The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-06-18
ME IRELAND OF TODAY.


w. T. Stead, the noted English
journalist, has been paying a short
visit to ireland and in an article in the
Review of Reviews he contrasts pres
ent-day conditions there with those
twenty-five years ago when he hrst SET
foot on Irish soil. At that time Ire
land was in the throes of a fierce class
war and politics dominated every
thing. The castle and the prison were
the outstanding features Of the irish
landscape.
Today everything has been trans
formed. In my brief stay IN Dupiln
| did not hear anyone speak of the
Castle and there was no patriot to be
visited in goal. Peace has replaced
war. and the only outstanding grleV-
ance was the complaint that the pre-
dominant partner had forced upon
Ireland a far too liberal scale of old
age pensions. The old distressful Erin
has vanished, and in its place there
was a new Ireland, full of hope and
energy and self-reliance. Never, 1 was
assured on every side, had Ireland
been so prosperous, her soil so well
titled, her prisons so empty, her people
so well contented. 1t was indeed worth
a far longer journey than from Euston
to the North Wall to see with ones
own eyes so marvellous and so bench
cent a transformation.
To the agricultural department, Mr..
Stead attributes much of the improve
ment The department is the concrete
institutional recognition of the fact
that Ireland is a great farm. To Lady
Aberdeen he gives great credit for the
energy and enthusiasm with which she
has undertaken the task of reviving
and extending the ancient industries Of
the rural districts.
And behind and beneath all these
has been the great agrarian revolu-
ton which has bought out the land
lords and converted 100000 tenants
into landed proprietOrs. John Bright
was one of the first to indicate this as
the only royal road to the settlement
of the land question. We have reached
it by a devious road, nor have we
even yet attained the goal. But we
are well on the way, and already we
have gone far enough to see that we
are on the right road.
When l first came to Dublin Arch
bishop Walsh was one of the first
politicians in Ireland. Today he is
out of politics. Why? Be
cause he is so busy organizing the new
Irish university, of which he is chan |
1SllOl. ltldl ne Has IldIulN I'VE
to spare for political agitation
There is new life throbbing every |
where in Ireland. The old social or
Ter, semi-feudal and ecclesiastical, |
still fingers, as the old skin of the |
serpent fingers while the new skin is
5orming below. 1t is nearly ready for |
he sloughing. The new order is eco
1omic, cooperative and social. The |
PRIEST is still honored and held in high |
esteem, but he is no longer, as in for
ner days, regarded as the oracle of
on all questions, even on
hose about which, poor man he adj
knew nothing. The process
which has dethroned his reverence as
Ultimate arbiter of cream separators
md artificial manures. and replaces
lin by the practical expert, is natural
nd wholesome.
Everywhere in local administration,
IN the county councils, on the agricul-
ural committees, on the congested
'oard, the career is open to practical
men, and the mere blatherskite is at
discount. The Gaelic league is help
ng to revive ancient customs, rural
ports, the national language. 1t is a
ymptom of the spirit of the age. SinnI
elm, which no Saxon can pronounce,
ppears to have had its day. Even
1r O'Brien's oStentatious alliance
18th Lord Dunraven and the landlords
sign of the times. No one in Dub
n takes much stock in Cork-where
is said few of the priests gave Mr..
2 Brien any suppoTt-but the fact that
vehement patriot as the former
1ftor of United Ireland, and the man
no could not tolerate Mr.. Healy in
he Nationalist party, should now,
with Mr.. Healy, be pro-
aiming the end of the agrarian war
nd invoking the union of north and
'uth to carry temporary measure of
1sh self-government, is not without
gnificapce
Whether the Irish Parliamentary
arty will be able to broaden it's {
asis so as to convince all the new
ements of national life that it is the !
est instrument for giving effect to the
est thought of the best men and wom-
in the country is the question by {
INCH it will stand or fall Mere bar !
IN protest against the Union will :
ave to give place to broad construc- {
We policy which will secure the sun
ort both of the north and the south. Y
industrial as veil as of agrarian
'eland.-Busy Mans Magazine.
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