Books: Irish Race in the Past and the Present

A >> Aug. J. Thebaud >> Irish Race in the Past and the Present

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These few words are enough to show that the penal laws were in
reality a decree of outlawry against the Irish--stamping them,
not as true subjects, but as mere slaves and helots, fit only to
be hewers of wood and drawers of water at the bidding of their
lords and masters.

But there are mere human rights, inalienable in man, and sacred
among all nations, which were trampled upon in that desolated
land together with all inferior rights. Such are the rights of
worshipping God, of properly educating children, of preserving a
just subordination in the family and promoting harmony and
happiness among its members. These natural rights were more
openly and shamelessly violated, if that were possible, than all
others; and this in itself would have made the eighteenth
century one of gloom and woe for Irishmen.

It was for their religion chiefly that the Irish had undergone
all the calamities and scourges which have been described. Had
they only, at the very beginning of the Reformation, bowed to
the new dogma of the spiritual supremacy of the English kings;
had they a little later accepted the Thirty-nine Articles of
Queen Elizabeth; had they, at a subsequent epoch, opined in
chorus with the Scotch Presbyterians, and given the Bible as
their authority for all kinds of absurdities and atrocities,
mental and moral; had they, in a word, as they remarked to
Sussex, changed their religion four times in twelve years, they
would have escaped the wrath of Henry VIII., the crafty and
cruel policy of Elizabeth, the shifty expediency of the Stuarts,
the barbarity of the Cromwellian era, and finally the ingenious
atrocities of the penal laws.

Even if, in the midst of some of the extremities to which they
had been reduced, they had at any time resolved to conform and
take the oaths prescribed, all their miseries would have been at
an end, and their immediate admission to all the rights and
privileges of British citizens secured. From time to time, in
individual cases, they witnessed the sudden and magical effect
produced by conformity on the part of those who gave up
resistance altogether, and who, from whatever motive, bowed to
the inevitable conditions on which men were admitted to live
peaceably on Irish soil, and to the enjoyment of the blessings
of this life; such condition being the abjuration of Catholicity.
But so few were found to take advantage of this easy chance
forever held out to them, that a man might well wonder at their
constancy did he not reflect that they set their duty to God
above all things. The fact is patent--they had a conscience, and
knew what it meant.

Having then surrendered their all for the sake of their religion,
the free exercise of that might at least have been left them;
and since the choice lay between the two alternatives of
enjoying the natural right of worshipping their God or
submitting to all the sacrifices previously mentioned (seemingly
the meaning of the various oaths prescribed by law), it can only
be looked upon as an additional cruelty to violently deprive
them of what they chose to preserve at all cost. But the authors
of the statutes did not see the matter in this light. They could
not lose such an opportunity of inflicting new tortures on their
victims; on the contrary, they would have considered all their
labor lost had they not endeavored to coerce the very thing
least subject to coercion, the religious feeling of the human
soul. Accordingly, the resolution was taken to deprive them of
every possible facility for the exercise of their religion, that
the fire within might give no sign of its warmth.

True, the Irish Catholics were not, as the Christians under the
edicts of old Rome, to be summoned before the public courts and
there abjure their religion or die. It is strange that the
rulers of Ireland stopped short at this; that they invented
nothing in their laws at least equivalent, unless the statutes
that compelled every person under fine to be present at
Protestant worship on Sundays be interpreted to mean, what it
very much resembles, an attempt at coercion of the very soul.
Still there was no edict openly proscribing the name of Catholic,
and punishing its bearer with death.

But the measures adopted and actually enforced were in reality
equivalent, and would more effectually than any pagan edict have
produced the same result, if the Irish race had shown the least
wavering in their traditional steadiness of purpose.

The first of the measures devised for this end would have been
completely efficacious with any other people or race. It was a
twofold measure: 1. All bishops, priests, and monks, were to
depart from the kingdom, liable to capital punishment should
they return. 2. All laymen were to be compelled to assist at the
Protestant service every Sunday, under penalty of a fine for
each offence: the fine mounting with the repetition of the
offence, so that, in the end, it would reach an enormous sum.
Only let such a policy as this be persevered in for a quarter of
a century in any country on earth except Ireland, and, in that
country the Catholic religion will cease to exist.

