Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 40, 21 October 1925, Page 47

Irish News

COMPULSORY EDUCATION—THE STUDY OF GAELIC BELFAST GIFT ;TO CATHOLIC HOME—DUBLIN’S GREAT WEEK IRISH ANTIQUITIES CATHOLIC TOLERANCE IN THE FREE STATE: PROTESTANT TESIMONY.

The Free State Government of Ireland has h introduced, and will attempt to have passed at the next session of the Bail Eireann, a Bill compelling all children between the ages of six and fourteen to attend school. Hitherto education has not been compulsory, but the proposals prescribe heavy penalties for parents who in future neglect to send their children to school. Employment which prevents a child under the age of fourteen from obtaining proper benefit from attendance at school is made illegal. Except in the towns, the authority to enforce the school law will be the new police. v - abb Most Rev. Michael J. Curley, Archbishop of Baltimore, who was visiting Ireland in August, asked the Irish people to become bilingual, to know both Gaelic and English. Although English is the world’s principal business tongue, cultural advantages of Gaelic are immense, said Archbishop Curley. This is proved by the eagerness of other nations, such as Germany, to study Gaelic. The Irish language, as a great creation of the human mind, compares favorably with all other languages, ancient and modern, his Grace declared, 88 ■ Representatives of all creeds were present when the Belfast Sports Gala Committee presented a wireless set to St. Brigid’s Home for the Blind, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy. Mr. J. Devlin, M.P., in returning thanks, said the great work of the Sports Gala Committee was done by some of the busiest members of the community, men of high commercial standing in the city, public representatives upon whom there were constant and ever growing draughts, and those who were occupied in many spheres of public and of industrial activity. All gave their time, like true philanthropists, not only to the work of helping the great hospitals and institutions, but assisting humble and modest institutions of that character that were little known, and therefore not fully appreciated. Even they had a thought for these and their - last thought was their sweetest one, and for that he begged to express the warmest gratitude to them. (Applause.) a m. • This has been a record Horse Show Week (writes the Dublin corerspondent of the Edinburgh Catholic Herald for August 15). The weather has been almost ideal. The crowds that passed the turnstiles each day were the sifgest ever witnessed at any previous show. One would have thought that the additional of the Tailteann Games last year would have-worked in such* a way as to eclipse the present year’s show. Never in-

the lifetime of this generation were so many visitors from abroad seen in our city as there have been during the past week. Dublin and the whole country are looking at their best, and visitors are favorably V impressed with all they have seen. The show given by the Cossacks in Lansdown Road was extremely well attended all the week. The latter .is perhaps one of the finest all-round-perform-ances ever seen in Dublin. ABB Ireland learned with a sense of personal loss of the death of Commendatore Boni, the Italian archaeologist, and the intimate adviser of Pope Leo XIII in that branch of knowledge. In the autumn of 1904 the distinguished Italian antiquary, who was Director of Excavations in Rome, paid a visit to Ireland and made a public statement which aroused keen interest among Irish archaeologists. His studies in Celtic literature had led him to believe that Irish antiquities might possibly throw some light upon the origin of the Roman Forum, His journey to Ireland was undertaken to test this impression. During his stay he met. the foremost Irish antiquaries and visited the most important ancient remains, especially those of prehistoric burial places. The results of his visit confirmed his previous impression that Ireland possessed many unexplored traces of the history of early European civilisation. It was his intention, though he was unable to carry it out, to invite the collaboration of America, in instituting a systematic campaign of research into the Irish vestiges of the past, which, he was convinced, contained sure information about the origin of society as we know it to-day, “The manuscripts of the ancient Irish poems,” he said, “first indicated to me the beginnings of the Roman Forum.” After his return to Italy he wrote -a rather full account of his investigations in Ireland in an article entitled “Hibernioa,” which was published in the Nuova Antologia. ABB Whatever may be said against the Free State Government, the charge of bigotry can at least never be laid at its door (writes the Dublin correspondent of the Melbourne Tribune). An attempt to do so was made by a Dublin Protestant minister the other week in the Record , organ of the Free Church of Scotland, but it was promptly scotched by two leading Protestant business men, Aid.. Hubbard Clark, a Presbyterian, and Mr. C. Eason, a member of the Church of Ireland. They quote a few telling facts. One member of the Free State Cabinet is a Protestant, 12 members of the Free State Parliament are Protestants. There are nearly 30 Protestants in the Free State Senate of 60 mem, - bers: Of the nine Justices ;of the Supreme and High Courts of the Free State, four are

Protestants. And all this in a State nearly • 90 per cent, of whose citizens are Catholics. Contrast this with the action of the SixCounty. Government, which has not given a single seat on its Senate to a Catholic, whose '; official appointments are exclusively Protes- ; tant, who make the Catholic religion a ban «' even to entrance to- their Special Constabulary. Yet, in the Six Counties the proscribed Catholics number more than a third of the population. Therefore, the most fantastic charge of all against the Free State is one of religious intolerance; whereas in the NorthEast the Premier himself, Sir James Craig, in his Twelfth of July statement, publicly linked the Government of his British-created “Northern Ireland” with Protestantism, while his Ministers in the recent elections boasted that there were no Catholics employed in the Government offices. Under these conditions a tactful silence might at least be expected from Protestant publicists.