Page 175 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

whom it was intendrd to serve, bnt ivho rvere not provided wjth
representation on itfi academic poverninp bodies, and nho did not send
tbeir sons there except in lirnited nnmbern, beeau~e the Chureh, to which
the vast majority of [hem belonged, had discouraged the attendance of
Catholics, prohibiting it entirely in ~he Arts conrses, and toleratjng it
merely in Medicine and Engineering. Indeed a Catholic chaplain had
never been appointed. Jt ia liltle wonder, therefore, that ihe people of
Munster eherifihed feeling6 of antipathy to a College so uiterly ont 1,f
touch with itfi public. The new presideni changed al1 thet. His diplo-
matic fikill, and hi6 great influence with men of power and wealth in
London and Dublin remrived mosi of the dimbilitiefi. The ban on
Catholirs attending warr lifted, ond a heautiful ehapel and a resjdence
for Catholics were built. Labora tories and athleiic facilities were
provided, new proiessional chairs were founded, and ihe curricnlum
wafi revised upward~ to unjverfiity quality. And il he failcd to create
an independent nniversity for Munster, which he greatly defiired, his
efforts helpcd to establiih in 1908 the National University of Ireland,
with University College Ire-named) at Cork eu a constiiuent rnember.
AH this, be it goid, was accomplished \,.hile making an encirmonfi
coniribution to lhe Irish national dort on its political, lut eapecially
upon its industrial level, about which a whole volume could be written.
The rnajorit? of lrishmen today will. however, rectignize one Ileiv
in the Irish patriotism of Sir Bcrtrani Windle. He was a steadfast
friend of ihe British conneciion. He snpported lhe Gaelic Leagile tci
the utmost of his pawer, and he was a pc~werfnl factor in the Iris11
indnstrial revi\el, but he had no fiympathy rvith the wider ainis of the
new Sinn Fein Party which developed rapidly dnrinR the firet world war .
It heeame inereasingiy difficult Ior a man of his political vie~r-s arid
temperamcnt to adrninister the ColleFe in face of the eonflict of loye!ties,
and when et last hifi plan for an indepencle~it university at Cork, never
forgottrn, and now revived, \vas sncccs~fnlly oppofied hy rhe Sinn FrTn
party largely because it would bc dne to favoralile action by th? Britisli
pvcrnment. he realized illat his nsefulness to Cork and lreland was at
an end. At this moment a lerter arrived from Toronto. Another colleg
untler another driving lcader was moving to achieve its destin).. St.
hIichae!'s College was in the procesfi of heing rebuilt as a col& witliin
the Universiiy of Torontci. Father Henry Carr, its preddent, bas on tlie
search fo t professors witki the prestige of scholarship. Windle's hocik
on The Chnrch and Science, recently publi~hed, caught Iiifi eye. He wr~ite
asking the author to conie. An exchang of leiters resulred in Sir
Bertram'ô decision to accept the invitation fbr a year at leafit. He çariie
on an expcrimental basis. lt was an eirprrimcnt that did not disaPpoirit
him.
It would uot be easy to exaggerate the impact niade upon the
Toronto pnblir as well as the College irorri the very beginning. Arriving
the day beiorc Chriatirias 1919, he was confronted the following dau
with a newfipaper which carried the headline: "Sir Beriram Windle i~
her~." Hia mere prescnce wae newg. lt was a sign that he was not
going to he ignored - far from it. He had, of courec, his lecturcs in