The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-01-21 00:00:00

THE PRIEST AND THE PARISHIONER

Much tumult and disorder was caused in the chapel at
Fires,co.Cork, Sunday, Dec.ls, by a man named Cornelius
Harringtnn, of Fires, interrupting the Rev. Mr. Healy,
parish priest, while addressing his congregation, in the
course of which Mr. Healy made allusion to the riotous
and disorderly conduct of Harrington's son Jeremiah, on
the previous Sunday, at Fires, at which Harrington took
offence, and used several exciting expressions to Mr.
Healy, the consequence of which was that Mr. Healy
cursed him at the time from the altar._

On Sunday, the 22d, the Rev. Mr. Healy took occasion
to make some observations on what occurred in the chapel
on the preceding Sunday, when a person named Mark
O'Sullivan, of Ardaclogher, nephew to Harrington, inter-
rupted him, by standing up and calling on the people if
he should speak ; and several voices answering that he
should do so, he told Mr. Healy that he was a priest of
the devil, and used several other exciting and threatening
expressions, the consequence of which was that Mr.
Healy also cursed him, which caused O'Sullivan to rush
towards him, and O'Sullivan was scarcely restrained
from assaulting him, and as the only alternative, for
order's sake, Mr. Healy dismissed the congregation, and
on the following day made an information, and O'Sulli-
van was bound to answer for his conduct at the Petty

Sessions.
On the following Sunday, the same Mark O'Sullivan
took nu his position by the altar of the chapel for the pur-
pose of hearing the prayers, but his presence there being
offensive to Mr. Healy, when commencing the celebratio❑
of divine service, he desired that O'Sullivan should ledve

the place, and go to some other part of the chapel, which
O'Sullivan refused to do, and was caught hold of by Mr.
Healy and the Rev. Mr. Roche, curate, and a scuffle en-
sued, and it was only by the unanimous call of the con.
gregation for Mr. Healy and Mr. Roche to desist, and
give them prayers, that they relinquished their hold. The
entire of the circumstances were reported to the Right
Rev. Dr. Egan, Bishop of the diocese, by Mr. Healy and
the Rev. James Fitzgerald, of Castletown, and the bishop's
answer directed the latter clergyman, being vicar, to ex-
communicate the parties. He proceeded accordingly to
Fires for that purpose on the sth of January, and, on his
approaching the chapel, the congregation formed them-
selves into a t.ocly to prevent him from getting up to the
chapel, and on his attempting to force a passage, sticks
were raised and a shout given that he should not pass,
and Mark O'Sullivan cried out to the people to be firm,
and added,—" No priest !" "No dues !" and the people
who were in the chapel at the time were called out, and
some of the doors were locked. In the mean time Mr.
Fitzgerald was severely crushed and pushed about, and
forced to a great distance from the chapel, and had ulti-
mately to return altogether and celebrate divine service
in the yard adjoining Mr. Healy's house, distant half a
mile from the chapel.
Summonses have been ordered for several who appeared
to be leaders in the disturbance, and it is feared that it
the ceremony of excommunication be enforced, the op-
position will be continued.

-.4._
THE POPE'S LETTER

The Papal rescript has, as was to be expected, further
exasperated the Locofocos of the Roman Catholic laity
of Ireland against the heads of their church ; and from
the aspect which matters have already assumed, it will
not cause much astonishment if his Holiness the Pope

b;c0;;;;;;; unpopular personage among !he Irish
papists. Smaller by degrees and more beautifully less is
the attendance each Sunday at the two leading chapels in

_ .
Dublin. Marlborough-street chapel, on Sunday week,
could:not boast one-fourth of its usual congregation ; and
the same remark applies to 'Westland-row chapel; the
parishioners of the latter having nearly en masse migrated
to the Carmelite Friary, in Clarendon-street, which has
been latterly thronged to suffocation. The " proscribed"
clergy, as the " regulars" are styled, are likely to reap the
substantial fruits of the prevailing schism. With respect
to Archbishop Murray, against whom all this malevolence
is chiefly levelled, the Tipperary Free Press declares that
there is no doubt about the fact that his Grace is scarcely
less unpopular now than Lord Stanley in that county ;
and that this ill-feeling will manifest itself in a tangible
shape throughout the diocese of Dublin, when the occa-
sion offers, the hints thrown out in the speeches of sundry
parish orators show is not a subject of mere speculation.
The Drogheda Conservative thus reports the state of
affairs in the Roman Catholic primacy :
" We have been informed that a few of the shopkeepers
and their tools, the lower classes of Roman Catholics, in
Arm,gh, have during the last fortnight threatened to close
the chapel against Dr. Crolly. But, as yet, they have not
done so, and it seems to be only one of those idle threats
so often resorted to by the agitators in older to frighten
their opponents. The respectable and educated Roman
Catholics of the diocese, as well as the secular clergy, are
decidedly in favour of the bill, and if they abstain from
declaring themselves so openly, it is merely to prevent a
collision between themselves and their flocks, as they
feel confident that the present unjust clamour will shortly
subside."
The Pi!ot, speaking of the rescript, observes :
" The object of the English government, by this in-
trigue, is evidently part of the plan included in the Be-
quests Bill, to seprrate the Irish hierarchy and clergy from
the people, or, at least, to sow disunion among them.
Don't let the bishops be politicians, say English infrigu-
ants—don't let them `connive' at the projects of wicked
conspirators! But who are the wicked conspirators ?
Are they not the misrulers of England ? Who are the
political bishops ? They who aid the English politicians
in misgovernment, or they who seek to redress the ad-
mitted wrongs inflicted on the Catholic people by those
politicians? We put aside in our argument the relative
merits or demerits of the parts which, for instance, Arch-
bishop M'Hale on the one band, and Archbishop Murray
on the other, may have thought it their duty, respectively,
to take on particular questions ; but, is not Dr. Murray
as political a bishop as Dr. M'Hale ? What act can bear
a mote decided political complexion than helping at this
juncture the Political English Premier of the Tory fac-
tion out of his political difficulty—lreland,—and enabling
him to meet the approaching session with political
delusion instead of justice ? The rescript we deem a
nullity—virtually a nullity—as regards the objects for
which it was obtained by England. The spiritual princi-
ples it inculcates are no nullity—for those it addresses
have uniformly cherished among the people the ' quiet,
tranquility, and peace, the bond of Christianity.' which
that rescript piously enjoins. Nay more—if the clergy as
a body had not joined the people in their strogoe, these
precepts would be set at nought. For Irish agitation is
the offspring of the grievances of the Irish people. Irish
tranquility is alone preserved by their clergy sympathising
with those grievances. Faithfully have the members of
our venerated hierarchy interpreted the rescript, and the
precepts it enjoins. For it was well observed by the
Freeman of this morning that five days after that rescript
saw the light—it was so truly, so faithfully, and in such
conformity with these our views, interpreted by Arch-
bishop M'llale, and the Right, Rev. Dr. Browne, that
they proceeded to Limerick, and there by their speeches.
their influence, their talents, they contributed to promote
among the people that ` quiet, tranquility, and peace, the
bond of Christianity,' which the rescript inculcates, and
which the whole lives of these pious and exalted men have
been a perpetual pilgrimage to enforce."

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A PRETTY TH GU GFt T.-A coquette is a rose from which
every lover plucks a leaf—the thorns are reserved for her
future husband.