FATHER M'FADDEN.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—So much is said of Father M‘Fadden of Gweedore, that your readers may not be aware that there is another priest in the next parish of the same name as Mr. Balfour's captive. This Rev. James M'Fadden has, however, made no figure in politics, and though much esteemed and liked by people of all classes and creeds, is only noted for his attention to the religious duties of his sacred office. The other Father has more local colouring, and could, indeed, hardly exist anywhere but in the remote district of Irish-speaking Celts, where he has long ruled his little principality with unbounded sway. It is a pity that it should have been necessary to imprison a man who must have some remarkable gifts to gain such absolute ascendency over the minds of the peasantry ; but it cannot be denied that Father M‘Fadden had attained a position incompatible with the order of a civilised modern state. He would have been in his place as a Highland chieftain, like Scott's M'Ivor, and had a fair share of the craft the great novelist ascribes to that hero ; or one can imagine him a Norman Baron who renounces his allegiance, and retires to his castle to carry on war with the neighbouring proprietors. Many stories are told of the skill with which.the " Father " cut off the rents of his enemies, the landlords, and bade defiance to magistrates and police, and the little comedies he got up to deceive and amuse Gladstonian visitors from England. He made no secret that his own will was the only law he recognised. Though not opposed to political homicide, for he paid great honour to O'Donell, and made his subjects subscribe to the Glasnevin cenotaph, he never allowed murders in his own parish, and once rebuked a priest who was praising the Phcenix Park assassins. It required a small army and £1,200 to reduce this formidable potentate. I hope it may soon be possible to restore him to his very comfortable parsonage. It is curious that the place is the scene of a Celtic legend evidently derived from the story of Danae, and gets its name from a blood-stained stone on which the Acrisius of the tale was beheaded.—I am, Sir, &c., N. G. B.
Previous page
