There will be two days' hiatus - not, on our part, at least, valde def lendus - between this is sue of the Irish Times and its next successor. For an explanation of the fact, we refer our readers to Canon Chamberlain's article in another column.
The newspaper is a worldy thing, and during the next two days the homes of these islands, grand and simple, will shut their doors upon the world. The Christmas message and the political economists agree upon one truth - that the family, not the individual, is the social unit.
This is the season of family reunions. Hundreds of sons and daughters are enduring at this moment the discomfort of crowded trains and rough sea-crossings in order that they may spend the too swift hours of Christmas Day under the family roof in Ireland. Alike for parents and children these meetings at Christmas have a peculiar joy.
The pleasures of other seasons are transient, but our Christmas pleasure is suffused with the immortal hope of that first Christmas morning.
The Irish Times, December 24th, 1929.