The Irish standard., 1917-11-24
IRISH truth
CONFERENCE

Continued from Page ~
sary drudgery of home life in town
and country. In small villages there
should be halls, with concerts and
other amusements. The Catholic
Girls Protection Society was of the
greatest use to the Irish girl at home
and abroad, and the National Vigi.
lance Association also did good work;
but as far as servants as a class were
concerned little had so far been done
for their welfare. Such society as
the Metropolitan Association for Be.
friending Young Servants would be of
great use.
Sir Joseph Glynn said action should
be taken on the line suggested. In
Dublin a working girls hotel and club
were doing admirable work, but every
parish required such an inspiration.
Count Plunkett, NJ. P, said about
10000 Irish girls had left for England
as munition workers, attracted by, high
wages, and it was time to face the
danger with which they were sur
rounded.
Miss O'Reilly said an inspector of
an English organization told her that
the factories were killing the bodies
and souls of their women.
Rev. E. O'Reilly, p. p, Kilcormac,
said country girls coming to Dublin
required protection, and he would
subscribe s10 year to society
| formed for that purpose.
! The Chairman approved the sugges-
ton, and also promised assistance.
The Social Question.
A paper on "The Catholic Social
League" was read by Rev. R. Devane,
c. c., who said a cyclone of revolu-
tionary ideas passing over the world
was shaking governments and thrones.
The nations were in labor, and de-
mocracy, about to be born again.
Should the Irish Labor party and the
workers it represented move on sound
lines, guided by sane Catholic social
principles, or would they shape their
program from the irreligious Social
Democrats of the Continent? They
were at the parting of the ways, and
there was no use in blinking facts or
confusing ideas. Would the Catholic
Church go to the working man in time,
espouse the cause of the weak and op-
pressed, or would she let him wander
into the wilderness of secularism?
Social Catholicism was the need of
| the new Ireland, and it would be a ne
cessity to have such an organization
as the Catholic Social League, recent
ly established in Cork. He regretted
that the movement for chair of econ
| omics in Maynooth had not material
lied.
Mrs. S. Gwynn said the Universities
and the clergy had not given the lead
in Dublin for such a League. Politics
monopolized attention to an extent
which was against it's establishment.
The Training Of the Laity.
"The Need of More Advanced
knowledge of Religion Among the
Laity" was the title of an instructive
paper read at the conference on Fri
day by the Rev. Joseph Sheehy, G. M,
Dean of All Hallows College. He
touched on the dangers arising from
want of faith in the supernatural as
illustrated on the Continent, and said
the English papers that reached Ire
land were permeated with the diff
culties arising from Modernism. The
English mind was now pagan in doc
trine and morals. 1t was the antithesis
of the Irish mind. They had to undo
it's work in Ireland and bring back
the Irish mind with it's spiritual out
look. They would be much helped by
the language revival movement. An
other danger, due to English influence,
came from the state of education. All
the education was undenominational,
and the effect was that religion was
unconsciously made little of by the
people. AS regarded the University, of
course there was no religion. There
was Professor of Theology, but no
one was bound to listen to him. The
subject did not count in any course.
This was fearful state Of affairs in
a great old Catholic land. When the
political question was settled all de-
nominations must get opportunity Of
teaching religion.
Most Rev. DR.. Harty, who presided,
held that the difficulties in the way of
the Catholic Church at present were
greater and more insidious than in
the days of prosecutions and heresies.
The greatest of all the difficulties was
the press. He did not see why de-
nominational education should not be
paid for by the state, for Catholics
and Professionals, in the same way.
Poverty and overcrowding.
Miss Mary Hayden, M. A., read a
paper on "The Lives of the Poor"
She said that of every 100 Dublin
families Twenty-Five had single room
for their home. The connection be-