Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 16 November 1916, Page 39

Irish News

GENERAL. The late Patrick Murray, of New Haven, Conn., willed the residue of his estate, .£20,000, to the poor of County Down. A notable Ulsterman has passed away in the person of Right Hon. Thomas Andrews, P.C., chairman County Down County Council, and former chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway Company. He resided in Comber, Co. Down, and was a brother of exJustice Andrews. Turlough McSweeney, Ireland's oldest piper, died recently at the age of 95 years. He won the first prize at the World's Fair, Chicago, in an open competition with the best pipers. The pipes upon which he played then and which he used for the past 50 years, were presented to him by Lord O'Neill, descendant of the famous Earl Shane O'Neill, of Shane's Castle, who made history in Elizabethan times. Bugler Wharton, Irish Rifles, writing from Salonika to friends at Newry, Ireland, pays a tribute to his chaplain, Father O'Connor, ' who celebrated Mass without flinching under howling shells. They might have been egg-shells,' he adds,' ' for all the notice Father O'Connor took of them, lie is quite a hero, and we are all proud of him—not only Catholics, but the soldiers of other beliefs as well.' Father Fred O'Connor, formerly of St. Peter's, Cardiff, is the priest referred to by the Irish bugler. The Freeman is informed on good authority that the Irish regiments whose achievements at Guillemont and Ginchy were so glorious, and whose praise has been sounded in the press of all the Allied nations, are the regiments raised at Fermoy in accordance with the suggestions made by Mr. Redmond. They are largely, if not mainly, composed of the Irish National Volunteers from all over Ireland. ' f he brigade has more than fulfilled the high expectations of the Nationalists of Ireland, and its deeds are worthy of the great tradition its title recalls.' The death occurred a few weeks ago of Very Rev. Jas. A. Williams, 0.5. A., in his 78th year, at the Abbey, Fethard, County Tipperary. The late Father Williams was a highly esteemed member of the Augustinian Order. During his lifetime he performed "fine work in the interests of the institution. He was prior of Dungarvan in 1872, and for many years held a foremost place in the religious and social life of the County Waterford, where, through his energy and zeal, the Seminary of St. Augustine was established in Dungarvan. The Very Rev. Canon David Curtin, English confessor at the Church of the Madeleine, Paris, for over 22 years, and well-known to most Irish priests visiting the Continent, has passed away at Bois Cerf, Lausanne, Switzerland. Canon Curtin was born at Mallow, Co. Cork, and educated at All Hallows College, Dublin, and subsequently at the Seminary of St. Sufpice, Paris', from which he was appointed to the Foreign Mission,' and spent 25 years in Mauritius. The distinguished priest travelled largely, visiting the Australian colonies, Palestine, and Syria, North and South America, and all European countries, and his services at the Church of the Madeleine were widely recognised. On June 29, 1913, Canon Curtin celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination at the Church of St. Elizabeth, duchy, Lausanne, Switzerland. IRISH JUDICIARY: CHANGES FORESHADOWED. There is, says the Law Times, some foundation on which to base the gossip as to impending promotions and changes in the judicial staff at the Four Courts

