IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 1 April 1920, Page 30

IRISH NEWS

:/■;." general: /; For a fortnight recently the work of 1000 men in Co.. Galway was suspended by a strike of surveyors and clerical workers of the county council. ; .. The dispute r is now settled, the clerical workers having obtained their terms. ■ ~i „ ~ . . . , / , ; A collection was made in all the churches of the diocese of Meath in accordance with the instruction of the Pope in aid of the starving children of Central Europe. i - The Dundalk Examiner, which has lately been allowed to reappear after three months’ suppression, states that its views are unaltered on the national issue. “The Examiner stands to-day,” it says, “as it has stood for half a century national independence. One limitation only we recognise to the methods which may be employed to the desired end— they be consonant with God’s law.” BISHOP OF MEATH ON A DANGER TO FAITH. Speaking in the Cathedral, Mullingar, on Sunday, January 11, Most Rev. Dr. Gaughran said there were dangers to the Faith, and secular education was one of them. If the devil could secularise education in Ireland his task could be made light indeed. If the Bill recently before Parliament became law, and he hoped it never would be revived, the devil would be in a fair way towards securing secular education, because then the whole educational edifice would be laid on a Protestant foundation —on three men, the Chief Secretary, the Vice-Presi-dent of the Department, and one other of whom no one knows anything. These two Scotchmen, and the third who might be a pagan, would have supreme control of education. That was the foundation of the educational edifice provided by the Bill, “and,” continued his Lordship, “I hope the Bill will never become law. If it does become law, I ask you to be on your guard, to do your duty, to look to the faith of your children first, and I will leave the rest in your'hands.” Church and Labor. Another danger, said his Lordship, arose from the great war between the masses and the classes, between Capital and Labor, between masters and servants. In this war there are those who would represent that the Catholic Church was not the friend of Labor. There was never anything so false. Was it not the Catholic Church that emancipated the slave? Pope Leo XIII. has given to the world the charter of the working man. Though the condition of the working man is much improved, though he has got new houses* and he hoped they would get a great many more built, his condition is not what it should be. He hoped the day would come quickly when the laborer could rear his family decently, clothe them, and send them to school. Until that day does come justice will not be done to the working man ; but he hoped no one would listen to those who preach that the Church is the enemy of Labor. The strength of the Church is not measured by stone walls or the area of land she holds. Her strength consists of human souls, and the soul of the working man is as dear to her as that of the millionaire. SUPPRESSION OF THE AONACH. The action of the Government in prohibiting the annual sale of Irish goods in the Mansion House has aroused general indignation throughout the country. Mr. A. Griffith states that the English Government in Ireland now stands with the mask wholly off as to the forcible suppression of Irish industry as of Irish national rights, and that England is now dealing with a unified Irish race which will exact a full account for the outrages that are being perpetrated on their Motherland. The action of the authorities in prohibiting the annual exhibition of Irish goods in the Mansion House has created general resentment, and much sympathy is expressed with the promoters. The Aonach promised to eclipse any previous fixture of the kind, both from the point of view' of the number and quality, of the exhibits. An Irish Independent representative was shown through the stalls by the Lord Mayor, who strongly commented oh the hardship inflicted on those taking part in the Aonach. An outstanding stall, and practically the only one in full working order, is that of the Ballyowen Tobacco Co., conducted by the Rev. J. Sweetman, 0.5.8., St. Benedict’s, Gorey. :: . The action of the Government was puzzling everybody, he said. “My own theory,” he added, “is that they

•• ; w-wj-n- ■■'■-- simply ,r want -to provoke us ~in •_ order to ;; sit /on. us more forcibly, or else they hope to so worry us that we will be 'glad to accept " whatever measure/ of Home.. Rule they choose to ‘ offer. /" Father Sweetman v; added that he would continue his stall for the week, unless he was requested to leave by the Lord Mayor, or forcibly -removed by the authorities, - *••••’. Miss McDermott, of •22 Wellington Place, Belfast, stated that she was an exhibitor ;at the Aonach since its inception (hand-made jewellery, decorated wood pottery, etc.). This suppression would mean a serious loss to her. As the result of ; the Aonach, she had established a large connection throughout the country / generally. • The 50 stalls that had been erected in . the Round Room were dismantled yesterday, and all the exhibits were removed. The estimated cost of the erction of these stalls is £l5O, and the travelling expenses and the cost of transit of goods will come to a substantial figure. “Instituted to stimulate a demand for the products of our own country, the Aonach achieved a remarkable success,” said Mr. A. Griffith to an Irish Independent representative. “It caused the expenditure every Christmastide of tens of thousands of pounds in Dublin which had previously gone outside the ebuntry. The people in the capital yesterday saw the armed forces of the English Government suppressing this purely industrial institution. It, too, has now become an illegal assembly. English Government in Ireland now stands before the world with the mask wholly off, as the forcible oppressor of Irish industry, as well as of Irish national rights. Those Irish Unionists who attended and exhibited each year at the Aonach will have their education speeded up. As to the arrest of the member for St. Stephen’s Green, it is natural that Aid. T. Kelly, the most unselfish and honestest man in Dublin, should be obnoxious to those whom our national poet, looking at Dublin Castle in his days, described for all times as—- “ The men without ruth, The hypocrite-haters of goodness and truth, Who at heart cursed the race of the sun through the skies And would look in God’s face with a lie in their eyes.” The Camarilla. “The camarilla in Dublin Castle and their political and journalistic associates in London who are trying to goad the Irish people, are living back in the days of the forgery conspiracy against Parnell, in which two of them are implicated. They have succeeded, up to the present, in helping to ruin English financial credit and English diplomatic efforts in America. They have helped to nullify Viscount Grey’s mission. The blows they aim at the Irish people become boomerangs. England is now dealing with a unified Irish race, which will exact a full account for the outrages that are being perpetrated on their motherland.” The Lord Mayor intends to appeal to the public to see that the exhibitors do not suffer through a loss of sales (said an exchange at the date of the suppression), and says he will close the Mansion House against all other meetings in future. In explaining the situation to the exhibitors, his lordship explained that hitherto he had refused to transmit any of Dublin Castle’s orders, and had sent the notice back. In this case the exhibitors might go on with the preparations, and their friends might come there unwittingly and not crediting what might be thought the truly incredible statement that the British Government had proclaimed an exhibition of Irish manufactures and artistic industries. They might persist in entering the Round Room, and before they knew, with the great array of force gathered together to suppress the exhibition, blood might bo spilled. His lordship dwelt on the great success of the previous exhibitions, not merely with regard to sales, but in stimulating sales of Irish goods in the shops by causing inquiry after many beautiful things, and remarked that they did a permanent good to Irish industry. It was shocking to think that that exhibition of Irish industry was proclaimed and suppressed. That shock to many of them, who felt the rough heel of coercion now for the first time, was aggravated by the manner in which it had been done. The Government that had informed them a short time before of their, proclamation, allowed them during all those weeks to carry on their costly arrangements. So far as he was concerned, they were always welcome there, and it was for them to decide whether they would stay, and let the British army disperse the exhibition by force, or whether they would close it themselves and -go. An English lady visitor said she had been highly pleased with all she saw until she came to the display of force, of which as an Englishwoman she was ashamed.

■ “At any rate,” added the Lord Mayor to the exhibitors, “I do not intend to have the Comrades of Ireland, if -T’-might call you so, ; prevented , coming here to-night and to have the Comrades of the • Great ; War , coming ' in here next week. In consequence of the public being prevented inspecting the beautiful exhibition he would close the Mansion House against all other meetings.”