5 AUGUST 1922, Page 12

SAVONAROLA IN IRELAND.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Yon said in your last week's issue that "what the Roman Church wants is a Savonarola." A Savonarola would only accentuate the evil, which is clerical celibacy. For many generations the best of the Irish people have become priests, monks, and nuns, and have left no descendants to inherit their good qualities. The result is that the more spiritual, moral, and intellectual elements of the race have been eliminated, and only the dregs remain.-1 am, Sir, &c., 73 Brondesbury Villas, Hilburn, N.W. 6. JOSEPH BANISTER.