The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-09-28
SOME "REMINISCENCES
Qualities Inherited.

Had Richard Ireland, the father of
Archbishop Ireland, enjoyed the adj
vantages of early education he would,
think, probably have been an even
greater man than his son."
Bishop Thomas O'Gorman, Sioux
Falls, S. D., boyhood friend and
schoolmate for nine years of Arch
bishop Ireland, made the comment
while discussing the Minnesota
prelate's parental inheritance
''The son. he said, has his fathers
very strong personality; his gift of
quick decision; his interest in very
wide variety of subjects. And he has
the gentleness, the softness, which
particularly characterized his mother.
But his most unusual character
istic-and one which has doubtless
been his greatest practical asset in
life-is the faculty of being mentally
quick and mentally deep at the same
time.
Il recall, in the little parish school
in st. Paul, as well as through the
years we spent together at school in
France at Maximieux," continued
Bishop O'Gorman, ''he stood at the
head of his classes with apparently
none of the effort expended by other
boys merely in keeping a foothold.
For him, seemingly, to want to learn
a thing was to learn it. The usual rule
is that quick acquisition and shallow
ness go together, as do thoroughness
and plodding. But he has been an ex-
ception to that rule all through his
life. His grasp is both instant and
Deep
Political Principles,
There lis one phase of Archbishop
Ireland's career which has a decidedly
interesting significance to other Irish
Catholics" said one of st PauIs vet
eran lawyers not long since.
1T is the fact" he explained, that
he has always been Republican,
stanchly upholding Republican prin-
ciples, whereas the great body of his
churchmen have always stood by the
opposite party.
81 don't mean to say" he went on,
that he has mixed Church and poll
tics. He has been a Christian and a
great churchman first and all the time.
But it is proof of his extraordinary
personal force that his personal in
| fluence never has suffered from this
fact, because It's hard for the old
time Irish Democrat to believe there
| ~ rryifh on Iricy I,
Republican. They haven't had any
| such suspicion in his case, though
they admire the fidelity with which he
has stuck to his political convictions,
although they have been so at vari-
.ance with those of most of his peo-
ple.'
Mother Seraphine of st. Joseph's
| Academy and Archbishop Ireland are
| the sole survivors of family of six
/ children-four sisters and two broth
| ers.
| One brother, Richard, died as child
shortly after the family came to st
Paul in the early SOS. The three sis
tiers who have since died are Mary
Anne Ireland, Mother st. John of the
/ Community of st. Joseph, and Mrs
Julia Mccarthy.
/ Archbishop Ireland's first home il
Minnesota was one-half Of one-story
frame house at 5th and st. Peter
Streets, where the Orpheum Theatel
now stands.
i The other half was occupied by the
| O'Gorman family, which accompanied
the Irelands from Chicago to st. Pau
| in 1852. Both men purchased prop
| erty soon after their arrival, the cabir
in which they first lived being tenn
porary shelter for the summer.
The next family home of the Ire
lands was on w. 9TH Street, on tn
site now occupied by the Youni
Woman's Christian Association, and /
was from this home that John Ireland
llater Archbishop of st. Paul, went t,
, France for his collegiate education