MONSIGNOR O’RIORDAN: IN MEMORIAM

New Zealand Tablet, 18 September 1919, Page 19

MONSIGNOR O’RIORDAN: IN MEMORIAM

The sad news of the death of the rector of the Irish College in Rome, which was cabled a few days ago, will touch a sympathetic chord in the hearts of many in New Zealand. His death was not unexpected, for recent mails brought accounts of his serious illness. For years he had sustained an exhausting, though intermittent, fight for life. Never robust, he yet held his own with indomitable persistence, and his friends were praying and hoping that he would survive this latest attack. But it was not to be: Ins lire s work was done, and he has entered into his reward, at the age of 63. Gifted with great talents, he was a ways an industrious student, and the promise he gave in his boyhood at the Limerick Diocesan College was more than fulfilled by the brilliant success of his later years. As a student in the Irish College, Home, he was a model of quiet, unassuming devotion to duty, and at the end of his academic course he gained the triple Doctorate of Divinity, Philosophy, and Canon Law with much eclat. Alter his ordination in 1883, he spent some four years on the mission in England, and was subsequently appointed Professor in St. Munchin’s College, Limerick, an institution established by Bishop O’Dwyer. Me taught in this college for about seven years, and then re-entered the ranks of the missionary priests as curate in St. Michael’s parish, Limerick, where he spent some 15 years. .His devotion to his sacred duties as city curate was whole-souled and unflagging. In the houses of the poor he learned to admire the patience and faith of the flock committed to his care, and his memory is still green amongst the citizens of one of- the most Catholic cities in Christendom. During his residence in St. Michael’s parish ho had charge of the Limci ick Catholic Institute, founded by Bishop O’Dwyer in his curate days, and he brought the institute to a high degree ‘of usefulness. His famous book, Catholicity and Progress in Ireland, was written at this time, and, as he tells ns in the preface—“ Hardly a dozen pages of'it have been written in the day time, most of it being hurriedly done during hours taken from sleep.” It could hardly beotherwise when we consider the zeal and regularity with which ,he attended to the people committed to his care. It first appeared in a series of letters to the Dublin Leader, and he tells us nothing was further from his thoughts than the writing of a book “when he commenced those letters over the pen name ‘ Mor.’ ” The occasion of these letters was a chapter in Sir Horace Plunkett’s hook, Ireland- in. the, New Century, in which the author made against the ■ Irish clergy serious charges of hindering instead of helping the people in their efforts to improve their lot. That Dr. O’lliordan scored' heavily is shown by the fact that Sir Horace Plunkett made no effort to reply to the scathing indictments contained in Dr. O’Riordan’s letter. Plunkett seems to have expected that he might criticise with impunity, implying thereby his right to criticise and their duty to be silent. “Non-Catholics in Ireland,” says Dr. O’Riordan in his preface, “have been so long the sportsmen and Catholics so long the targets, that those who have had a monopoly in criticism, as in almost everything else, are surprised to discover marksmen standing where only targets used to be.” Irishmen and friends of Ireland in New Zealand who have not read Dr. O’Riordan’s book have missed the most complete, concise, and crushing answer ever given to calumniators of the Irish clergy and people. The authorities he quotes for his facts are mainly non-Catholic. A few of the headings of chapters will give an idea of the subject matter dealt with: “The Building of Catholic Churches ,in Ireland”; - “The Catholic Church and Progress”; “The Character of Irish Catholics” ; “Irish Catholic Industry”; “The Action of Irish Priests in the - Tem-

— T J , V; rr., . '• , . poral Concerns of the People”; “What the 'Government in Ireland Have Given the People in Return for What They-|jh|i^e|/Gqt” ; “What the Protestant Church has got in Irrilandland What it has Done in Return.” For those who would like to know why Ireland has been a discontented nation I know of no book better calculated to throw a flood of light on the subject and bring out in all its hideous reality the long story of British injustice to the Irish nation than Dr. O’Riordan’s Catholicity and Proyress in Ireland. 3Hi’e. late Cardinal Moran, whose ' historical works on Ireland* rife many and learned, proclaimed when he read Dr. O Riordan’s book that “it was the book of the century on Ireland.” One of the most remarkable features of the book is the calm, judicial manner in which it is written. An Irishman treating of injustice to Ireland might well be excused if he occasionally dipped his pen in vitriol to denounce the flagrant injustice perpetrated on an unfortunate nation; but even Sir Horace Plunkett is compelled to admit that. he can find no fault with the tone of the writer, 4 and we may be sure he scanned it carefully to seize hold of any slip out of which he might make capital. No educated Irishman should be without a* copy of this remarkable book.

In 1905 Dr. O’Riordan was appointed Rector of the Irish College in .Rome, and at once took up the agreeable task of furthering the interests of his Alina Muter. For the past fourteen years ho had devoted his great talents to the intellectual and spiritual progress of hundreds of young men destined for the priesthood. The results of that self-sacrificing care on his part have been shown partly in the brilliant examinations of the students and the honors carried off by them year after year, and also in the success which has attended the missionary labors of his former pupils in many parts of the world, as well as in Ireland.

Only those who were intimate with the late Monsignor knew of his deep religious gifts. His unassuming modesty was patent to all who came into contact with him. His joyous, happy disposition made him hosts of friends. The friends of his boyhood always held a green spot in his memory, and I know that Ids visit to , the Eucharistic Conference in Montreal some years ago held out nothing more pleasurable to him than the prospect it afforded him of seeing an old college friend on the mission in Canada. His love for his native land was all the more deep and intense for his undemonstrative method of showing it. That he was a tower of strength to the Irish cause in Rome, where a strong friend is always needed, is well known to - Irishmen, and many an Irish heart has been wrung with grief when the news of his death came.

J. O’N.

; AN AUSTRALIAN APPRECIATION. In a sketch of Monsignor O’Riordan’s career, the Catholic Press says;— On the death of Monsignor Murphy, who succeeded Archbishop Kelly as Rector of the Irish College, Dr. O’Riordan was called to that high position in 1905, and since then it has been his privilege to instil his noble ideals and his lofty patriotism into the hearts of hundreds of young priests, who have carried them into many countries, notably into Australia. . Dr. O’Riordan was made a Canon of St. Mark’s by the Holy Father in 1905.; In spite of his precarious health, he was active with his pen, and among his lesser writings are a. Criticism of Draper’s' lleligion and Science, .1 lie ply to Criticisms on the Irish A atidnal Schools, and a pamphlet on the famous “Veto” proposals of the Castlereagh Government. At the timejof his death he was engaged on a life of Cardinal Cullen. The Irish Bishops, priests, and people were proud of the distinguished scholar at the Eternal City, and there is noldoubt that if his health had permitted it, Dr. O’Riordan would have long ago received a very high appointment in the Hierarchy. He was always ready to welcome Australian visitors to Rome, and to obtain for them the advantages -of the Eternal City. He bore the impress of a scholar, but not a bookworm ; was kind-hearted and unassuming, and throughout his life, in spite of the frail shelly retained the burning zeal of a true Irish priest. Above all, he was fervent and faithful in his Irish ideals, and was ever watchful in preventing the attempts of crafty English diplomacy to undermine the interests of the Irish] with the authorities in Rome. —R.I.P.