Fr. Frank Irwin
HUNDREDS of old Stonyhurst boys will learn with real sorrow of the death of -Fr. Francis Irwin, Si. Fr. Frank Irwin embodied the spirit of the place, and many an old boy will remember, as I do, how he welcomed parents and small new boys, took them round the college and made them feel part of Stonyhurst in a few minutes. He knew the history of the school backwards, could reveal its many beauties and treasures with the affection almost of the possessor, understood the spirit of that part of Lancashire, its people, and its dialect in an uncanny way, was the keenest of anglers and an excellent shot as became a squire of those parts. For years he edited the Stonyhurst Magazine. setting a new standard in school magazines which has since been widely copied,
Incendiary Bombs
0 UR Spanish Correspondent sends me an interesting photograph of a chart showing the inner workings of incendiary bombs as used by the Basque Government. The chart, reproduced on page I, was found among the papers that had to be left behind when the Basques escaped from Bilbao and Santander. Incendiary bombs are a necessary part of the equipment of any army in these our civilised times, but some people are still so convinced that the Basques set the world such an example of the milk of human kindness even in war that it is well to know that they took great pains to possess the latest weapons of destruction. I have also been sent the photograph of a gas bomb, but as it is impossible for the layman to tell from the photo that it is a gas bomb, I am refraining from publication until i have asked an expert.
" Colosseum " in New Cover
COLOSSEUM, in deference perhaps to suggestions made in this column regretting the external similarity between itself and Arena, has very sportingly changed its cover. It now appears in what, by electric light, looks like a very pale grey distemper With the letters of Colosseum dangling like a streamer across the top. Very pleasant and restrained. The contents, whic include a translation by the Very Rev. John O'Connor (together with the original' French text) of Claudel's great poem to the Spanish Martyrs look exceptionally good. But more about them later. Fr. O'Connor, the original of G.K.C.'s " Fr. Brown," is a considerable poet, and many people have enjoyed his beautiful translation of Claudel's Satin Slipper. The poem to the Spanish Martyrs, by the way, was first published as the introduction to a French bisok, La Persecution Religieuse en Espagne. which seems to me far and away the best thing on the subject that exists.
Andy Sandham
CATHOLIC' cricket—if there is such a thing, and why not?--has lost another distinguished figure in the retirement of Andy Sandham, the player whose fate it was to live in the shadow of Hobbs.
In all Sandham's cricketing life he has nobly borne that most difficult role of playing second fiddle to a genius. My memories include thelsight of him taking a richlyearned day-off coaching boys at Wimbledon C'ollege:and a startling duck when playing against Stonyhurst for some visiting team. Not a very inspiring picture, somehow but Andy Sandham would take it all with a smile. He may not know it himself, but everybody else is agreed that he would have been Lthe loving first pride of threequarters of the counties, and could only have lived in the shadow of a Grace or a Hobbs or a Bradman.
The Australian Team
A friend from Australia •tells me that the majority, priebably, of the Australian team due here next summer will consist of Catholics. And Australian Catholics are hundred fiercer-tiers: daily communicants, often, active workers for the cause, not ashamed of selling Catholic papers in the street, or of turning up at considerable inconvenience to themselves for a protest meeting or what not. Men like Fingleton, McCabe and half a dozen others can teach us, not only how to play cricket, but how to live twentieth century Catholic lives. They will be doubly welcome.
THE JOTTER.