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. As Conan Doyle, the novelist, remarked: "No writer of fiction would dare to fasten such an achievement on any of his characters." And only a few years before Michael was helping to mind his father's stock on a little farm at Inchigeela, County Cork. So they made him an officer, Lieutenant O'Leary, of one of the Tyneside Irish battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers. And rightly so, for he proved himself to be possessed of all the qualities of a leader--observation and reasoning, quick to receive impressions, and quick to act upon them--resource, daring, and yet discretion, coolness and self-mastery in an enterprise of difficulty and danger. The two most damnable drawbacks on the field of battle are unpreparedness and slowness in officers, and stolidness and lack of initiative in men. Well, Michael himself was never able fully to appreciate the gallantry of his action. What could be more modest than his letter to his father and mother on the subject:-- "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 repre
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