Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 42, 4 November 1925, Page 47

Irish News

' EX-R.I Q. INSPECTOR BECOMES A CATHOLICNEW IRISH NOVITIATE—CHOOSING IRISH BISHOPS—LAND FOR THE LANDLESS—GLENDALOUGH—>S A NATIONAL MEMORIAL.

Mr. Richard Barrington, ex-District Inspector in the R.1.C., was received into the Catholic Church at Loyola Hall, Rainhill, Lancashire, by Father Hassan, S.J. For a period Mr. Barrington served as a Head Constable in Derry, and on promotion to the . higher rank he served in Wexford. ■ • • Four Sisters of Charity from the Convent of the Incarnate Word, Galveston, Texas, the Mother-house, have arrived in Ireland. They are opening a Novitiate in the mansion of Carrigoram, County Clare, the former residence of Lady Clare Fitzgerald. The mansion is surrounded by some 70 acres of park, and lies between Limerick and Ennis. The four nuns are Sisters Ignatius, Thomas, Ambrose, and Clare, all natives of Munster. They were met, by the Mother-General, Mother Placidus Muloahy, who with Mother Columbus has negotiated the purchase of this new home of missionary enterprise. • * • The Holy See proposes to apply to Ireland a new method of selecting bishops which will replace the older method that has existed for very many years. Hitherto when a va- ‘ cancy arose in an Irish See the parish priests 6 of the diocese met together and selected :! three names, a dignus ,, a dignior, and a dignissimus (“worthy,” “more worthy,” “most worthy”). These names were sent to Rome, and usually the dignissimus was appointed, although sometimes it happened that all three names were ignored by the Holy See, and the appointment made of r some dignitary not included in the trio. Now a new method is to prevail. Under the new system, the bishops will be called upon to form a panel of priests suitable for promotion to the episcopate. This panel •, will be revised every three years and brought up to date. From this list the new bishops will be appointed on the selection of the ; Holy See. Each bishop is to draw up a panel at the beginning of Lent every third year, and before doing so he is urged to consult his Chapter and his parish priests • not collectively, but individually—and to elicit suitable names to place on the panel. Although now applied for the first time to Ireland, the new system has been in operation for some time in a number of countries —Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Canada, United. .. States, and last, if not least, in Scotland. V_. > ■ . ■ ’?/ • • • • The latest figures given by the Minister ~ for Lands and Agriculture as to the division : ; of the lands that are being taken over by |;i the Land Commission are: — 6o,ooo out of a. ■ h total of 120,000 congests will he given enough land to make their present holdings ,i; economic; and 20,000 landless men out of a possible 500,000 landless men who are in ■:> need of land, or alternatively 45,000 congests v': and 30,000 landless men. Fully a third of V ri;-

the congests are hopeless. They are the very poorest material in the whole country. It would be ever so much better if any land that is to be distributed were given to the second, third, or fourth sons of progressive farmers. In addition, It is proposed to deal with 20,000 more congests by reclamation and drainage of wet lands. e « • A Dublin message under date September 10, says; Many visitors recently have made the journey to Glendalough—the valley of the two —where now stand the ruins of the famous monastery founded by the illustrious St. Caomghin, or, as it has been Anglicised, Kevin. This monastery (says a writer in the Catholic Herald ) was founded about the year 540, when the Saint was 42 years of age. He died on June 3, 618, after having presided over the monastery for 78 years. The motor car and charabanc have brought Glendalough close to the Metropolis, . from which it is distant about 35 miles. There is a desolation and at the same time a grandeur in the surroundings that is rarely met with anywhere. It is easy to conceive when the Wicklow Hills and mountains are such a wilderness to-day, what they must have been in the time of St. Kevin. Tradition has it that for seven years the Saint dwelt here, communing with God and in the study of the Scriptures, in a very narrow cave on the face of Lugduff. This moimtainpeak rises in steep and gloomy grandeur from the floor of the valley, and is almost as steep as a great wall. It was a fitting preparation for the great mission he afterwards undertook. This Saint seems to hold a. place in popular affection ■ next after the great patron saints, Patrick, Bridget, and Columbcille. The Board of Works has done everything possible to preserve as much of the ruins as have still survived the vandalism, desecration, and villainy of centuries. The ruins are only a few miles distant from the Vale of Avoca, “that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet.” » * • Last Sunday (writes the Dublin correspondent of the Melbourne Tribune, under date August 19) the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, built to commemorate the great national pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1913, was dedicated at Toome, Co. Antrim. The work was commenced five years ago, when the foundation stone, brought from Lourdes, was laid. It has been completed at a cost of £IOO,OOO, and standing on an eminence outside the town it is a. striking memorial to the national devotion to Our Lady. It has been made beautiful by many works of art, not the least of which is a statue of the Blessed Virgin carved by the famous sculptor, Tomasi, of Munich. An-

other priceless possession is a .gift; from J' the Holy Father himselfa great silver" m6n- ’v stranee of exquisite design. ,i.V - 1 $ Ip. The sermon during the dedication. v was preached by Most Rev. Dr. McNeely, Bishop of Raphoe, who dwelt on the love for Qtir Lady which the Irish, natioii had shown , in all the great crises through which it passes,;. and how her children had carried that devotion over the Continent throughout tile dark ages. The Church is all the more a national memorial in that it links the 26 counties with the six, and stands on the site of St. Patrick’s most fruitful labors. : V A touching letter was written by the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, regretting his inability to be present at the dedication. ‘‘Your fellow-countrymen whom I have for, a long time loved specially,” he said, will readily believe when I tell them that I will be very near them that day in spirit.”