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One of the most important influences on Irish life during the past century and a half has been the Roman Catholic church. This is true not only in Ireland, but also in Irish emigrant communities. What I hope to demonstrate is that the emergence of the catholic church in Lancashire as a primary social institution. which fostered the growth of a community identity, gave the immigrant Irish a valuable sense of constancy and continuity and paralleled developments in Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century. But the church’s influence, which was scarcely diminished, and was perhaps strengthened, by the experience of emigration, must have been founded on a very sound base to be in a position to assume such a dynamic role among the Irish in Ireland and the Irish living elsewhere.
2 Miller, D.W, ‘Irish Catholicism and the great famine’ in Journal of Social History, 9, no.1 (Fall 1975), pp 84–7; Larkin, Emmet, ‘The devotional revolution in Ireland, 1850–75’ in A.H.R. 67, no. 3 (June 1972), p. 636.
3 Miller found that there were higher ratios for attendance to religious duties in towns than in rural districts. Of course, the facilities of urban parishes and their surrounding neighbourhoods were more easily accessible to a larger part of their parishioners than those of a rural parish were likely to be. The church further accommodated urban and suburban residents by adjusting mass times and rules involving working on Sundays and special church holidays to meet ‘the great alterations in the manner of conducting commerce’. W. Delaney to P. Leahy, ι June 1858 (N.L.I., Leahy papers, microfilm, p. 6005, 1858/22).
4 Larkin, loc. cit., p. 636; Murphy, J.A., ‘A question of identity a catholic view’ in Irish Times, 9 Jan. 1975.
5 Larkin, loc. cit., p. 636; Wm Delaney to Ρ Leahy, 1 June 1858.
6 Larkin, loc. cit., p. 636; see also the manuscript diary of Fr James O’Carroll of Clonoulty, Tipperary (cited hereafter as O’Carroll diary), 17 Feb. 1862 (Archbishop’s House, Thurles, Archives of Diocese of Cashel, pp 43–4).
7 Larkin, loc. cit., pp 639, 648.
8 Miller, loc. cit., pp 89–91.
9 Donnelly, J S., Landlord and tenant in Ireland during the nineteenth century (Dublin, 1973), p. 14.
10 de Beaumont, Gustave, Ireland: social, political and economic, ed. Taylor, W.G. (London, 1839), 2, 88, 90–91.
11 Gonnell, K.H., Irish peasant society (Oxford, 1968), pp 86, 147, 150–51; Murphy, J.A., ‘Priests and people in modern Irish history’ in Christus Rex, 23, no. 4 (1969), pp 235–6; Donagh, Oliver Mac, ‘The Irish clergy and emigration during the famine’ in I.H.S., 5, no. 20 (Sept. 1947), pp 287–8; Brody, Hugh, Innishkillane (Harmondsworth, 1973), p. 205 ; Laslett, Peter, The world we have lost (New York, 1965), p.9.
12 De Beaumont, op. cit., pp 87–8.
13 It may be that part of the reason for the low mass attendance figures prior to the famine was the inability to meet the expense of supporting the clergy
14 Meagher, M.T.C., ‘Calendar of the papers of Dr Bray, Archbishop of Cashel, 1792–1820’ (N.L.I., special list, 172), preface, p. 82 ; Murphy, J.A., ‘The financial support of the catholic clergy, 1750–1850’ in Hist. Studies, 5 (1965), pp 104–5.
15 The development of wedding customs in nineteenth-century Ireland is discussed in O’CarrolPs diary, 25 Feb. 1862, pp 49–50.
16 Burns, R.E., ‘Parsons, priests and people the rise of anti-clericalism, 1785–89’ in Church History, 31 (1962), pp 151–63, Larkin, , ‘Devotional revolution’, pp 631–5; Murphy, , ‘Financial support of the clergy’, pp 114–17, McGrath and O’Meara on behalf of the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Nenagh to M. Slattery, 3 Dec. 1849 (N.L.L, Slattery papers, microfilm, p. 6003, 1848/68).
