IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 13 February 1919, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

BISHOP SHAH AN’S APPEAL FOff THE ; ; FREEDOM OF IRELAND. ; ' ' Just before his departure for Europe Right Rev. Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, rector of the Catholic University, in his own name and in the name of the Faculties of that institution, despatched the following cogent . letter of appeal to President Wilson for the exercise of his influence for the freedom of Ireland along the lines of his declarations regarding the selfdetermination of nations : The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Office of the Rector, November 30, 1918, —The Honorable Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Your Excellency,—You are about to depart for Europe, to be at the Peace Conference what you were during the trying days of war, the spokesman and the interpreter of the lovers of liberty in every land. The burden now rests upon you of giving practical application to the principles of justice and fair dealing among nations which, as expounded in your many noble utterances, have made our country more than ever in its history the symbol of hope to all oppressed nations. Wherefore we, the Rector and Faculties of the Catholic University of America, take this opportunity to address you and to ask respectfully that in this historic gathering you be the spokesman for the immemorial national rights of Ireland. Your influence will certainly go far toward a final acknowledgment of the lightful claims of Ireland to that place among the nations of the earth from which she has so long and so unjustly been excluded. We are convinced that any settlement of the great political issues now involved which does not satisfy the national claims of Ireland will not be conducive to a secure and lasting peace. You have said, “No peace can last, or ought" to last, which does not recognise and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Disregard of the rights of small nations has aroused a spirit of righteous indignation which can never be appeased as long as any nation holds another in subjection. Subjection and Democracy are incompatible. In the new order, “national aspirations must be respected ; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. ‘ Self-determination ’ is not "a mere phrase.” In keeping with these words of truth, we hold that the right of Ireland to “self-determination” is immeasurably stronger than that of any nation for which you have become the advocate. Moreover, Ireland s claims are a hundredfold re-enforced by her centuries of brave, though unavailing, struggle against foreign domination, tyranny, and autocracy. The manner in which the national rights of Ireland will be handled at the Peace Conference is a matter of deep concern to many millions of people throughout the world, and it is no exaggeration to say that the purpose of the United States in entering the war, namely, to secure a world-wide and lasting peace, will surely be nullified if a large and influential body of protest remains everywhere as a potent source of national friction and animosity. That such unhappy feelings may not remain to hinder and embitter the work of the world’s political, social, and economic reconstruction, we ask you to use your great influence at the Peace Conference to the end that the people of Ireland be permitted to determine for themselves through a free and fair plebiscite the form of government under which they wish to live. With most cordial sentiments of respect and esteem, I remain, very sincerely yours, Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University of America. -DOMINICAN NUNS: OUTLAWED SISTERS IN DUBLIN. . The sad plight of the small community of Dominican Nuns in Ireland at _ the close of .he 17th century, as described by an eye-witness, was dwelt upon recently (says a writer in the Irish Independent).

After their convent in Galway had been* taken over by the military and turned, into 'a; barrack, the Sisters continued for some timer to reside in the immediate neighborhood under an ingenius I disguise-. Then came the order from Dublin Castle. to, the Mayor to j turn all Catholics out .of the- city, whereupon the nuns were forced to disperse amongst their relations throughout the country. Pitying; their deplorable condition, i the Provincial of Ireland, Father Hugh O'Callanan, 0.P., obtained permission from the then Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Byrne, for some, of the outlawed Sisters to establish themselves in- the capital. Thus, in the month of March,. 1717, eight holy women of the Second Order of St. Dominic, dressed in secular garb, reached Dublin, and took up.their abode in a house in Fisher's Lane—as the present Saint Michan's Street was then called. Six-months later, however, the refugees flitted to a more commodious building in what was then Channel Row, and is now North Brunswick Street. Their new residence had been "notorious as a convent" from the days of James 11., having been occupied by a community of Benedictines who in the reign of that monarch began and ended their brief career in Ireland. Leaving the daughters of St. Dominic in possession, it may not be uninteresting to glance back at the origin and the early history of this 17th century nunnery, which, with its adjoining chapel, forms to-day a not inconsiderable portion of the 01d»Richni6nd Hospital. In the year 1688 King James ordered the Duke of Tyrconiiell, the Irish Viceroy, to invite Dame Mary Butler, the Abbess of the Irish Monastery of Ypres, to come to Dublin and establish her community in that city. She came, arriving here on October 31 of that year, and, with her nuns, went into temporary occupation of a house in Ship Street. : /Meanwhile, by Royal patent, an imposing convent was being erected in Channel Row for their reception, and, according to De Burgo's Il'iheniia Domimca-na, was consecrated under the title of "St. Bridget Widow," in the year 1689, "by the most illustrious Archbishop of Dublin, Patrick Russell, his most gracious Majesty James 11. being present, as I have learned from eye-witnesses." But the newcomers were not left for long at peace. Aftei the battle of the Boyne, King William's soldiers marched into Dublin, pillaged the Benedictine monastery in Channel Row, and seized the church plate which had been removed to the house of a friendly Protestant lady in the neighborhood. Dame Butler, therefore, resolved to prevent a further profanation by throwing into the fire whatever remained. Resolving, thereupon, to return to Ypres, she obtained, through the influence of the Duke of Ormonde, passports for herself and her children; and thus was brought to an end the first and last foundation of the Benedictines in Dublin. It is not clear who obtained possession of this convent after their departure in 1690. It will be remembered that it was to this house the Poor Clares came after their banishment from Galway in 1712; and it is thought probable that the Duchess of Tyrconnell (the "Fair Fanny Jennings") managed to retain possession during the intervening period.