Wednesday, October 22nd, 1845

Repeal Association – Monday.
The attendance in the hall was much more numerous, and the proceedings less dull, than on this day week. The death of the late Mr. Davis was principal subject of the speeches, and glowing panegyrics were pronounced by the various orators. Many other more conspicuous members were attired in the uniform of the ’82 Club, and were vociferously applauded on their appearance. The chair was filled by Counsellor O’Hea. Mr. J. O’Connell read letters from his father and W. S. O’Brien, Esq., deeply expressive of their sorrow at the premature demise of Mr. Davis, and of grief for the loss which his cause and his country has sustained. The rent reached £200

The Potato Crops.
Considerable alarm has been excited by the reports from various quarters, of a failure in the potato crop, this season; and though we rejoice to learn that there is no ground for apprehension in this neighbourhood, still the effect of the rumour has been to raise the price of this most necessary article of food. Potatoes which at this season are generally sold for 2½d to 3d now fetch 5½d per stone.
"Galway Mercury"

The greater part of the week has been wet – heavy and incessant rain, occurring at a most unfavourable period, the crops being fit for harvesting all round this neighbourhood.
"Sligo Journal"

As we heretofore announced, the crops in this county are superb ; the oats are far beyond an average, and what wheat has been cultivated, met with the utmost success – the best test of the quality of oats is to be found in its produce when ground, and we are gratified to learn that in every instance, where tested, it has given the utmost satisfaction. We have spoken to several farmers on the subject of the potato crop and their answers have been invariably, that they have not had better for many years, both as regards quality and quantity. The late rains have impeded the sickle within the last few days, but no material injury has yet taken place. We are happy to notice by the change in the barometer today, accompanied by a favourable alteration in the wind, that the prospect of the weather is cheering. The green crops of every kind present a most delightful and luxuriant appearance; nothing can exceed the prospect of Skirving’s turnips ; and the purple topped Aberdeens are also not inferior.
"Westmeath Guardian"

FROM OUR BANAGHER CORRESPONDANT
I regret to inform you that the potato crops in this neighbourhood have suffered extensively. Few fields, if any have escaped, and the disease is daily spreading – a deplorable prospect, this, for the poor.

The Lord Bishop of Killaloe, is this day, holding a confirmation at the Cathedral of Clonfert. The visitation of the clergy and the consecration of the new church at Ballinasloe, takes place tomorrow.

Lord Dunally passed through this town en route to Garbally, on a visit to the Earl of Clancarty.

OPINIONS OF THE JOURNALS

Under this heading we shall give the opinions of the leading papers of all shades, upon topics of prominent interest, without, however, holding ourselves in any way identified with the political doctrines thus promulgated.

From ‘The Times’
Protestant Organisation in Ireland.
The lovers of political sport will be delighted to hear that the prospects for next session are as good as ever. Notwithstanding the great exertions and the apparently destructive expenditure of the season gone by, it begins to be evident that the stock of grievances is undiminished, and the amateurs of the game are in their original strength and spirit. Orangemen and Repealers are urging on the extent of their preparations, and the intensity of their resolves. The Orangemen conceive that they have discovered in the example of their adversaries the road to success. As the circumstances of law being impracticable among a people opposed to its operation was the great plea for the “message of peace to Ireland,” the Protestant Party are beginning to calculate how near they can drive to the law, and how much of it they can reduce to a dead letter. The gentlemen of Ulster meet in the town-hall of Enniskillen, with the Earl of Enniskillen in the chair, “for the purpose of taking into consideration how far a union of all those who are ready to make common cause in upholding the religion of the Reformation could be formed in strict subserviency to the laws.” The circumstances of the times, so often pleaded for surrender and peace, and so convenient a topic for free-and-easy politicians, are their case of necessity for action. With very little affectation of delicacy, they give the world to understand that Sir Robert Peel’s political course renders it “absolutely necessary that a closer union should be formed amongst all classes of Her Majesty’s loyal and attached subjects in this country.” If such are the expressions of confidence Sir Robert receives from his old and faithful friends, what must he expect from his foes?

While the Orangemen are making this use of Sir Robert’s boasted armistice, their opponents are even more vigorously, perhaps still, more effectually, at work. A public dinner at Castlebar, on the 29th of this month is to cement and declare the intimate union between the Liberator and the hierarchy of Tuam. A brisk agitation is to be commenced, with a special view to neutralise the bribery of Maynooth and the infidelity of the Colleges; and the men of Connaught are furnished with new arguments for that Repeal, which they are told can alone effectually secure their consciences and their creed from corruption:-
“The plan of the common enemy heretofore (says Mr. O’Connell) was to extinguish Catholicity by force and violence, by the sword and by the scaffold, and more particularly by the plunder and iniquitous seizure of Catholic property.
“But Satan now, grown wiser than before,
tempts men by making rich, not making poor.”
The present plan is of a different kind. Defeated in actual persecution, the enemy seeks to bribe, to corrupt, to influence, to endow with patronage, and to purchase by various means a new dissension amongst the struggling people of Ireland.
I am quite convinced that their foul intentions, aided though they be with British gold, will totally fail. The clergy, whom the people never deserted, will never desert them: and there is one thing certain – that the men of Connaught are not to be bought or bribed, any more than are the faithful Irishmen of other provinces.
There is indeed, one cause of apprehension, more recent than others – I mean the attempt to carry out infidel education. But we ought to be consoled by reflecting on the history of this scheme in other countries. The attempt to educate the people into irreligion has been openly made and avowedly pursued in Germany, particularly in Prussia, and more recently in France; but even in those countries, supported as it was by the undisguised power of Government, it has failed, and it will fail in Ireland as sure as the sun rises, and leave no trace behind it but the marks of the folly of its invention and the proofs of increased zeal, and even from the xxxxxxx(ink blotched – can’t read) excited in all good men on so iniquitous a project.

From the Bristol Times
Attempts are being made in the North of Ireland to re-organise the Orange Institution, on such a plan however, as to avoid an infraction of the law. The proximate cause of such resuscitation (should it take place) will be what we cannot but consider, the injudicious dismissal of Mr. Watson : Sir Robert Peel’s intention towards Ireland is good and a wise one, namely to assuage and remove party asperities; but the removal of Mr. Watson from the Commission of the Peace was just such an incident as to create quite a contrary result. Party spirit in Ireland, if allowed to escape freely, soon loses itself in vapour, but compressed or confined, like the element of steam, it become powerful and repulsive. Had Mr. Watson not been “victimised,” the ebullition would, in all probability, have begun and ended with the meeting at which he presided; opposed, however, it becomes in its condensed form, sufficient to shake a whole province.

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