17 Murphy, , ‘Financial support of the clergy’, pp 117–19; Beaumont, op. cit., pp 90–91. For the failure of government proposals to subsidise the catholic clergy in Ireland see Murphy, ‘Priests and people’, p. 245 ; and Crotty to Slattery, 14 Mar. 1842 (N.L.L, Slattery papers, microfilm, p. 6001, 1842/9).
18 James O’Carroll’s diary shows that sick calls and stations occupied a great deal of his time during the entire year
19 M. Slattery to D. O’Connell, 8 Apr. 1842 (N.L.L, Slattery papers, microfilm, p. 6001, 1842/15); Beaumont, op. cit., p. 89.
20 Meagher, op. cit., p. 90.
21 O’Carroll diary, Dec. 1863, pp 153–4.
22 Water ford Mirror, 18 Feb. 1824.
23 At this priest’s death in 1850 ’report said he had a great deal of money . His death was quite sudden and twelve and sixpence found in his pocket constituted his sole wealth. Priest’s money is but too often augmented at least tenfold.’ O’Carroll diary, 17 Feb. 1862, pp 44–5.
24 M. Slattery to D. O’Connell, 8 Apr. 1842 (N.L.I., Slattery papers, microfilm, p. 6001, 1842/15); O’Carroll diary, 15 Mar. 1862, p. 56.
25 Quoted in Connell, Irish peasant society, p. 145.
26 The intimacy between priests and people often made episcopal authorities anxious for the preservation of clerical propriety. See Murphy, , ‘Priests and people’, p. 241, M. Slattery to M. Canty, 19 Mar. 1852 (N.L.L, Slattery papers, microfilm, p. 6004, 1852/16); O’Carroll diary, 23 Apr. 1862, p. 67
27 O’Neill, Timothy P. ‘The catholic church and the relief of the poor, 1815–45’ in Archiv. Hib., 31 (1973), pp 135–6.
28 M. Slattery to Cardinal Fransoni, 27 Jan. 1848 (N.L.L, Slattery papers, microfilm, p. 6003, 1848/5); Donnelly, J.S., The land and the people of nineteenth-century Cork (London, 1975), p. 325 ; Tierney, Mark, Murroe and Boher: the history of an Irish country parish (Dublin, 1966), pp 66–9; Sayers, Peig, Peig, translated by Bryan MacMahon (Dublin, 1973), pp 31–2.
29 Tierney, op. cit., p. 166; Tenants of Cahirciveen to Board, 13 Aug. 1888 (T.C.D., MUN/P/3/130); J. O’Leary to Bursar, T.C.D., 2 Feb. 1892 (T.C.D., MUN/P/3/21).
30 O’Carroll diary, 30 Oct. 1862, p. 97 For other examples of clerical influence see Lewis, James Cornewall, On local disturbances in Ireland, and on the Irish church question (London, 1836), p. 203, Connell, op. cit., p. 85. The story of an early, priest-led boycott appears in the Ennis Chronicle, 26 Mar. 1825.
31 Akenson, D.H., The Irish education experiment (London, 1970), pp 150–54, Murphy, ‘Question of identity’
32 Larkin, , ‘Devotional revolution’, p. 639, Murphy, ‘Question of identity ’
33 P Leahy, 1866 (N.L.L, Leahy papers, microfilm, p. 6008, 1866/ 51); Beaumont, op. cit., p. 91, Larkin, ‘Church, state and nation in modern Ireland’ in A.H.R., lxxx, no. 5 (Dec. 1975), pp 1255–7, Steele, E.D., ‘Cardinal Cullen and Irish nationalism’ in I.H.S., 19, no. 75 (Mar. 1975), pp 246–8.
34 Murphy, , ‘Priests and people’, p. 252, Larkin, , ‘Church, state and nation’, p. 1248.
35 See Tierney, op. cit., p. 60.
36 Particulars of the catholic rent subscriptions in an area were to be posted ‘in, or at least near each catholic chapel, as may be permitted by the clergy . in each parish’ (Waterford Mirror, 21 Feb. 1824). For O’ConnelPs manifesto initiating the repeal agitation see Freeman’s Journal, 6 Apr. 1840.
