In Dublin

St. Patrick was a Scotsman. He was born, son of a Roman decurion, in 387 A. D. in Kilpatrick. In his 16th year he was kidnapped by Irish marauders, sold in slavery to a Druid chieftain-priest named Milchu. Six years later he escaped Ireland, eventually reached Rome whence he was sent back by Pope St. Celestine I to begin his celebrated conversions. Up Strangford Lough he sailed in his galley, was mistaken for a pirate, 1,500 years ago this year or next. St. Patrick converted the Irish, consecrated 350 bishops, among them a friend of his named St. MacCarthem. Traditionally he drove the snakes from old Erin, howling "Faugh-a-ballaugh!" On what is now Ireland's Holy Hill he spent 40 days, heckled by demons in the form of hideous birds of prey which he finally scattered by ringing his bell. Then, like Jacob, he wrestled with a visiting angel, extracting five concessions. The last one St. Patrick judged the nicest: on Judgment Day he would be deputized to judge the whole Irish race. A large court he will need; several years ago it was calculated there were 100 million persons of Irish blood in the world. St. Patrick died March 17, 493, in Saul, County Down and his corpse was wrapped in a shroud woven by St. Bridgid. . . .

With much patriotic ado was begun last March the celebration of the 1,500th anniversary of St. Patrick's arrival in Ireland, although some authorities (including the Catholic Encyclopedia) give 433 as the date. In Saul the old sod was turned and blessed for a mighty statue and altar to St. Patrick. Then began preparations for more extensive doings. Planned long ago for June 1932 was the 31st International Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church. Like monster church picnics, these gatherings are designed to promote religious solidarity, give the faithful an outing on a large scale. Eucharistic Congresses have been held throughout France and Belgium, in Rome, Metz, Amsterdam, London, Fribourg, Jerusalem, Cologne, Malta, Montreal, Madrid, Vienna, Chicago, Sydney. Last one, in 1930, was in Carthage, where confusion of languages and races seemed to irk English-speaking visitors (TIME, May 19, 1930). For the 31st Congress, what place more fitting than that stronghold of piety, Ireland, home of 3,171,697 Catholics, motherland of many a U. S. priest? Chosen then was Dublin. With St. Patrick as a conspicuous example, the Congress would take as its theme "The Propagation of the Sainted Eucharist by Irish Missionaries." There would be many religious doings, very gala indeed. Previous Congresses have had their characteristic notes, wrote Managing Editor Vincent de Paul Fitz-patrick of The Catholic Review. In Chicago there was the "enthusiasm of the Americans"; in Rome "the everlasting glory of the church"; in Spain "the love of beauty and gallantry of the Spanish"; in Carthage "the memory of the martyrs." In Dublin, undoubtedly, it would be "the Faith of the Irish."

The Congress was to open formally June 22. From the U. S. last week were sailing some 20,000 lay and clerical visitors. Chicago's Cardinal Mundelein could not go; but Philadelphia's Cardinal Dougherty and Boston's Cardinal O'Connell would be there. Patrick Cardinal Hayes of New York sailed last week, to visit Ireland for the first time. He announced he felt it "his duty" to go, despite hard times, because the Irish hierarchy might feel disappointed if New York, largest U. S. archdiocese, were not represented by its Archbishop. With him went rich Papal Marquis George MacDonald. Depression and distrust of Irish political conditions had reduced the numbers of visitors hoped for, but at least 200,000 were expected from all parts of the world. Among these would be 33 archbishops (including St. Louis' Glennon, San Francisco's Auxiliary Archbishop Mitty), 158 bishops, eight assistant bishops, 15 vicars apostolic, 16 abbots. From New York would go rich Contractor Patrick McGovern and onetime supreme Court Justice Daniel Florence Cohalan. President Mary C. Duffy of the Catholic Daughters of America sailed last week. From Australia went Premier Edmond John Hogan of Victoria. Among the visiting Cardinals: Lorenzo Lauri, Papal Legate, Paris' Verdier. Palermo's Lavitrano, Belgium's van Roey, Poland's Hloud, Westminster's Bourne. Shipping lines got up special tours, arranged for masses to be held on board. In Dublin Bay many a liner will serve as a hotel for Congress visitors, among them the Italian Satnrnia, which sailed from New York last week carrying the Notre Dame University Orchestra and flying the yellow & white Papal flag, as did the De Grasse, by special permission of the Vatican.

The Irish Free State has issued a special Congress stamp, with a cross, "Inter-nationalis Congressus Eucharisticus" and "Eire" (Ireland). Throughout Dublin some 450 loudspeakers have been set up to broadcast the affairs of the Congress over a 15-mile radius. Dublin florists advertised seeds which "if planted immediately will yield a wealth of bloom for the Eucharistic Congress." Another advt. said: "Enhance and prolong their stay by treating them to a night's rest on a 'Nelpha' mattress or bedstead." Dublin set up floodlights and searchlights, asked its citizens to help with electric lights and candles. An arclight, most powerful ever rigged up in Dublin, would write in the sky such inscriptions as "Hail the King-Adoremus-Laudamus Te." President Eamon de Valera's journal, The Irish Press, urged the Irish to plant trees in commemoration of this event, "one of the greatest ... in Irish history." So that visitors might drink freely of Ireland's excellent whiskies and malt brews, all Irish Free State circuit judges were permitted by a "Eucharistic Congress Bill," to extend the hours of sale of alcoholic liquors, from June 18 to July 1.

In Dublin's wooded Phoenix Park stood ready last week a great pillared altar, with long colonnades on either side. There, on June 26, would take place the Congress' climax, a High Pontifical Mass, followed by a monster procession, 15 miles long, in which 20,000 stewards were to herd the faithful into line, with loudspeakers every 180 ft. to help them keep in tune while singing hymns. The whole thing is to be broadcast,* filmed. Celebrant of the Mass, and of a special mass for 70,000 children from all over Ireland, is to be Papal Legate Lauri. This well-born Roman prelate, an oldtime lecturer in Rome's College of the Propaganda, successor of Achille Cardinal Ratti (now Pope Pius XI) as Nuncio to Warsaw, is to arrive in Dublin this week. The city has conferred on him its Honorary Freedom, set up a triumphal arch with two 46-ft. towers under which he is to pass in entering. Unlike such Irish cities as Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford, Dublin no longer dresses its Corporation in fancy gear. But to meet Cardinal Lauri a special touch was necessary, so the Corporation planned to greet him in cocked hats, sable & scarlet robes lined with Irish poplin. Suitably robed also were to be those 16 Irish gentlemen who will carry the Canopy of the Blessed Sacrament in the procession, among whom would be: President de Valera, Vice President Sean Thomas O'Kelly, ex-President William Thomas Cosgrave, Speaker Francis Patrick Fahy, Senate Chairman Thomas William Westropp Bennett, and dapper, jimmy-walkeresque Lord Mayor Alfred Byrne of Dublin.

For the High Altar in Phoenix Park the people of Belfast gave a fine Irish linen altar-cloth. Four of the canopy bearers were to come from the north of Ireland where Protestants predominate. Many a Protestant looker-on was expected, if only to hear Tenor John McCormack, Papal Count, sing the Panis Angelicus of Cesar Franck. In the Mass also was to figure the holy bell of St. Patrick which, old, rusty, looking much like a modern cowbell, can still jingle weakly.

*The Pope expected to listen in. Last week he quashed all talk of his taking an extended vacation from the Vatican. He would motor, he said, to his summer palace at Castel Gandolfo which is being reconditioned not for himself but for his successors.

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