Correspondence
[A LETTER FROM DUBLIN.] [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,,–The death of Cardinal O'Donnell is an event of greater historical importance than is generally realized. That the late Archbishop of Armagh was immensely popular is known to all who witnessed the national enthusiasm that greeted him on his return from Rome, after his elevation to the Cardinalate. The shock that ran through Ireland when he died, calling forth tributes from all creeds and classes, showed that he commanded universal admiration, and, despite the political frontier that cut right through his archdiocese, was a truly national figure. But the part that he played in recent Irish history is little understood ; and, in its nature, it is doubtful if it ever will be written.
That part depended on peculiar gifts of character. It would be impossible to explain the mark that he has left on the religious and public life of Ireland without a picture of his remarkable personality. I would sum it up by saying that his nature was a blend of dignity and homeliness. His dignity was evident to all. He had the true bearing of that proud Sept from which he was descended. I would not call him a magnetic man, like his predecessor, Cardinal Logue. Indeed, he had a most un-Celtic dryn6s of person. It was by a suggestion of pure worth, and a most lavish courtesy, that he conquered. You saw an athletic, well-groomed person, austere, energetic—churches and schools sprung up wherever he went—and yet he knew your little personal fads perfectly and would surprise you by some courtly, and perhaps flattering, word of interest. " I wish I knew the Irish language as well
as you, Mr. ," he, a native speaker of the tongue, said to me, a bookworm, when I first met him.
His simplicity was seen in his ceaseless work in his own parish when he was bishop of his native Raphoe. In Letter- kenny, a little town at the gate of the Donegal highlands, he built a cathedral on a height ; and there, on any Holy Day, he would be found preaching to his humble folk, taking on himself all the labours of a parish priest. His house, between the cathedral and the castle-like college that he also built, was open house. The simplest weaver from the western highlands might call, to be welcomed and entertained. As likely as not, the bishop would be alone in the house, and he would go to the cellars himself to bring some splendid wine for his visitors' refreshment, while himself abstaining. He reminded you of the bishops of old Celtic Ireland, like that bishop who- was ploughing when Saint Columba went seeking ordination.
The Cardinal was steeped in the lore of old Columban Ireland, and I think he was of the same mind as the great sixteenth- century Manus O'Donnell, prince and scholar, who wrote a life of St. Columba, and, looking back a thousand years, spoke of him as " his high saint and kinsman by lineage." In the Cardinal's presence, you felt that the Columban age was in no wise remote. Now, it was precisely this harking back to the simple, intimate Catholicism of ancient times that was the substance of Cardinal O'Donnell's contribution to our age. It would not be surprising if the secrets of the heart of the Irish clergy were revealed, to find that nothing less than a reformation of the Church in Ireland, like that wrought by an earlier Archbishop of Armagh in the century of recon- struction after the expulsion of the Danes, was effected by the Cardinal's quiet, persistent influence.
In the summer of the present year, Cardinal O'Donnell summoned a plenary synod of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the first held since the beginning of this century. All the archbishops, bishops, and the two mitred abbots assembled at Maynooth, and behind closed doors a sort of national religious stocktaking took place. This was probably the biggest event in Irish ecclesiastical history that has happened in an age ; but only a little of what was done has been made public.. Canon law was revised in all its local incidence, and new regulations were made governing the life in the world of all clerics. The most that can be said at present is that a most drastic austerity was dictated. That some scandal has been given in recent times by high standards of living among many clergy serving a poor people may be stated without impropriety. The charge of clerical worldliness has been on too many tongues. Hereafter, the excuse for these charges, whether real or fictitious, will be removed if the zeal of the synod can effect it.
Thus, we may believe that Cardinal O'Donnell has bequeathed his own Columban austerity to the clergy of his beloved land. We can recognize also his spirit in the pastoral letter which was issued by the synod and read in all the churches. .This docu- ment summed up the present state of religion in Ireland, not ignoring the wave of moral laxity that followed the war or the prevalence of such vices as perjury in the courts of law and the condonation of violence, but making due allowance for the abnormality of the times, and affirming faith in the persistence of the old homely virtues.
Above all, it poured, as one newspaper said, the balm of Christian charity over recent feuds. In the civil war which followed the Treaty, the Church and churchmen were involved; and Rome's intervention was invoked. A storm of anti- clericalism arose, and many an anxious observer came to believe that secularism had triumphed. One need not be an Ultramontane to hold that such a divorce between priests and people would be calamitous in a land like Ireland. That danger, however, has vanished ; and, probably, Cardinal O'Donnell is chiefly to be thanked. It is no great secret that his wishes were fulfilled when the Republican Party this year entered Dail Eireann, and a period of strife was closed.—
I am, Sir, &c., YOUR. DUBLIN CORRESPONDENT.
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