37 The Land League executive in Dublin solicited local information from ‘clergymen and others likely to supply information’ (The Nation, 8 Nov 1879). See also Freeman’s Journal, 31 Dec. 1879 and The Nation, 6 Nov. 1880.
38 There is no reason to believe that the organisers of these movements were referring to civil, rather than catholic, parishes, because civil parishes did not serve a practical function in the community
39 Larkin, , ‘Devotional revolution’ p. 649.
40 Larkin, , ‘Devotional revolution’, pp 639–48; Lee, Joseph, The modernisation of Irish society, 1848–1918 (Dublin, 1973), pp 44–5, Steele, loc. cit., pp 239–60.
41 Larkin, , ‘Church, state and nation’, p. 1244.
42 See my ‘Irish in Lancashire’, an abstract of which appears in Irish Economic and Social History, ii (1975), PP 63–5.
43 Hume, A., ‘Remarks on the census of religious worship for England and Wales’ in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 12 (1859–60), p. 16.
44 Engels, F., The condition of the working class in England, ed Henderson, W O. and Chaloner, W.E. (Oxford, 1958), p. 141
45 Hume, loc. cit., p. 19.
46 Census of Great Britain, 1851 : religious worship in England and Wales, p. clix [1690}, H.G., 1852–3, lxxxix.
47 Ibid., p. civili.
48 See Lowe, W.J. and Haslett, John, ‘Household structure and overcrowding among the Lancashire Irish during the mid-nineteenth century’, which is to appear in Histoire Sociale-Social History, May 1977
49 ‘The Irish in Lancashire’, pp 54–63, 261–3; Diocese of Liverpool, catholic population, 1850–70 (Lancashire Record Office [cited hereafter as L.R.O.], Relatio status diócesis, 1847–96, ROL ν). By employing an original statistical concept, designated as the Widnes factor (‘Irish in Lancashire’, pp 58–61), it is possible to arrive at a minimum estimate of the actual size of the Irish community (Irish-born plus non-Irish-born) in each of the seven towns. Assuming that 85% of the Irish community professed Catholicism (an assumption validated by a sample of Irish and their religious affiliation available in Liverpool board of guardians, workhouse registers, 1855–65, Liverpool Central Library [hereafter cited as L.C.L.], annex, special collections, A–Z, vols 8–17), it is possible to estimate a minimum number of Irish catholics in each town, which can be compared with diocesan statistics on total numbers of catholics. It is reasonable to suppose that the Irish community of southeast Lancashire, in the diocese of Salford, for which no statistics are available, formed the overwhelming bulk of catholics there too.
50 Geo. Brown, Relationem de statu religionis in hoc districtu Lan-castriensi, 11 July 1847 (L.R.O., RGLv). During the mid-nineteenth century the tremendous increase in the catholic population of the Lancashire dioceses compelled the bishops to continually request that extra priests be sent from Ireland. See Overseas correspondence, All Hallows College, Dublin, archives.
51 Bennet, John, Father Nugent of Liverpool (Liverpool, 1949), pp 15–16.
52 St Wilfrid’s Roman Catholic Church, log-book, 1847 (Presbytery, Hulme, Manchester).
53 O’Dea, J., The story of the old faith in Manchester (Manchester, 1910), p. 15.
54 Brock, M.E., ‘Irish immigrants in the Manchester district, 1830–54’ (B.A. thesis, University of Southampton, 1962), pt 1, ch. 3.
55 See Gutman, H.G., ‘Work, culture and society in industrialising America, 1815–1919’ in A.H.R., 78, no 3 (June 1973), pp 531–88. For the Irish and the catholic church in America see Shannon, W V., The American Irish (New York, 1966), pp viii, 35, 136–7, Wittke, Carl, The Irish in America (Baton Rouge, 1956), pp 88–102 ; Clark, Dennis, The Irish in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1973), pp 90–91, 94–5, 99, McCaffrey, L.J., The Irish diaspora in America (Bloomington, 1976), PP 8–9.
56 Beaumont, Ireland, ii, 85–6.
57 ‘The Irish in Lancashire’, pp 257–8.
