Ireland and Emancipation

Extract

The Catholic Truth Society of Ireland has issued a very beautiful book by way of accompaniment to the Centenary celebrations which took place in Dublin from the igth to the 23rd of June. The lucky person who obtains a copy will hesitate about lending it lest the borrower be tempted to hold it for keeps. It is excellently printed and well illustrated, and we feel that photography is put to the purpose for which surely it was intended when we see these pictures of exquisite works of art such as the Shrine of St. Patrick’s Bell, the Ardagh Chalice, the Cross of Cong and manuscript pages of the fine script peculiar to Ireland. The book is worth having for these photographs alone; but that is not to say that the letterpress is not all of a piece with the setting of the book. The articles are of a uniformly high standard, eminently readable and written with the easy grace, dignity and restraint which are the accompaniments of unconscious art. If this is a fruit of the New Ireland, then even our worst foes will not be able to withhold their grateful assent to emancipation as a thing of joy.