"Dear Parents—I know you will be glad to hear that I am awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry in the field. Hoping all are well, as I myself am in the best of health. From your fond son.—Michael."
There is the same simplicity, with a touch of humour, in the remark he made when being seen off at Victoria Station after all his glorification in London:—"It's glad I am to be going back to the trenches for a bit of a rest." And the only man in the whole wide world to show any desire to disparage Michael's exploit was Michael's father himself. The old man was asked if he was surprised at his son's bravery. "Surprised, is it!" he exclaimed. "What I am surprised at is that he didn't do more. Sure often myself I laid out ten Irishmen with a stick coming from Macroom Fair when I was a gossoon like Mick—Irishmen, mind you, an' stout hearty lads at that same. An' it was rather a bad fist Mick made of it that he could kill only eight Germans, and he having a rifle and bayonet." How is that for the old Irish spirit?
THE END
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD.
BRUNSWICK STREET STAMFORD STREET, S.E. AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
Mr. John E. Redmond, M.P., and Mr. R. Barry O'Brien have issued an address in behalf of the Irish Nuns of Ypres, some extracts from which we publish below.
THE IRISH NUNS OF YPRES
AN APPEAL
The story of the Irish Nuns of Ypres is bound up with the story of Ireland. They represent not only a religious Order, but the national ideal as well. They stand for Faith and Fatherland. More than two hundred years ago an Irish Benedictine Community of Nuns was established in Big Ship Street, Dublin. Then came the war of the "Revolution" and the renewal of the international struggle between England and Ireland....
The Dutchman whom the English made King offered security to the Irish Benedictine Nuns, should they elect to remain in their own land; but, as if visions of the future passed before them, they trusted him not. They sought an asylum beyond the seas, where, amid the vicissitudes of fortune, they ever turned their thoughts to Ireland, and in the days of her agony ceased not to pray for her redemption.