Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 16 March 1916, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. Very Rev. Father Staples, Kildare, has - been made the recipient of a number of presentations on the occasion of his golden jubilee as a priest. Four members of the Browne family, Killymaddy, Dungannon, were mentioned in General French’s last despatches for gallant conduct on the battlefield. The Wexford Corporation on'January 3 passed a resolution, warmly congratulating the Bishop of Ferns, Right Rev. Dr. Browne, on the golden jubilee of his priesthood. • - ’ ’ ' Rev. Father Donnelly, -Ardglass,' has been presented by his parishioners with a motor-car and an illuminated address, earnest of ithe esteem in which the popular pastor is held by the Catholics, of Dunsford and Ardglass. The prolonged heavy rain during the first week in .January resulted in unexampled floods in the West .of Ireland. The Shannon asserted its mastery by turning the Athlone district into a vast inland sea, extending to the horizon on every side. The loss of cattle and sheep was serious. Sligo and Roscommon suffered seriously from the floods, thousands of acres being submerged. > ’ While Mr. Peter Ffrench, M.P. for South Wexford, was crossing the railway at Ballycullane Station, Co. Wexford, on New Year’s Day, on his way to hold an inquest, he was knocked down by a waggon. Some of his toes were , crushed, and he was also severely injured about the. ribs. He was taken to .Ballycullane for treatment, and was Subsequently conveyed to his home at Bridgetown,. Wexford. -V ‘ Mr. Michael A. Delaney, 18, of Castlerea, has obtained a first-class certificate in wireless telegraphy in record time of eleven weeks at the Atlantic Wireless College, Caherciyeen, Co. Kerry, under the tuition of the principal, Mr. Maurice Fitz Gerald. Mr. Delaney went to the college on September 11 last. Previously he had no training in wireless telegraphy. He has now received an appointment as a. wireless operator on one of the British cruisers, < . Our Irish exchanges ' report the death of .Rev. Father Oliver Daiy, S.J., Galway. He came of a family remarkable for the piety of its members, four of whom became priests in the Jesuit Order, while one sister devoted her life to God in religion, and is now a nun in Namur, Belgium. Born at Dalysgrove, Go. Galway, he was educated on the Continent, where he spent most of his early years. He made his ecclesiastical studies in France, Belgium, and -Austria. -In an interval of his; studies, he taught in the Jesuit colleges at Limerick and - Tullamore. Immediately V after his ordination *he was sent to Australia, where he spent 25 years of a very laborious missionary life, during which he was prominently associated with the early development of that now flourishing Church, many members of which will deplore his loss. He returned to Ireland ‘about ten years ago, and after years of missionary workat home and in Scotland he devoted the remainder of his life to work at the residence of the - Jesuit Fathers in Galway. ' *' ' , ■ J d . . THE ‘ IRISH.’. PEERAGE. One of the many quaint ■ byways of the peerage "Which render British honors and distinctions so puzzling to foreigners is recalled by the death of the Earl of Roden (says the Outlook). The -Jocelyn family was' ennobled under that title, ‘ in the peerage of Ireland;’ in 1771, when Robert Jocelyn / was created an Irish earl: ‘Earl Roden, of High Roding, Co. Tipperary,’ as the various ‘ Peerages ’ and other . books of reference show. But where is ‘ Roden,’ or * High Roding ’ ? Not in Ireland, ‘Co. Tipperary,’ but in Essex, where .there are eight Roding villages on the little river of the same name. Between High Roding and 'Aythorp

Roding still exist the remains, of a once -stately mansion. called ‘ New Hall,’ built by Sir Thomas Jocelyn about.. 1550.. A moat still guards the surviving wing, which is now a farmhouse. The Jocelyns left the. place when they won a title, but the property is still in the family. It is, a long, long way to Tipperary’ from Essex, and the quaint pretence of this eighteenth- - century patent of peerage that Essex—or the Rodings district—is ..in Ireland (says the Irish Catholic), to serve some presumed technical difficulties, does not really bring it much nearer in modern imagination. For ourselves, we may add that it increases the absurdity of the situation to know that the Rodens were long s foremost among the leaders of Irish Orangeism. DEEDS OF IRISH SOLDIERS. . ' In the debate, in the House of Commons on the Military Service Bill, otherwise known as the Compulsion Bill, very important speeches were t delivered by Mr. John Redmond And Mr. John Dillon. The latter followed. Sir J Lonsdale, who, according to the custom of Ulster Unionists, made some disparaging remarks regarding the Nationalist parts of Ireland. Mr. Dillon strongly denied these insinuations, and the facts and figures which he gave the House convinced the members that his contentions were correct. The Irish people (hevteminded his hearers) had arisen, but ‘it was not strike down your sword arm. It was to stand by your side , as loyal allies. I am amazed that there should be found any Irishman, even from Ulster, here to-night, after Suvla, and after you and - the French armies depended upon the right arm of Hhe Connaught Rangers; I do not think we have failed the English Army in her hour of trial; Who were' the troops that saved the situation at Lake Dorian the other day?’ (A member answered the query by saying that it was the Inniskillings.) ‘Yes,’ continued Mr. Dillon ; r the Inniskillings,. the Connaught Rangers, and the Dublins. They fought side by side in a very different spirit from that displayed by the hon. member. • I hope and trust and believe that those Irishmen going to the trenches, and facing the enemyit is not that spirit that they carry with them. .' . . You cannot take and I stand by this— ultimate and supreme test— cannot take up from the beginning of this war down to this hour a single casualty list where the Irish do not come out in far greater proportion than their numbers would justify. The Irish have had to go into this war under circumstances of very peculiar difficulty and with a long, bitter record behind them, and yet I venture to say .that they have done their duty, and that they have added one more chapter to the glorious history of their race. The hon. member went, into figures: Really, I do not care to follow him; But they were incorrect. They really were not calculated to give a true impression of the numbers who .have joined the colors since the war broke out. Up to December 15 last, 91,555 recruits had joined Lord Kitchener’s Army, and that is in addition to those in the regular Army before the war broke out and the reservists and the special reserve. Of those new recruits 50,196 are Irish Catholics, and 41,353 are Protestants. It is with great reluctance that I have gone into this matter at all, because I dislike it very much. But when, charges are made that the Nationalist part of Ireland has not done its duty, I feel I am bound, in. justice to my countrymen, in justice to this House, and in justice, to myself, and in view of the maintenance of the good understanding between the two peoples which is of infinite value, to show that the statement is not correct. I am just going to give these figures, which, I may add, are the figures for the whole number of men serving, on December 15. In tfie regular Army before the war broke out the number of Irish Catholics was' 14,000, and of Protestants 6000. The number of special reservists . was 6000 Catholics and 3000 Protestants. The number of reservists who joined the colors in Ireland was 12*000 Catholics against 5000 Protestants.'' Of the number who had joined the new - armies since* 50,000 were Catholics and 41,000 Protestants. The total number going from Ireland

and, serving in the - Army at the present moment, I am. hot taking into account, but allowing for casualties, is 142,000, • Therefore, I say that it is quite untrue to say that Nationalist Ireland, in this matter, in spite of all she has passed through in the past, has not done her duty. I think the hon. member' must recognise I have only alluded, to the religion of the soldiers because in a, rough-and-ready way I do not accept the division myself, but it has been takep. as a test of their politics, and it shows that the Nationalist part of the population have done their duty. A SUCCESSFUL CORK MAN. An interesting Irish name which figures in the New Year Honors List as a K.C.M.G., is that of Mr. Andrew Ryan, who until the date of Turkey’s entrance into the war was First Dragoman at the British Embassy. at Constantinople. Mr. Ryan, who is a native of Cork, was one of the most successful,students who ever competed in the Irish Intermediate and Royal-Uni-versity examinations. When at the Christian Brothers’ Schools in his native .city he carried off first place in each of the three Intermediate grades, and continued this record unbroken through all the Arts examinations of , the Royal University. From the University he passed with distinction the examination for student interpreter in the Consular x service, and during the greater part of his time in the service was • stationed at Constantinople. The honor of Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George now conferred upon him follows a most complimentary tribute recently paid to him by Lord Robert Cecil in the House of Commons. The critics of the Government had complained that the Ambassador and other British officials at Constantinople were without a knowledge -of the Turkish language, and to this they attributed in a large degree the fact that German diplomacy had succeeded in winning Turkey ‘ for the Central Empires. Lord Robert Cecil, however, pointed out that, while this was so in the case of the Ambassador and some of the other officials, they had at their service Mr. Ryan, who has a perfect command of Turkish; and to .whose all-round ability Lord Robert gave great praise. The conclusion left on the mind by Lord Robert Cecil’s statement was that if all the other officials had been as well up in their work as Mr. Ryan the story of Turkey’s part in the war might well have been different. Mr. Ryan, it must be added, is not the only distinguished member of his family. His sister, Miss Mary Ryan; whose Intermediate and University career was similar to his own, is Professor of Romance Languages at the University College, Cork and one of his brothers is a member of the Jesuit Order.