58 O’Connor Power, J., ‘The Irish in England’ in Fortnightly Review, 28 (Mar 1880), pp 411–12.
59 Geo. Brown, Relationem de statu religionis, 11 July 1847.
60 Diocese of Liverpool, Visitation (Liverpool, Preston, St Helens. Widnes), 1855, 1865 (L.R.O., RCLv).
61 Diocese of Liverpool, Attendance at mass, 1864–71 (L.R.O., Rel atio status diócesis, 1847–96, RCLv).
62 Burke, T. The catholic history of Liverpool (Liverpool, 1910). pp 203–4, Diocese of Liverpool, Attendance at mass, 1864–71.
63 Diocese of Liverpool, Attendance at mass, 1873–85 (L.R.O., Relatio status diòcesis, 1847–96, RG’Lv).
64 Diocese of Liverpool, School returns, 1858, 1864 (L.R.O., Schools religious examination and inspection returns, RGLv).
65 In 1867 Bishop Goss, Liverpool, claimed that ‘the hearing of mass was now within the reach of all’; Visitation sermons, 1867 (L.R.O., RGLv, 3/34/210).
66 Walker, R.B., ‘Religious changes in Liverpool in the nineteenth century’ in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 19 (1968), p. 200. Engels remarked in 1844 that the only exceptions to the rule of working-class religious apathy were ‘a few of the older workers… those wage earners with one foot in the middle-class camp’ and the immigrant Irish (Condition of the working class, p. 141).
67 Larkin, , ‘Devotional revolution’, p. 651.
68 Lancashire Free Press, 1 Oct. 1859 for a discussion of Lancashire attitudes toward the Irish immigrants see ‘The Irish in Lancashire’ ch. 10.
69 The Lancashire clergy sometimes complained about the difficult} of extracting needed funds from their parishioners. See R. McCart to T. Bennet, 9 Nov 1853 (Overseas correspondence, All Hallows College, 2528); Visitation sermons of Alexander Goss, 1864-5 (L.R.O., RCLv, 3/3 3/i4? 25, 350).
70 Geo. Brown, Relationem de statu religionis, 11 July 1847
71 Hume, A., ‘On the education of the poor in Liverpool’ in Report of the twenty-third meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1853), pp 103–6.
72 Hume, A., Condition of Liverpool (Liverpool, 1858), pp 18–9; School board, borough of Liverpool, Police educational census, 1871 in Proceedings of the school board, 1870–3 (L.C.L., H370 SCH), pp 162–3.
73 Report of the select committee on Manchester and Salford education, pp 55–6 H.C., 1852 (499), xi, 65–6.
74 At St Helens and Preston catholic schools managed to accommodate all school-aged children in 1871. ( Barker, T.C. and Harris, J.R., A Mersey side town in the industrial revolution: St Helens, 1750–1900, London, 1959, p. 393.) The question of forming a school board did not come up in Preston until 1876 (A. Hewitson, History (409 A.D.–1883 of Preston, Preston, 1883, p. 446).
75 Hume, ‘On the education of the poor in Liverpool’, p. 106; Diocese of Liverpool, Schools religious examination and inspection returns, 1858, 1864 (L.R.O., RGLv).
76 Diocese of Liverpool, schools religious and examination returns; Burke, , Catholic history of Liverpool, p. 190.
77 Diocese of Liverpool, school returns, Whalley, C. ‘Catholic education in England, pt. 11, Salford diocese’ (Salford Central Library, unpublished typescript 1965), pp 319–25; Curley, T., The catholic history of Oldham (East Yorks, 1911), p. 52 ; St John’s Roman Catholic cathedral, log-book (1869–72), 24 Apr. 1870 (Cathedral House, Salford 3). Many catholic schools participated in a government inspection and grant scheme, which was an incentive to maintain quality. For an account of the evolution of this programme see Adamson, J.W., English education, 1789–1902 (Cambridge, 1930, reprinted 1964), pp 34 146 202, 230–2.
