Weekly News. — 1889-08-03 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE IRISH GOVERNMENT.  Writing to the Daily Nem from Dunsany, co. Meath, Mr. George F. Murphy says: On Sunday last I went to mass at my parish chapel. The parish priest is a man whom I have every reason to respect —a good clergyman and • quiet, sensible man, with no desire to exchange the sphere of his ministry for the arena of politics. First mass had been celebrated, and standing behind the altar rails, he told us that at a recent meeting of the Bishops of Ireland it had been decided that the Catholic Church should set its face against the further playing of the game of football, recently made so popular under the auspices of the Gaelic Association. He had been ordered to make this announcement, and he assigned two reasons for the decision. The first reason was one to which every Irishman will assent,and which fully justifies the action of our spiritual advisers— namely, that very serious physical injury and considerable loss of life has resulted from the practice or, the game. Our priest—it seemed to me very reluctantly—then gave a second, and I fear a more powerful reason. It had come, he said, to the knowledge of the Bishops, that the Government were using the Gaelic Association as • means of defeating the national aspirations of the people of Ireland. They were offering heavy bribes to the captains of the football clubs in the association, to induce them to enrol the members as Fenians, with a view to setting before the English people a reason for further withholding the concession of Home Rule. The way that this had come to their knowledge was, he averred, as follows: In • village near Drogheda there is a club, whose captain was given s cheque for £5O by the Government for this object. Unhappily for the Government, there was another man in the same place whose name was identical with that of the captain, and to him by mistake the letter and cheque were delivered. He took them to a prominent priest in Drogheda, and so the murder was out. It is seldom that charges against the Government are so definite, and so susceptible of proof or disproof. While on the one hand, as a Catholic, I feel bound to believe that, coming from:such a source, the charge is not without foundation, on the other, as a lover of fair play, I feel justified in giving it such further publicity as may enable the Government at any rate to know how grave a charge is preferred against them by the authorities of my church. If the charge is true, I wish to protest more strongly against the action of the Government than I can do by mere negative obedience in the matter of a game which I do not play. If it is false, I shall be glad to give our bishops an opportunity of admitting that they are sometimes misinformed on matters affecting political controversy, and so of still further strengtheningtheir authority in matters affecting morality by • display of most creditable candour.  Sir James Hannen on Tuesday disposed of the suit of Mr. J. Russell Swift, a barrister, for restitution of conjugal rights. The respondent, a widow at the time of marriage, had property in her own right. His lordship granted restitution,and remarked on the question having been debated since he bad been away.  At Whitehaven, Peter I)ansie, publican. Whitehaven, has been charged with having sold a man named Pearson two counterfeit florins for eighteenpence each and a counterfeit half-crown for two shillings. Pearson had passed the coins. When apprehended Dansie had seven counterfeit coins in his possession. The prisoner was remanded, bad being taken, himself in £2OO and two sureties in £lOO each.  The other afternoon the roof of a wooden shed in connection with the Buckley Wells Locomotive Works, belonging to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, fell in, injuring five men who were working beneath. The shed, which is 100 ft. long and about half that width,was undergoing altarations, snd some men were excavating near one of the pillars supporting the roof when it suddenly gave away, and a portion of the roof, about 30ft. square, fell in. Two labourera—William Walsh and Janice Hill—were NO seriously injured that their removal to the Bury Hospital wee ordered. 'Three other men were also injured, but not seriously.  uurrINGS