The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and the Fall of Parnell, 1888-1891

352 Pages·1979·53.123 MB·English

by  Emmet Larkin

Emmet Larkin demonstrates in this book that a
de facto Irish state was created and consolidated by
1891, a generation before it became a legal reality
in the Irish Free State'of 1921. Larkin argues that
the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell
had constructed a political alliance of Leader,
Party, and Bishops that, in its dealings with the
British government and indeed the Holy See itself,
behaved as an independent state. This original
thesis will force historians to take a fresh look at
the course of events in Ireland during the late
nineteenth century.
Modern historians of this period have tended to
concentrate upon the charismatic figure of Parnell,
whose career abounded in dramatic episodes. In
contrast, Larkin looks at the same period and the
same issues from the viewpoint of those Irish
churchmen who commanded as much power in
Ireland as did Parnell and who, unlike Parnell,
committed their attitudes to paper. By building
evidence from episcopal correspondence and from
British and Roman sources—by letting them tell
their own story—Larkin makes this study in many
ways a source book for scholars working on other
aspects of Irish history.
Despite the efforts of the British Conservative
government to break up the alliance between
Parnell, the Irish Bishops, and the Irish Parliamen¬
tary party by introducing proposals for higher
education for Roman Catholics and attempting to
persuade the Holy See to interfere in their interest
with regard to the Irish land agitation, and despite
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THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN IRELAND
and the
FALL OF PARNELL,
1888-1891
The Most Reverend Dr. William J. Walsh
Photograph by William Lawrence, Dublin
Reprinted by permission of the National Library of Ireland
THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN IRELAND
and the
FALL OF PARNELL,
1888-1891
by
Emmet Larkin
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
© 1979 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-22056
ISBN 0-8078-1352-4
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Larkin, Emmet 1927—
The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and the fall of
Parnell, 1888-1891.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Ireland—Politics and government—1837-1901.
2. Irish question. 3. Parnell, Charles Stewart,
1846-1891. 4. Catholic Church in Ireland—History.
I. Title
DA957.9.L37 322’. 1'09415 78-22056
ISBN 0-8078-1352-4
To
MAY McDONAGH
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/romancatholicchuOOemme