The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-01-28 00:00:00

THE ISLAND OF ACHILL.

A few years ago this island was almost unknown. It is
situated in the remotest part of the - County of Mayo,
from the mainland of which it is separated by a channel
similar to that of the Menai Straits, which divides
Anglesea from 'Carnarvonshire ; and this channel varies
in width from 2CO yards to several miles: In some parts
it has the appearance of internal lakes. The approach to
Achill (or the Island of Eagles), is through an inhospi-
table and barren part of the County of Mayo—and the
generality of the island is of a mountainous character,
possessing much bog land, but many portions of it are
now cultivated, and nothing but capital and industry are
required to change the whole face of the district. From
its northern and southern shores some of the most mag-
nificent views in Ireland are to be obtained. The distant
mountains in Conemara, including Croagh Patrick, to-
gether with the bold headlands which form Clewes Bay,
and which resist the Atlantic waves, the numerous
islands which appear in the distance, and the broken
outline of shores, bays, and mountains are seen
on every side but one ; and on that side, the gaze
is lost over the ceaseless rolling of the mighty
Atlantic, which in storms hurls its moving acres
of water against the iron-bcund headlands oF Achill,
which lift themselves in some places 1;800 feet above the
level of the ocean. The island contains 23,000 acres, and
is about thirty-two miles in circumference. Its highest
land is 1,530 feet above the level of the sea, and it con-
tains stone and various sorts of marble in great abundance.
Sixteen years ago it was inhabited by a race of people
scarcely one degree above barbarism. It was known to
exist, because it was marked upon our maps ; but as to
any knowledge of its inhabitants, we were as ignorant of
them and their habits as we were of islanders in the
South Sea; in many instances, indeed, we were much
more so. But light was to be thrown upon it ; and if we
mistake not, this almost unknown spot is destined to
exercise a most important influence upon the condition of
western Ireland. In the year 1831, according to Mr.
Noel, the islanders were visited by a famine. Hun-
dreds were living upon seaweeds ; and after the
famine came a raging typhus. A most excellent and
pains-taking clergyman of the Church of England and
Ireland, the Rev. Edward Nangle, hearing of their desti-
tution, and being at that time in ill health (which
required him for a long time to suspend his ministerial
labours) undertook the charge of a cargo of potatoes sent
for their relief. Whilst among them, he preached the
Gospel to them in the Irish tongue ; and, finding them
willing to listen to him, he conceived the design of a
mission, founded on the Moravian plan, which should at
once raise them not only from destitution, by inculcating
habits of industry and self-dependence, but should also
elevate them in the scale of intelligent beings, by afford-
ing to them and to offspring the means of education,
and save them from religious ignorance, by giving to
them the Word of Gad. He obtained from Sir Richard
O'Donnell a lease of 130 acres of land, at the nominal
rent of £1 per acre ; and, several benevolent persons in
Dublin aiding him with funds, the wild moorland was
reclaimed, a house was built, and a schoolmaster and
Scripture reader took possession of it. In 1834,
another house was erected; and as the prospect of
being useful increased, Mr. Nangle personally took
charge of the settlement, and was soon aided by
several scripture readers and schoolmasters. As may be
supposed, this invasion of the papal darkness which
brooded over the island met with every species of oppo-
sition from the Romish Priests. They refused to allow
the poor children to attend the schools. The parents who
permitted them to be taught were cursed from the altar ;
and persecutions, happily unknown in England, and
which would hardly be credited, were directed against the
devoted man, who had left the society of Dublin to carry
out his work of benevolence in this distant, and to him
dangerous, spot. Every falsehood that malevolence could
invent was directed against him ; his motives were im-
pugned ; he was subject to attacks from the poor ignorant
people, to whose best interests he had devoted his life.
His few converts were publicly stigmatised as " children
of the devil," and every contumely and insult was poured
upon him and his adherents. But Mr. Nangle, though a
man of great meekness and forbearance, possesses,
in a remarkable degree, the quality of decision,
as well as of patient endurance. He persevered
in his good work, almost against hope ; but the
struggle in which he was engaged, and the persecu-
tions which he underwent began to attract notice, and
funds were supplied him to erect a church and school. The
children who were educated by him began to exhibit signs
of intelligence which were not lost upon the surrounding
peasantry. Other children were sent to the schools, and
many of the parents having listened to the sublime liturgy
of our scriptural church, and having been taught from
the bible (a book of which, until then, many of them
were utterly ignorant) refused to attend mass any more ;
and the little church had soon a congregation of about
one hundred worshippers, and which number kept
steadily increasing. The rage of Dr. M'Hale knew no
bounds. He determined to crush the Protestant heretics
at once. He therefore paid a visit to the island, as he
said, " to put a final extinguisher on the sinister specu-
lation." The priestly splendour with which he was
surrounded contrasted most bitterly with the rags of
the poor creatures whom he went to visit, and accompanied
by thirteen priests and a crowd of people, bearing banners,
on which was written, " Down with the Schismatics,"
he performed High Mass, and successive priests warned
the people not to salute the converts, or deal with them.
They were not to borrow or lend, buy or sell. They were
to he cut off from the charities of life; and if any one
dared to violate these mandates they were to be accursed !
The Protestant religion was declared to be " the offspring
of Hell ;" and all Protestants were doomed " to inevitable
destruction." But this vision of magnificent wickedness
passed away ; and by many the thunder was disregarded.
The converts stood the shock. Another Church was
added, and another school was built. An hotel was built
to accommodate the travellers who visited this persecuted
spot. An excellent physician, who took a warm interest
in the success of the mission, became a resident. More
land was reclaimed ; and that which was a few years ago
one of the darkest places in Ireland, had become, in a
measure, civilised, and the very face of the country was
changed. The more intense the hatred of the priests, the
more was sympathy enlisted on the side of those against
whom emit hatred was disected.

