THE FATE OF ST. ENDA'S COLLEGE

New Zealand Tablet, 8 April 1920, Page 28

THE FATE OF ST. ENDA'S COLLEGE

Miss Alice O'Reilly, of New York, who paid a visit to Ireland last year, went to see Mrs. Pearse at St. Enda's t-ollege on November 6. She was greatly impressed by the mother of the martyred Pearse. "I cannot-compare her to anyone I ever met before," she says. "With all reverence she reminds me of the Mother of God who gave her Blessed Son to save the world. She is one of the most beautiful characters imaginable. + i . R ,sf d^; s will remember (says the Brooklyn Tablet) that fc>t. Endas College was occupied for a time by English soldiers How they treated the place we learn from Miss O Reilly. She went round the place with Mehaul, !V ld J e i ne ,r'. who showed her the altar and statues of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, St. Anthony, and the Sacred Heart desecrated and destroyed by the military "Mrs. Pearse," she tells us, "paid £SO herself to repair the school alone, but the greenhouses and statuary are destroyed beyond repair. The latter were hacked by bayonets and trampled underfoot by soldiers." This is not ancient history,'my masters, but the history of our own time. Do you wonder that our boys did not like the "Tommies"? Miss O'Reilly's remarks about St. Enda's should interest our readers. "There are 25 pupils in the school " she says, "all splendid boys. There are 50 acres of fine fertile land attached to the college and they have a couple of cows and some pigs. But the place must be bought out before July, 1920, or be put up to public auction. . One of the teachers in St. Enda's taught there without salary for a whole year, just for love of the work, and the devotion shown to the ideals of Padraic Pearse by all connected with the school is really a wonderful thing." It is to bo hoped that the "Save St. Enda's Fund" will enable Mrs. Pearse to buy out the place and continue the college as a memorial of the first President of the Irish nation. Eamon do Valera is often referred to as the first President of the Irish nation, but he is the second. Padraic Pearse was the first, and the English foolishly imagined that when they murdered him there would never be another. Pearse died that Ireland might live and Ireland will live. French and Macpherson may raid and raid, arrest and arrest, murder and murder, but they cannot destroy Irish nationality. The Irish people in establishing self-determination took a step from which no power on earth can make them • recede.

Music is a kind of inarticulate speech which leads up tp the edge of the infinite and -lets.-us for moments gaze into it. ; . '• -• ivfv