page_title: John MacHale
section_title: Repeal of the Union campaign, 1830s
hierarchical_section_title: John MacHale / Repeal of the Union campaign, 1830s
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: liberatorhislife00cusa (find matches) Title: The liberator&#160;: his life and times, political and social Year: 1872 (1870s) Authors: Cusack, Mary Francis, 1829-1899 Subjects: O'Connell, Daniel, 1775-1847 Revolutionaries Publisher: (Kenmare, Kerry)&#160;: Kenmare Publications Contributing Library: Boston College Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: d interfere to have your Grace andDr. Murray understand each other-—I mean, agree together onthe proper securities against anti-Catholicism in the plan ofgeneral education. This wish is, I fear, an idle one, but if yourGrace were in Dublin I do think something might be done tosatisfy your just apprehensions. The scheme of giving Govern-ment dominion over Catholic education is failing on the Conti-nent, as the Catholic people grow alarmed at its tendency,. Chapter cififtccnth. AGITATION FOR REPEAL.1839-1843. The Repeal Movement Projected: Correspondence,Explaining Ideas and Plans with Dr. MacHale:Repeal Association Formed: Discouraging Start:Repeal Meetings in the South and North:General Election, OConnell Unseated: ElectedLord Mayor of Dublin: Attacked by Shrews-bury: The Repeal Year, par excellence: TheAssociation, Terms of Membership and Card:Peel and Repeal: Monster Meetings at Ennisand Mullaghmast: European Fame: OConnelland the Society of Friends: Letters to Dr.Mac Hale. MAR XV Text Appearing After Image: Christmas Eve 1839,OConnell wrote aetter to the Arch-3 of Tuam, of whicha fragment remains&#160;; yetfragment is all-impor-;elf almost an epitome ofthe life of this illustrious Irishman,now drawing to its close. In this frag-ment we find the following words&#160;: We have ourselves to fight the battle ofIreland and Catholicity against the Orange andTory faction. I am tremblingly alive to the partvon will take. Your co-operation would in mymind, be quite decisive of success. Of course, Iwill not take, or allow to be taken, any step in-consistent with law; nor would I ask that your Grace shouldcommit vourself one inch beyond your own inclination but I The Repeal Movement Projected. do want your countenance—your something more than mereacquiescence—the larger that more is the better. Indeed, I dobelieve the fate of Catholic Ireland is now in your hands. Ifwe had you going with us in the strength of your judgment,there would arise a combination more powerful than the oldCatholic Association. OC Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: John MacHale was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist.
  He laboured and wrote to secure Catholic Emancipation, legislative independence, justice for tenants and the poor, and vigorously assailed the proselytizers and the government's proposal for a mix-faith national school system. He preached regularly to his flock in Irish and ‘almost alone among the Bishops he advocated the use of Irish by the Catholic clergy.’
context_section_description: The repeal of the Union, advocated by Daniel O'Connell, enlisted his ardent sympathy and he assisted the Liberator in many ways, and remitted subscriptions from his priests for this purpose. We are told by his biographer Bernard O'Reilly, that like his friend, the prelate "was for a thorough and universal organisation of Irishmen in a movement for obtaining by legal and peaceful agitation the restoration of Ireland's legislative independence". The Charitable Bequests Bill, formerly productive of numerous lawsuits owing to its animus against donations to religious orders, was vehemently opposed by the archbishop. In this he differed considerably from some other Irish prelates, who thought that each bishop should exercise his own judgment as to his acceptance of a commissionership on the Board, or as regarded the partial application of the Act. The latter has since then been so amended, that in its present form it is quite favourable to Catholic charities and the Catholic poor. In his zeal for the cause of the Catholic religion and of Ireland, so long down-trodden, but not in the 1830s, Dr. MacHale frequently incurred from his opponents the charge of intemperate language, something not altogether undeserved. He did not possess that suavity of manner which is so invaluable to leaders of men and public opinion, and so he alarmed or offended others. In his anxiety to reform abuses and to secure the welfare of Ireland, by an uncompromising and impetuous zeal, he made many bitter and unrelenting enemies. This was particularly true of British ministers and their supporters, by whom he was dubbed "a firebrand", and "a dangerous demagogue". Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of Propaganda, who had serious disagreements with Dr. MacHale, declared he was a twice-dyed Irishman, a good man ever insisting on getting his own way. This excessive inflexibility, not sufficiently tempered by prudence, explains his more or less stormy career.
caption: Page from The liberator - his life and times, political and social (1872) by Margaret Anna Cusack
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