Page:Irish In America.djvu/124

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102
THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

that he has sympathy with them. The lack of this essential sympathy is often fatal to the best intentions of the the best men; where it exists, it supplies or compensates for the want of many qualities, if not actually essential, at least very valuable in a priest. The good Fathers of St. Patrick's in Montreal - and fortunately they have their like in every direction - in every Province and every State - combine all these requirements; they are wise as well as pious, and they have a profound sympathy with their flock.

St. Patrick's Hall - of which I only saw the broad foundations - is creditable alike to the enterprise and public spirit of the Irish of Montreal. The Hall itself will be as spacious as a cathedral - 134 feet long, by 94 feet wide, within the walls, and 46 feet high. The national sentiment is gratified in the architecture of the building, which is 'purely Irish, copied from Cormack's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel.' The design is really grand and imposing; and when fully realised in cut limestone, St. Patrick's Hall will form one the most striking architectural ornaments of the city. With a front of 144 feet on Victoria Square, and 100 feet on Craig Street, it is in the very centre of the business portion of Montreal; and the fine shops which are to form the ground flat, and the show rooms on the second flat, together with sundry rents derived from the great concert-room and other portions of the building, will render St. Patrick s Hall not only pleasing as a monument grateful to national sentiment, but satisfactory as a speculation.