The Local Government Board in Ireland is showing a very
narrow and partial spirit in its dealings with the Limerick Board of Guardians. The Limerick Board of Guardians many months ago agreed to spend a good deal on the Female School build- ings, recommending at the same time that that school, which sontains only a single Protestant, should be put under the care of a Sister of Mercy. This proposal was moved by a Pro- testant and seconded by a Protestant, and carried unanimously by the Board of Guardians. The Inspector of the Local Govern- ment Board was well aware of the intention of the Board of Guardians to put the school under the care of a nun, when he approved the additional expenditare on buildings proposed. But now that that expense has been incurred, the Local Government Board in Dublin come in, and refuse to let the Female School thus enlarged be put under the care of a nun, alleging that this proposal violates the principles of unsectarian- ism. And yet in Ulster there are many Union Schools con- taining even a majority of Catholics, but instructed solely by Protestant teachers, a condition of things in 'which the Local Government Board see no sort of violation of unsectarian princi- ples. A single Protestant child, whom the Limerick nuns would be absolutely forbidden to proselytise or to teach religion at all, is to prevent all the Catholic girls in Limerick getting the sort of training which Protestant and Catholic Guardians alike regard as the most satisfactory for them, while scores of Catholic children in Ulster are placed under the training of Protestant teachers with the full consent of the Local Govern- ment Board, and in absolute confidence that there will be no attempt to interfere with their religious principles. Protestant ascendancy in Ireland dies hard.
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