Irish Letter

EXCITING SCENES AT DERRY Annuities Feud Might Just As Well Be Settled At Once
From Our Dublin Correspondent.
There were exciting scenes in Derry, where the Catholic population is accustomed to demonstrate on August 15 in reply to the Orange processions of July 12. In the streets, bonfires were lit and effigies of Viscount Craigavon and Mr. James Dillon, T.D., were burnt. There was a clash with the police and a baton charge.
The Feast of the Assumption, falling on a Sunday, was not distinguishable in outward signs as if it fell on a week-day, save in some places of special concern.
At Knock, in Mayo, the scene of the apparition of 1879, 10,000 pilgrims kept vigil. At the Masses, beginning at 5.0 a.m. and going on till 11.30 when there was Solemn Benediction, some 7,000 persons received Holy Communion—which was distributed outside the church.
At Lady's Island, County Wexford, 4,000 pilgrims took part in a procession and devotions, following a local custom which is said to be over a thousand years old.
Anglo-Irish Trade Peace?
When will the " economic war " between these countries draw to a close? The cornmon opinion here is that the deadlock began in Mr. J. H. Thomas's consulate, and has been maintained, through the mistaken belief of some English statesmen that the Irish side rested solely on Mr. de Valera and that his political fall was always at hand. Today, at any rate, it is clear that Mr. de Valera is not going to fall, that he has lieutenants as strong as himself to succeed him, and that the party which, is growing in power, Labour, holds his view of the issue.
Whether the Irish notion of the English side is right or not, therefore, the Trish sides bears stating again, especially by the Labour leader, Mr. W. Norton, T.D. who has giVen an interview to the Daily Herald.
The Annuities
"Every party, for different reasons," he said, " is now unalterably opposed to the payment of the annuities," and he set forth the attitude of Mr. de Valera's followers and Mr. Cosgrave's, too. The governing party takes its stand on the 1920 Act which ceded the annuities to Ireland—(Northern Ireland does not pay them and England makes no claim there)—while Mr. Cosgrave's party, though it does not support this claim to the annuities. on legal grounds, does hold that the Twenty-Six Counties, like Northern Ireland, are unable to pay the enormous sum demanded, amounting to interest on £120,000,000. • .
Mr. Norton makes his appeal to English Labour. The deadlock, he says, hurts England as well as Ireland, and its ending would yield immediate benefit to both. Here 1 feel sure that he is right in a degree that few in England realise,
If you land in Ireland, you see the mark of the "economic war " at once.
You can travel most of England and see none. That leads many to suppose that England does not feel it. Yes, but how many English ports, mines, factories. workshops are suffering unemployment through the loss of Irish trade? The hurt is there, large and sore, greater than what Ireland suffers although not so easy to pick out and
assess.
Dispute Without End Seeing, then, that no Irish party stands for return to the status quo, and that the deadlock has lasted longer than the Great War and can go on, so far as Ireland is concerned, for ever, is it not time to treat the whole thing as a matter of commonsense?— Mr. Norton asks, and he says:—
" A really effective trade agreement should be negotiated in which both countries would receive mutual benefits—British goods being given preference in the Irish markets and vice versa.
"On this basis it would he possible to . develop a trade of £100,000,000 a year between the two countries.
"We badly need machinery and other capital equipment which we cannot and never will be able to produce economically. At present much of it is coming from Continental countries, but the arrangement is not producing a mutual return.
" Get rid of the dispute and the advantages to Britain and the Free State would immediately become immense."
Seeing that Labour now holds a critical position in our balance of power, it has a right to be heard and this is its voice.
In response to an invitation by Mr. Norton, several British Labour leaders. headed by Mr. C. R. Attlee, will visit Ireland during the Parliamentary recess.
The Two New Bishops Two of the finest intellects in Ireland are raised to the hierarchy in the appointments to the dioceses of Kilmore and Galway, as reported in the Catholic Herald last week.
Mgr. Lyons, V.G., Drogheda, Archdeacon of Armagh, is appointed to Kilmore, the diocese which comprises County Cavan and North County Leitrim. The See fell vacant in January, when the late Most Rev. Dr. Finegan died in the influenza epidemic. after an episcopate of nearly 27 years. One of the chief Irish books of the year is Dr. Philip O'Connell's "Diocese of Kilmore," published by Browne and Nolan of Dublin last February.
Kilmore Diocese
Kilmore, like almost every other Irish diocese, is geographically an ecclesiastical survival of an ancient kingdom; in Kilmore we see ancient Breiffne. Within its wild and lovely territory there lies Magh Sleacht, the mysterious sanctuary of paganism, where St. Patrick faced the worshippers of Cram Cruach and cast down that idol of antiquity. A Catholic church stands now on the very site (according to Dr. O'Connell's well-reasoned theory) of the god of pagan Ireland.
