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The Irish catholic clergy and emigration during the great famine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Oliver MacDonagh
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Extract

The catholic church in Ireland never, as a church, defined for itself an attitude towards emigration. Priests and bishops, when they spoke of emigration, usually spoke as individuals, not as members of their order. The relatively small number who have left any opinions on record were not necessarily the most influential. We cannot be certain that their views represented the feelings of the clergy as a whole. The day to day conversations and advice of ordinary priests, of which we can know little, mere far more influential in this matter than the pastorals or public letters which survive. In the place of a single voice speaking with authority or the steady murmur of unanimity, we can hear only the heterogeneous confusion of a score of voices, some perhaps seriously distorted by the public controversy in which they were raised.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 20 , September 1947 , pp. 287 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1947

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References

1 Woodward, E.L., The age of reform, pp. 315–16.Google Scholar

2 A number of advertisements containing more or less these words appeared during 1847 and 1848 in Munster papers like the Cork Constitution and the Limerick Chronicle.

3 Devon commission report, iii. 91–3, Q. 26–77.

4 Ibid., iii. 165, Q. 37–41 (evidence of Rev– James Davy).

5 Ibid., iii. 291, Q. 132–8 (evidence of Rev. John Mackey).

6 Ibid., ii. 277, Q. 55–6 (evidence of Rev. George Gearty); 334–5, Q. 68–72 (evidence of Rev. John Kearney).

7 Ibid., iii. 453, Q. 16–20.

8 E.g. F.J., 5 Apr. 1847.

9 Ibid., 4 June 1847.

10 Ibid., 7 Mar. 1848.

11 Pilot, 2 Dec. 1846.

12 Ibid., 8 Apr. 1846.

13 E.g. the Tipperary Vindicator, the Cork Examiner and the Advocate.

14 Morrell, W.P., British colonial policy in the age of Peel and Russell, p. 325.Google Scholar

15 de Vere, A., Recollections, pp. 251–2.Google Scholar

16 Rep. select comm. colonisation Ire., H.C. 1847, (737), vi. 202–9.

17 F.J., 2 Apr. 1847.

18 Tipperary Vindicator, 24 Apr. 1847.

19 Nation, 1 May 1847, p. 476.

20 O’Rourke, J.A., The great Irish famine, pp. 494–5Google Scholar; Nation, 10 Apr. 1847, p. 438.

21 Morning Chronicle, 18 June 1847, p. 3.

22 D.E. Packet, 15 Apr. 1847.

23 F.J., 24 Feb. 1847.

24 Rep. select comm. colonisation Ire., H.C. 1847, (737) Vi. 246–8, Q. 2386–409.

25 Ibid., pp. 252–3, Q. 2451–62.

26 Morning Chronicle, 23 Feb. 1847.

27 Rep. select comm. colonisation Ire., H.C. 1847, (737), vi. 538, Q. 4863.

28 F.J., 9 Mar. 1849.

29 1st rep. select comm. colonisation Ire., H.C. 1847–8, (415), xvii. 182, Q. 1955–7 (evidence of J. Besnard).

30 8th rep. select comm. poor laws Ire., pp. 73–4, Q. 6975–86, H.C. 1849, (259), XV, part i, pp. 635–6.

31 3rd rep. select comm. poor laws Ire., pp. 64–5, Q. 1555–68, H.C. 1849, (137), XV, part i, pp. 142–3.

32 Hansard, civ. 490, 19 Apr. 1849.

33 Irish Catholic Directory, 1848, pp. 238–41.

34 3rd rep. select comm. poor laws Ire., pp. 157–61, Q. 2884–937, H.C. 1849, (137), XV, part i, pp. 235–9.

35 Nation, 23 Feb. 1850, p. 412.

36 Hansard, xvi. 545, 29 Mar. 1847.

37 Cahill, D.M., Letter to Lord Palmerston on the extermination of the Irish poor, pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

38 Kirwan, P.J., Eire go bragh, pp. 3–32.Google Scholar

39 The Times, 5 Nov. 1851, p. 4.

40 Tipperary Vindicator, 3 Feb. 1849; Waterford Mail, 3 Feb. 1849.

41 Luddy, A.J., The story of Mount Melleray, p. 165.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., pp. 164–5.

43 F.J., 14 May 1849.

44 Nation, 15 Sept. 1849.

45 See Luddy, The story of Mount Melleray.

46 Limerick Chronicle, 1 Nov. 1848.

47 Wexford Guardian, quoted by F.J., 15 Oct. 1849.

48 Rep. select comm. passenger acts, H.C. 1851, (632), xix, 137, Q. 1303 (evidence of Lieut. Hodder).

49 Wexford Guardian, quoted by F.J., 15 Oct. 1849.

50 Wexford Guardian, quoted by Nation, 5 Apr. 1851, p. 501.

51 Moran, Reverend James Maher, pp. lxvii–cii, xcvii.

52 Ibid., p. 30.

53 Ibid., pp. 16–18.

54 Tipperary Vindicator, 3 Oct. 1847.

55 Ibid., 17 Jan. 1849.

56 F.J., 2 May 1849.

57 Ibid., 6, 8 June 1849; Advocate, 13 June 1849, pp. 326–7.

58 F.J., 2 May 1849.

59 Ibid., 6 June 1849.

60 Dublin Evening Post, 9 June 1849; Tipperary Vindicator, 13 June 1849;. Pictorial Directory, Dec. 1850.

61 Boston Pilot, 26 May 1849, quoted by Tipperary Vindicator, 16 June 1849.

62 Nation, 8 Dec. 1849, p. 230.

63 Ibid., 23 Feb. 1850, p. 412.

64 F.J., 30 Oct. 1850.

65 Nation, 15 Mar. 1851, p. 454.

66 Ibid.

67 2nd Rep. Emigrants Protection Society (1851), pp. 1–3.

68 Ibid, pp. 2–3, 7–8.

69 Ibid, pp. 6–7, 12–14.

70 I am greatly indebted for this reference and other assistance to Dr F. S. Bourke.

71 Letters dated 28 Oct.-2 Nov. 1849 in Dr Bourke’s possession.