The Irish standard., 1902-02-01
to hell. Will they repent or will they
add shameless denial to calumnious
sophistry?
AN IHPUDENT APPEAL.
By al Irish Protestant Minister I,
AmericanS,

think it would be hard to find u
match for Robert McLarney, canon,
rector Of Clonfert, Cuba House, Ban
agher, Ireland" This is the sigma
ture Of a letter which appears in the
New York Sun begging for money
contributions from Americans for the
restoration of the Clonfert Cathedral.
1t is not the first time that a similar
appeal has been made. Mr.. McLar-
ney has asked for American help for
the same object once or twice before,
though with what success we are un-
able to say as no subscription list
nor mention of individual subscription
has, so far as we know, been printed
in the Sun or any other paper on this
side of the Atlantic, says the New
York Freeman's Journal.
We are inclined, therefore, to the
belief that Mr.. McLarney's appeals
have elected no American sympathy
in any practical form. We think the
gentleman has got no cash from
America for restoring the Clonfert
Cathedral, and we are certain he
ought to get none. A more undeserv-
ing and impudent appeal never was
made or could be imagined, as a few
facts will show.
Mr.. McLarney is a Protestant cler-
gyman. He belongs to the institution
which is impudently and falsely
called the Church of Ireland" OF
course, it isn't any such thing. 1t is
no more the church Of Ireland than it
is the church iof Siberia or China.
The total number of it's adherents-.
men, women and children-in all Ire
land, according to a recent govern
ment census, is GO0,1O2, which is less
than one-seventh of the total popula-
ton of the country.
The cathedral of Clonfert. for the
restoration or repair of which Mr..
| McLarney is begging for American
money, was built by Catholics more
than thousand years ago and for
centuries it was used for Catholic
religious worship. From the time it
was founded by st. Brendan to the
time Of the Reformation" mass was
celebrated regularly at it's high altar,
confessions were heard, and the sac
raments of the Catholic Church were
administered within it's walls, just as
they are today in St. Patrick's s
Cathedral, Fifth avenue, New York.
At the "Reformation'-the blessed
and honest "Reformation''-al the
churches in Ireland-every one of
them Catholic, Of course, and built by
Catholics, for until then Protestant
ism had never been heard of in Ire
land or anywhere else-at the "holy
Reformation" all the churches in Ire
land were taken by force from the
Catholic Church and handed over to
the pious ''reformers." That is how
Clonfert Cathedral got into Protest
ant possession. That is why Mr.. Nc
Larney, the Protestant, is rector Of
Clonfert Cathedral. Does that cathe-
dral rightfully belong to him or his
church? OF course not. In their
possession it is stolen property.
At the same time that the reform
ers" took possession by force of the
Catholic cathedrals of Ireland, they
possessed themselves in the same
way of all the other Catholic Church
property of the country. They seized
the tithe which from ancient days
had been set apart for the mainte-
nance of religion and the care of the
poor. This fund was very large
one. 1t amounted to several millions
annually. The ''reformers" grabbed
it all, and the Protestant church in
lreland-the church Of only small
fraction Of the people-held it and
enjoyed it down to the time of Mr..
Gladstone's Irish Church Disestablish-
ment Act" Previous to this time
dS69) the income Of the Protestant
church in Ireland from tithe and
lands all property confiscated from
Catholics, amounted to the enormous
sum of $3,O69.92O per annum, us re-
ported by royal commission ap-
pointed in 1867 to investigate the
matter. The disestablishment act
the act putting an end to the exist
ence of the Protestant church as the
state or government official church in
lreland-gave to that church, as COM
pensation for disestablishment a lump
sum in cash down of $4s,S26,195.
This vast sum-the proceeds Of
confscated Catholic property-Mr.
McLarney's Protestant church re-
ceived less than forty years ago.
Through Investment of that sum and
other property got directly or indi-
rectly by confiscation, that church at
the present time has very large an
nual income. Thom's Official Direct
ory Dublin) tells us that "the income
of the Irish church on April 1, 1896,
was f5O4,237," equal to $2,521,1S
| Surely the Protestant church in Ire
land, having all this vast wealth and
so few people to minister to, ought to
be able to keep Clonfert cathedral in re-
pair without begging from America.
Mr.. McLarney, in his begging letter to
the Sun, has the additional astound-
ing impudence-though perhaps not