The Bishop of Kerry, Dr. Moriarty, has declined to allow
requiem masses and other solemn services to be celebrated for the three executed Fenians in Kerry Cathedral. It was not, he said, in his address on the subject, that he objected to praying for the souls of these men, who were not guilty of the worst kind of crime, and who seem to have died in a very Christian frame of mind. If the demand for special services had been based on real compassion for the souls oi the executed men he should not have refused. But obviously it was not "sympathy and compassion asked for, but honour," and this the Bishop of Kerry refused to accord,—because, first, the crime for which they died was per- petrated in the cause of revolution ; secondly, because it was a result of secret conspiracy condemned by the Church ; thirdly, because if, as an act of violence, it was lawful and praiseworthy, it must be lawful and praiseworthy to repeat it, which would be an encouragement to future violence. The Bishop concluded his excellent circular by reminding his clergy of O'Connell's say- ing that any one who committed a crime "drove a nail into the coffin of his country."
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