The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-27
The PARISH PRIEST
rs KING AND COURT TO MS PEG
PIE IN IRELAND.
An Example os Father O'Hara of Kill
tImagh-The Evits OF Landlordism.

A correspondent writes from Kilt
magh, County Mayo, Ireland this de-
piction for the Philadelphia North
American: 1t seems TO me that
should not leave the writing of this
place without some word of Father
Dennis O'Hara, himself and his work
He is man to study, With the brain
of a statesman, the heart of woman
and the soul of saint, he is content to
be parish priest of populous desola-
ton. In his devotion to painful good
wmorks he may be taken as typical of
the rural clergy in this country. For
his peculiar administrator he COM
mands more than desultory attention.
1t was with a heart aching for the
miseries had seen that 1 sat down in
the homely little study of the priest
while he devoted necessary hour to
those who had been waiting patiently
to see him. 1t was quaint, quiet, lit
tie room. Though the hour was less
than five o'clock, the winter night had
already fallen, and the walls were
lighted only by the waveTing flames Of
the turf fire, [ glanced around me-
The furniture was austerely plain and
worn with long use. There was a
small writing desk, covered with a
confusion of papers. The roomy old
bookcase was filled with much-han-
died volumes-works of devotion, poe
try, history, philosophy, in English,
T-S- 1As, % h. l.; r1,oe,N
scholarship, with talents which might
have won him ease and fame, he had
spent fifteen years in this wilderness of
poverty ministering to the helpless. l
need not say that such devotion and
sacrifice are not peculiar to followers of
the Roman Catholic religion, for in eV-
cry country there are thousands of
ministers who count the world well lost
If they may serve humbly and with
little material reward. I write of Fa-
Their O'Hara as an example of them all.
1 thought of him as he appeared
while we passed through the crowded
village fair, and along the country
lanes and into the houses Of the poor.
I begon to realize then what power lay
in the hands of the parish priest He
has grown so into the lives of the peo-
pie that he is a part of their very eXis-
tence. They look to him, not only as
spiritual authority, but as a friend,
counselor, judge, an advocate, faith
err, indeed. He is more mighty to pre-
vail with them than the imperial gov
eminent, yet finds time to act as arbi-
ter in neighbors' disputes, and from his
decision there is no thought of appeal.
BY tradition and practice the people of
his parish have delegated to him the
powers of king and court, and he dis
tributes justice in matters large and
small with an even hand. l thought of
him then as I saw him among his peo-
pie In the crowded fair, and along the
country roads, every man and boy
touched his hat as the priest passed.
the women and girls bent their knees.
Not one who met his eye failed of
word of greeting. Good day to you,
Martin. How is the wife? That's well,
A fine evening, Pat. Dan, my boy,
word with you. Keep clear Of the pub
= lie house tonight. It's no place for
you. All, Mary, I'm glad to see you
out again. Where are the girls?
hey lG VIGIL. III S4etA Vi NiAetIs AiO"'
There were perhaps five hundred men
and women and children in the village
street, and they had come from miles
around to the fair. I think Father
O'Hara spoke to fifty of them by name,
He could, have no called each one,
There are farty-five hundred persons in
the parish, and he knows them all as a
man knows his neighbOrs. And the
reverent love they bear him is some re-
ward.
Far out on lonely road, miles from
Kiltimagh, we were jogging along on
our jaunting car. Coming toward us
up a steep hill l saw an old, old woman.
Under her rough, short skirt 1 could
see her feet, bare on the icy ground,
She was bent almost double for on her
back was tied huge basket filled with
half-frozen blocks of turf from the bog.
1t must have weighed nearly fifty
pounds. Slowly, painfully she toiled up
the hill. At first she saw only the
stranger on the car, but as she passed
she nodded gravely. Then the priest
cried out CHEEKY greeting, calling her
by name. Instantly her face broke into
smiles and as the car stopped a mo-
ment she looked up into the kindly face
above her with a gaze that was almost
worship. A few cheerful words, and
we passed on. looked back at the old
woman. She was plodding on up the
hill. But her step was freer, and I
think the heavy burden on her back
had grown lighter.
Across his hospitable dinner table
Father O'Hara and j talked long of
what we had seen that day, and what
we had not seen. 1t was all the cruel
story of the land. Kiltimagh is in the
Swinford union, or district. There are
in Kiltimagh electoral division three
hundred and nine Occupiers of land,
whose holdings are valued at less than
forty dollars a yeaF-that is, there are
three hundred and nine families con-
fined on land which cannot possibly
yield enough food to keep them alive
let alone pay the rent of five dollars or
more per acre. And in the adjoining
division of Ballinamore, lands worth
So, 725 a year are occupied for pasturing
cattle by one graZer and one landlord.
Father O'Hara, who has been a leader
in the fight for justice since the agita-
ton started in 1879 knows the story as
he knows his breXiary. You have