IRISH NEWS

GENERAL. The death has occurred at Summerhill Convent, Athlone, of Sister Mary Charles Moore, sister of the Mother Superior of the Mercy Order in Ireland. The death has occurred of Rev. Father Conry, late parish "priest of Shrule. Some time ago he resigned owing to ill-health, and lived with his brother at Claremorris. He was a near relative of Very Rev. Canon Conry, a well-known Irish priest in Rome.

The Most Rev. Dr. Brownrigg, Bishop of Ossory, announced at the annual diocesan synod recently that he had received authorisation through the Archbishop of Dublin, to take steps to obtain from the canons and parish priests the names of three priests to be sent forward to the Holy See for the office of Coadjutor to the Bishop of Ossory, with the right of succession.

Right Rev. Dr. Grace, Bishop of Sacramento, California, whose golden sacerdotal jubilee will be celebrated this month, was born in Wexford, in 1841, and was educated at St. Peter's in the same place. He made his ecclesiastical studies at All Hallows College, Dublin, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 24, 1867. He went to California -shortly thereafter.

The Pall Mull Gazette remarks that if and when an Irish Parliament is set up in College Green, quite a number of interesting relics from the old legislative quarters will become immediately available. Among these are the Speaker's chair and mace, which are preserved in the National Museum, having been lent to that institution by Lord Massereene, the grandson of the last Irish Speaker. The fortnight's mission recently concluded in Armagh, conducted by Fathers Collier and Mangan, of the Redemptorist Order, roused the devotion of the staunch Northern Catholics to an extraordinary degree. From the outlying districts for ten miles round, immense crowds trooped in for the daily Masses, which began at 6.30, and the services in the evening were equally well attended. Cardinal Logue and the devoted clergy of Armagh have the supreme satisfaction of knowing that the number of Communicants was unparalleled in the history of the Primatial city. On Tuesday, June 5, the golden jubilee of the Most Rev. Dr. Hoare, the revered Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, was celebrated in Longford in a manner worthy of his Lordship's sacred office, illustrious episcopate, and exalted character. The occasion was one of special interest in the diocese, and there was general rejoicing throughout the ancient See of St. Mel. Priests and people vied with each other in their anxiety to extend cordial congratulations to the distinguished jubilariau. The day was observed as a general holiday in Longford, and there was a liberal display of flags and bunting in every part of the town. The Rev. Peter J. CunnilTe, one of the best-known Redemptorist priests in New York, passed recently to his reward. lie was one of the best Gaelic scholars in the United States. Each year, on St. Patrick's Day, he preached a sermon in Gaelic at St. Alphonsus' Church, attracting people from all parts of the city. Father Cunniffe had a somewhat unusual career. Born

in Galway in 1844, in his young manhood he became a Franciscan Brother in Ireland. Some years later he was sent to the United States to collect funds for his community. Finding he had a vocation for the priesthood, he studied, and was ordained at the age of 43. He first labored as a secular priest, and then joined the Redemptorist Order. WHAT "ULSTER" REALLY MEANS. v The Manchester Guardian has sent a special correspondent to visit various districts in Ireland with a view to eliciting popular opinion regarding the Home Rule position generally, and the Convention in particular. In Belfast the correspondent interviewed Professor Henry, of the Belfast University, who was "not over sanguine. . . . Already there was a definite

fear in many minds that the Convention proposal was only another device for postpoiniug action." Mr. Dempsey, a leading Belfast Nationalist, takes the view that the extreme. section of Ulster Unionists has nothing like the numerical strength with which it is credited. The number of moderate or indifferent Unionists in , Ulster is very large. The anti-Home Rule movement is "kept going by a ring of wealthy men almost entirely connected with interests that have practically no relation to the rest of Ireland. . . t composed chiefly of linen manufacturers and shipbuilders which imported raw material and exported finished articles." But bankers and business men trading with Irish consumers or vendors know that their interest is bound up with that of the rest of the country. Figures bear out Mr. Dempsey's belief. The Carson Covenanters represented but a fraction of the enumerated (census) strength of Protestant Ulster. BRITAIN AND THE IRISH CONVENTION. J.F.S., writing in the Glasgow Observer of June 9, says:—lt is difficult nowadays to meet an intelligent and thoughtful Scotsman or Englishman who does not realise two facts with regard to the position of affairs in Ireland. The first, that Great Britain has by her own misgovernment of the sister isle in the past brought immeasurable miseries to Ireland and a harvest of difficulty and shame to herself. The second, that what is justice and good policy with regard to the selfgoverning dominions of the Empire is no less so with regard to Ireland. There are, of course, people who can never learn, but these are almost a negligible quantity in Great Britain so far as our duty to Ireland is concerned. Even the Tory Diehards are beginning to see that it is. useless to fight against the declared will of a nation, and it is difficult to believe that any responsible statesman will ever again dare to take up an uncompromising anti-Home Rule attitude. There are certainly a number of people, some of them more or less highly placed, who hope to find in Irish divisions an excuse for refusing to do justice and fulfil a pledged word ; and it is for the people of Britain to see that they will find it impossible to get their evil way. By an exercise of patriotic self-sacrifice Irish Nationalists agreed that the Home Rule Act should not come into operation until the end of the war: but some people seem inclined to forget that the Act forms part of the Statute Law of this country, and that, while details have to be adjusted, the self-government of L-eland is a question that has passed beyond the range of controversy. We can scarcely believe that any politician, or group of politicians, would be mad enough to believe that the repeal of that Act is within the range of possibility. On this side, then, of the Irish Sea we shall watch the deliberations of the Convention with confidence no less than with deepest sympathy. From all accounts, it seems certain that the growing determination of all parties in Ireland, except a section of Orangemen in the North-East and of Sinn Fein extremists elsewhere, is to find a modus vivendi which shall secure at once the will of the great majority and the utmost fair dealing to all. The thought of partition is almost universally detested, whatever conditions of union may bo necessary for a while. So far as Mr. Redmond and the Nationalist Party are concerned British democracy is satisfied that all will be done that possibly can be done to find such a solution of the age-long "Irish Question." But supposing—which we do not fear if each side will be true to their country's intereststhat the Convention should fail of such a happy issue, Great Britain, as well as three-fourths of Ireland, will remember that the Home Rule Act still stands. We do. not, however, look forward to failure. What might have been possible even ten years ago is, happily, quite impossible to-day. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa count in British politics as they have never done before. No British Government can dare to treat with contempt their united voice. And added to their vast influence we have now that of our mighty Ally, the great Republic of the West. This

immense fact cannot but sway the minds of all but the most hopeless of political and religious obscurantists. Therefore the people —and, in a sense most of all, the Catholicsof Great Britain, are content in the conviction that, with or before the peace of the world, peace of the best kind is coming at home in the healing of a wrong of many generations. x