River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-10-03

IOIIN IRELAND, archbishop Of ST.
j Paul, held such keen and active
interest in general affairs in the
United States during the last half cen
as well as for his religious zeal. He
was one of the most distinguished OF
the Roman Catholic churchmen of
America. There were few fields of
intellectual, political or spiritual en-
deavOr in which he failed to take a
positive stand, making himself at
times the center of a controversy.
Born in 1888 in Ireland, carpen-
ter's son, he was carried with his
parents in the tide of Irish immigra-
ton to America while he was a child.
Altar service in Burlington, VT, and
a jolting trip west on a prairie
schooner were among his bOyhoOd
memories, bringing him finally to St.
Paul, Mimi, in 1852, when Indians in
gay blankets stalked the streets of
that frontier town. One evening the
missionary, Cretin, first bishop Of ST..
Paul, while watching from his window
some boys of his parish at play, called
to John Ireland and Thomas O'Gor-
man, who later became bishop of
Sioux Falls, to come into the church.
He asked them if they wished to be-
come priests. Both young Ireland and
his playmate declared that priesthood
was their ambition. Bishop Cretin
sent them, in charge of a guardian, to
France, where they were educated by
the Marist Fathers. When Ireland
heard of the outbreak of the Civil
war in America he returned home
ward, fired with as much patriotism
as religion.
After being ordained a priest in st.
Paul Father Ireland eagerly accepted
an appointment as chaplain in the
Fifth regiment of Minnesota volun-
ieers. He was ardent for the Union
list cause and shared every hardship
of the soldiers life. At Iuka he gave
yeoman's help by rushing ammunition
to the front when it was sorely needed.
He was stricken with fever after less
than a years service and returned to
ST. Paul pastorate.
Father Ireland soon attracted ma
tional attention through his work for
temperance. The story is told of how
on one January night in 1869 three
drunkards staggered into his doorway
and handed him a rumpled sheet.
which read:
For Gods sake organize temper
ance society,"
The paper was signed by seven men,
| including a saloon keeper. Those were
the days when st. Paul was filled with
border turbulence and the riot OF
drink The next Sunday Father Ire.
land began his campaign by organic.
| ing a temperance society of eighty
members. He made hut to hut visits to
| st. Paups Shantytown, throwing whis
ky bottles out of the squalid doorways
The work he thus began he extended
throughout the Northwest and he trav
eled over the whole country, preach
| ing temperance. He even carried the
battle back to Ireland and Great Brit
ain. His energy was so abundant and
his zeal for work such that the term
"consecrated blizzard" as applied tt
him by one of his admirers, was &C
copied by many others as a peculiarly
happy expression.
Archbishop Ireland at one time con
ceived the idea of consolidating the
Catholic parochial schools and tn
public schools. The plan was tried a
Faribault and Saltwater, but friction
which the archbishop could not reliev'
arose and the scheme was dropped
He was founder of the Hill seminar!
at st. Paul and st. Thomas colleg'
in the same city. the latter being one
of the largest religious military schools
In the country. To the seminary h'
gave his highly priced private library
one of the most comprehensive in tn
Northwest. One of his early work.