. 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

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_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