IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 30 August 1917, Page 29

IRISH NEWS

■; : GENERAL. 1 ’ v V. ::v ; : ;-"V : Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., writing in the Daily Chronicle on his visit to America, states:—“No opinion of the American situation would be fair that left out of account the tremendous feeling of dissatisfaction at the absence of any settlement of the Irish question. At practically every meeting, both private and public, this question was raised. There can be no doubt that if it is possible to settle the Irish question not only would it have immediate results for good upon the war, but the friendship between America and ourselves would never be strained. Curiously enough, this strong feeling is not limited to one side of politics, but is universal; in fact, they say bluntly that Ireland is a small nation entitled to freedom, and the country that denies her that freedom is not representative of true democracy. On these grounds great hopes are pinned to the forthcoming Convention.” RULERS OF THE WORLD. We sometimes hear otherwise sensible-people assert that the Irish have not the governing ability (says the Brooklyn Tablet, U.S.A.). This assertion is contrary to the facts of history. The Irish governed themselves most successfully for fifteen hundred years, and they have long been governing others quite acceptably. Charles Gavan Duffy was banished from Ireland to Australia by the British Government as one unfit to be at large. In Australia he became a statesman, and the English sovereign who had exiled him rewarded his statesmanship with knighthood. Speaking at Quebec in 1878, Lord Dufferin, an Irishman, then GovernorGeneral of Canada, son of Lady Dufferin, the Irish poetess, genially observed : “There is no doubt that the world is best administered by Irishmen. Things never went better with us, either at home or abroad, than when Lord Palmerston ruled Great Britain, Lord Mayo governed India, Lord Monck directed the destinies of Canada, and the Robinsons, the Kennedys, the Laffans, the Callaghans, the Gores, the Heunessys administered the affairs of our Australian colonies and West India possessions.” In Ireland, in England—in every English-speaking country— the Catholic Church is ruled almost exclusively by Irishmenhas been ruled, in Ireland, for centuries; here for a century at least; in other countries for shorter periods—ruled ably and well. The success of the Catholic Church in this country is one of the marvels of the age, and the growth of the Irish-founded and Irish-fostered Church in Australia is more marvellous still. The assertion that the Irish lack governing ability is a deliberate falsehood manufactured in England for English ends. n STATION ISLAND, LOUGH DERG. Pilgrims who have visited Lough Derg— there are many such in various parts of these islands—will rejoice at the decision given at Donegal Quarter Sessions by a County Court judge in an action by Sir John Leslie to obtain possession of a house on Station Island and thereby to assert a claim to ownership of the whole island. Judge Cooke, who is a non-Catholic, in giving judgment reviewed the history of Lough Derg, All the estate surrounding the island once belonged to the Catholic Church, says the Liverpool Times.

At the Reformation a certain Bishop Leslie, who had transferred . his affections from Scotland to Donegal, secured the estate, and it was sought to put a stop to the pilgrimages. by ~ Act-of : Parliament. But the pilgrimage to St. Patrick’s Purgatory, which is mentioned in the Annals of the Four, Masters, continued. • i The Catholics never gave up possession of the island.-. Authority over it was exercised by the Prior who received the rent of the cottages-in earlier times a penny a year, and later, a shilling. “I am convinced, said Judge Cooke, “that the original Church which owned the island never laid aside its claim ‘and never acknowledged that anyone else’ had domination over this ancient and holy ground.” He therefore rejected Sir John Leslie’s claim. The case may be taken, on appeal, to a superior court. Whatever the final decision may be Judge Cooke’s impartiality and knowledge oi the history of the case cannot be doubted. * BREAKERS AHEAD. When we expressed the view (states a writer in the Glasgow Observer) that it would have been the wisest policy to have adopted the Cabinet’s offer of immediate Home Rule—in perpetuity—for 26 Irish counties, with the proviso that the temporary exclusion of the remaining six should fall to be reconsidered in five years’ time, our opinion was based on the homely principle that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush ; that it is wiser to secure the present certainty than to let it go in hope of a problematical possibility proving of greater value in the future. The choice of the Irish arty fettered, we fear, by an insensate public opinion in Ireland which it could not withstandwas rather tor the Convention. Now it is seen that the Convention is subject to a great many “ifs and ans.” To begin with, the Ulster (Unionist) Council has postponed its decision as to participating in the Convention until “the basis of representation shall have been arranged.” - This decision, even the Freeman admits, “is calculated to raise the suspicion that the Northern Unionists are looking for a representation beyond that which the terms of Mr. Redmond’s letter to the Prime <?fif ter “Seated.” The Freeman, further confesses To be quite candid, we do not regard as of good omen the disposition of the Government to devolve its own responsibility on the shoulders of someone else.” When the Irish question calls for settlement there are two Irelands” to be reckoned with ; but when the search for solution is fobbed off on an Irish Convention then “the blame would belong wholly to Irishmen and Ireland if the question were not settled out of hand.” It will be seen then that there are breakers ahead still. The Home Rule ship is by no means yet in harbor. All Mr. Redmond s skill will yet be needed to pilot her home. Don’t Speak to the Man at the Wheel. However much some of us may think that another channel would have been the safer route, it would in present circumstances be highly unpatriotic to disturb the steersman. In the Parnell crisis it may be remembered that Mr. Healy counselled the Irish people-*-“Don’t speak to the man at the wheel.” Tim did not act on his own advice afterwards, and years of faction paralysed Irish political effort. Let us learn by our mistakes. Let no Nationalists by word or act render Mr. Redmond’s difficult task the more difficult through domestic dissention. “Don’t speak to the man at the wheel!”