"The Catholic clergy," says Matthew O'Connor--and the reader
will remember he was a witness of what he described-- "submitted
to their hard destiny with Christian resignation. They repaired
to the seaport towns fixed for their embarcation, and took an
everlasting farewell of their country and friends, of every
thing dear and valuable in this world. Many of them were
descending in the vale of years, and must have been anxious to
deposit their bones with the ashes of their ancestors; they were
now transported to foreign lands, where they would find no fond
breast to rely upon, no 'pious tear' to attend their obsequies.
Yet their enemies could not deprive them of the consolations of
religion: that first-born offspring of Heaven still cheered them
in adversity and exile, smoothed the rugged path of death, and
closed their last faltering accents with benedictions on their
country, and prayers for their persecutors.

"Such as were apprehended after the time limited for deportation,
were loaded with irons and imprisoned until transported, to
attest, on some foreign shore, the weakness of the government,
and the cruelty of their countrymen. Some few, disabled from age
and infirmities from emigration, sought shelter in caves, or
implored and received the concealment of Protestants, whose
humane feelings were superior to their prejudices, and who
atoned, in a great degree, by their generous sympathy, for the
wanton cruelty of their party.

"The clause inflicting the punishment of death on such as should
return from exile was suited only for the sanguinary days of
Tiberius or Domitian, and shocked the humanity of an enlightened
age. William of Orange, whose necessities compelled him to give
his sanction to the clause, would never consent to its execution."

Nevertheless, it was afterward enforced on several occasions,
and, during the whole century of penal laws, it not only
remained on the statute-book ad terrorem, but whatever clergyman
disregarded it could only expect to be treated with its utmost
rigor. From Captain South's account, it appears that in 1698 the
number of clergy in Ireland consisted of four hundred and ninety-
five regulars and eight hundred and ninety-two seculars; and the
number of regulars shipped off that year to foreign parts
amounted to four hundred and twenty-four--namely, from Dublin,
one hundred and fifty-three; from Galway, one hundred and ninety;
from Cork, seventy-five; and twenty-six from Waterford.

But such a measure was of too sweeping a character to be carried
out to the letter; many of the proscribed priests, seculars for
the most part, escaped the pursuit of the government spies, and
remained concealed in the country. The bishops had all been
obliged to fly; but a few years later, under Anne, several
returned, for they knew that, without the exercise of their
religious functions, the Catholic religion must have perished;
and, in order that they might continue the succession of the
priesthood, confirm the children, and encourage the people to
stand firm in their faith, they ran the hazard of the gibbet. Of
this fact the persecutors soon became aware, and the Commons of
Ireland declared openly that "several popish bishops had lately
come into the kingdom, and exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction
within the same, and continued the succession of the Romish
priesthood by ordaining great numbers of popish clergymen, and
that their return was owing to defect in the laws."

To cover this defect, they invented the "registry law." They did
not state in express terms their intention of exporting them
again, but their object was clearly manifested by the subsequent
enactment of 1704. By the registry law "all popish priests then
in the kingdom should, at the general quarter sessions in each
county, register their places of abode, age, parishes, and time
of ordination, the names of the respective bishops who ordained
them, and give security for their constant residence in their
respective districts, under penalty of imprisonment and
transportation, and of being treated as 'high traitors' in case
of return."

It is clear that, with the execution of this law, the exertions
of the police and of informers would have been superfluous, as
the clergy were compelled to act as their own police and inform
on themselves. The act, moreover, seems to have been prepared
with a view to another bill, which was soon after passed, for
total expulsion. It was therefore nothing else than a
preliminary measure devised to insure the success of this second
act, and prevent the recurrence of the former "defect in the
laws."

A new explanatory statute was accordingly drawn up, requiring
the clergy to take the oath of abjuration before the 23d of
March, 1710, under the penalties of transportation for life, and
of high-treason if ever after found in the country. This bill,
then, set them the alternative of abandoning either their
country or their principles.

