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Spiritual imperialism and the mission of the Irish race: the Catholic Church and emigration from nineteenth-century Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Sarah Roddy*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Manchester

Extract

The idea of an ‘Irish empire’ has had enduring appeal. It was a rare source of pride promoted by politicians and churchmen during depressed periods in independent Ireland, particularly the 1950s, and the phrase provided an evocative title for at least one popular – and notably sanguine – version of the Irish diaspora's story as late as the turn of this century. In such contexts ‘Irish empire’ can appear simply a wry play on a far more commonly used and, if recent scholarship is to be taken into account, by no means unrelated term, ‘British empire’. Yet as many historians of the Irish abroad, the Irish Catholic Church, and Irish culture more generally have noted, the existence of a peculiarly Irish ‘spiritual empire’ was widely spoken of even as the island's ports were daily choked with emigrants. Nevertheless, the pervasiveness and persistence of the concept, invariably involving the perception of a special, God-given emigrants' ‘mission’ to spread the Catholic religion in whatever part of the world they settled, warrant a more searching analysis than historians in the above-mentioned categories have hitherto devoted to it.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2013 

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48 T. W. Croke to Kirby, 8 Apr. 1864 (Ibid., KIR/1864/82).

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68 O’Leary to Kirby, 28 July, 1865 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1865/172). Similar rejection of the idea came in the wake of the 1880s peak of emigration. See John Riordan in F.J., 15 Aug. 1884; P. O’Connell, Chicago to Croke, 10 June 1887. (Cashel Diocesan Archives (C.D.A.), Croke papers, 1887/21: microfilm, N.L.I., p6010–6013).

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71 The bishop of Galway told Cullen early in 1863 that on the cessation of the American Civil War, ‘at least one half of the population of this county will emigrate’, though clearly an upswing occurred regardless: McEvilly to Cullen, 20 Jan. 1863 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, 340/7/I/9). It is worth noting, however, that the obvious physical dangers posed to emigrants by the war appear to have troubled Irish bishops much less than the moral and spiritual dangers of which Lynch warned. See Cullen to Moran, 20 May 1864 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, outgoing letter book 121/5); Cullen to Charles Langdon, 1 July 1865 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, outgoing letter book 121/4).

72 Dozens of letters from Irish bishops in the Kirby collection dated between 1863 and 1865 refer to the renewed exodus. Most are from the prelates of western and southern dioceses, from where most emigration was emanating, but Cullen and Dixon of Armagh also mention it, the former regularly. Larkin has quoted this correspondence extensively: Larkin, Emmet The consolidation of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, 1860–1870 (Dublin, 1987), pp 101–5,Google Scholar 282–7.

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76 Leahy to Kirby, 27 Mar. 1863 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1863/101). Leahy was clearly wrong about the religious make-up of those emigrating; as Donald Akenson has persuasively argued, Protestants were always ‘at least as large a proportion [of the outflow] as they were of the home population’: Akenson, D.H. The Irish diaspora: a primer (Belfast, 1993), p. 52.Google Scholar

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84 Larkin, , Consolidation, p. 282.Google Scholar If that was the case, it might be explained by the fact that, as Cullen noted to Kirby, ’The emigration from Munster & from Connaught is very great -scarcely anyone is going away from this diocese. This country was cleared one hundred years ago.’ Cullen to Kirby, 11 Dec., 1863 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1863/322).

85 Cullen to Kirby, 15 Apr. 1864 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1864/86).

86 Cullen to Moran, 20 May 1864 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, outgoing letter book 121/5).

87 Cullen to Kirby, 27 Apr. 1860 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/NC/1/1860/34).

88 Cullen to Kirby, 29 Sept. 1864 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1864/178); Cullen to Kirby, 7 Jan. 1868 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1868/11).

89 Donal McCartney and David Steele each credit O‘Connell with popularising the idea: Steele, DavidDaniel O’Connell, Cardinal Cullen and expatriate nationalism’ in McCartney, Donal (ed.), The world ofDaniel O’Connell (Dublin, 1980), pp 8899;Google Scholar McCartney, Dona The dawning of democracy: Ireland 1800–1870 (Dublin, 1987), p. 163.Google Scholar

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92 Cullen to Kirby, 25 June, 1842 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1842/98).

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94 Ibid., pp 282-3. Larkin sees this letter as Cullen ‘cover[ing] the exposed Roman flank’ in light of Lynch having in effect ‘report[ed] the Irish bishops to the Pope for not making greater temporal efforts on behalf of their people’. That may be too dramatic an interpretation. Criticism of the Irish hierarchy in the pamphlet itself is muted, though Lynch was more cutting in a letter to Kirby: Lynch to Kirby, 12 May 1864 (I.C.R.A., Kirby papers, KIR/1864/96). In any case, Cullen’s response to Lynch was a note of genuine thanks for his ‘valuable letter’: Cullen to Lynch, 13 May 1864 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, outgoing letter book 121/4).

95 Stortz, Gerald J.Archbishop Lynch’s The evils of wholesale and improvident emigration from Ireland’ (1864)’ in Eire-Ireland, 18, no. 2 (Summer, 1983), p. 15.Google Scholar

96 F.J., 19 Oct. 1864. Cullen repeated these sentiments privately in a letter to his niece Margaret in 1870 when he wrote ‘religion has gained by the sufferings which our poor people have had to undergo at home’: MacSuibhne, , Paul Cullen, 5, 36.Google Scholar

97 See also Cullen to Moran, 5 June 1864 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, outgoing letter book, 121/5); Cullen to Spalding, 2 Nov. 1864 (D.D.A., Cullen papers, outgoing letter book 121/4).

98 F.J., 27 Nov. 1863; Leahy, Sermon preached at the consecration of the Right Rev. Dr Moran, 1872 (C.D.A., Leahy papers, 1872/13: microfilm, N.L.I., p6010–6013).

99 This was Fr Robert Mullen’s letter published in The Tablet, 10 Apr. 1852; DrCullen, Pastoral letter to the Catholic clergy and laity of the diocese of Dublin, on the fast of lent, 1853 (Dublin, 1853).Google Scholar

100 See Cullen to Sisters of Mercy, Rathdrum, F.J., 16 Sept. 1867.

101 MacSuibhne, , Paul Cullen, iii, 247–8.Google Scholar

102 See Roddy, ‘The spoils of spiritual empire’.

103 Barr, ‘“Imperium in Imperio’”,passim. See also Molony, John N. The Roman mould of the Australian Catholic Church (Carlton, 1969),Google Scholar passim and O’Farrell, Catholic church and community, pp 212–19 for earlier discussion of the influence of an Irish-filtered Romanism in the Australian Catholic Church.