The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-22
FRANCIS KILKENNY
ARRIVES IN CORK
Leader of the Homecoming
Project Is Welcomed
JOURNALS ARE INTERESTED
Much Enthusiasm Aroused in Pilgrim
age of Irish-AmerIcans to Their
Native Soil Planned for
Next Summer.
JOURNALS ARE INTERESTED
From the Washington Herald.

From the Washington Herald.
He is not prodigal son. say the good
people of Cork. Rather is he the 1907
up-to-date type of Irish-American-a son
who reflects credit on the native soil.
Thus do tho Cork and the Tipperary
and the Belfast citzenry speak of Fran
els J. Kilkenny of this city, the father
and sponsor and general manager of the
great Irish-American home-gong move
ment of 1910. This is the project over
which every corpuscle of Emerald Isle
blood in the United States thrills and vi
brates.
Mr. Kilkenny never had any doubts
about how the Americans would
take his plan. Now he is in the ances-
trail home of his countrymen, finding out
how they take 1t, and as a stimulator of
enthusiasm there are few to compare
with Kilkenny.
Quaint old Cork is now floating buoy
antly on the crest of its own joyousness
over the great home-going campaign, in
which $4,000 of the best Irish blood in
America will participate" She is al
ready getting her house in order and
perking up for a welcome which will
Iuih bio loNu lopSy-luINy.
VIII Advertise Project.
Cork has melted in the blaze of the
Kilkenny spirit, and the army of home
goers will be we'll advertised and press
ACCENTED for many weeks to come. Kill
kenny has injected some saline concoc-
ton into the system of Irish journalism,
and scores of quilts and typewriters are
agog and a-quivering with anticipation.
Says the Cork Examiner:
1.-THE interest awakened by the reports
regarding the great Irish-American home
coming movement of next year Is, in
deed considerable. Emphasis has been
laid on the influence 1t was calculated to
exert on Irish industries generally. The
man whose name has been honorably as
ISOLATED with the homecoming idea-in
fact, the man who conceived 1t, and who
is now working with splendid energy for
its materialization-Mr. Francis ]. Kill
kenny of Washington, u. 8. A., arrived
in Cork yesterday afternoon.
cat meeting of the association.
which was deputed to make arrange
ments for the pilgrimage, he was unan-
imously appointed president, and in COM
pany with DIR. Lennox, the vice presi-
dent of the association, intends to make
tour of Ireland, with a view of interest
ing the people in the project, and of hav-
ing formed in various centers committees
which VIII WOTk ana Co-opcidtc with tiiS
central organization of the pilgrimage
movement in Washington.
Fifty Thousand Expected.
'eMr Kilkenny is lively young Irish
American, who emigrated to the states
from his native Leitrim some 16 years
ago. He pushed ahead steadily, sur
mounted those obstacles by which the
path of the emigrant is so often beset
and worked himself up to a respectable
position in the United States capital. A
lover of Ireland at all times and ever
anxious to serve her, he thought out this
plan of great Irish-American invasion
of the old land. The sympathy of men
and women of Irish blood in all parts of
the union is extended to 1t.
Our pilgrimage will be participated
in says Mr.. Kilkenny, by $4,000 Irish
Americans, who will land in Ireland be-
tween Nav and OctOber'"