Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 33, 23 August 1923, Page 37

Here and There

Limerick Lady’s Religious Bequests. —Sarah O’Sullivan, Newenham Street, Limerick, who died on January 31, 1923, has bequeathed £SOO to be invested so as to produce the yearly amount necessary for the education of some poor boy for the priesthood of the Redemptorisb Order in the school or institution known as the Juvenate, attached to the Church of Mount St. Alphousus, Limerick, a preference to be given to a relative of her own. She also bequeathed £3O to the Rev. Daniel Mang an for the purposes of the Foreign Mission in Uganda, and left considerable sums for the celebration of Masses for the repose of her soul, together with £SO to the Good Shepherd Convent, Limerick, and £lO to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Limerick.

Mayo Man’s Marvellous Triumph. The Daily News says: Mr. Louis Brennan, the inventor, who has been State-aided in his reseacbers, has succeeded in so perfecting his helicopter aeroplane that it has hovered for nearly a quarter of an hour at a height of many feet. All the time the machine was in perfect control. It carried passengers and a military load of lOOOlbs. This achievement marks the most important and far-reaching step yet made in aeronautics, and places England ahead of all other countries in the search for a machine which will rise vertically and fly horizontally. The helicopter is not the only success of Mr. Brennan, who is 71. He is the inventor of the Brennan torpedo, selling his invention to the British Government in 1880 for £llo,ooomore than four times as much as was ever before paid by the Government for an invention — and also the mono-rail, a gyroscopic railway consisting of a single line laid down on the ground. Mr. Brennan is an Irishman, a native of Castlebar. Ills parents emigrated to Australia when, he was a boy of 11. In Melbourne he was apprenticed to an engineer. lie invented the torpedo there. He has been in England since 1887.

A Dramatic Critic’s Handsome “Amende.” —Air. St. John Ervine, the dramatic critic of the Observer, who is not unknown in Dublin, where he was for some time connected with the Abbey Theatre, has. it appears, been having a tilt at the Catholic Church, as also at “servant girls and actors.” It having been borne in upon him that his strictures were baseless he has made a public apology in the Observer for his error, and he has done it in a wholehearted manner which reflects credit upon him. The apology is as follows: — “In the preface to a book called Some Impressions of My Shirrs there is a passage in which I make an offensive and stupid reference to the Catholic religion and to servant girls and actors. There is no need for me to explain the circumstances in which 1 came to write this passage, for an inexcusable act remains inexcusable in all circumstances. It is sufficient to say that I caused pain to many people whom I like and respect, and I wish as publicly as I can to withdraw the offensive passage and to state my regret that I allowed myself to print it.”

Famous English Tenor’s Dublin Debut. — Just a century ago, in June, 1823, John Brahain, the famous English tenor, made his first Irish appearance at the Theatre Royal, Dublin. From 1801 to 1841 Braham was unapproachable, in English opera and concert work, and he also was successful as a composer, as may be evidenced in his “Death of Nelson,” “All’s Well,” and “Never Despair.” He made his Dublin debut in the “The Devil’s Bridge,” a musical pasticcio, which contains some pleasing numbers, and would bear revival. His success was assured, and he made several subsequent visits to Dublin in 1829, 1831, 1839, 1841, and 1844. During is Dublin engagement, in June, 1823, a fellow-actor, Williams, met with singular accident. When performing as “Jobson” in the ballad opera of “The Devil to Pay,” Williams (who appears blindfolded) stepped over the footlights and fell into the orchestra, much to the consternation of the conductor, G. A. Lee. However, he escaped unhurt, and the play was continued as usual.

Christianity and Social Problems. —A rather remarkable gathering (says Catholic News Service, London) has just come to an end, at Swanwick, in Derbyshire, where Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, and other Pro- . testant Dissenters have been meeting for the United Sum- fj mer School, in the interests of\ interdenominational social ( i : service. During the week that the summer school lasted |

there was only one united meeting of all the religious bodies, at which Father Vincent McNabb, a former Provincial of the English Dominicans, spoke for, the Catholics, in company with Anglican and Free Church divines. But apart from this particular session, the various daily assemblies while of a general character, had not exactly the same unified atmosphere. The object of the summer school, which has now become an annual affair, is to examine in what manner definite Christian principles can be brought to bear upon modern social and industrial problems. So that there were experts discussing such things as “Commerce and Christian Principle,” “Christ’s Judgment of Modern Industry.” One very healthy feature of this summer school is i that it makes no pretence about religious unity. The various churchmen meet as members of different religious denominations, united in the single aim of applying their common Christian principles to social problems. They attend their own worship, and leave each other’s theology alone. The special interest of this year’s summer school was its sorting itself out as introductory to the • great Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship, which will be held next year, when something very like a common Christian political policy may be enunciated.

Royal Saint of Windsor. — lf, as Mr. Shane Leslie and certain other Catholic old Etonians hope, the Holy See will permit the opening of an Apostolic Process for the beatification of Henry VI. of England, it will be the first time in many centuries that an Englishman has been raised to the altars of the Catholic Churchapart, of course, from the Blessed and Venerable English Martyrs, who comprise the most typical and patriotic English men and women that the race has produced. Writing in the Morning Post, Mr. Leslie has given some interesting facts in connection with the project in regard to Henry VI. Documents have been discovered among the State archives in which 3GB miracles wore ascribed to the royal founder of Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. From this number 138 were selected as being probable, and of this selection 23 are declared to have been verified—thus a manuscript in the British Museum. Popular devotion to the King seems to have arisen almost immediately after his death—he was murdered in the Tower of London in 1471. In York Minster the people wore accustomed to pray before his statue, which stood in its niche in the great choir screen, as before the shrine of a saint. But Yorkist antagonism to the Lancastrians tried to put a stop to this, and an Archbishop of York issued a. monition against venerating the image of the King. At any rate, to this day the niche in York Minster where the statue stood is empty, and the cathedral authorities assort Unit the statue was removed because it was an object of “superstitious reverence.” A vast amount of documentary evidence is being collected. Cardinal Gasquet is keenly interested, and the possibility is that if the Cause is permitted by Rome Henry VI. of Windsor will ultimately be beatified in St. Peter’s.

The Pope’s Nine.— Pope Pius X. was elected to the Supreme Pontificate it was observed that the great events of his life had happened in periods of nine years. Me was for nine years, from 1858 to 1867, the humblest of country curates at Tombolo; for nine years, from 1867 to 1875, the parish priest of the little town of Salzano; for nine years, from 1875 to 1884, Canon of the Cathedral of Treviso; for nine years, from 1884 to, 1893, Bishop of the not very important See of Mantua. In 1893 he was recognised Patriarch of Venice, but the Italian Government refused to acknowledge him for a whole year, and it was only in 1894 that he made his solemn entrance into his new diocese, where he remained for nine years more, until that pregnant July 26, when the Patriarch stepped into his gondola, from the Piazza of St. Mark’s and started for the conclave from which he was destined not to return.

There is a working class—strong and happy—among both rich and poor; there is an idle class—weak, wicked miserable — among both rich and poor. Ruskin.