the Bishop. He then threw the flag into a field. Father Crinnion, of
Batterstown, standing in his vestments at the altar, called out the
names of all persons supposed to be disaffected to the clerical cause,
and ordered them to meet him in the vestry after mass. He asked for
their votes, and showed a ballot paper. He had previously read in
chapel the opinion of Bishop Nulty, quoted above. Father Tynan told
Patrick King that unless he voted "straight" he would not receive the
sacraments on his deathbed. The same priest told John Cowley, of
Kilcavan, that unless he voted for the right candidate he would be
expelled from the Church, and would be deprived of Christian burial
when he died. Cases of this kind might be multiplied _ad infinitum_.
Father Shaw, of Longwood, accentuated the horrible condition of the
party who refused to vote under his orders by asking his congregation
to pray for them. Father Cassidy sailed on the same tack, and besides
thanked God that the "wrong 'uns" were so few. Father Fay, of Cool,
said (between the Gospels) that his political opponents should be
"treated like wild beasts," and that he would never forget the men who
voted against his orders. Thomas Darby was canvassed by his priest,
who, on finding that his parishioner was pledged the other way, curtly
said, "Then you'll go to hell," to which Darby replied that he would
at any rate have a few companions. James Guerin has no confidence in
the secrecy of illiterate voting, for after voting in the presence of
a priest he had to jump a wall and hide in a wood to escape the
vengeance of the people. When he came out, at ten o'clock at night, he
was stoned. Father O'Donnell, presumably in the interests of peace,
advised his congregation to take their sticks to a certain meeting,
and promised to be there with his own faithful blackthorn. The peasant
Fagan, who said his prayers outside the chapel, was burned in effigy,
but priestly displeasure was not satisfied until his cowshed, with a
cart and harness were also destroyed by fire. To have independent
opinions costs something substantial in Ireland. The aspirations of a
People and the Onward March to Freedom are not kept up for nothing.
The patriots are not afraid of their trouble. They will not spoil the
Union of Hearts for want of a little incendiarism. Now and then, but
very seldom, the priests meet their match. They presume on their
spiritual immunity. The priest who refused to leave a house into