The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-10-14
NO REASON TO FEAR
CATHOLIC ASCENDANCY
Swift MacNeil Says They Have
Suffered Persecution and
Learned Mercy.
There is no Danger That They Will
Turn About and Act the Role
of Their Oppressors.
The Federal Constitution May Con-
tain Guarantees to Dispel
Such Fears.

Swift MacNeil has addressed a let
ter to DR.. Bernard Shaw, the Protest.
ant Bishop of Ossory, in which he
points out the Inconsistency Of the at
litude of the Protestant churches Of
Ireland on the question OF Irish Home
Rule. AS Mr.. MacNeil is himself
IT, be determined by bias. He writes:
My Dear Lord Bishop-In your adj
dress to the Ossory Diocesan Synod,
which appears in yesterdays papers,
YOU touch on topics of such general
interest that l am induced as one of
your flock for many years when you
were Dean OF st. Patrick's TO offer a
few observations with every feeling
O. respect and regard.
desire to express to you my CRATE
full acknowledgements for your accept I
ance. with characteristic fairness, OF
facts as they are. You acknowledge
I'VE have among our most attached
sons and daughters, if not in this dlo-
ccse at any rate elsewhere, those who
rcpudiate the political principles to
which most Of us are attached" The
very inventor of the term Home
Rule" the late Rev. Professor Gal
braith. was, as you know. a, disti,,-s
gulshed Irish Protestant Clergyman. Il
Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dub
lin. Il Nationalist leader, who was Hon
orary Secretary to the Irish Protest.
ant Church Synod, to whose financial
skill, placed generously and unrcserr-
indebted for the financial scheme
which, after the Dis establishment,
enabled her with success to start
afresh. EVERY day the fact that
large section Of Irish Protestants are
ready and willing to throw in their
lot with the Irish National Movement
becomes palmer and the speech of
my friend, Mr.. W. M. Kavanagh at
the Ossory Synod in reply to the ad-
dress from the chair proves to your
Lordship that there arc Irish Pro-
testant Nationalists in st. Canice's as
well as st. Patricks, and among them
he son of a former leader Of the Irish
Landlord Party who sat as Union
list for the constituency afterwards
represented by his son as National
list.
Your fear that the property Of the
Protestant Church would be in serious
danger under IL Home Rule system, un-
less such property be excluded from
the purview and control Of the Irish
Parliament can, If you will forgive me
for saying SO, be with very great diff
liculty regarded as real by those who
have freely associated with Roman
Catholics and are on terms of the very
closest personal and political friend
ship with them. / can certainly echo
the words ] once heard Mr.. Butt ut
ter: There are Catholic homes, there
are fresides OF Catholic priests, to
which l would be as welcome as If I
knelt at the same altar with the mas
tep of the house; and l say to the
Protestant who fears oppression from
his Catholic fellow -countrymen, I say
to him, with a care for Protestant
liberty as jealous as your own. with
knowledge Of our Catholic countrymen
| which you have not, would with i'm
! plicit confidence trust to their honor
| and truth the liberties of Protestant.
ism, my own liberties and life." Irish
Roman Catholics, who have thrice suf.
fered for conscience sake the loss of
| all things temporal would have no de-
I: sire to be themselves conf1scators. AS
; has been beautifully said Of them by
Taylor, Protestant writer, in his His
! tory of the Civil Wars of Ireland, "they
had suffered persecution and learned
mercy"
J If, however, guarantees are desired
by honest and sincere and right-mind-
ed Protestants who are afraid that
| Home Rule in Ireland would lead to
Roman Catholic ascendancy, they will
! be given. The following resolution was
moved in very noble speech at the
/ great Home Rule Conference on Goth.