IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 16, 26 April 1923, Page 43

IRISH NEWS

IRISH LANDLORDS. Some Irish landlords are refusing to sell their land to the tenants, and the Free State Government forecasts legislation for compulsory purchase. A writer in the Irish Independent states a case which is typical. He has (he says) a small farm of 30 acres. For 80 years past he and his predecessor have paid in cash rent to the amount of £3070. It is fourth-class land. He does not make any computation of the rent paid for generations prior to this period. He claims that he and his father have paid the fee-simple of this farm over and over again. He asks; “What asset is landlordism to the nation, or what contribution does it make to the wealth of the community at large? None whatever. It doesn’t weave, neither does it Spin. Certainly it collects lent yearly or half-yearly with unerring punctuality through a class known as land agents, who hand over the swag to their employers, who as a rule are non-resident.” ❖WWW IRISH LANGUAGE REVIVAL. Some persons interested in the teaching of Irish in the schools recently compiled from statistics and reports of the Gaelic League and the education authorities returns as to Irish in primary and secondary schools in 1921 in Munster and Leinster. The figures relating to the Counties Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Wexford reveal some very interesting facts and comparisons. ' The Waterford city schools and those of Carrick-on-Suir, Gorey, and Enniscorthy hold an honored place in the list for excellent work, producing dozens of -fluent Irish speakers as a result of earnest and capable teaching of the language. Except in a few cases in Counties Kilkenny and Wexford, the teaching in the schools of the rural districts in Counties Waterford, Tipperary, Wexford, and Kilkenny has not got beyond a little more than, an elementary stage as far as spoken Irish is concerned. In Waterford City schools there are at least 100 boys and girls who know Irish well enough to wear the Fainne. The return contains a list of national schools in which the teachers are native speakers, and a comparison of the results of the teaching of Irish in these schools compared with those in which the teachers have learned Irish shows much in favor of the latter. There are figures taken from the 1911 census showing the large number of Irish speakers in Co. Waterford, and figures relating to Kerry, Connacht, and Donegal. Side by side with these figures is the fact that the bilingual programme is taught in three national schools in Co. Waterford, in 40, in Co.' Kerry, in 90 in Co. Donegal, and 10 in Galway and Mayo. THE OFFER OF AMNESTY. The Irish Government’s offer ’ of an amnesty expired without any dramatic change in the situation (says the Nation and the Athenaeum). But if nothing like a general capitulation has taken place— and this was not expected there is increasing evidence of disintegration in the Republican ranks. There have been additions to the number of small bands and columns who have abandoned the field in widely separated parts of the country; there is evidence of a growing desire to treat on the part of others, and the movement for peace amongst the prisoners—a movement unprecedented in Irish political action been reinforced by a great body in Kerry, In the field the Republicans suffered a serious loss when Denis. Lacey was shot in an encounter in, the Glen, of Aherlow, and Miss MacSwiney’s continued anxiety to interpret Mr. de Valera’s principles for him shows that all is not well in the council chamber. Reports from South and West suggest that some progress is being made towards normal living, and there is a growing sense that the Government control of administration is wider and firmer. These indicationsa are slight, but they point the same way, and they are not deflected by the ten or twelve houses which are blown up every week. It is probable that Republican activity will be more and more

concentrated on Dublin; there is unfortunately every reason to believe that the struggle will be envenomed, and some substantial grounds for thinking that it will be comparatively short. Recently partially successful attacks were made upon revenue offices in Dublin, and the house of a member of the Dail destroyed by a land mine. In a coun-ter-reprisal to this arson, unauthorised groups entered the houses of two Republicans in the same neighborhood and wrecked the furniture. This is the third or fourth appearance on the troubled scene of these groups, who apparently regard themselves as fascist and whose lawless activities are by no means welcome to the Government they profess to support. WWW THE LENTEN PASTORALS. The Lenten Pastorals (says the Weekly Freeman, Dublin) sound a gloomier note than ever before in living memory. Ireland has had many terrible visitations in the past, but the worst of these were imposed upon her by strangers in her house. To-day her sufferings are inflicted by her own sons, who, with patriotic shibboleths on their lips, are violating every principle of patriotism. In his penetrating analysis of the situation, Cardinal Logue drives home with irresistible logic the vital fact which makes nonsense of the casuistries to which the apostles of anarchy resort in their efforts to blind the nation to the truth about themselves and their cause. We have been brought to the verge of ruin, not because ruin could not be evaded or because a, clash of hostile principles made any settlement impossible. “Never,” as Cardinal Logue truly says, “did such a wild and destructive hurricane spring from such a thin, intangible, unsubstantial vapor.” A country has been plunged down the steep places to destruction for “the difference between some equivocal words in an oath—the difference between external and internal connection with the British Commonwealth.” And the politician who fanned the winds to fury, and is still planning to make confusion worse confounded, is the man who proclaimed that there is “a constitutional way of settling our differences,” and insisted that “a nation must first live before it can live in any particular way.” It is little wonder that the venerable Primate who, throughout his long life has labored so strenuously for the material as well as the spiritual welfare of his people, should confess that the lamentable outlook “makes the heart sick under a. sense of gloom, almost of despair.” Bishops’ Sole Mistake. Last October the Irish bishops, in their joint Pastoral, warned the nation of the evils which were sapping its strength and making its name a bye-word. They were assailed by a section with abuse and misrepresentation for their plain speaking, their authority was challenged, and their conclusions repudiated. Events have made it only too clear that the sole mistake of the bishops was that they understated their case. It is questionable if a good many Irregulars who were vocal against the statement of the Hierarchy last October will venture to challenge the still stronger indictment of their leaders’ policy and practice set forth in the! Lenten Pastorals. Their eyes are being opened to the appalling consequences which result from an attempt to establish political dominance by methods which are a negation of all law, human or Divine. As for the great mass of the people, they have never been impressed, much less converted by the anarchists, however speciously their appeals might be framed. Terrorism, exercised without mercy or compunction, has undoubtedly dismayed some and prevented others from the free expression, of their views. But as the grip of terror is loosened, the flood of protest and repudiation against the wreckers and their policy surges in an overwhelming tide. The time is approaching when the voice of the people will make itself heard, in no uncertain fashion at the polls, and the urgent duty of all good Irishmen is, as Cardinal Logue declares, to leave nothing undone to ensure that the people shall be free to select between rival policies, and determine for them- ° selves the course which their political leaders are to follow.