Both a printing press and types were presented to the
settlement in 1835 by some benevolent individuals in
York and London ; and it has since been most actively
employed in disseminating information. Step by step,
under the fostering care of Mr. Nangle, has this settle-
ment advanced ; and at the very place, where sixteen
years ago, there were nothing but poor wretched Roman
Catholics, living in mud huts, and sunk in the lowest po-
verty and deepest ignorance—there are now above 1000
well taught persons who have left the Romish communion,
and who are consistent members of our national church.
Some of these were educated when children by Mr. Nan-
gle, but have now become parents themselves, and even
those who still attend mass, seeing the superior education
which is afforded, send their children to the church schools
in defiance of the fulminations of the priests. The Achill
settlement has now grown into a village, and has some
good houses. There are on the island six churches and
thirty schools, a good hotel and a printing office. There
are also four resident clergymen and six scripture readers.
The much abused but devoted clergyman, wi,o, in the
midst of privation and banishment, has sacrificed his
health and risked his life to benefit this island, still sur-
vives to see the fruit of his labours. Turbulence has
given way to peace and subordination with more than 1000
of the inhabitants, and they are now numerically strung
enough to protect themselves from those dastardly assaults
which used formerly to be committed, and which have
not yet wholly ceased. God has blessed the work, and
Achill is at this moment an instance of what scriptural
education is capable of doing for the darkest part of
unhappy Ireland.

