Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1917, Page 39

Irish News

- ."■;-. •;:/■:. The Most Rev. Dr. \i O'Dwyer, Bishop ,of Limerick,• -,hasfforwarded to his Holiness the Pope the sum -of -; £609, collected in the various parishes of' the diocese i for the Holy, Father. ,' ' ■'<■.'; , Lord Fingall, Mr. Devlin, M.P., Mr. Donovan, M.P., General Hammond, and a number of other-Irish notables, have formed a committee to -promote a memorial to the late Professor Kettle, killed^ in action at Ginchey. ' : : Mr. W W. G. Fallon, 8.A., is secretary, of v the committee. - * \. .-""-* ' * - c '~.'j£; Mr. Flavin; M.P., who lately visited the 65 Irish V. prisoners confined in.Dartmoor, for participation in the Dublin rising, reports that they are not required' -to \ associate with ordinary prisoners at exercise nor otherwise, unless at chapel. v The Catholic chaplain, who is an Irish priest, reports favorably on the health of the prisoners'. '-■ ; '%- r ) I *'"'' t The 'failure of. Irish recruiting ' seems to be due to • the fact that Irishmen, especially in Great Britain, on enlistment'are allotted to British regiments. A further light on the matter was shed by a' recent" question in . Parliament, when Mr. MacVeagh, M.P., asked was it ' the case that a draft of. 200 Connau"ht Rangers had been sent from Kinsale to reinforce the Seaforth Highlanders and had been obliged to don*the- kilt. , Mr. Forster pleaded ignorance,, but was unable to deny the "statement. - •%- •': Mr. Jer. MacVeagh, M.P., asked the War Secretary in the House of Commons the other day whether :, Captain Bowen-Colt hurst— the murderer of Sheehy Skeffington— had been 'retired' from the Army on, full ■' pay, half-pay, or no pay. No answer was given. * Pressed on the point, Mr. Lloyd George said he must have notice of* such a question. Mr. MacVeagh said the public should know whether an officer who had been convicted of four murders and declared a lunatic was still drawing public money. lie would repeat the question later. '"'.£' THE NEW UNDER-SECRETARY. Sir William Patrick Byrne, K.C., V. 0., who has been gazetted to the Irish Under-Secretaryship, has had a long and distinguished career in this country as a capable and, so far-as I can discover, unobtrusive Civil Servant (writes the London correspondent of the Irish Week///). A Lancashire man by birth, his official career began when he was only '.twenty-two. The Land League was at its fiercest in 1881, when young Mr. Byrne, not long out of the famous Catholic College of St. Bede, Manchester, secured a clerkship in the General Post Office. Soon afterwards the Home Office claimed him : and for the past thirty-two years he has been identified with the work of that important Department of the English State. He leaves the Chairmanship of the Board of Control, a post of considerable magnitude, in order to assume duties which must certainly prove onerous, and which may possibly prove thankless, in Dublin Castle. Sir Robert Chalmers's tenancy of the post was, it is understood, assumed on the condition that it would be temporary. Like Sir Mat hew. Nathan, the new ' incumbent' has vacated a position of greater ease, less responsibility, . - and presumably a larger salary. . After thirty-five years of uninterruptedly successful service he should be entitled to more at the Home Office than the emolument of the Irish Secretaryship amounts to. v i The removal of Sir William Byrne from a Department with whose'business he is perfectly familiar, and I> which is a Department of very great importance at I the present juncture, is regarded , by Irishmen here as a ' rather significant step. Sir Mathew Nathan was appointed to make financial arrangements for Home Rule ; and it may be said now that most, of the allegations V made against that able official in cortnectioii with his work were perfectly baseless.. Sir William Byrne is

? not an 'economist;'; though ;hei is a lawyer.; His official , .experience,;has; been in a wholly different sphere of governmental :* work. l '■'■■ He , has been intimately concerned, with -the administration 7 of affairs under circum- - ■■--■ stances. which should * render his aid invaluable if the "Government \ made up their minds to put \ Home Rule Act—amended according to the wishes of the majority of the people^— into' immediate ; operation in Ireland without treating that country's financial claims in the spirit.of n curmud°*eoii v r hil** ■:eiii} r 10 L nnviniY -foi* mni*a -; SjJU.fi ~. „ g^—„ ftllJIB „ne than lier- just share of the five millions odd per day -...-: which: the • war is i costing. As a ; direct result -of the \speeches delivered from the Irish benches in the House - of , Commons last week, the possibility of establishing ' Self-Government : in \ Ireland "without further delay is now ' seriously debated on all sides, and has -in fact ■; become a question of ' practical politics.' /- „„ f . ; ■' FRANCE AND IRELAND. ""'... ':\ "'> There can be little doubt that the object of the : visit recently paid to Ireland by the ": Bishops : of \. Orleans and Digne, Mgr. Batiffol and the Abbe Flynn will be attained ; the relations between Catholic. France and Catholic Ireland will again become as cordial as they were in the past-(says the Catholic Times). Since his" return to his native land Mgr. Batiffol has been giving '/ in the French press his impressions of the people and the scenes he has visited. . He pays graceful compliments to the Irish, quoting the words in which Lacordaire, when preaching; the funeral oration of; Daniel O'Connell, declared that Ireland was a name> which should only be mentioned by the noble-minded and the pure of heart. In his concluding passage he writes: We should like Ireland- to know how grateful we are for her help and with what a warm heart France re- ■- ceives the heroic children of Ireland who come to mix their Celtic blood with the Celtic blood which flows in the veins of our soldiers. Beautiful is that fraternity of spirit which renews and completes worldly friendship ! May that friendship find in the coming . peace fresh occasions of asserting itself. : And since we are united "by the same Catholic faith, may the v > Church rejoice and benefit •by a rapprochement" which Irish and French Bishops gladly sought to bring about because they saw the advantage of it.' It is certain that the visit which Mgr. B'atiffol has described will prove the forerunner of others which will be of service to the Church in both countries. / ' '" : - ■ A PUBLIC BOARD'S BIGOTRY. ■ Since the war began much has been written to discountenance displays of religious prejudice, and it must be admitted that on the whole the spirit of toleraion prevails to a larger extent than it did before the conflict (says the Catholic Times). But there is at least one place where the old anti-Catholic N feeling is maintained without abatement by the civic authorities. The Derry Corporation are true to the tradition by which they have so long been guided. The Catholics are in the majority at Derry, but by artful methods the Corporation has been retained as' a Protestant preserve, and it is a cardinal doctrine of the civic governors that all the posts in their gift shall be given to. Protestants. Not one of the officers is a Catholic. - The other day it was necessary to appoint sanitary sub-officer temporarily. A number of Catholic candidates presented themselves and the Catholic members, of the Corporation thought that at last a Catholic would receive an appointment, even though it should only be for a short time. They were mistaken. The Catholic candidates were proposed and rejected one after another. , Even the claims of a Catholic soldier who had been at the front and had been wounded did not appeal to the sympathies of the Unionists. A Protestant was duly appointed, Alderman McCarron remarking that if a Turk, Jew, or Atheist applied for % a post under the Corporation he would get it in preference to a Catholic. Yet these are the people. whose : conduct is so frequently', the subject of praise in British journals! . . :'. '-.'", < ' . .

