The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-11-04
Home Rule-cathoIic Truth Society
Congress-Requiem Mass for Car
dinal Muran-New Archdioceses in
EngIand-EIection in Belgium.

EngIand-EIections in Belgium.
Ireland at the present time has an
Importance all her own in the eyes OF
every section of the community. It
is round her that the next great politi-
cal struggle will be fought, and the
>nearness of this struggle Is already
manifesting itself to Catholics by the
increase of attacks they have to bear
on their holy religion. A Protestant
friend said to the writer the other day.
IF were Catholic I'd go down on
my knees and beg heaven not to allow
Ireland Home Rule, because If she
gets 1t 1T will be the ruin of the
Roman Church throughout the British
Empire! Every Protestant and Non
conformist is waiting to see Home
Rule granted, Ireland turned into a
camp of squabbling factions and the
thing failure and then they will
shout, This is Rome Rule, behold the
result" An amusing view this of
situation and one which, at least, has
the merit of originality. If Home Rule
is going to give this crushing victory
to the anti-Catholic "I-told-you-so's"
why are they so anxious to prevent its
consummation? Only yesterday new
red herring was started by an Angli-
can clergyman of Enniscorthy. Mr..
Shane Leslie who is sailing this week
for your side and who is the prime
mover in the Gaelic League propa-
ganda, delivered a farewell speech to
a number of friends and wellwishers
in which he said that the crux of the
Irish question was the schools and
that no matter what became of local
government, constabulary and other
matters let them see to it that they
keep their schools and teach their
children their native tongue. The
moment Mr.. Leslie had departed there
appeared a letter in the press protest
ing against the penalising of Prot
,estants in the matter of education.
How were they penalized? We are in
formed that four-fifths of them wish
to enter the Dublin or National, Uni
versity and that the County Councils
have commenced to levy rate for
scholarships, the vast majority of
which are tenable at the Dublin Uni
versity. That admission to such Uni
versity and to competition for such
scholarships entails knowledge of
the National tongue, tSwit, Gaelic,
and that this effectually shuts out the
aspiring young Protestant, and gives
some 100000 per annum exclusively
to Catholics for this is the sum which
will accrue if all the Irish County
Councils exercise their right to levy
this University due within their areas.
Now why it should be impossible for
a young Irish Protestant to learn
Gaelic is mystery, unless superior
ity in brains is also an attribute of
the Catholic student. Also, having a
University of his own, specially de-
signed to meet his needs, why does
he wish to thrust himself into the
Catholic atmosphere of Dublin when
the cold Protestant air of Belfast is
waiting to stimulate his fighting
proclivities. Purely, we presume, out
of the contradictoriness of human
nature Still an analysis of the facts
is enough to show pretty plainly that
there is very little injustice done to
the young Protestant, and thus
another argument sinks to the ground.
AS for the suggestion that the
Church's influence in the British Isles
depends on a political denouement, it
is not with consideration.
Catholic Truth Society Congress.
Never has there been more sue
cessful Congress of the Catholic
which closed last Sunday. Each day
there was a crowded session at the
Rotunda, presided over sometimes by
Cardinal Logue, sometimes by the
Archbishop of Tuam, or again by the
Archbishop of Dublin Distinguished
men gave most interesting papers and
amongst these none stood out more
than that of Canon Barry on perni-
cious literature. The words of the
great writer were endorsed by the
Archbishop of Tuam who in an in
teresting speech, spoke of the New
Ireland" mentioned by Canon Barry.
and of whose course the lecturer had
not seemed quite certain. His Grace
gave it as his opinion that Ireland
was safe, that though she was re-
iuvenated, she was not new but re
tanned all the old qualities which we
love- He said that as long as they
could remember the agricultural land
under cultivation had been decreasing
now that decrease had stopped and
the increase, was commencing. In the
West the country and the people were
far more prosperous than they had
been for many years. It was true that
! wave of democracy sweeping over
Europe, had touched their shores as
they saw in the recent strike, that the
literary revival which was also touch.