies of Cashel. In the days of persecution, when the religious future of Ireland was trembling in the balance, and when no man could foretell with certainty what the morrow would bring, it was an Archbishop of Cashel, the great Dermod O’Hurley, who came forward to strengthen the religious convictions of his countrymen, and to banish wavering . and doubt by willingly undergoing the most dreadful martyrdom that the ingenuity of man could devise rather than abandon one iota of the faith that had been handed down by St. Patrick and St. Ailbe. And in more modern times when the landlords and agents and bailiffs reigned supreme without any regard for the rights of'the people, once again it was an Archbishop of Cashel, the illustrious Dr. Croke, who stepped into the breach to do battle for the tenants of Ireland, and to encourage by voice and pen the Irish Parliamentary Party, who* were waging the battle of Ireland against what then seemed to be overwhelming odds. On the death of Dr. Croke the. See of Cashel was filled by Dr. Fennelly, who was, practically speaking, the unanimous selection of people' priests, and bishops. For ten years he governed the diocese of Cashel, and was beloved by all with whom he came into contact. But for some time past his health was failing, and in the early months of this year he petitioned Rome to allow him to retire from his onerous position, and to entrust the government of the diocese to a younger and stronger man. The Holy See reluctantly consented to his request, and in July the priests of Cashel were called together for the selection of a successor. The results of this meeting were placed before the bishops of the Province early in August, and in due course the documents were forwarded to Rome Owing to the facts that the months of September and October are the vacation months of the Roman Congregations it was only on December 1 that the news was forwarded to Ireland that the Holy Father had appointed Dr Harty, Professpr, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, to the vacant archbishopric.