AUSTRALASIAN IRISH RACE CONVENTION

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1919, Page 27

AUSTRALASIAN IRISH RACE CONVENTION

oTHE- SECOND DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. SEVENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE PRESENT. • (Special to the N.Z. Tablet, by cable.) Following the memorable .assemblage of delegates, numbering.3ooo, representative of all the States of the Commonwealth and New Zealand, at the Convention held on Monday, November- 3, in the Auditorium, Collins Street, Melbourne, convened by his Grace Archbishop Mannix; Archbishop of Melbourne, and presided over by the Hon. T. J. Ryan, ex-Premier of Queensland, there was an enormous gathering of seventy thousand people at a monster meeting on the Richmond Reserve on the following day. His Grace Archbishop Mannix presided, and the great concourse was addressed by Archbishop Duhig (Brisbane), Archbishop Spence (Adelaide), Coadjutor-Archbishop Barry (Hob-art), Very" Rev. J. A. O'Connell, S.M. (Wanganui, N.Z.), Very Rev. M. J. O'Reilly, CM. (St. John's University College, Sydney), and others. A special programme of Irish music was rendered by St. Augustine's champion band, Conducted by Mr. Percy Jones, and the enthusi-asm-was intense. Special trains at holiday rates (according to preliminary notification) were run from Sydney, Ballarat, Rendigo, Geelong, Sale, and other important centres. On Wednesday evening, November 5 a conversazione, in honor of the visiting delegates, was ■held in. the Melbourne Town Hall, the great building being filled to capacity. Elaborate arrangements had been made for the occasion. A high-class musical programme Was contributed to by leading professional artists. Mr. Walter Kirby and (by kind permission „9|^^ t^ Williamson, Ltd.) Miss Eileen Castles sang. Dinersassisting included Mr. John Amadeo, the popular -flautist, Miss Agnes pianist, and Mr. Am-

brose Mahon. During the evening his Grace Archbishop Mannix read a cable from Eamon de Valera, which aroused extraordinary enthusiasm. We propose to make next week’s issue of the Tablet a special illustrated Convention Number, containing the . various speeches in detail should the matter come to hand in time.