Sir Richard O'Donnell was the owner of the island.
Circumstances have recently brought it into the market.
To have become the purchasers of the island would have
been to Dr. M`Hale and his priests a great triumph. The
land held by Mr. Nangle was only leasehold for 31 years,
of which term a considerable portion had expired. Had 1
it fallen into Roman Catholic hands, it is clear that no
renewals of the lease would have been conceded, and
churches and schools must have passed into other and
Romish hands. Mr. Nangle made a simple but eloquent
appeal for aid, and asked the Protestant public to raise for
him the sum of £4OOO, to enable him to purchase that
portion of Achill on which the settlement was founded,
and which he ascertained could be purchased. Such is
the public appreciation of his character, that, instead of
£4OOO, above £lO,OOO was soon raised, and, amongst the
subscribers, are some benevolent men of Liverpool. We
have now to name a circumstance which, in deference to
an expressed wish, we should not otherwise have done ;
but it has now been made public by others. The sum of
£7OOO more would purchase the whole island, with the ;
exception of one or two townlands, which had been pre-
viously sold. The public subscriptions for the purchase
are vested in the joint names of Mr. Napier, M.P. for
the University of Dublin' Mr. Brooke, and, we believe, the
Hon. Somerset Maxwell. Among others applied to for a
subscription were Mr. Samuel Holme and Mr. William
M'Cormick, of this town. These gentlemen urged the
purchase of the whole island, and, with true Christian
benevolence and cbaracteristic disinterestedness, at once
offered to advance the money still wanting. They were
joined by Mr. Thomas Brassey, the eminent railway con-
tractor, who most liberally offered to become a party to so
desirable a work ; and we believe we are correct in stating
that these three gentlemen have offered to cede to the
trustees all they have purchased, if the subscriptions ap-
proach the amount ; or otherwise to cultivate their portion
of the island, so as to afford employment to the inhabi-
tants in such cultivation. In the first case, the trustees
would have nearly the whole as an endowment for the
churches and schools, and which would eventually enable
them to extend the benefits of Church of England instruc-
tion to other parts of the main land. In the latter case,
and probably the most desirable, they would still have
above half the island for an endowment, and these three
spirited and noble-hear ed men, all possessing capital and
practical knowledge, would be induced to embark some of
their capital in reclaiming the land, building farms, and so
giving employment to the population—a measure which
would do incalculable good to such a district. Such men
are wanted in Ireland ; and in this respect the operation of
the Encumbered Estates Act is likely to prove a blessing,
by enabling the overloaded lands in that country to pass
into the possession of men such as our townsmen.
But the island having been happily secured, instead of
causing the subscriptions to lag, ought to be a stimulus
to further liberality. There is a striking movement at
present in the whole of the western districts of Ireland.
While some few of the upper classes in England, and
some of those who were called clergymen of our church,
have gone over to Rome—thousands of the peasantry of
western Ireland have embraced Protestantism, and
churches are urgently needed for their accommodation.
Dr. Plunkett, the Bishop of Tuatn, asks for ten new
churches in his diocese alone, for the use of the members
who have no places of worship ; and we hope that his
appeal will not be made in vain. If Ireland was Prete*.

tant, instead of being the difficulty of every administra-
tion, and requiring a vast army, and an enormous police
force to keep it lit. subjection, it would become the right
arm of England, and there would be an immediate rusk
of capitalists into it, who would give employment to its
warm-hearted and generoas, but misdirected population ;
and the cultivation of its millions of neglected acres—
the working of its.rich mines—and the establishment of
manufactures, would re-act upon England, and prove a
blessing to the whole empire.
But this we fear will not be the case, so long as art
ignorant and besotted priesthood grind down the intelli-
gence of the people, enslave their minds by super-
stition, and in the holy name of religion prevent
all education except such as the Synod of Thurles
chooses to impart. Yet we will not despair for Ireland.
We wish to see a thousand more Saxons" such as our
three townsmen ; and we venture to express a hope that
their example will be followed, and that the now useless
districts of Ireland may have the advantage of English_
capital, intelligence, and industry, which, with sound
scriptural education, will do more for the permanent wel-
fare of that country than all the brawling agitators have
ever done; for the one would raise Ireland in the scale of
civilization, while the other has so far tended to sink it in
degradation, and instead of being an advantage has proved
to be a curse. In giving this hasty sketch of Achill, and
in pointing out what has been done there, and may be
done elsewhere, we say to all, both clergymen and lay-
men, look at Achill, and " go and do likewise."

9t futitf.

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