At the same time, for the encouragement of informers, the
Commons resolved that "the prosecuting and informing against
papists was an honorable service." Never before had a like
declaration issued from any body in any nation, least of all by
legislators, in favor of the confessedly meanest of all
occupations; and it is doubtful if the most tyrannical of the
Roman Caesars would ever have thought of mentioning the
"honorable service" of the delatores whom they employed for the
speedy destruction of those whose wealth they coveted. "Genus
hominum," says Tacitus, "publico exitio repertum."

While on this subject, it has been remarked that most of the
Irish informers amassed wealth by their bills of "discovery,"
whereas those of the days of Tiberius generally fell victims to
their own artifices.

The eagerness for blood-money tracked the clergy to their
loneliest retreats, and dragged them thence before persecuting
tribunals, by whose sentence they were doomed to perpetual
banishment. They must all have finally disappeared from the
island, if the people, at last grown indignant at such baseness
and cruelty, had not, by the loudness of their execrations,
checked the activity of the priest-hunters. Wherever they dared
show themselves, they were pelted with stones, and exposed to
the summary vengeance of a maddened people.

The detestable "profession" became at last so infamous and
unprofitable that foreign Jews were almost the only ones found
willing to undertake this "honorable service;" and it is stated
in the "Historia Dominicana," that one Garzia, a Portuguese Jew,
was the most active of those human blood-hounds, and that, in
1718, he contrived to have seven of the proscribed clergy
detected and apprehended.

We cannot speak of the most revolting measure ever intended to
be taken against Catholic priests; namely mutilation, so long
and with such energy denied by Protestants, who were themselves
indignant at the mere mention of it, but now clearly proved by
the archives of France, where documents exist showing that the
non-enactment of such an infamy was solely due to the severe
words of remonstrance sent to England by the Duke of Orleans,
regent of France during the minority of Louis XV.

As late as the middle of the century, in 1744, a sudden increase
of rigor took place; intentions of conspiracy were ascribed to
Catholics as usual, and without any motive whatever, unless it
was caused by the sight of some religious houses, which had been
quietly and unobtrusively reopened during the few years previous.
All at once the government issued a proclamation for "the
suppression of monasteries, the apprehension of ecclesiastics,
the punishment of magistrates remiss in the execution of the
laws, and the encouragement of spies and informers by an
increase of reward."

It was a repetition of the old story; a cruel persecution broke
out in every part of the island. From the country priests fled
to the metropolis, seeking to hide themselves amid the multitude
of its citizens. Others fled to mountains and caverns, and the
holy sacrifice was again offered up in lone places under the
bare heavens, with sentinels to watch for the "prowling of the
wolf," and no other outward dignity than that the grandeur of
the forest and the rugged mountains gave.

In the cities the Catholics assisted at the celebration of the
divine mysteries in stable-yards, garrets, and such obscure
places as sheltered them from the pursuit of the magistrates. On
one occasion, while the congregation (assembled in an old
building) was kneeling to receive the benediction, the floor
gave way, and all were buried beneath the ruin; many were killed,
the priest among others; some were maimed for life, and
remained to the end of their lives monuments of the cruelty of
the government. The dead and dying, and the wounded, were
carried through the streets on carts; and the sad spectacle at
last moved the Protestants themselves to sympathy. The
government was compelled to give way, and allow the persecuted
Catholics to enjoy without further molestation the private
exercise of their religion.

But that this was not a willing concession on the part of the
reigning power is manifest enough from the steady, unswerving,
contrary policy pursued until that time. It was simply forced to
give way to outraged public opinion, then openly opposed
throughout Europe to persecution for conscience' sake.

With religion education was also proscribed. Already, under
William of Orange, had papist school-masters been forbidden to
teach, but the penalty of their disobedience to the law did not
go beyond a fine of a few pounds. So that the Irish youth could
still, with some precautionary prudence, find teachers of the
Greek and Latin languages, of mathematics, history, and
geography. In Munster particularly schools and academies of
literature flourished; the ardor of the people for the
acquirement of knowledge could not be balked by such paltry
obstacles as the laws of William III.

