The Irish standard., 1897-11-13
THE IRISH pRELA1E AND PATRIOT.
BOLD AND DARING LANGUAGE TO
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
A POWERFUL FRIEND OF o'CoNAElL.
HIS LONG AND USEFUL LIFE OF PAT.
RIARCHAL SIMPLICITY.

The 7th of November, 1881. was dav
of mourning throughout Ireland. On
| this day sixteen years ago, John Mac
Hale, Archbishop of Tuam, man who
had filled the high office of Christian
priest and bishop in Ireland for sixty
years-a bishop for over fifty-fye Years
died.
The Most Rev. John NIacHale was
born March 6, 1891, in the parish of Ad-
ragool, at place called Tubbernafion,
at the foot of Mount Nephin, in the
most romantic district of the county
Of Mayo. He was the fifth child of
Patrick MacHale and Mary Mulhearn.
Owing to the penal laws which were in
force when he was boy, he received
the first rudiments from hedge school,
master, and afterwards completed his
classical studies in Castlebar, where per-
mission had been given to open Catho-
lie school. He was then in his thir-
teenth year and remembered the land
Ing of the French under Gen. Humbert.
He witnessed their march to Ballina,
and afterward saw a Catholic priest
hanged for having given some refresh
ments to two French officers.
Tn ha
his native diocese (Killala) to Maynooth
where he was ordained in June, 1911.
Soon after his ordination he was ap-
pointed professor of dogmatic theology
and held that position until June S,
1925, when he was consecrated bishop
OF Maronia, on the shores of the Aegean
sea. He was also appointed coadjutor
to Bishop Waldron of Killala.
In May, 1884, he succeeded to the See
of st. Murtagh; but within three months
afterward he was promoted by Pope
Gregory XVI, Aug. following, to the
Archbishopric of Tuam, then vacant by
the death Of Archbishop Kelly.
While he was a professor in Maynooth
DR.. MacHale wrote 1.-The Evidences and
Doctrines of the Catholic Church."
book noted for solid reasoning, cogcnt
argument and sound logic. AS proof
OF its worth 1t was soon translated into
several foreign languages
These few sentences comprehended an
outline of the ecclesiastical history of
the great man before us. Born at the
foot of wild mountain, he learned as
he grew, the wickedness of the invaders
of his native land. He witnessed when
boy, during the struggle of '9S, the
atrocities committed by English soldiers
upon his countrymen.
AS he grew in years he read what had
been written of his countrys former in
dependence and her present degrada-
tion; of the millions who died upon
the field and scaffold rather than change
their faith; of the seductive efforts Gum
availing) that had been tried to convert
the Irish people from the Catholic to
the Protestant religion.
When the Charter schools were
abandoned by the English government
they were succeeded by the schools Of
the Kildare Place society, which, in the
years from 1916 to 1881 were spread
over the kingdom, and which received
an annual grant from parliament. 1t
was soon found by the books this So
ciety published, and by the system of
instruction adopted, that they aimed
at undermining the Catholic religion.
1t was at this time that Archbishop
MacHale wrote his celebrated series of
letters over the signature of "Hierophi-
los" Such were the ponderous and per-
sistent broadsides he fired into the pros
elytizing camp that the government in
1881 established the present system OF
education. These letters were not con-
fined to education, but ranged over the
entire catalogue of Irish grievances, and
impressed the world with an exalted
opinion OF the writer's knowledge and
talents.
But it was since his elevation to the
archiepiscopal chair Of Tuam that the
great man, the man whom, next to Dan
lei O'Connell, in all Ireland, the gov
ernment Of England most feared--be-
cause so distinguished as a patriot pre-
late Knowing every pulsation Of the
Irish heart, every grief which it en-
dures, understanding every prefidious
act OF government of England, knowing
we'll the history Of freedom and slavery
throughout the world, welding bright
and dreaded pen, and exercising author
ity more than magisterial over 1900, 1000
1rishmen-over the entire province of
Connaught-he became one of the great
est difficulties which confounded Lord
John Russell, the Duke Of Wellington
and other English statesmen.
AS a specimen Of his daring and out