IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 20 November 1919, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

GENERAL.

.' 'According to Mr. Liam Do Roiste," M.P., the Dail Eireann has sent Consuls to the United States and Argentina, and trade agents to France, Italy, and Switzerland. ' The Most Rev. Dr. Fogarty and : Messrs. A. Griffith and I. O'Mara are named as trustees of the Sinn Fein loan issue, which was to be launched in Ireland in September. The names of Messrs. de Valera and Collins'are appended to the prospectus. "'

A writ was issued early in September against the Freeman's Journal, the plaintiffs being Stephen O'Meara, Michael L. Hearn, and Edward Magennis, acting on behalf of certain debenture-holders. They seek an accounting, the carrying-out of trusts, the appointment of a receiver, and the sale of the paper.

The threats of Sir Edward Carson to mobilise his forces are, according to the Westminster Gazette, already influencing the Orangemen of Belfast. The practice which disgraced that city seven years ago has been resumed. In the shipbuilding yards, Catholics arc getting hints it would "be safer for them to remain away from work for some time to come.''

An official communique from Dublin Castle, issued at the end of August, stated the Irish censorship would be abolished at midnight, August 31. As the country still is governed by military law, this does not seem to affect tho. Irish newspapers, as the Cork Examiner and Limerick Leader, the two most important Southern papers, were suppressed in September.

The Very Rev. Canon Sheehan, D.D., M.A., vice-pre-sident of Maynooth College, presided at the annual meeting of the Ring, Co. Waterford, Irish College. The committee decided to build a residential school for children (from seven to 12 years old) from non-Irish-speaking districts. They will be taught the usual school subjects, and in two sessions of eight months each, should have an excellent speaking knowledge of Irish.

The Belfast correspondent of the London Globe says: "Some weeks ago statements were made on apparently reliable authority that the movement of troops from England to Ulster camps was simply to provide accommodation for men about to be demobilised, and had no political significance. It is learned now, however, on good authority, that such is not the case. The sole object is to have large bodies of military available in the North of Ireland at a. moment's notice to entrain for any disturbed Irish district."

M. Thomas, Socialist. Leader and former French Minister of Armaments, discussing the Irish question, said: "During the last few weeks English public opinion has been made aware of the gravity of the question." M. Thomas points out (says a Times telegram) that at the Peace Conference the British delegates were ardent defenders of the principle of nationality, and adds that the extension given to the British Empire by the conditions of peace make it England's urgent duty to remain faithful to her liberal policy and to extend its application.

Speaking at Ballyknocken, Co. Wicklow, Mr. Etchingham, M.P., said the Dail Eireann was suppressed because, it was organising a constructive policy. Mr. Sweetman, M.P., declared that England feared the economic policy of Sinn Fein more than a violent programme. They had moral right on their side, and England had an army of occupation. He did not believe in reprisals. They should push their moral case in every possible way, doing nothing against God's law. Ireland fought in the moral case of the freedom of nations, and they should not minimise or spoil that great case. A meeting of Derry Catholics has been held to protest against the attempt of the Unionist majority on the Corporation to perpetuate Ascendancy in the city. A memorial signed by the Nationalist and Labor members of the Corporation has been forwarded to the Local Government Board, pointing out that the Catholics, according to the census, have a majority of 5066 over all other denominations, yet, if the Corporation scheme is adopted, the Protestant minority will have 24 members and the Catholic majority only 16. This would mean that.all the paid offices would continue to be held, 'as at present, by members of the minority. THE REAL GOVERNMENT OP IRELAND. Some English people, remarks the Catholic Times, seem to think that Irishmen are a turbulent lot, -that they are never content, that they are rebels by nature, and that it is useless trying to : win them to ■ peaceful ways. So they applaud the sending of, troops and machine-guns and tanks to keep them obedient. Such people may gain

profit from the perusal of , -the- following-extract:- 1 from a newspaper to,which, rebellion is a loathsome crime:—"See how the Orange Covenanters ' hold Nationalist Ireland in the hollow of their hands. -. It was Sir James Campbell, Legal Adviser to ; .the Ulster Provisional '. Government, who, as Lord Chancellor, signed the latest proclamation in Co. Clare; it was General Hackett Pain, one of the same Government military advisers, who signed the recent i proclamation in Derry; it is Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson another military adviser, who controls from Whitehall the British Army of Occupation. Mr. Bonar Law leads the British Parliament, and Lord Birkenhead the British Bench. Can anybody wonder if rebellion is fashionable?" What can any honest, decent Englishman say Would he submit to such men if he were an Irishman? Here are rebels in honor. And it is a British newspaper which points the moral. Before Englishmen talk of rebellion in Ireland they should stop to examine the records of the men appointed by the British Government to goad the Irish people to revolt. Our treatment of Ireland is a disgrace to us.

FUNERAL OF THE LATE MGR. O'RIORDAN': OBSEQUIES IN ROME.

Iho obsequies of the late Mgr. O'Riordan, Rector of the Irish. College, Rome (says the Catholic Herald of September 6), were held on Friday of 0 last week, with impressive ceremonial, in the College Chapel, where lies the heart of Daniel O'Connell, whoso monument is one of the adornments of the beautiful edifice. Mgr. Ccrretti, Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs at the Vatican, pontificated, and gave the Last Absolution. The American College was represented in the choir. The ceremony was conducted by Irish Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustimans, students from the college now in Rome, led by Vice-Rector Mgr. Hagan, assisting. Members of the Irish colony were present, besides many prelates of all nationalities and high dignitaries of the Church, while others had previously called or sent condolences. Cardinal Vannutellij who is away from Rome telegraphed: "I . profoundly regret the loss of such a worthy prelate, and join with you in mourning and prayers." The remains were interred in the Irish College vault in San Lorenzo Cemetery, where Constantine founded the church on the burial place of St. Lawrence." The Freeman's Journal, in publishing an account of the funeral, points out that the telegram received from Rome was mutilated. . Bishop Hallinan, Limerick, has received many messages of regret and sympathy on the death of Mgr. O'Riordan, the senders including the Mayor of Limerick and Mgr. O'Leary, C'lonakilty. Limerick Corporation, in a resolution which was ordered to be sent to the Pope, Dr. Hallinan, and the relatives of deceased, referred to Mgr! O'Riordan as '-'a Churchman whose zeal and patriotism gained for him the love and confidence of all Irishmen." Tributes have also been paid by resolution by the Cork University Scholarship Committee and by other Irish organisations.

Bishop Hallinan, acknowledging the Mayor of Limerick's message of sympathy on the death of Mgr. O'Riordan, alludes to the deceased's name as a powerful controversial writer in defence of Catholic Ireland as a household word in Ireland and throughout the world, and states that under his direction the Irish College was raised to a prestige which it rarely, if ever, attained before, while by his prudent and capable care the cause of the Irish Church and the Irish nation had been well safeguarded at the Court of Rome—"and," added his Lordship, "we all felt quite secure on that most important point in these critical times."

A spiritual retreat for ladies will be preached. by the Very Rev. Albert Power, S.J., Rector of Newman College, Melbourne University, at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Timaru, commencing on the evening of Friday, January 2, and closing on the morning of Wednesday, January 7, 1920. By applying in time to the Rev. Mother Superior, ladies wishing to make the retreat may reside at the convent. . Start some kind word on its travels, and do it now: there is no telling when the good it will accomplish will stop. '/:;-' 0 "'■ •;'