Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 11 February 1915, Page 34

Notes

A Cardinal at the Front

The cables in Monday’s papers record the successful execution of an exceedingly happy thought on the part of his Eminence Cardinal Bourne . L Cardinal Bourne,’ says the cable, ‘ visited the Catholic regiments in France and gave addresses at various points of the lines. lie watched from an elevated position just out of shell range a British and German artillery duel. His address to 800 Irish Guards about to take their places in the firing line was rendered more realistic by the deafening noise of an aeroplane soaring overhead. Journeying about the front the Cardinal lived on bully beef and hard tack, the actual war-time food of the soldiers.’

Irish Athletes and the Irish Brigade

We publish elsewhere, as illustrating the type of Irishmen who are volunteering in the Irish Brigade, an interesting account of Captain Laurence Roche, of the Irish Brigade. An esteemed correspondent sends us some personal reminiscences that will doubtless be read with interest by Limerick Irishmen in the Dominion. ‘ Bob Coll, Larry Roche, and I,’ writes our correspondent, ‘ were born and brought up in the same little parish (Dvomin), in the County Limerick, but Bruree is the nearest railway station to it ; that is why the writer put Roche as living in Bruree. It is only one mile from Dromin. I saw Bob Coll competing at those sports (Kilfinane and Ivilmallock) in ’76 or ’77, I believe. I have seen scores of athletes in Australia and New Zealand since, but have never seen an all-round athlete like him, and never expect to. Laurence Roche was of the next generation, consequently I never saw him compete. lie was only about six years old when I left the Old Land. I have not met anybody in New Zealand who knew Coll, but there may be some of your readers who remember him. There were two more noted athletes in the seventies and early part of the eighties, all within a radius of two miles from Dromin. These were Dr James Daley and Flanigan, who were better known in America than In Ireland.’

Roasted Turkey

The entrance of Turkey into the great European clash has given the American papers ample opportunity to make merry. Here are some of the most ‘ palpable hits ’ ;

‘ The entrance of Turkey into the war presages a gobble of some sort.’ Cleveland Plain Dealer. ‘The worst thing about the loss of a Turkish soldier is that it causes so many widows.’ —Washington

Post. ‘ Guns are booming around both Sinai and Ararat. It is an old world and still full of trouble.’ Springfield

Republican. « ‘ The Ottoman is beginning to look more like a door-mat.’ —Boston Transcript ,

‘ Turkey now Las every opportunity to announce a going-out-of-business sale of rugs ■ and cigarettes.’—Cleveland Leader. , */

‘ Onward, Christian-Mohammedan-Buddhist-Shinto-Brahmin soldiers!’ —Columbia State.

Give the Turk some credit, lie hasn’t announced that Allah is on his side.’ —Columbia State.