Mgr. Lyons is a native of County Louth, aged 60—an uncle, by the way, of Mr. Desmond Fitzgerald, former Minister for Defence. He was successively Administrator in Dundalk, parish priest of Ardee and parish priest of Drogheda. lie has travelled much and has represented the Cardinal Primate on many notable occasions. He has taken a considerable part in the Gaelic, temperance, and co-operative movements, but is best known in recent years as VicePostulator of the Cause of Blessed Oliver Plunkett, As everyone knows, the head of the martyr is enshrined in Mgrs Lyons's parish church at Drogheda, whither large pilgrimages have been led by Bishops. In the promotion of the Cause, Mgr. Lyons's highly scholarly gifts have had full play. He writes with a rare distinction, and those who have read his all too few essays, such as his writings on Blessed Oliver and his tribute to the late Joseph Dolan of Ardee, have wished that greater calls were made on him as a writer.
Of Mgr. Lyons's personal charm—of his breadth of sympathy which, a thing so rare in our feud-ridden times, makes him equally the friend of men of all parties, though he is known to have his own clear-cut opinions it may be unfitting to write, although admirers may be allowed this much of a tribute.
Galway Diocese
Mgr. Michael J. Browne, Professor of Dogmatic and Moral Theology at Maynooth, is appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora, in succession to the late Mgr. O'Doherty, who was Bishop of Galway from 1923 to 1937, and for four years previously Bishop of Clonfet.
The diocese comprises 21 parishes in County Galway and one in Mayo, while Kilfenora comprises eight parishes in County Clare and is included in the province, not of Tuam like the Galway diocese, but of Cashel. In former times, Galway was an English seaport set in the midst of the most Irish region, and was ecclesiastically separate, but now it is one of the :mat important of Irish dioceses. In the city (as Galway is always called, though it does Writ hold that municipal rank). there is seated, one of the cdmprinent colleges of the National University, a diocesan and a Jesuit college, beside many other important institutions—Franciscan, Dominican, Augustin
ian houses; Christian and Patrician Brothers; Presentation, Charity, Mercy nuns, convents of the Poor Clams and Dominican Sisters of Jesus and Mary. Furthermore, the Maynooth Mission to China and the African Missions have houses in the diocese.
From this it will be seen how important the diocese is as an educational and religious centre, I should add that the town is largely Irish-speaking and a large part of the country parishes completely so. The university college conducts most of its work ;n Gaelic, and there arc several summer colleges of Gaelic along the seaboard: so that Galway is, in a sense, the capital of the Gaelic world.
Mgr. Browne, a native of Westport, Co Mayo, is the youngest of our Bishops—he is only 41. Already his intellectual distinction is known to all, although only wellinformed persons are aware of the weighty sa-vices that he has rendered to both Church and State in recent years. Later on, it may be made known that he has affected recent history. Suffice it, however, to say that his elevation to the episcopacy is a happy augury for the nation.
Readers of the Irish Ecclesiastical Record know Dr. Browne's pen. in the monthly replies to questions submitted chiefly by clerical correspondents, and admire his logical clarity, his cogency, his typically Irish strictness and conservatism. Last year at the Catholic Truth Congress at Tuam he had a paper entitled " Christ the Brother of the Sufferer," which gave a great audience taste of his classical eloquence. It has been. published in the last few weeks by the C.T.S. of Ireland and I urge readers to get it.
Friend of Catholic Action
The last time that I had the honour to meet Dr, Browne was at the recent Catholic Social Study week-end at Clongowes. He was silently present, attending all the sessions and listening to the debates on Catholic doctrine and Labour action. His interest. in Catholic Action is conspicuous and his influence in his new exalted place will tend to its greater development. Working men have another great friend now in high places.
The Chair of Catholic Action in Maynooth, by the way, never yet has been filled. The Professorship is offered now in an announcement in the Irish Intellectual Record which invites applications.
The Films in Ireland
Writing as one who regards the Holly wood cinematograph as one of the most subversive forces that ever invaded a Christian civilisation, I chronicle without much pleasure the remarkable growth of the film industry in Ireland, recently revealed.
There are no fewer than 58 cinematograph companies registered in the TwentySix Counties, with capital of over a million pounds. In the Six Counties, the capital invested is over half a million, and the growth of picture theatres is so rapid there that exhibitors are finding it hard to keep up a varied supply of pictures.
Dublin is probably the most cinema-going capital in Europe.
A Loss to Derry
.The diocese of Derry has lost a veteran prest, a mighty temperance advocate, in
Fr. Hugh • McGlynn, P.P., Tloney. He collected in the United States for the building of St. Eugene's cathedral, Derry, and himself built several churches and schools.