IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 25 March 1920, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

u~..~■•.■.--: r..-.-.•. GENERAL. ~..- ; : ; * Owing to the proclamation .of fairs a<nd markets in Clare, Tipperary, and/adjoining counties, Ballinasloo (Co. Galway) pig fair was the largest ever held. Over 30,000 pigs, worth £500,000, were sold. Sir Joseph Byrne, Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary, has been dismissed from the position. No cause was alleged, but it is rumored he was not a sufficiently stalwart supporter of the present regime. - The London Times calls on the Irish Executive to justify their actionif they can. •There is a slump in recruiting for the Irish Constabulary in Ireland, young men being unwilling to join that force. As a result recruits are being beaten up in England. Recently 15 men, ex-soldiers, arrived at North Wall for the purpose of joining. They were conveyed to the Constabulary Depot in the Phoenix Park. Examined on New Year's Day by Peadar 0. Dubinin and Sean Dolau, M.A., the young people learning Irish on fosterage at Cloughaneely, Co. Donegal, were ' reported all to have acquired considerable conversational ability in 10 weeks, and prize for first place was awarded to Eithne Kiersey, Maryboro', Queen's County. A Christinas hamper was sent to Aid. T. Kelly, M.P., Wormwood Scrubbs prison, by his sister, a, nun in Grimsby, who was informed he would not bo allowed to receive it by the governor. She wrote asking for its return, and received a . further letter intimating that it was being returned, Aid. Kelly having paid- the freight. The alderman, who is Lord Mayor-elect of Dublin, was arrested without any charge being made against him. tie is not permitted to see visitors. Early in January the offices of the Irish Assurance Co. were raided by the police and military for tho second time in the same week. .Mr. Stains, M.P., chairman of the company, attributed the raid to the fact that a lot of insurance business had been taken from the foreign (English) companies. He added that the company Had information at their disposal showing that tho attention of the Castle had been focussed upon them By information supplied by a secret society. Mr. Stains is the Sinn Fein representative of the St. Micham division of Dublin. The Sinn Fein Bank has also been closed by the Castle authorities. During the hearing by the U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee of arguments on the Mason Bill for the recognition of tho Irish claim, Mr. Flood (Virginia) quoted the following figures from the Provost-Marshal's office showing tin- percentage of unnaturalised people in the States who had waived their right of exemption and volunteered during the war: Irish, 30.4 per cent.; Belgians. 24.2: Scotch, 24.2- English, 22.5; Welsh, 22; Serbs. 21.7; Canadians, 21; French, 19.4; Italians, 16.8. This, said Mr. Flood, indicated that more unnaturalised Irishmen than those of anv other nation waived their rights. CARDINAL O'CONNELL ON NOBLE ENTERPRISE. Cardinal O'Connell, speaking lately at a meeting of the Alumnae Association of the Boston Academy, Notre Dame, Fenway, U.S.A., endorsed a tribute of Mr. M. J. Ryan, of Philadelphia, to the Irish people, and stated that those present were in sympathy with the cause of Ireland, not because it was Ireland's alone, but because it was a great and noble . enterprise. Until the Irish people all over the world united and proved to AngloSaxon and Teutonic races by liberating Ireland and" to the world that the Irish people could stand alone, they would have the slur still cast upon them that they were an inferior race. mi. ''The story of Ireland and her wrongs," he continued, "thrills me beyond anything I can say, and perhaps, next to the story of Christ and the Crucifixion. There is such a tragedy in Ireland's story that I, a son of the Gael devoted and patriotic to my country, America, am thrilled and overpowered by the wrongs of Ireland." A MUCH-REJECTED HOME RULE BILL. A correspondent, writing from Dublin to tho 'Scotsmart, says—• t "The visitor to Ireland at the present time hears few kind words spoken of the Home Rule proposals. However much the doctors may agree, it is quite evident that the patient has no faith in this latest prescription as a cure for his existing disorders. About no Home Rule measure has there been more agreement in Great Britain

and less in Ireland. It has not a single friend L among any of -the recognised sections of ', Irish opinion. The Nationalists dismiss it as another sample of 'English' insincerity and political opportunism, designed 'to influence opinion abroad, particularly in the United States/ -Sinn Feiners cam scarcely be expected to rest satisfied with what they regard as "merely a partitionist 'green cheese.' Do Valera and Griffith are uncompromising. The former is too crafty to reject the scheme in the same summary fashion as the Nationalists. He wants to see the ■ Bill in print before giving his verdict. But he has long ago made it clear that while Sinn Fein was not averse to accepting Home Rule, it would only accept it as a steppingstone, from which the jump to complete separation might be more easily undertaken. The Unionists in the North, whatever may be their eventual decision, certainly do not want the Bill." i : ROYALTY AND IRELAND. A writer in a widely-circulated English Sunday' paper has sent our hearts into our boots. "You may, I think," says the gentleman to his Sabbath audience, "take it as certain that tho Prince of Wales will not visit Ireland at present." An English Labor paper humbly requested the Prince of Wales to send a New Year's message to British Labor, but 11.R.11. declined. This fact was nothing in the way of consolation, however, for the dread "announcement" that the Prince "would not visit Ireland" —and the man who mado us sad emphasised the "negative." Mournfully seeking for a. reason, we found the following:— "No doubt it was a very natural association of ideas that prompted certain well-meaning people in high places to suggest, that .. "Our Young Man," fresh from his amazing Canadian triumph, might be sent over to the always "distressful country" in the hope of winning peace by the sheer charm of his winning personality; But the idea lias been promptly turned down, not only in court circles but also in quarters which are, in this instance, even more potent." When these facts became known, all Ireland will be moved to a frenzy of wrath more intense and ferocious than anything that lias stirred the passions of the people since tho Battle of Clontarf. What "quarters" are "more potent" than "court circles"? Wo must find and punish them first; then we shall hold "monster meetings" - in despite of D.O.R.A. and the Army of Occupation," and "call upon" these "court circles" to relax their- "boycott" in the name of disappointed and aggrieved Irish humanity. But the "quarters even more notent" must be dealt with .first—and sternly. It troubles us much to learn that tho Cabinet is one of -the "quarters," for the writer in tho Sunday paper adds:— "The feeling in" the Cabinet is that the time has gone by—or, very least, that this is not the timeto offer sops to the wild men of Erin. I have no doubt at all that the 1 mice of Wales would be willing and even eager to go. And so far as I can learn, the authorities do not fear that he would not have a splendid reception. But their view is that Ireland, at present, does not deserve, to be so treated. Afterwards— we shall see. We (Irish Meekly) are considering the advisability of offering a prize of CIOO.OOO to the sender of the best RU£<*estion for making Ireland deserving of a visit from the Prince of Wales. The terms of tho "Competition" will be announced when Sir Edward Carson, Mr. George B. Hanna M.P., Mr. Jellett, K.C., Sir James IT. Stronge, D.L ' tho owner of the Caledon mills, and Mr. Tan Macpher«on have consented to act as adjudicators. Meanwhile, lot us reflect on the significance of that "Tut of writing" in the English paper. Nothing conceivable is reallv "infinite" except the Power, Justice, and Mercv of the Creator- but next to "space" the nearest approach to infinity mn«t be the stupidity of the creatures in E"<d am ] who think and write of Ireland and her affairs in this fashion. Yet we suppose, there are individuals in the next tirade of almost-infinite stupidity who accept as common-sense the vacuous maunderings of such persons; if there were not such unhappy beings amoncrst their readers, the English newspapers would not publish idiocy of the kind.