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One hundred years on, the number of descendants of those Ireland’s Duty.
who were on the ship has now reached several thousand and In many sermons in our churches last Sunday reference was
for most of them the coming centenary is of the utmost made to the loss of the Leinster. In all of them the note struck
importance. The principal commemoration event takes place was that of the duty of the young men of Ireland to do their
on Wednesday 10 October 2018 and includes an early part in avenging the murder of Irish women and children. We
morning boat trip to the site of the ship's wreck, a major may quote briefly from two of them. “For one reason or
commemoration will commence at 9.00a.m., followed by a another,” said the Archbishop of Dublin preaching in Christ
civic reception and a Centenary Lunch in the National Yacht Church Cathedral, “The young men of Ireland have not taken
Club, just a stone's throw from where the ship departed on to heart the perils with which the war threatens their own
its final journey. country women. Now, at last, surely the revelation has come
that this is Ireland’s war and Ireland’s opportunity to redeem
HISTORICAL
On this the centenary year of the disaster a very important her shame. Here is the proof written in blood that an
book on the tragedy has been published titled “The Last Irishman’s place of duty now is among the fighting men who
Voyage of the Leinster”. Some copies are still available from are struggling to remove the horrible menace of Prussian
Eason or directly from the Mail boat Leinster Centenary militarism, with all its cruelties and barbarisms, from the face
Committee at 3 Eblana Avenue, Dún Laoghaire County of the Earth.” Again, to quote Dr. Hemphill’s words at St.
Dublin. €20 per book includes postage. The same Patrick’s Cathedral, “many people in Ireland have been devoid
committee has already put in place a series of events of imagination, through personal immunity from the horrors
planned for 7 to the 10 October next with people already of war; but can they any longer ignore them? To do so would
booked to attend from all parts of the world. be a great moral danger. It would amount to a self-education
in callousness. It would be a conscious blunting of the
As published in the Church of Ireland sensibilities that God planted in our bosoms.” We do not
Gazette on Friday, October 18, 1918. know whether this horror will stimulate the supply of recruits
from Ireland. But we are very sure that, as the Archbishop of
Dublin said in his address to the Dublin Diocesan Synod on
The Leinster. Monday, “if we fail to do our utmost we shall live to rue our
For us in Ireland the gladness with which we greet the rapid apathy and half-heartedness; we shall be ashamed in the
approach of a victorious ending to the war has been face of Christendom in the days to come.” Irish Churchmen at
overshadowed by the tragedy of the Leinster. It is a tragedy least the loss of the Leinster should stimulate, in great
made the more poignant by the thought that, after four years matters and in small, in the Archbishop’s words, to “show our
of war in which-though cumulatively the loss of Irish life at fellow-countrymen that we are ready to bear the burden
sea has been heavy-no such giant disaster has befallen our which this war of freedom has laid upon us. They will not
shipping, it should come as, perhaps, the last of Germany’s think the less of us for that, whether they follow our example
crimes against the great sea-faring traditions of self-sacrifice or no.” Here let us deal with a correspondent’s misconception,
and succour. The Primate, in his sermon at Rathfarnham last expressed in a letter in this issue, of our remarks last week
Sunday, recalled in this connection the awful passage in that “we are very far from satisfied that our clergy general
Revelation in which we are told that the devil had gone have done their best to assist the recruiting campaign.” It
down with great rage because he had but a short time to live. should be unnecessary for us to say that we are not referring
With Germany’s guilt in this foul crime and what it must to the sons of the clergy. As our correspondent himself
imply at this moment when she is suing for peace we deal recalls, our own past issues have borne witness to the noble
elsewhere in these pages. But our first thought must be that manner in which the sons of the clergy have done their part;
of offering what comfort is possible to the bereaved. We and we may add our tribute to the services of many of our
cannot do so better then by reproducing here a striking letter younger clergy as chaplains to which the Archbishop of
from Canon Pim, of Kingstown, published in the daily Press. Dublin referred in his address on Monday. We venture to say,
“It seemed to me,” he writes, “that it might be a comfort to indeed, that no class in Ireland, in proportion to its numbers,
some of those who are mourning the victims of the Leinster can show as fine a record in the war as the families of the
outrage to know of the following:- On Saturday afternoon clergy. What we had in mind in our remark last week was the
last there was a bank of cloud on the horizon, and against vigorous cooperation of the clergy in the Recruiting Council’s
clear sky above it there appeared for some moments the the campaign. Last Sunday special recruiting appeals were made
form of a great white cross, of absolutely perfect shape. It in our churches in Belfast. When that was done in every
was seen by at least four members of my own household, not diocese and in every parish throughout Ireland we shall be
all of them together, or from the same place, as well as by satisfied that the clergy generally have done their best to
other people. And one of the witnesses described it to me assist the recruiting campaign.
that it had seemed to him first as if there were a great could
Figure, with outstretched arms, which assumed the form of a Published online at: https://esearch.informa.ie/Exe/ZyNET
cross, and, as the sharpness of its outlines passed, it ‘seemed exe?ZyAction=ZyActionr&Client=7094_RCB%20Library%20
to be full of the faces of men and women.’ It was just, as it Archive&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=ANONYMOUS
were, over the place where the disaster had happened. One
presumes to offer no explanation, but it was certainly there,
and at the least it was a symbol of surpassing comfort.”

28 The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport