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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH, Registered at the G.P.Q, Perth, for transmission by post as a newspaper.
ESTABLISHED 1874. 'PHONE B6950 450 Hay Street, Perth, Box A35, G.P.O., Perth.
PERTH, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1946.
NO. 2,246.
.11A
CAustralian Author Drops Into a Well of (Peace
SEVENTY-THIRD YEAR
PRICE THREEPENCE
Some of my Irish friends stared And that seems to me the central at me when I remarked this fact, fact of Irish life to -day, the fount and perhaps I was in excessively and source of its strange peace sober company. But it included and of its songs. also If all goes well, 'from it men with much Guinness in them
at the cattle -fairs. It even in- should came the flowering of a full That is I Christian social order. cluded a bottle of potheen. But it can only grow still must declare that I saw no not yet. man in Eire except one indecently from the deep and sustained spirHea- drunk. itual and moral life. It must work Instead, the Irish sing vens, how they sing! I even sang We must remember Here, I think, one may be mov- also in time. myself and that I can only take ing towards the central fact of that the pattern of secular life in I Ireland is still inevitably largely as evidence of an overpowering so. Eire's life and of its peace. cial pressure. do not know about the young men an inheritance from an alien and Most ascendancy. They have not stopped argu- who seem to neglect what seem Protestant are new to the responI should not like to be mis- to be pressing economic and social Irishmen ing. They make me un- sibilities for social order, discipline, taken about this prenomenon. difficulties. and easy. But I am used to a world institutions. Their spiritual and Argument is still as sharp swift in Dublin as ever it was. in which men have come to think moral life still has to be directed But they argue philosophy, poe- almost solely in politicoeconomic and instructed to these responsitry, plays and, of course, personali- terms: the children of this world bilities. This is the new historic task and ties. Dublin has the true mark wise in their generation (though day makes them the one well-fed of a cultural metropolis. Its air their generation seems to (have test which Ireland has to meet. By PAUL McGUIRE. But the mem- is intellectually bracing because it had little substantial benefit of She has freedom now to shape her people in Europe. looks life as she will . She has the grace one ory does not poison their charity. is constantly whipped by vigorous their wisdom, when To go into Ireland now from the to shape it well. She must learn around). Eire has, of course, some short- criticism and edged comment. distracted world outside is like We are more concerned with the to apply her graces to the social Tea is wan and weak and ages. The Irish culture is very much cycle of employment than with task. It is a mattr of learning, of dropping into a well of peace. It that's a sad thing for a people alive. Try to think of another thaj of the Red Branch, busier conscious and careful study in the seems strangely remote from the who bought the world's best tea city in this world of half a million with rest of Europe, but then the rest the market -prices than with nature and the needs of a Chriswhen they had only it and bread like has theatres of Europe has moved far and fast which She We have forgotten tian polity and enonomy. the myths. Eire has a ra- people for sustenance. Abbey and the Gate of Dublin. in the courses of destruction these the the may prove a testing ground for that the poetry, the songs, tion -scale for tea, butter, sugar, In Dublin you might see 60 or 70 last years. arts of a people may speak of all our Christian social thinking: margarine, soap, paraffin, gasoline, Eire has its troubles, public and domestic fuel. clothes and shoes. new plays a year, from front -stall deeper truth about them than and, if all goes well, an exemplar about you cost would seats which domestic. as peoples always have. It is not a severe scale by the contheir trades and traffics and statis- to the nations. great a Here you have cents. 75 which folIt suffers the afflictions tics: and that a man creatingtemporary standards of an impovlow from the Fall and the mod- erished world, but it is a consid- native drama and great native even if it be only a pot, or a pot - Phone 19. Dos 124. ern inconveniences which we add erable restriction: and people are schools of players as well as plays house song, or a play of the peoIt has the troubles conscientious about it. In Eire imported. Nowhere is the the- ple-may in making be more like to these. brought on the race of men by you are near enough to catch the atre more alive and more familiar his Maker than is one professing KALGOORLIE. those who presume to rule over it smell of death from the Continent. to the general mass of people. peddling shares. economics or C.T.A. and R.A.C. House. and the troubles which we all can And if that is a figure of speech, it Publishing is developing in as- Eire may (to our view) overmuch One Minute from St. Mary's evoke on our own initiatives. But should at least twitch the spirit- tonishing fashion. There must be neglect practical problems; perChurch. and ual senses of Christians. if the test of social order a dozen new publishing -houses set haps that is because she knows Hot and Cold Water in Hotel in the last few years: them of less importance than the sound sense and good government of up in Eire has, then, the peace Eire Bathrooms. this in a population, remem- everlasting things: the myth, the is that a people is on the whole plenty or at least of a sufficiency. and Refrigeration Throughout. Irish tradition. the songs, the religion, of less than 3,000,000. well-fed, well -housed, and well But she seems also to have a new ber, that the mind and the soul. Only Lock -Up Garages in the clothed, Eire seems by compari- peace of the soul. Perhaps I novelists and poets tell me Centre of Town. excellent For the religious life of Eire can expect son with the world about her a exaggerate, perhaps it was merely they now Ireland. Fortunate Isle. (as far as one can judge from outM. J. DILLON, Licensee. an effect of contrast with the bit- sales in The blessings begin at Holy- ter, torn, struggling world out- I was in Dublin for the opening ward signs the inward grace) is head. I came from the custom- side, but Eire did seem to me to of the annual show of the Royal unique in the modern world. I ary English lunch (a queer slab of have a serenity that I have not Hibernian Academy. (Yes, it is asked a novelist and poet (conseminced meat, sad dripping cab- elsevehere felt in many years. still called Royal, but do not start quently a shrewd observant sort bage, and one mouthful of taste- There are still angry scars, of anything: the adjective is apt). 