Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 16, 26 April 1923, Page 37

Here and There

The last stand made by Ned Kelly, the famous bushranger, and his gang at Glenrowan, West Australia, in 1879, is recalled by a visit to England which has been made by Mr. W. Trevallyn-Jones, a veteran journalist, who was present at the famous conflict. The outlaws made a desperate fight. Four constables were killed, and the conflict was only ended when the hotel in which they took refuge was set on fire. The Most Rev. Dr. Gibney, Bishop of Perth, when a young priest, was at this affray. When no one dared approach the burning building, and when bullets were flying in all directions, he walked straight into it, and at grave risk to his life administered the consolations of religion to some of the wounded men. Sir Alexander Wood Renton, who has succeeded Lord Shaw as chairman of the Compensation (Ireland) Commission, has had a distinguished academic judicial career. He is an M.A. and LL.B. of Edinburgh University, and was called to the English Bar in 1885, when he went on the Oxford Circuit. He sat at Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Mauritius from 1901-5, and became Chief Justice in Ceylon in 1912, retiring from the Bench four years later. On his retirement from judicial office Sir Alexander went on a special mission for the Colonial Office to Nigeria and the Gold Coast Colony in September, 1918, and to Egypt for the Foreign Office some months later. He has edited the Encyclopedia of English Law and the Taw Journal, and has contributed various legal articles to the supplement of the Encyclopedia Britannica. A scion of an “exile of Erin,” William S. Flynn, son of Jomes A. Flynn, of Cork ancestry, has recently been elected Governor of the State of Rhode Island, U.S.A. He is probably the youngest Governor of any State in the American Union, as he is but 37, and is a good Catholic. Born in 1886, the second eldest of a family of six, he graduated at Holy Cross College, and completed his law studies at Gorgetown University, receiving LL.B. in 1910. In 1911 he was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar, and in a few years became one of the leaders of the Rhode Island Bar Association. In 1909 he was elected to the General Assembly, and represented his district for nine years; seven years later he became “floor” leader for his party, and in January last was elected Governor. A question has recently been asked as to who was the champion record motor racer of the world, and the answer is supplied by the February issue of Columbia , the monthly organ of the Knights of Columbus. The champion of the year ending December, 1922, turns out to be an Irish boy, Jimmy Murphy, “a blue-eyed, black-haired son of Erin, proud of the fact that he is a member of the Knights of Columbus.” >4 At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, held last Decoration Day, Murphy did the 500 miles run, in presence of 135,000 spectators, in the record time of 5 hours and 17 minutes, averaging 94 miles an hour. For this he received a cheque for 20,000 dollars, which, with other small sums, ultimately reached 35,000 for the race. This motor speedway of Indianapolis is admitted to be the greatest racecourse in the world. Not long afterwards Jimmy Murphy won the 250 mile race at Los Angeles. His only rival in 1922 was Harry Harris, who, however, was more than 1000 points behind Murphy. Jimmy is described as “son of Matthew and Margaret Moran, both natives" of Ireland.” The magnificent Shaksperean performance of Mr. Charles Doran at the Gaiety Theatre inevitably recalls the first visit of Davy Garrick to Ireland in 1742. Amongst the parts undertaken by the great actor were “Lear” and “Hamlet,” and his “Hamlet” has been described as one of the most affecting renditions of a first-rate role ever witnessed. But the visit was chiefly remarkable, and interesting for Dublin folk by reason of the fact that then, for the first time, Garrick met Reg Woffington, one of the most superb artistes of her own or, indeed, of any age, and whose beautiful features still live on the canvas of Reynolds. She was a Dublin girl, and then in her prime, and Garrick had her to play “Cordelia” and “Ophelia,” a fact which, of itself, sufficiently attests the histrionic ex-

cellence and genius of our countrywoman. When Garrick became patentee of Drury lane in 1747, he found Peg there as one of the articled artistes, but this time the extraordinary woman was playing comedy. She anticipated trouble with the ladies of the company which Garrick brought with him to the theatre, and, says the historian, thought her continuing at Drury lane would be attended with many disagreeable incidents. The early biographies of Garrick do not record any other appearances of Peg with Garrick beyond the one on the occasion of his first memorable visit to Ireland. The death of Lord Justice Cherry reminds me (writes a correspondent to an exchange) of a serio-comic affair at Parknasilla, about twenty years ago, in which he became involved before it was over. A number of newspaper men and British members of Parliament, with .their wives, were invited by the Irish Tourist Development Association on a ten-days’ excursion over their coaching routes through West Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and up the Shannon. When they arrived at the Parknasilla Hotel, owned by the Southern Hotels Company, which had associated itself with the Tourist Association in the invitation, a number of the journalists found they had been assigned accommodation m an old house in the grounds which had once been the Palace of the Protestant Bishop, owing to the fact that the more comfortable and up-to-date bedrooms in the big new hotel itself were packed to their utmost limits by members of Parliament and their spouses and retinues. A pretty predicament, indeed! The journalists were expected to write up the route in their papers, while the M.P.’s, their spouses and retinues were mere ornaments. “No luggage,” said one of the journalists. The journalists did not object to sleep in the old house because it had been a Bishop Palace. They objected to the whole arrangement on principle. There was very angry talk, and several pressman decided to go back at once to London, and proceeded to call cars to drive them to the nearest railway station. Wild idea in a wild country were no cars within ten miles! A deputation was appointed to interview “the authorities,” whoever they might be. And who was the spokesman of the authorities? No less a nerson than Mr. Richard Cherry, K.O.—who, as it afterwards appeared, uas a director of either or both of the companies concerned. The late John D. Irvine, of the Morning Post, made a noble and indignant protest on behalf of the journal' ists in the finest imaginable Aberdeen Doric, amidst applause. Mr. Cherry rose to the occasion in a speech that almost melted the hearts of the jury; and all was well. Pressmen and Parliamentary men dined together happily; there was compromise all round, and never did a travelling party spend so jolly a night in an Irish hotel as that night proved to be in the hotel at Parknasilla, till utterly unmentionable hours in the morning. Dr. Adrian Fortescue, the learned liturgiologist who died recently in St. Andrew’s Hospital after a severe illness, was the son of a high dignitary of the Episcopal Church in Scotland; yet, for all that, a direct descendant of that valiant old knight, Sir Adrian Fortescue, who was among the first of the English martyrs who suffered for the Faith under Henry VIII. The martyr, who suffered on Tower Hill in 1539, was raised to the altars by Leo XIII. with the title of Blessed Adrian Fortescue. The late Dr, Fortescue studied for the priesthood at the Scots College in Rome and at the University of Innsbruck. After his ordination, which took place at Brixen in the Tirolhe began his clerical career in England. It is as a writer on eastern Church history that Dr. Fortescue is best known, some of his works being used as text books, not only in Catholic colleges, but by those Anglicans who have a regard for historical accuracy in those matters. Liturgiology equally with Church history was the subject*of the learned Doctor’s researches,'and Rome paid tribute to his scholar-

ship by appointing him Consultor on the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church.

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