IRELAND REJECTS THE NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. [To THE EDITOR
07 THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sra,—Though you think it worth while to give your readers a letter of Mr. F. Hugh O'Donnell and a quotation from Sinn Fein, I hope your readers will not be misled by the dis- interested remarks of that burning patriot who writes from a London suburb, or the misrepresentations of a paper whose
only contribution to the success of the new University has been a persistent effort to force "compulsory Irish" on its students, a cry which, much to their credit, the Roman Catholic Bishops
have vigorously resisted. It is a little too soon for Mr. O'Donnell to assert that "the educated Catholics will not
send their sons to the pseudo-National University," seeing that no matriculation examination has yet been held by it, and that notwithstanding largely increased numbers are attending classes in Cork and Galway Colleges and four hundred and fifty students are enrolled in the Dublin College. Your readers are also informed that the parlous condition is due to the University being " chancellored by a priest," and that there is a general flight of Catholic students into the Belfast University and Trinity College, Dublin. But your correspondent takes good care not to mention the Presidency of the Rev. Dr. Hamilton in the Queen's, and the thoroughly Irish Church constitution of the Board of Trinity, so long and
Bo honourably governed by the Rev. Dr. Salmon, when he
tries to make capital from the " priests " holding offices in the National. Is a clergyman who has honourably served as a Fellow of the Royal University to be pushed to one side to please the anti-clerical craze of Mr. O'Donnell ? Or is Maynooth, with its great constituency of six hundred students preparing for the priesthood, to be denied its perfectly lawful claim to be admitted to the privileges of a recognised College, whose examinations will be con- ducted by University Professors and extern examiners P I trust your readers, however much they may be biassed against the constitution of the new University, will not be misled by the statements of Mr. O'Donnell or a hostile Press. The first year of its existence is too soon to condemn a great and long-expected experiment in Irish education.—I am,
[As are readers know, we were warm supporters of the establishment of the new University, and are therefore delighted to hear that Mr. O'Donnell's gloomy views can be challenged. We have now published a letter on each side of the controversy, and cannot undertake to continue the correspondence.—ED. Spectator.]
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