Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 20 August 1914, Page 39

Irish News

- i 4--; ■ " GENERAL. (Canon Andrew Murphy, P.P., of Limerick, whose i' death is announced this week, was Vicar-General of the Limerick diocese, and one of the best-known priests in the South of Ireland. For many years he had been one of the Professors in St. Munchin’s Diocesan College, and afterwards President of that institution. He was a Senator of the National University. The Irish Party attended in strong force at the House of Commons on June 22, when it was anticipated that a critical situation might have arisen over the Budget difficulty. Irish members leaving to spend the week-end in Ireland on the previous Friday and Saturday were stopped at the London stations and asked to remain. Mr. T. P. O’Connor, Mr. Field ,and Mr. Nannetti, although on the sick list, responded to Mr. Redmond’s urgent whip, and were in attendance. Alderman Joyce, M.P., although lately bereaved by the death of his son, also responded to Mr. Redmond’s call. ’A crisis was obviated by the Speaker’s ruling, but the Irish Party deserves credit for a substantial attendance. The Right Hon. John F. Moriarty, K.G., Attor-ney-General ’for Ireland, has been appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in Ireland. In the ordinary course of events Mr. Pym, the Solicitor-General, is expected to become Attorney-General. The new Lord Justice of Appeal is a native of Mallow, County Cork. He was educated at Stonyhurst and Trinity College, and admitted to the Irish Bar in 1877. Last year he became Solicitor-General for Ireland on the promotion of Mr. Justice Molony to the post of Attorney-General. Later in the year Mr. Justice Molony went to the Bench, and the vacant Attorney-Generalship went to Mr. Moriarty. ■ THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS. Last week (says a Home exchange of a few weeks ago) witnessed the crowning achievement of Dublin’s most recently formed Catholic organisation Christian Brothers’ Past Pupils’ Unionthe inauguration of the magnificent new club premises in Rutland square, Dublin. The executive committee of the union were most fortunate in securing one of Dublin’s mansion houses as the ; central rendezvous for members of all the centres in the Dublin ‘district, and they have equipped it in a thoroughly up-to-date fashion. The opening ceremony was performed on Tuesday evening by the Right Hon. Mr. Justice Molony, president of the Union, and there was a most distinguished company present on the occasion. On the following evening a sconversazione was held on the premises, and as the initial social function in the new club it was well patronised. ‘ Opening week ’ was successfully completed on the Saturday, when a smoke concert, attended by over 500 members and friends, provided a most enjoyable evening of vocal and instrumental music by the leading city entertainers. It may be mentioned that the objects of the Union include the establishment bf scholarships for intermediate pupils of the Christian Brothers’ Schools, the formation of an employment bureau, and the organisation of a system of medical aid ; co-operative benefits in trading for members’ use ; in addition to all the customary social amenities and privileges associated with well-conducted clubs. A new city centre in connection with Strand Street Schools bias been successfully launched, and there should, be great developments in this fine Catholic organisation, now so happily and splendidly ‘housed’ in one of the chief thoroughfares of the Irish capital. . REFUTING ; A CALUMNY. ' MV. Swift Mac Neill, M.P., in a letter to the press, rebutts effectually the calumny of Mr. James H. Campbell, K.C., M.P., an Irish Unionist lawyer, t who in a recent speech declared ; that * for the last .fifty,years the , ' Army and Navy had ; been , the victims of slander and insults in Ireland/ Mr. Swift MacjNeill says the best

refutation of that calumny is ; the act that it was action of Irishmen in the House ,of Commons abolished flogging in the Army in 1881 and in the NavjH in 1906. lie quotes from a speech of Mr. Chamber* lain's,;: delivered on June 19, 1879, in which that® foremost Unionist said that the friends of the British® Army and the friends of the Navy owed a debt of tude to the Member for Meath, Mr. Parnell, for standi® ing up alone against the flogging system ‘ when other ■ members had not the courage to do'so. On February 1 21, 1906, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, speaking on I the abolition of flogging in the Navy, praised the ,1 courage and pertinacity of Mr. Swift Mac Neill, that he could not select any member of the House of® Commons to whom praise for the abolition of flogging in® the Navy was more distinctly due than the member® for South Donegal. , Y ® A CRITICAL DIVISION. . a. '-I ' The division on the Second Reading of the Bill on Thursday night, June 25 (says the Irish Pre<Bß Agency), was a very critical one, and was looked forward to by Home Rulers with no little anxiety. The Labor men abstained, because the Chancellor ,of the i Exchequer did not reduce the food taxes. The O’Brien,- j ites, seven in number, voted against the GovernmeiuJ . which is giving Home Rule to Ireland. The government majority is well over 90. On this it was reduced to 38, a much better figure than anticipated. The Home Rule Bill is now safe, Budget is safe, and the Government are masters of situation. The defeat of the Government would. been a serious blow to Home Rule, and, as Mr. M.P., who spoke for the Irish Party, explained in course of the debate — ‘Any Irish member no to what, party he belongs, who votes against this votes against the granting of nearly £700,000 a year the Irish Parliament for the future. I hope that be perfectly understood by the constituents of who intend to take a course against the Government® on this matter.’ This, however, did not deter the® O’Brienites from.voting with the Carsonites, and the 1 Cecils and the Bonar Laws, in their endeavor to turn j out the Government on the eve of the enactment of the 1 Home Rule Bill. One of the O’Brienite members was , I absent— Guiney, for what reason is not stated. At 11 any rate his absence saved him, in part, from response- ■ bility for what the Freeman’s Journal London corre- B spondent describes as ‘ as treacherous a blow as wa® ever delivered by Irishmen at the interests of 'theiJH country.’ vS-f ■' -B THE AMENDING BILL. 1 The Government’s promised ‘Amending Bill’ was introduced in the House of Lords on Tuesday, June 24, U by Lord Crewe. It contained the Prime Minister’s pro- ; posals of the 9th March, enabling any Ulster county to vote itself out of the Home Rule settlement for the next six years, during which 'period two general elections for the three kingdoms are anticipated. Sir Edward Carson had already denounced the proposals in advance as ‘a hypocritical sham.’ And Lord Dans- | downe, the Unionist leader in the House of Lords, I following Lord Crewe, said : ‘I believe that any attempt || to settle the Irish question, to arrive at a final settle- j merit of the Irish question, by means of separate treat- . j ment of part of that country is destined to failure. My J own impulses led me to desire to see the Irish nation' ” one and undivided, and to see that one and undivided nation remain under the British flag.’ v These are i exactly the views of all Irish Nationalists. Nobody in Ireland wants exclusion. The Irish Party only consented to the proposals of March 9 ‘as the basis .of | peace.’ The Unionists are now divided as to whether- ' the Lords should give the. ‘ Amending Bill ’ a Second’ Reading or reject it. If they give it a Second Reading,, they must put their demands for ‘Ulster’ in the form of amendments. - If they reject it, then on their own j heads must rest the consequences. The Home Rule Bill cannot now be defeated. It goes for the Royal Assent, as a matter of course, under the provisions of the Parliament Act. ;;•- ’• ’