NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 15, 10 April 1924, Page 30

NOTES

Trinity College History It may be that during your rambles among our book

stores your roving eye will fall .upon what is alleged to be a history of The devolution in Ireland, as one W. Alison Philips thinks it ought to be written. If any temptations to spend your money on it should blossom forth, nip them in the bud. The book is a bad joke, as far as history is concerned. It throws an unfaltering light on how history is taught in the mournful pile of buildings which obstruct so much of Dublin’s traffic. If Lecky could know what his successor has written he would not only turn in his grave but arise and haunt the prejudiced professor for the rest of his days. Mr. Philips admires the notorious Blaek-and-Tang, and by way of history, tells us that these choice British blackguards and gaol-birds were not unpopular in Ireland. No doubt high tea was ready for them in certain studies in Trinity, but even the extreme bias and prejudice of the professor can hardly make him believe that he and his friends are Ireland. The book is the kind of history one might expect to be written at an Orange Lodge after long and fervent prayers for the Pope had given the desired unction to the author, but as a history it is only amusing on account of its misstatements and ommissions.

The Easteru Churches In our leading article for this week we dwell briefly on what Rome is doing to encourage reunion with the schismatic Churches of the East ,some of which have a respectable antiquity. It is worth noting, as the practice is misleading for the uninitiated, that the usual practice is to call the unorthodox Churches orthodox and vice versa. Hence, for example, an Orthodox Russian means one who is not orthodox at all, and an Unorthodox Greek is one united with the Pope and sharing fully in the communion of the Catholic Church. There are numerous schismatic Catholic Churches in the East, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and for each of them there is found a uniate branch also. Tlniate is the proper' Catholic term to use concerning the Churches which are called Unorthodox in accordance with the erroneous custom referred to already. All these Churches have interesting histories, and the ignorance prevalent concerning them is in direct ratio to that interest. No doubt educated men and women on the Continent of Europe are well-informed on such topics, but in English-speaking countries where education is largely a matter of much money spent for small results, the ignorance is not even confined to inferior minds like those of New Zealand Members of Parliament. Should it be possible that any of our readers might regret his share in the common ignorance of such an important historical subject, we advise a study of three volumes by the late Dr. Adrian Fortescue, published by the firm of Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, London. In The Orthodox Eastern Church, The Lesser Eastern Churches, and The Uniate Eastern Churches (the latter a posthumous work) the student will find a fairly exhaustive record of the subject, based on travel and personal inquiry as well as on the , study of authoritative books. The third volume, recently published, is particularly interesting in that it deals "frith Churches united to Rome, of which there are many, embracing millions of Christians in Italy, and in East Europe and Asia. They retain their own liturgy, and celebrate the Christian worship in their own languages without prejudice to the unity of the Catholic Church. The Pope realises the great importance of -these Uniates and encourages them in their desire to preserve and maintain their individual characteristics. There are several ' Uniate ecclesiastical colleges established in Rome, and visitors to the. Eternal City about Christmas time will not fail to attend the ceremonies carried out according to those venerable rituals in San Nicola in Tolentino or San Andrea della

Vallo. Father Fortescue’s books are the works of an expert They are written in a charmingly. easy style which helps the student to acquire pleasantly a knowledge of an important subject. Unfortunately the last volume was not finished at the time of his early death, so that it remains but a large fragment of the fuller work he had in mind to write. ever, we ought to be grateful that it gives us a full account of the Byzantine Rite in Italy, Sicily Syria, and Egypt, together with a copious bibliography compiled from his notes.

The History of Ireland There are many good studies of periods of Irish history but so far we. have nothing that might be called a satisfactory and reliable record of the nation. Much water will flow under the bridges before a writer or a group of writers in collaboration can produce a classic such as Pastor's volumes on the Popes or Jansenn's on the German People. However the spade work is progressing and the materials accumulating from which the whole will one day evolve. For the present for real insight we must go to the works of authors who are making special inquiries concerning definite periods; and for a general conspectus we have perhaps half a dozen books, which, when allowance is made for the bias, of the amthors, are useful outlines of a very complex and involved story. Mac Neill, Orpen, Hogan, Murphy, O'Callaghan, Lecky, O'Brien have all dealt ably with special phases, and Lanigan, Haverty, Mitchel, McGee, Sullivan, and Dalton have to their credit honest volumes which give the general reader as sound a knowledge of the subject as most people desire. Two recent publications, one treating of Ireland in the centuries between 1110 and 1513, the other presenting a view of the same subject from the dawn of history to our own day, have recently appeared. Mr. Edmund Curtis's Mediaeval Ireland from. 1110 to 1513 (Macmillan, 21/-), and The History of Ireland, by Stephen Gwynne (Talbot Press, 12/6) are rather important contributions, and ought to be welcomed by all who are interested in Ireland. The former is a work of research, written chiefly for scholars by a scholar who is an authority on the period he deals with. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are none too well known even to the average students, and Mr. Curtis may be regarded as a pioneer in bis present work. The chapters on the rebellion of the Anglo-Irish (1327-60) and the Gaelic revival (1399-1449), as well as his investigations of the social condition of the country in 1300 and 1500 are valuable and interesting, if hardly as complete as many would* wish.

Stephen Gwynne has made his name as a novelist and a man of letters. He has published several good historical romances from which thousands have learned a great deal about the times in which they are set. His work in the past proves that he is deeply versed in the story and in the poetry of Ireland. He is a Protestant who has long been a Nationalist. He had in his youth all the educational advantages available for a man ofdffie Garrison class m Ireland. So far as a man might, he has divested himself of prejudices. Hence one should expect him to write a story of Ireland likely to be acceptable and pleasant reading to all sections of his countrymen. This, it seems to us, he has certainly done. Now and then one is not permitted to forget that he is not a Catholic. But, on the whole, he tells a great tale impartially and splendidly. His style is sober and lucid and he runs not to purple passages there is no passion in his pen and one cannot say that he shirks the truth even when hardest. But he makes a great picture of it, from Fionn and Cormac to Patrick, from Patrick to Brian Boru, from Clontarf to the Normans, from Kildare to Limerick, from the Boyne to Vinegar Hill, from the Famine to the Treaty. You watch the sad-pro-cession of persecutions, risings, slaughters, cruelties, starvations, and exoduses; see the priests hunted down by the English soldiery; hear the ringing cry of the victorious Celts who smashed England at Fontenoy; . salute Sarsfield and Clare; greet Grattan and know-; him- as one of ; the elect; weep with the women of Black -’Forty-Seven,' and

follow with disgust the endless details of British bribery and treachery which after all failed to kill the nation. -j There is no ring of propaganda about this well-written and well-balanced book. It is done without sentimentality or hysterics, and when it is done it stands forth with the - vividness of truth, its tears and romance and poetry not in the telling but in the facts. Taken all round, one is tempted to proclaim it the best work of its kind yet published.