But the Irish Parliament under Anne could not rest satisfied
with such mild measures. By the "Explanatory Act" of 1710, the
school-master in Ireland was subjected to the same punishment as
the priest whom he accompanied everywhere. Prison,
transportation, death itself, became the reward of teaching. And
in proportion as other laws, severer yet, prevented the people
from sending their children abroad to be educated, and these
laws were renewed occasionally and made more stringent and
effective, the result was the total impossibility of Catholic
children receiving any education higher than that of the house.

The final result is known to all. The "hedge-school" was
established, that being the only way left of imparting
elementary knowledge; and it required Irish ingenuity and Irish
aptitude for shifts to invent such a system, for system it was,
and carry it through for so long a time.

But even the last sanctuary of home was yet to be sacrilegiously
invaded; the most sacred of human rights could not be left to
the persecuted people, and the strongest bonds of family
affection were if possible to be broken asunder. What tyranny
had never yet dared attempt in any age or country was to become
a law in Ireland; and that holy feeling by which the members of
a family are held together, in obedence to one of the most
necessary and solemn commandments of God, could not be left
undisturbed in the bosom of an Irish child. The father's rule
over his children and the honor and love due by the child to its
parent, were, in fact, declared by English legislation of no
value, and fit subjects for cruel interference, introducing
irresistible temptation.

Yes, by the laws enacted in the reign of Anne, the son was to be
set against the father, and this for the sake of religion! It
was a part of the Irish statutes, and for a long time it took
occasional effect, that any son of a Catholic who should turn
Protestant at any age, even the tenderest, should alone succeed
to the family estate, which from the day of the son's conversion
could neither be sold nor charged even with a debt of legacy.
From that same day the son was taken from his father's roof and
delivered into the custody of some Protestant guardian. No tie,
however sacred, no claim, however dear, was respected by those
statesmen, who at the very time were the loudest to boast of
their love for freedom, while trampling under foot the most
indispensable rights of Nature.

The wickedest ingenuity of man could certainly not go beyond
this to debase, degrade, and destroy a nation. After
unprecedented calamities of former ages, we find millions of men
reduced by other men, calling themselves Christians, to a
condition of pagan helots, deprived of all rights and treated
more barbarously than slaves. And all the while they were
allowed, induced, encouraged to put an end to their misery by
simply saying one word, taking one oath, "conforming " as the
expression had it. Nevertheless they steadily refused to speak
that word, to take that oath, to conform; that is to say, to
abjure their religion. A few, weak in faith, or carried away by
sudden passion, a burst of despair, subscribe to the required
oath, assist as demanded at the religious services on Sunday,
suddenly rise to distinction, are sure of preserving their
wealth, or even enter into sole possession of the family
property, to the exclusion of all its other members. But such
rare examples, instead of rousing the envy of the rest, excite
only their contempt and execration. To them they are henceforth
apostates, renegades to their faith, cast out from the bosom of
the nation; and their countrymen hug their misery rather than
exchange it for honors and wealth purchased by broken honor,
lost faith, and cowardly desertion of the cause for which their
country was what it was.

While the cowards were so few, and the brave men so many, the
latter constituting indeed the whole bulk of the people, they
were knit together as a band of brethren, never to be estranged
from each other. If any thing is calculated to form a nation, to
give it strength, to render it indestructible, imperishable, it
is undoubtedly the ordeal through which they passed without
shrinking, and out of which they came with one mind, one purpose,
animated by one holy feeling, the love of their religion, and
the determination to keep it at all hazard.

