The aftermath of the Penal laws were still effecting the growth of
Gaelic studies on the island. The language was still in a downward spiral,
largely only spoken by the lower-class tenants who could hardly afford any real
education outside of a hedge school. The situation remained this way until the mid-1800s
when Archbishop John MacHale took up the fight for Catholic schools which
thought the native language and history and to protect their native and
religious identity.
Archbishop John MacHale was the Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Tuam in county Galway from 1840 to 1881. He was born in
Tubbernavine in county Mayo on the 6th of March 1789 to Patrick and
Mary MacHale. John was very small and sickly in the first year of his life and
his mother fought hard to keep him alive during his infant years. Growing up at
the end of the penal laws, MacHale began his education in a hedge school at the
age of five, at this stage in history hedge schools were not necessary to hide
anymore so they would have migrated to better suited buildings until formal schools
began to be developed after 1800. He continued his education there until he was
13 years old when he was put under the care of Patrick Staunton in Castlebar
who taught Latin, Greek and English. MacHale joined Maynooth College in 1807 in
order to become a Priest. He was exceedingly smart and excelled in his studies
to the point where he impressed his superiors to such a high degree that he was
appointed as the Chair of Dogmatic Theology while still a student. He received
his Holy Order of Deaconship on the 25th of July 1814 and received
his Ordination the next day. Following his ordination, he continued in Maynooth
as a lecturer until 1825 when he was appointed as Bishop of Maronia on the 5th
of June.
In 1831 the then Bishop MacHale went
on a Pilgrimage to Rome where he received a warm welcome from Pope Gregory XVI,
the two got on well and MacHale got in good standing with Rome. News was
announced that in 1840 the Pope was planning to make him an Archbishop, which
the English parliament was not happy about. They sent the Pope a letter asking
him not to place MacHale in the position, labelling a political agitator and
stating that he will only stir up trouble for the English authorities. The Pope
ignored this letter however and in 1840 he made him the Archbishop of Tuam.
During the
1820’s MacHale revised a theological manual on the Evidences and Doctrines
of the Catholic Church which he later translated into German. In the latter
part of the decade he was supporting Daniel O’Connell’s Catholic Emancipation,
rallying support for the movement at every chance he got. He would often remind
people of the Penal Code which pushed Catholics into inferiority within
Ireland. He would tell people of the great rewards for those who should fight
and die for the struggle of the faith. MacHale was trying to pull out any sense
of nationalistic, patriotic and religious zeal left in the Gaelic people,
attempting to create some kind of desire for change. His battle was no
different to splitting hairs though, the people had little willingness to fight
and had fallen into political despair long beforehand, but MacHale refused to
give up. In a call to the British government MacHale asked them to remember the
promise by William Pit The Younger during the Act of Union in 1800 where he
assured Catholics of emancipation. MacHale and O’Connell were close friends and
supported each other, but MacHale never had the linguistic expertise which
O’Connell possessed. He would often fall into foul language and slanderous
rants which were fuelled by his fiery passion to correct the wrongs placed upon
Ireland. His unchecked tongue often made him bitter enemies, but it never
stopped him from pushing forward.
Archbishop MacHale was an important
nationalist leader during his time but he was also a leader in the Catholic
Church and sought to keep Ireland Catholic during a time of deep-rooted
religious conflict which was still tearing the country in two. The Young
Irelanders movement was originally founded by a group of three young members of
the Repeal Association who began a nationalist newspaper known as The Nation.
The Young Irelanders eventually split with the Repeal Association after
O’Connell tried to form an alliance with the Whigs which would have resulted in
dropping the repeal of the Act of Union campaign. The movement sought to unify
Catholics and Protestants in the search for Irish freedom, but opposition was
strong. Ecumenism became a popular idea among the enlightened philosophers of
the 18th century. While the idea was in line with Protestant
theology and beneficial for atheists (promotion of a secular society free from
any specific religious rule and intervention and providing equal religious
practices for all people), it was not in line with Catholic theology. MacHale
being as strong of faith as he was, stood completely against the movement and
the French revolutionary inspired Irish republican idea. What he did promote
was the Irish language and he created a great interest in the study of it. He
would speak Irish during his homily in a time when English was the preferred
language for use in Ireland among the Catholic Church in Rome. He published poems, textbooks,
a diocesan catechism and devotional works in Irish. He
translated parts of the Bible into Irish as well as the first six books of
Homer’s Iliad. In 1871 he published translations of a selection of
Thomas Moore’s work known as Moore’s Melodies.
MacHale worked
long and hard for his people during their most troubling times. In 1831 there
had been a famine which was creating a great deal of suffering and starvation.
He wrote to Earl Grey who was the Prime Minister at the time and asked him for
help for the starving people and condemned the unfair treatment and the system
of land tenure in Ireland, but no attention was given to his letters leaving
the people to suffer. He never held any resentment against the English people
for the actions of their government in the 1830’s though, many were becoming
extremely generous, sending back some of what was grown in Ireland as an act of
charity. In 1846 during the Great Hunger, MacHale once again appealed to the
British parliament and to John Russell, the Prime Minister of the time. MacHale
became involved in the worldwide plea for aid for the Irish population and
helped in the collection and distribution of what came. Towards the latter part
of the Great Hunger, MacHale published a letter condemning the British
governments policy as he referred to the ‘numberless victims of the most unchristian policy
that ever yet emanated from the councils of any state.’ When the English press accused Catholic clergy of being political agitators,
MacHale responded publicly, asking whether Catholic Priests are meant to simply
look on at what was happening in Ireland and do nothing while the people suffer
and starve.
MacHale fought for the right to have separate
schools for Protestants and Catholics, going against much of the hierarchy of
the Catholic Church. At first Rome sought to leave the issue of national
primary schools to the Bishops of Ireland to decide as to the means of
education of Catholic Children. The Dublin administration of education wished
there to be unified education system upon the island but MacHale denounced this
idea. In 1854 the
Provisional Synod of Tuam approved of separate Catholic schools to be
established and with decrees sanctioned by the Holy see, promoted the teaching
of the Irish language and literature. MacHale went on to establish his own
schools for Catholics where he thought that which he fought so hard for.
Archbishop MacHale was heavily
involved in politics until the latter part of his life. He was a man who was in
a position which was powerful at the time and he used it to great effect. He
fought for the upkeep on Ireland’s native tongue, the native people and against
the abuses taken by the landlords in Ireland. Even with British government
requesting the Pope not to place MacHale in the position of Archbishop as they
considered him a political agitator, it looks to be that there was no other man
who the Pope would have wanted. He helped to bring the troubles of Ireland to
the outside world and bring as much aid to the people that he could in time of
great suffering.
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