Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1914, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Several thousand Volunteers were expected to take part in a huge Nationalist demonstration held in honor of Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown, County Kildare, where the remains of the hero lie. The demonstration was to be held in June. Mr. Swift Mac Neill, M.P., in a letter to the press, points out that on July 7, 1913, Mr. Bonar Law, speaking in the House of Commons on the third reading of the Home Rule Bill for the second time, remarked that that was the last occasion upon which the Bill would be calmly considered in the House. Mr. Mac Neill concludes; Mr. Bonar Law s attitude to the Chair proves that the disorder which he predicted, and by predicting incited, had, in the words of Mr. Speaker, his “assent and approval.” ’ The series of tobacco-growing experiments begun in Ireland ten years ago by the Department of Agriculture is now concluded. Full details and complete statistics are not yet available, but the evidence is considered to * justify the most confident expectations.’ Nine kinds of tobacco were grown by nineteen farmers in six selected counties on ninety-two acres, besides about sixty acres planted under the Small Growers’ scheme started three years ago. The crops have varied greatly in quantity and quality, according to the atmospheric conditions that prevailed ; and the dry harvesting weather needed for the best results is difficult to secure in the weeping climate of Ireland. The proposal that the Duke of Connaught should be the first Home Rule Viceroy in Ireland has been again revived, it being stated that his Royal Highness has a great liking for Ireland, and that he has been sounded by the Cabinet as to his willingness to become Lord-Lieutenant on the establishment of Home Rule. Of course, such an appointment would be extremely appropriate, but a great many people would prefer to see Lord Aberdeen retain his post until after Home Rule has been enacted. It was under his first ViceRoyalty that the union of hearts was effected. He went into Dublin the representative of a tyrannical British Government, and under the armed escort of battalions of military. In 1886, on leaving, after the defeat of Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule, Government, Lord and Lady Aberdeen were escorted out of the city by the bands or the Dublin trades. On hearing the news of the Unionist victory at Ipswich, the Orangemen of Derry paraded the streets of the Nationalist, quarter with shouts of ‘No Home Rule!' Their provocation was ignored. Letters written by Most Rev. Dr. McHugh were received by the local clergy, advising them to restrain their congregations from all outward demonstration of joy when the third reading of the Home Rule Bill was passed, and Rev. M. B. McConville wrote a similar letter, which was read at all the Masses in St. Peter’s Church, Lurgan, and in all the Catholic churches of Belfast the people were entreated not to indulge in any public rejQicing, and that persons acting contrary to that would be regarded with distrust and as enemies of their dearest interests. The Ulster Volunteers, it had been said, had arranged to assemble in Enniskillen, and to seize the Town Hall, the Post Office, and other buildings for the Provisional Government. A rumor pervaded Clones that the Volunteers intended to set up there a Provisional Government. This was the outcome of a resolution of the County Monaghan Orangemen, who stated that they would never submit to a Dublin Parliament. PLAIN TALK. The Nation says: -‘Has it come to this, that guns, rifles, and ammunition for use against the King’s soldiers (for that is their only possible objective) may not properly be seized before they enact murder and treason ? That Ulster is forbidden ground to the British Army? Who takes this attitude? Let the Tory

leaders assume it if they dare. This is not, as Mr. Bonar Law supposes, matter for a trial by a body of judges, selected on the model of the Parnell Commissioners. It is a subject for inquisition by the High Court of Parliament, which is fully armed to deal with cases of rebellion against the Crown. The rebels in question, indeed, turning social order upside down, vamnt and deploy their own force, while they treat a mild answering strategy from the King’s troops as treason to their own usurpation. „In their eyes the Executive has lost the right to march its soldiers, over British soil because, for reasons of policy, it has chosen to turn a blind eye to the signals of anarchy in Ulster. Now we much hoj)e to see that doctrine presented by Mr. Bonar Law in the House of Commons, and to observe what the country thinks of it. If we are not mistaken, there are millions of men and women in Britain who would wildly applaud the issue of warrants against the whole pack of self-confessed traitors, from Sir Edward Carson downwards, and the turning of the “rebel” administration neck and crop out of Belfast Town Hall and the placing of that building under a mixed guard of regulars and constabulary, would seem a mild military preliminary to such a policy. It may come to' that ; and if anyone tells us that the Government that did it would bo turned down, we assure him that he knows nothing of popular temper. Pity for honest fanaticism, even an understanding of the roots of its worst follies, there does exist in Liberal and Nonconformist Britain, But no compunction for its English seducers and paymasters, and less than none for the schemers who have used it for party ends. All is question of polity and temper. The Government holds its hands to the last moment, and in face of the most impudent provocation. It may be right; at this hour, in view of its earlier weakness, perhaps it is right. But we are convinced that if its leaders chose to meet Mr. jLaw with his own weapons (not of the tongue, but of the sword, which he has tried to twist out of the King's hand), they would more than repeat their victory over the House of Lords. The hour may come when State exigencies will force this test upon them, as the only possible road to the recovery of national unity and self-respect.’ THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE IN IRELAND. Thanks to the action of the Irish Hierarchy and the zealous work of the Capuchin Fathers, the temperance movement has for some years been making great strides in Ireland. Effective measures have been taken to popularise it, and the habit of total abstinence has become pretty common amongst young and old. That the movement will receive a fresh impetus from the Congress which is to be held in Dublin in June (says the Liverpool Catholic Times ) is beyond question. The organising committee has secured the hearty co-opera-tion of the clergy throughout the country. Information will be submitted which will be most valuable to temperance workers. They will learn what are the parishes in which temperance organisations exist, and where systematic efforts are made to keep up the total ' abstinence propaganda. On,, the other hand, attention will be called to the condition of parishes in which little or nothing has been done for the cause, and where, accordingly, there is scope for the exercise of zeal. A stimulus will also be given to temperance teaching in the schools, and the plan of a general Total Abstinence Union will be presented by the Provincial of the Capuchins, Very Rev. Father Aloysius. At a time when Ireland is preparing for that labor of love, the work of self-government, no more fitting assemblage could be held in her capital than the National Catholic Total Abstinence Congress. WANTED KNOWNThat Bill heads, Circulars, Memoriam Cards, Concert Tickets and Programmes’, and General Printing of every description are executed at the Tablet Office. Moderate rates.