ENTHUSIASM FOR A SAINT IN THE SOUTH And a Rush for More Food from the North
Front Our Own Correspondent
DUBLIN.
Throughout Ireland, from the Martyr's primatial See of Armagh to the ends of the land,
Blessed Oliver Plunket's feast was celebrated this year with greater fervour than one can remember since the Beatification. The belief is strong that the Cause is near to success, and the clergy and people of Ireland are zealous for its triumph.
There were processions, pilgrimages. broadcast ceremonies, and by way of popular exposition of the Martyr's story a beautiful broadcast drama of Tyburn by Miss Eily MacAdam, which was universially praised. In work like Miss MacAdam's, the religious art which of old filled churches with paintings of the Saints, is being applied
through Radio Eireann to a modem populatisation of the Saints' stories.
Mgr. O'Callaghan, Postulator of the Cause, made a broadcast appeal for redoubled efforts in the Cause, and invited testimonies to the Martyr's intercession.
SUMMER INVASION
Almost simultaneously with this Catholic feast comes the annual holiday in Northern Ireland, kept in honour of William of Orange. Astonishing scenes were witnessed on the railways; for the population of Belfast flung itself on Dublin, and into other places South of the Border, travelling in trains that were crowded to suffocation. Journeying on a by-line across the Border, the present writer had to scramble on the top of travelling bags and sustain life like a crushed frog.
This strange rush into the South, and desertion of the customary Orange " Walks," was for the pleasure of um rationed feasting. For a week, Belfast's business is suspended—the annual holiday—and streets are deserted, save for war activities. The people are over the Border, eating down the country as if it was a field of clover.
Alarmed by the rush to the boot shops, Mr. Lemass announced by wireless that footwear was put on the rations. This was done to prevent the holiday invaders from the North Irons stripping Dublin of shoes.
SCIENCE IN DUBLIN
A friendly invasion of another. kind has been by men of science flying to Dublin at the invitation of the new Institute. Sir A. S. Eddington, Thor. Dirac of Cambridge, and Prof. Schrodinger are in the Irish capital, giving a series of notable conferences on Relativity, the Quantum Theory, and cognate topics.
These eminent authorities have been brought over, in accord with the object of the Institute—to put Ireland in a foremost place in the world's learning.
FARMERS' PLIGHT The Taoiseach faced a barrage of criticism when his Department's vote came up. A leading member of Mr. Cosgrave's party, Mr. Hughes, described the dwindling of the pig industry and the difficulties of farmers, whose produce does not advance in price owing to control, while money is abounding in the cities and the cost of living rising.
Urban inflation in Ireland, as elsewhere, Ls telling hard nn the countryside. Everyone is richer, except the workers or, the land who carry everybody else, and the mounting burden of urban expenditure, on their diminishing strength.
The Department of External Affairs, over which the Taoiseach presides, had an encouraging report. " Generally speaking, the treatment of our citizens abroad has been in accordance with what we are entitled to expect," Mr. de Valera said, " and the rights of our people as citizens of a neutral State have been generally recognised and respected."
Irish men and women had been repatriated from North Africa, France, Sweden and Italy. In the near future, 45 priests and clerical students are ex
pected home from Rome. • DEATH CAME Two deaths have caused much grief. Father Leonard Gallagher, S.J,, brother of Mr. Frank Gallagher, director of the Government Information Bureau, was one of the most brilliant and best-loved younger Jesuits. His recent booklets for boys and girls conveyed the sweetness of his spite to tens of thousands of homes, but were only a minor part of his indefatigable works. He was ordained as recently as 1932.
Dr. Mary Hayden. formerly Professor of Irish History at University College, Dublin, dying at the age of 80. Wits a well-known figure in scholarship, politics and literature. Her History of Ireland is the most widely-used Irish history in our colleges.