78 St John’s log-book (1860–64), 27 Jan. 1862, 16 Feb. 1862, 11 June 1863.
79 St John’s log-book (1860–64), 24 Aug. 1862.
80 Report from the select committee on Manchester and Salford education, pp 55–6, H.C., 1852 (499), xi, 65–6.
81 St John’s log-book (1860-64), 5, 26 Oct. 1862.
82 ‘It seems at times that half a dozen working men could scarcely sit in a room together without appointing a chairman’ ( Thompson, E.P., The making of the English working class, London, 1963, pp 672–3).
83 Foster, John, Class struggle and the industrial revolution (London, 1974), p. 216 ; Anderson, Michael, Family structure in nineteenth-century Lancashire (London, 1971), p. 138.
84 Gosden, P.H.J.H. The friendly societies in England, 1815–75 (Manchester, 1961), pp 58–9, 117; Anderson, , Family structure, pp 138–9.
85 Foster, op. cit., pp 217–8; Gosden, op. cit., pp 6–7
86 Though relatively little is known about them, there were versions of the agrarian secret societies of Ireland among the Lancashire Irish; see ‘The Irish in Lancashire’, pp 345–9.
87 During 1846–71 trade unionism had little relevance for the Lancashire Irish socially or industrially Clerical opposition in the 1830s and 184OS in part explains Irish non-participation. More important is the fact that only a very few Irishmen worked in organisable trades during the mid-nineteenth century.
88 The indexes to the Registry of Friendly Societies for Lancashire do not reveal a single obviously Irish club that deposited their rules with the Registry up to 1875. Registry of Friendly Societies, Lancashire, 1774–1875 (P.R.O., Indexes to rules and amendments, series I, F.S.2).
89 Head Constable Grieg to watch committee, 26 Sept. 1865 (L.G.L., Head constable’s reports to the watch committee, 252POL/2/3, no. 170, pp 209–10).
90 For a description of an ‘indescribable’ meeting of St Patrick’s Sick and Burial Society see Liverpool Mercury, 9 Aug. 1865.
91 Bennet, , Father Nugent of Liverpool, pp 40–41.
92 Porcupine (Liverpool), 2 Mar. 1867; Superintendent Ride to Head Constable Grieg, 6 June 1866 (L.G.L.; Head constable’s reports, 352POL/2/3, no. 133, p. 161).
93 Gosden, op. cit., pp 66–7.
94 Geo. Brown, Relationem de statu religionis, 11 July 1847 ; Diocese of Liverpool, Visitation returns, 1865 (L.R.O., RGLv).
95 Catholic Young Men’s Society, Report of the second general conferenee, 13 Oct. 1862 (Liverpool, 1862), p. 31.
96 Ibid., pp 20–22, 24; Curley, , Catholic history of Oldham, p. 51 ; Foster, , Class struggle, p. 245 ; St John’s log-book (1860–64), 28 Apr., 9 June 1861.
97 Burke, , Catholic history of Liverpool, p. 125.
98 Liverpool Courier, 16 July 1851; Liverpool Mercury, 19 Mar. 1852; The Times, 17 Mar. 1856.
99 For an account of the failure of the Free Press see ‘The Irish in Lancashire’, pp 367–70.
100 Lancashire Free Press, 1 Oct. 1859; Northern Press, 9 June 1860.
101 For a detailed study of St Patrick’s day commemorations in Lancashire see ‘The Irish in Lancashire’ pp 355–65.
102 Porcupine (Liverpool), 30 Mar. 1861
103 A paper entitled ‘The Chartists and the Irish Confederates in Lancashire, 1848’, based on day-to-day police reports in home office files at the P.R.O. is in preparation.
104 The I.R.B, became a very powerful social, as well as political, force in urban Lancashire during the 1860s. See my ‘Lancashire fenian-ism, 1864–71 ’, which is to appear in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1977.
105 Larkin, , ‘Church, state and nation’, p. 1244.
1 This paper is based largely on pt III of my Ph.D. thesis, The ‘Irish in Lancashire, 1846-71 : a social history’ (University of Dublin, 1974). copies of which are available for consultation in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. The introductory section, which deals with the role of the catholic church in Irish society, is the result of my work with Dr Sam Clark, Dept of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, who is studying political mobilisatinn among Irish farmers during the second half of the nineteenth century I am grateful to Dr Clark both for financial backing and encouragement.
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