A curious example of voluntaryism in religion is reported from
Ireland. The parish of Killannin, Galway, was some three years ago transferred from the diocese of Tuam to that of Galway. The inhabitants indignantly protested, headed by their priest, Father Coyne, who went to Rome on a local subscription, to appeal to the Pope. The appeal, however, failed, owing, Father Coyne declares, to misrepresentation and the suppression of facts, and after twelve months the petitioner returned empty-handed. In his absence another priest had been appointed by the Bishop of Galway ; but the inhabitants rejected his ministrations, and actually walled np the chapel-doors. These barriers were broken down by men with pickaxes, and guarded by policemen with fixed bayonets and loaded rifles. Since then a fierce controversy has raged in the parish, which now possesses two priests. Half of the parishioners adhere to the new and half to the old dispensatior • Father Coyne is, in fact, a sort of ecclesiastical evicted tenant; while Father Conroy, the Bishop's nominee, is in the position of the landgrabber. Last week the rival factions held public meetings of the usual kind, and very nearly came to blows, and already one side is recommending the boycotting of the other. It is curious to see the instruments of thalami-war used in a religious domestic struggle. The incident must, we should think, make a good many Irish Catholic priests wonder whether, after all, the clergy acted wisely in plunging into the agrarian agitation.
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