THE WAR OFFICE AND SIR FRANCIS, VANE. London Truth, in its issue of October 25, writes very*strongly with regard' to > the Irish' situation. It % takes • Mr. Duke to task for'.vsuggesting that =the obstacle to Home Rule in July of this year, was that ' Irishmen were not agreed about Home \Hule.' - -As . ■:[, Truth reminds the Irish Chief Secretary, miracles in the way of agreement were wrought between Mr. Red- : mond and Sir Edward Carson, and it. was Lord ;Lans- .;?;■. downe "'- in London who frustrated-.^the' agreement. : Writing of the Sheehy. Skeffington case Truth says that V the recent report of.', the Commission of < Inquiry' makes this tragedy look, if possible, more horrible than before. The Germans in Belgium have produced ■ nothing worse ,' in the way of f rightfulness, not even the murders of Miss Cavell and Captain .Fryatt. Presuming that' there .will be some debate in Parliament On the report, we (Irish Weekly) are glad to say that. Truth' accentuates the point raised by'us when the tragedy was first' .published.: 'Writing of the report, Truth says: . It does not explain how it came about that Captain Bowen-Colthurst remained at large from April 26 (the date of the murders) till May 6, and able during ■ that time to add to his iniquity in the hope of finding some justification for it. It does not. state what' • "superior military authority" gave orders on May 6 -.for him to be' placed under —though then only open arrest —nor what military action (if any) has. been taken since in reference to this culpable delay.' All that the report states is that Colthurst was arrested .' as a result of a communication made to the military authorities in London by Major Francis Vane.' As soon as Sir Francis Vane heard of the murders he •went to the Commanding Officer in Dublin, demanding that Colthurst should be placed under arrest. The ; 'Commanding Officer expressed his inability to do anything. A few days afterwards; Sir Francis Vane was ordered to hand over his own command— to Captain Colthurst ! Straight off Sir Francis Vane left for England and reported the matter to the War Office, and .r thereupon Kitchener telegraphed-to Dublin ordering , the arrest of Colthurst. Such in substance is the statement of Truth, which proceeds—'lf these statements are correct, they imply" that the military authorities in Dublin never had the slightest intention of taking any action against Captain Col-' , : thurst, but .that, on the contrary, they screened him, . with the evident intention of hushing up his crime. They got rid of Sir Francis Vane, who had shown a disposition to frustrate this intention ; they actually promoted in his place Colthurst, who was then known to be_a murderer, but not yet known to be a lunatic. In point of law they seem to have made themselves accessories to Colthurst's crime after the fact, and there r is a prima facte case for putting some of them on trial on that charge. ... A word as to Sir Francis Vane. He-is an officer who, as commandant of a disturbed district during the Boer War, took a line of his own, with very useful results on the course of events. '. . . In connection with the murders at Portobello Barracks, he is the one man who made a stand in the interest of justice. But for him BowenColthurst would now be holding his commission in the Army, instead of occupying apartments in Broadmoor Asylum, and his crimes would have been condoned and denied by his superiors, to the lasting shame of this country in the eyes of Irishmen. I believe lam right in saying that for the course he took Sir Francis Vane -was officially thanked. * It seems about time that a 'little more justice was done to him.' . . •' THE NEW BISHOP OF CORK. v Much pleasure is expressed in Ireland at the apA pointment of the Right Rev. Dr. Cohalan as Bishop of I Cork, and from all parts of the country have come ■'congratulatory messages from bishops, led by Cardinal Logue,- priests, laity, and societies. The Bishop held a reception of his*parishioners at South Cork the other day and told them how happy their wishes made him. !. He was born at Kilmichael 58 years ago, and was eduSeated at Maynpoth, where he remained as professor for

■ ';■ ■", , ’ * ' some 28 years... When the late Bishop’s health began to give way two years ago Dr. Cohalan was called to assist him, and as Vicar : General of the diocese he already knows most of- ; the administrative 'work, for on his shoulders the bulk of it devolved despite the heroic efforts ,of the late Bishop to do his share. Bishop Cohalau is a well-known writer on sacred subjects, and is also a religious journalist. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the - Catholic press and of the campaign against bad literature which is being waged in Ireland.