There is the vacancy caused by the disappearance of the Lord Chief Baron, and it is further known that the health of two judges is so precarious that there is not even a remote possibility that they will again be seen on the Bench. It is hinted that under the new regime these vacancies will be availed of to increase the number of Catholic judges in the Superior Courts. Since the death of Lord O'Brien and the resignation of the Lord Chief Baron there is only one Catholic judge in the King's Bench Division, while there are six non-Catholics. The point has been taken that this is a very inequitable distribution in a country predominantly Catholic, and - that it conveys some stigma upon the religion of the majority of the people. In the Court of Appeal, Chancery Division, and the Court of the Irish Land Commission, not counting the Lord Chancellor, who is not a judge in the strict sense of the term, there are, says the correspondent, six judges, of whom only two are Catholics. THE ULSTER DIFFICULTY. If the expectations entertained not only by many Home Rulers, but also by a certain proportion of the Irish Conservatives, be realised (says the Catholic Times), a plan for the settlement of the Irish question, without the exclusion of any part of the country may be arrived at by the time the war is at an end. In a letter the Morning Post, Lord Monteagle appeals to the Ulster Unionists to give serious consideration to the problem. Home Rule, he points out, is on the Statute Book, and must come into operation in some form when peace is concluded. What will be their position if the proposal for exclusion is carried out? Will it not be highly unsatisfactory? They will be looked upon as enemies of unity amongst Irishmen and their business relations with their fellow-countrymen will certainly not improve. Will the Ulster Unionists, taking all this into account, persist in their refusal to oast in their lot with the Nationalists under a Home Rule Government ? Lord Monteagle is of opinion that they will not, and he asks them to begin at once negotiations for an understanding with the Nationalists. The Unionists and Nationalists of the South have already taken such a step. Let us hope that the leaders on both sides in Ulster will follow the example. A BRILLIANT IRISHMAN. Our country has given the blood and the lives of thousands amongst her best and bravest sons to the cause of the Allies during this war (says the Irish Weekly). Amongst the multitudes of Irishmen who have fallen, none was more widely known than the gallant young Nationalist politician, orator, and author, Lieutenant Thomas M. Kettle, whose death in action we announce with heartfelt regret, and with the deepest; sympathy for the dead soldier's veteran father, his sorrowing widow, and the other relatives prominent in our nation's public life whose grief will be shared by millions of their countrymen. Lieutenant Kettle was one of the most brilliant of the younger generation of Irishmen. He has written books that will live he has done work for Ireland that will endure for ages to come, because the influence of his writings has been a potent factor in securing the success of the National cause. From the beginning of the war he threw himself whole-heartedly into the work of advancing the cause of human freedom against Teutonic aggression ; and it was one of fate's cruel and hideous ironies that while he was serving in the trenches of France his brother-in-law, the late Mr. Sheehy-Skef-fmgton, was foully murdered in a Dublin military barracks by an (alleged) lunatic who had been sent back from the front. Lieutenant Kettle sacrificed a career of bright promise for the sake of his convictions when he abandoned political life and his position as a Professor in the National University to fight against the Germans. Now he has given life itself for the cause in which he believed. May he rest peacefully beneath the soil of friendly France, and may God have mercy on his soul.

AN AMERICAN OPINION. The Catholic Messenger says that the critics of John E. Redmond in this country do not use common sense or judgment in their criticisms. That he was hoodwinked, fooled, and deceived .by the English Government is not a sensible criticism. The Lloyd George, Carson, Redmond agreement, as Mr. Redmond understood it, and as it is acknowledged to have been made and agreed to, was opposed by Lord Lansdowne, who threatened to break up the coalition Cabinet if the agreement as made was carried out. The changes suggested by Lord Lansdowne were immediately repudiated by Mr. Redmond in the House of Commons, he stood by his agreement, as did Sir Edward Carson and Lloyd George, but Lansdowne was powerful enough to oblige the Government to support the changes in the agreement. This certainly was not the fault of Mr. Redmond, who had independence and backbone enough, and loyalty to the Irish people enough to defy the Government, and break his political affiliations of some nine or ten years. This does not strike an impartial observer as being- ' hoodwinked ' or 'fooled.' He has had influence enough to solidify the opposition to the Coalition Government and that Government is doomed to an early disruption unless it lives up to its agreement, on which it was proposed to settle the temporary government of Ireland. In no instance has Redmond been so magnificent a statesman and leader of the Irish people as in connection with the Lloyd George agreement for putting Home Rule in operation. TWO HISTORIC REGIMENTS. A friendly writer remarks that it was very fitting that the Dublin and Minister Fusiliers should be mentioned together in Sir Douglas Haig's reports for bravery on the Somme, because practically the whole lives of the two regiments have been passed in one another's company. Both were raised in India—one as the Madras European Regiment, and the other as the Bengal, and shared in all the fighting from Chandernagore to the Indian Mutiny. The regiments came together to Great Britain in 1868, the first time either of them had set foot on English soil, and both highly cherish nicknames earned in India. The Ministers were styled 'The Dirty Shirts,' as a result of their fighting in shirt-sleeves at Delhi in .1857, while the Dublins are known as the 'Blue Caps,' a name they also won in the Indian Mutiny, when Nana Sahib warned his men against, those ' blue-capped soldiers, who fight like devils.'