Yes, at any moment throughout this long century, they might have
changed their condition and come out at once to the enjoyment of
all the rights dear to men, by what means is best expressed in
the few words of Edmund Burke:

"Let three millions of people" (the number of Irishmen at the
time he spoke) "but abandon all that they and their ancestors
have been taught to believe sacred, and forswear it publicly in
terms most degrading, scurrilous, and indecent, for men of
integrity and virtue, and abuse the whole of their former lives,
and slander the education they have received, and nothing more
is required of them. There is no system of folly, or impiety, or
blasphemy, or atheism, into which they may not throw themselves,
and which they may not profess openly and as a system,
consistently with the enjoyment of all the privileges of a free
citizen in the happiest constitution in the world."

Thus does the reason of man commend their constancy; but that
constancy required something more than human strength. God it
was who supported them. He alone could grant power of will
strong enough to uphold men plunged for so long a time in such
an abyss of wretchedness. To him could they cry out with truth:
"It is only owing to Divine mercy that we have not perished;"
misericordias Domini, quod non sumus consumpti!

But human reason can better comprehend the effect produced on a
vast multitude of people by oppression so unexampled in its
severity. An immense development of manhood and self-dependence,
an heroic determination to bear every trial for conscience' sake,
and a certainty of succeeding, in the long-run, in breaking the
heavy chain and casting off the intolerable yoke --such was the
effect.

It has been asserted by some authors, who have written on that
terrible eighteenth century in Ireland, that the spirit of the
people was entirely broken, that there was no energy left among
them, and that the imposition of burdens heavier still, were
such a thing possible, could scarcely elicit from them even the
semblance of remonstrance. It was only natural to think so; but,
in our opinion, this is only true of the external despondency
under which the people was bowed, but utterly false with respect
to a lack of mental energy.

There certainly was no general attempt at insurrection on their
part; nor did they take refuge in that last resource of despair--
death after a vain vengeance. If the writers referred to would
have preferred this last fatal resource of wounded pride, they
are right in their estimate of the Irish; but they forget that
the victims were Christians, and could lend no ear to a
vengeance which is futile and a despair which is forbidden.
There was a better course open before them, and they followed it:
to resign themselves to the will of a God they believed in and
for whom they suffered, and wait patiently for the day of
deliverance. It was sure to come; and if those then living were
doomed not to see that happy day, they knew that they would
leave it as an inheritance to their children.

Those writers would doubtless have been satisfied of the
existence of a will among the people, and their conduct would
have met with greater approval, had the attempts of some
individuals at private revenge been more general and successful;
if the bands of Rapparees, White Boys, and others, had wrought
more evil upon their oppressors, although they could not prepare
them to renew the struggle on a large scale with better prospect
of success.

But this could not be; success could never have been reached by
such a road, and it was useless to attempt it. At that time,
there existed no possibility of the Irish recovering their
rights by force. Meanwhile Providence was not forgetful of those
who were fighting the braver moral battle of suffering and
endurance for their religion. It was preparing the nation for a
future life of great purposes, by purifying it in the crucible
of affliction, and preserving the people pure and undebased.

Nowhere has the period of calamity been so protracted and so
severe. Ireland stands alone in a history of wretchedness of
seven centuries' duration. She stands alone, particularly
inasmuch as, with her, the affliction has gone on continually
increasing until quite recently, unrefreshed by periods of
relief and glimpses of bright hope. The sinking spirits of the
people, it is true, have been buoyed up from time to time by
sanguine expectations; but only to find their expectations
crowned with bitter disappointment and sink deeper again in the
sea of their afflictions.

Nevertheless, through all that time the Irish continued morally
strong, and ready at the right moment to leap into the stature
of giants in strength and resolution. How they did so will be
seen, and the simplicity of the explanation will be matter for
surprise. But it is fitting first to set in the strongest light
the assertion that the Irish were really debased by the
calamities of that age, that they possessed no self-dependence
at a time when that was the only thing left to them.

This view is thus expressed in Godkin's "History of Ireland:"
"Too well did the penal code accomplish its dreadful work of
debasement on the intellects, morals, and physical condition of
a people sinking in degeneracy from age to age, till all manly
spirit, all virtuous sense of personal independence and
responsibility was nearly extinct, and the very features--vacant,
timid, cunning, and unreflective--betrayed the crouching slave
within."