ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

New Zealand Tablet, 1 April 1915, Page 35

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

Inquirer, Pahiatua.—The so-called ‘ Nun Divorce’ case was dealt with in our Current. Topics columns a. fortnight, ago. J. D., and others.—The C.S.G. examinations will be held again this year. Full particulars will appear in our columns in about a couple of weeks’ time. Country Mother, Lower Mutt.—The headquarters of the D.I.C. arc in Dunedin, and the management inform ns that there is no such movement on foot as that to which you refer. The employees contribute weekly to a fund for the general relief of Belgian distress; and in some cases sewing bees have been established to provide clothing for children, but not lor the snecial class to which von allude. Ceremonial.— The playing of the ■ Dead .March ' is, of course, no part of the service or sacred function, but is a -liturgical act introduced from without the Church, and permitted owing to its harmlessness. There is, therefore, no prescribed-or authoritative rule or regulation as to the procedure to be observed. It is usually considered the correct course for the congregation to stand, out of sympathy with this act of respect for the memory of the dead. J. T., Mamunu.-(l) St. Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, March 17, 493. (2) The Fenian Brotherhood was a. political organisation •which originated in the United States, having for its object to win independence for Ireland by force of arms. Ireland,*since the Union, had not been in such a deplorable state as in the sixties of the last century. It had lost two millions of its population through the terrible famine and the emigration which followed. The landlords, with their crowbar brigades, pursued their brutal treatment of their tenants, whilst the Government were indifferent to the sufferings of the people. Constitutional agitation had come to naught, and the outlook seemed hopeless. The Irish exiles in the . United States, having bitter memories of their own treatment in Ireland, concluded that the time was opportune for righting their country’s wrongs by physical force. They accordingly started several organisations at various times having this object in view, but it was not until 1858 that they got into touch with the Irish at home. In that year James Stephens arrived in Ireland, and proceeded to Skibbereen, where a political club, called the Phoenix National and Literary Society, had been established. Stephens, who was a very clever man and a born organiser, informed the members of

the dub of what had been done by the Irishmen m the United States to aid those at s home to gain their independence. Before a month had passed, out of one hundred young men in the club, ninety had been sworn in as members of the new secret organisation. Such was , the start of Fenianism in Ireland. Among the Fenians in America there was a certain dynamite party who believed? that the English people could be frightened into measures of justice for Ireland by plots for the destruction of human life in English cities; and one or two such attempts, happily unsuccessful, were actually made. It ought to be said, however, that the recognised Fenian leaders never lent any countenance to acts of such a character. As being a seciet society, tiie organisation was condemned by the Church : but many, both of the leaders and of the rank and file, were men of high honor and pure motives. Two of the Fenians who were actually condemned to death afterwards won credit and distinction in_ peaceful pursuits. One of these was John Boyle O’Reilly, whose deathsentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and who was transported to Western Australia! lie contrived to escape and made his way to Ameiica. lie settled in Boston, rose to great distinction as a journalist, an author, and an orator, and was mode welcome in Boston’s most cultured lif aiy society at a time when Emerson, Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes were _ still li\mg. The other# James F. X. O’Brien, was for many years a respected member of the British House of Commons. Although the movement failed in its immediate object, .it undoubtedly had the effect' of bringing home to the minds of" Englishmen the need of some improvement in the condition of things in Ireland, and in this sense may be said to have laid the foundation for many important subsequent measures of reform.