1 of man) about the sacramental life I ask- course, from the Troubles and the will not say that I found less cheese) into the ship. any amongst his own acquaintances. you ed for tea. The steward looked Civil War, especially from the great sculptors, These largely consisted, as or painters at me. "Sure, I'll bring you tay,' Civil War; though these now though there were many very good would expect. of what are called he said, "and a steak and an egg." mostly are personal to the men ones: and jack Ycates (Willie's intellectuals or professional men, the like, what we Ships Much Food to Europe. who were then divided. Less feel- brother) is an exquisite poet in teachers and whose treason I do not think my appearance ing remains amongst the people paint. But the mass of work was used to call clerks, the astonishing. obvious- in the modern world has become There is was more than usually pathetic. generally than survives in He told me that he He merely acted on the assump- Southern States from that older ly a broad and generous stream a byword. Of flowing through the arts of Ire- had listed two hundred people. tion universal in Eire that anyone war. these, to his positive knowledge, land. from across the Irish Sea needs It is difficult to find great issues two were not regularly going feeding up: as indeed most do. I Even only These are the fine arts. which now much divide the Irish to the Sacraments. even ate two dinners in one day. of more significant for my sort indebate on Political parties. The churches throughout IreThe first was a stupendous affair almost matters is chiefly about mind, however, is the singing. at Maynooth, which dines at the ternal and methods, seldom from Eire is a land in which a man may land are full. They are Masses Piccadilly Arcade means as crowded for week -day Eighteenth Century hour (doubtby writing Few of the still make his living conflict on ends., They are crowdas on Sundays. less to harmonise with its superb penny on them Perth men, indeed, seem much ballads and selling -hours and at evenGeorgian architecture/ at 5.30 young It is ed in the lunch when Tel. B 7988 interested in politics. They are, sheets at the cattle -fairs. people "make ing after work p.m. At 8.30, 1 founn myself in its can sing land which a still of course, very lively on what you visits' before going home. Christ the hospitable house of Frank might call high politics: the des- ancient songs and make new ones in Ireland is constantly attended. McManus. He writes magnificent over chorus out in them beef and of the nation and the mission His wife provides meg- tiny novels. Irish (how the phrases still Guinness in the pubs. It is still n,:lcent meals. One could conse- of the the world-con- a land, indeed, of excellent pubs & quently only make a magnificent roll), the Partition,Christian ethos and I am in accord with every flict between the effort. honest man from Chaucer to Chestotalitarianism. materialist and HIGH-CLASS AERATED WATERS In Dublin, you may have grapehardly interested terton who has seen in the state fruit and porridge and illimitable But they seemday-to-day problems of a people's pubs some reflection WE SPECIALISE IN CORDIALS. in the at all I eggs and bacon for breakfast. SUBURBAN ROAD, SOUTH PERTH. Tel. MU 149. of the state of that people's soul. matters in economic of politics: seldom ate more than four eggs. the and like. gri an still shelves the getting Fire In In London, we have been mat There is considerable unemploy- with splendid bottles and one egg a week some weeks, say ment in Eire. It will probably casks still roll to cellar doors. Now about one week in four. Eire's surplus is not, of course, grow worse if the men and women let me report a remarkable thing. Much of it is being ship- return in large numbers from the Although Irish whisky is notorilarge. ped to Europe, especially now that British Fighting Services and in- ously strong and Irish ales and much transport is improving. While dustries. But I found only a few porter, however creamy, thought stronger than milk, and although the member-states of UNRRA had men in Eire who had or "the drink" is a traditional curse allotted only one per cent. of their earnestly about the problem national incomes to its work, Eire who would even give me accurate of the Irish, I saw in three weeks had already set aside one and one- figures. This is one of the strang- only one drunk, one real drunk: half per cent. of hers for the relief est features of the Irish mind and and he was protesting in song inof the starving. Next year begins scene to one who comes from a vented on the spurt of the occathe centenary of the Famine. The world hagridden by economic con- sion that he was not actually SPECIAL RACE TO MIDLAND ITZILl'URK Irish inevitably see the strange flicts and turbulent with econo- drunk but only very merry. As, indeed, he was. ironic twist of fortune which to- mic debate.
A Generous Stream Flows
Through the Arts of Ireland Christ Constantly Attended
Australia Hotel
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ELLIOTT ELLIOTT
OPTICIANS
WEAVER
LOCK
MIDLAND JUNCTION
Annual Catholic Ball FRIDAY,
SEPTEMBER 27