The inevitable conflict between the Roman Catholic clergy and the
Labour leaders in Dublin has been precipitated by the continuance of the strike. A number of English ladies, headed by Mrs. Montefiore, had arranged, with Mr. Larkin's approval, to board and lodge large numbers of strikers' children in England. Fifty children were on the point of starting from Kingstown and the North Wall on Wednes- day when the priests intervened, and, finding, so it is alleged, that the children and their mothers were opposed to the scheme, refused the guarantee that their religion would be respected in England, and brought most of the children back to their homes in the slums. A party of fifteen boys from Liberty Hall (the headquarters of Mr. Larkin's Union) sailed from the North Wall in spite of the protests of priests, but the honours of war so far rest with the Roman Catholic Church. It looks as if Mr. Larkin's success or failure in his fight with the employers will depend on the issue of his struggle with the priests.
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