BISHOP O'DWYER AND GENERAL MAXWELL

New Zealand Tablet, 17 August 1916, Page 15

BISHOP O'DWYER AND GENERAL MAXWELL

INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE. General Maxwell, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, wrote on May 6 to the Right Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, drawing his Lordship's attention to the ■ I action of two of his priests in supporting the Irish V Volunteer movement as being a danger to the Realm, and observing that if they were laymen they would be placed under arrest. His Lordship was asked to obviate that necessity by giving them such employment as would prevent them having intercourse with the people. To this letter, his Lordship's secretary replied as follows, under date May 9: ' Sir, —I am directed by the Bishop of Limerick to acknowledge the receipt on this morning of your letter of 6th inst., which has been forwarded to him at the above address. The Bishop desires to point out that the action which you suggest to him to take towards Rev. Father and the Rev. Father would be a very severe punishment, which the Bishop has no right to inflict on these priests except on a definite charge supported by evidence. If then you are good enough to specify the grounds on which you consider that their presence in the neighborhood of and is "a dangerous menace to the peace and safety of the realm," the Bishop will investigate the matter and inform you of his decision. But whatever may be the rights of the military authorities acting . under martial law, a Bishop-in the exercise of his authority has to follow the rules of ecclesiastical procedure.' General Maxwell in his next communication made some specific charges against two priests in the diocese, these being their active connection with the Irish Volunteer movement. Bishop O'Dwyer's Reply. Writing under date May 17, his Lordship replied as follows: —' I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 12th inst., which has been forwarded to me here. I have read carefully your allegations against Rev. and Rev. , but do not see in them any justification for disciplinary action on my part. They are both excellent priests, who hold strong National views, but I do not know that they have violated any law, civil or ecclesiastical. In your letter of 6th inst. you appealed to me to help you in the furtherance of your work as military dictator of Ireland. Even if action of that kind was not outside my province, the events of the past few weeks would make it impossible for me to have any part in proceedings which I regard as wantonly cruel and oppressive. You remember the Jameson Raid, when a number of buccaneers invaded a friendly State, and fought the forces of the lawful Government. If ever men deserved the supreme punishment it was they. But, officially and unofficially, the influence of the British Government was used to save them, and it succeeded. You took care that no plea for mercy should interpose on behalf of the .poor young fellows who surrendered to you in Dublin. The first information which we got of their fate was the announcement that they had been shot in cold blood. Personally, I regard your action with horror, and I believe that it has outraged the conscience of the country. Then the deporting of hundreds and even thousands of poor fellows without a trial of any kind, seems to me an abuse of power, as fatuous as it is arbitrary; and altogether your regime has been one of the worst and blackest chapters in the history of the misgovernment of this country.' Galvanised into Action. The Limerick Board of Guardians adopted a resolution approving of the reply of the Right Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer to the letters from General Maxwell. The Clonmel Board of Guardians passed a resolution thanking the Bishop. His Lordship forwarded the following letter, dated the Palace, Corbally, June 2, to the chairman of the Limerick Board : 1 I beg to thank the Board of Guardians for their resolution with referenda to my correspondent with

General Maxwell. It would be a sorry day for the Church in Ireland if her Bishops took their orders from agents of the British Government. As to the poor fellows who have given their lives for Ireland, no one. will venture to question the purity and nobility of their motives or the splendour of their courage. But many blame them for attempting a hopeless enterprise. Yet we cannot help noticing that since Easter Monday Home Rule has come with a bound into the sphere of practical politics, although Mr. Asquith and his Government with suspicious inconsistency are shooting and imprisoning the men who galvanised them into action.’