A STRANGE COINCIDENCE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR, —At a general meeting of the Irish Roman Catholic Hierarchy held at Maynooth the following resolution was adopted :— " An event which has brought great joy to the hearts of the Irish people occurred in Rome on last St. Patrick's Day. This auspicious event was the declaration of martyrdom of that glorious Irish ecclesiastic, Blessed Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh. On that occasion our Holy Father the Pope pronounced a dis- course which was highly appreciative of the loyalty and tenacity of Ike Irish nation to the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith under the most terrible trials and most dire persecutions. The processes leading to canonization in the case of 258 other Irish men and women have been going on in Ireland and Rome for a con- siderable time. A magnificent public function will soon be held in St. Peter's, Rome, to celebrate the Beatification of Blessed Oliver Plunkett. These prolonged processes and public ceremonies entail a vast expenditure. The Bishops appeal to the Catholics of Ireland for subscriptions for these purposes. The Bishops are confident of the generosity of their flocks in a cause which raises martyrs of our nation and race to the honour of the altars and gives new Irish saints as patrons and protectors of our country."
In these awful times, when every penny is needed to save civiliza- tion and to prevent whole races from dying of sheer starvation, and when every effort to promote a better feeling between Ireland and England is of priceless value, it comes as a shock, to say the least of it, to find that a " vast expenditure " is being incurred in what really amounts to the perpetuation of a state of religious animosity between the two countries. In circumstances such as these one is hardly surprised at the " bigotry " of Ulster, and it would be interesting to know what exactly is the annual tribute to Rome imposed on Ireland, whose impoverishment is said by its religious and political leaders to be due entirely to overtaxation
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