A small body of “independent Nationalists,” led by Mr William O’Brien and Mr T. M. Healy, voiced the general dislike in Ireland of the Budget of 1909, the rejection of which by the House of Lords had precipitated the dissolution of parliament. But although this band of free-lances was a menace to Mr Redmond’s authority and to the solidarity of the “pledge-bound” Irish parliamentary party, the two sections did not differ in their desire to get rid of the “veto” of the House of Lords, which they recognized as the standing obstacle to Home Rule, and which it was the avowed policy of the government to abolish.
Bibliography.—Ancient: The Annals of the Four Masters, ed. J. O’Donovan (1851), compiled in Donegal under Charles I., gives a continuous account of Celtic Ireland down to 1616. The independent Annals of Lough Cé (Rolls series) end with 1590. The Topographia and Expugnatio of Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls series) are chiefly valuable for his account of the Anglo-Norman invaders and for descriptions of the country. Sir J. T. Gilbert’s Viceroys of Ireland (Dublin, 1865) gives a connected view of the feudal establishment to the accession of Henry VIII. The Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland in the Public Record Office extends from 1171 to 1307. Christopher Pembridge’s Annals from 1162 to 1370 were published by William Camden and reprinted in Sir J. T. Gilbert’s Chartularies of St Mary’s Abbey (Dublin, 1884). The Annals of Clyn, Dowling and Grace have been printed by the Irish Archaeological Society and the Celtic Society.
For the 16th century see volumes ii. and iii. of the Printed State Papers (1834), and the Calendars of State Papers, Ireland, including that of the Carew MSS. 1515 to 1603. See also Richard Stanihurst’s Chronicle, continued by John Hooker, which is included in Holinshed’s Chronicles; E. Spenser, View of the State of Ireland, edited by H. Morley (1890); Fynes Moryson, History of Ireland (1735); Thomas Stafford, Pacata Hibernia (1810); and R. Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors (1885–1890).
For the 17th century see the Calendars of Irish State Papers, 1603–1665 (Dublin, 1772); Strafford Letters, edited by W. Knowler (1739): Thomas Carte, Life of Ormonde (1735–1736), and Ormonde Papers (1739); Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery, State letters (1743); the Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1641–1652 (1879–1880), and History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland, 1641–1649 (1882–1891), both edited by Sir J. T. Gilbert; Edmund Ludlow’s Memoirs, edited by C. H. Firth (1894); the Memoirs of James Touchet, earl of Castlehaven (1815); and Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, edited by T. Carlyle (1904). See also J. P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland (1870); Denis Murphy, Cromwell in Ireland (1885): M. A. Hickson, Ireland in the 17th Century (1884); Sir John Temple, History of the Irish Rebellion (1812); P. Walsh, History of the Remonstrance (1674); George Story, Impartial History of the Wars of Ireland (1693); Thomas Witherow, Derry and Enniskillen (1873); Philip Dwyer, Siege of Derry (1893); Lord Macaulay, History of England; and S. R. Gardiner, History of England, 1603–1656. Further writings which may be consulted are: The Embassy in Ireland of Rinuccini, 1645–1649, translated from the Italian by A. Hutton (1873); Sir William Petty’s Down Survey, edited by T. A. Larcom (1851), and his Economic Writings, edited by C. H. Hull (1899); Charles O’Kelly’s Macariae Excidium, edited by J. C. O’Callaghan (1850); and A Jacobite Narrative of the War in Ireland, 1688–91, edited by Sir J. T. Gilbert (1892).
For the 18th century J. A. Froude’s English in Ireland and W. E. H. Lecky’s History of England cover the whole ground. See also the Letters 1724–1738 of Archbishop Hugh Boulter, edited by G. Faulkner (1770); the Works of Dean Swift; John Campbell’s Philosophical Survey of Ireland (1778); Arthur Young’s Tour in Ireland (1780); Henry Grattan’s Life of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan (1839–1846); the Correspondence of the Marquess Cornwallis, edited by C. Ross (1859); Wolfe Tone’s Autobiography, edited by R. B. O’Brien (1893); and R. R. Madden’s United Irishmen (1842–1846).
For the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century see the Annual Register; R. M. Martin, Ireland before and after the Union (1848); Sir T. Wyse, Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association (1829); G. L. Smyth, Ireland, Historical and Statistical (1844–1849); Sir C. E. Trevelyan, The Irish Crisis (1880); N. W. Senior, Journals, Conversations and Essays relating to Ireland (1868); Sir G. C. Lewis, On Local Disturbances in Ireland and on the Irish Church Question (1836); John Morley, Life of W. E. Gladstone; Lord Fitzmaurice, Life of Lord Granville (1905); and R. Barry O’Brien, Life of Parnell (1898). Other authorities are Isaac Butt, Irish Federalism (1870); H. O. Arnold-Forster, The Truth about the Land League (1883); A. V. Dicey, England’s Case against Home Rule (1886); W. E. Gladstone, History of an Idea (1886), and a reply to this by J. E. Webb entitled The Queen’s Enemies in America (1886); and Mrs E. Lynn Linton, About Ireland (1890). See also the Report of the Parnell Special Commission (1890); the Report of the Bessborough Commission (1881), of the Richmond Commission (1881), of the Cowper Commission (1887), and of the Mathew Commission (1893), and the Report of the Congested Districts Board (1899).
For the church in Ireland see: Henry Cotton, Fasti ecclesiae hibernicae (1848–1878); W. M. Brady, The Episcopal Succession (Rome, 1876); R. Mant, History of the Church of Ireland (1840); J. T. Ball, The Reformed Church in Ireland, 1537–1886 (1886); and W. D. Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (1875). A. Theiner’s Vetera Monumenta (Rome, 1864) contains documents concerning the medieval church, and there are many others in Ussher’s Works, and for a later period in Cardinal Moran’s Spicilegium Ossoriense (1874–1884). The Works of Sir James Ware, edited by Walter Harris, are generally useful, and Alice S. Green’s The Making of Ireland and its Undoing (1908), although written from a partisan standpoint, may also be consulted. (R. Ba.)
IRELAND, CHURCH OF. The ancient Church of Ireland (described in the Irish Church Act 1869 by this its historic title) has a long and chequered history, which it will be interesting to trace in outline. The beginnings of Christianity in Ireland are difficult to trace, but there is no doubt that the first Christian missionary whose labours were crowned with any considerable success was Patrick (fl. c. 450), who has always been reckoned the patron saint of the country. For six centuries the Church of which he was the founder occupied a remarkable position in Western Christendom. Ireland, in virtue at once of its geographical situation and of the spirit of its people, was less affected than other countries by the movements of European thought; and thus its development, social and religious, was largely independent of foreign influences, whether Roman or English. In full communion with the Latin Church, the Irish long preserved many peculiarities, such as their monastic system and the date at which Easter was kept, which distinguished them in discipline, though not conspicuously in doctrine, from the Christians of countries more immediately under papal control (see Ireland: Early History). The incessant incursions of the Danes, who were the scourge of the land for a period of nearly three hundred years, prevented the Church from redeeming the promise of her infancy; and at the date of the English conquest of Ireland (1172) she had lost much of her ancient zeal and of her independence. By this time she had come more into line with the rest of Europe, and the Synod of Cashel put the seal to a new policy by its acknowledgment of the papal jurisdiction and by its decrees assimilating the Church, in ritual and usages, to that of England. There was no thought of a breach of continuity, but the distinctive features of Celtic Christianity gradually disappeared from this time onwards. English influence was strong only in the region round Dublin (known as the Pale); and beyond this district the Irish were not disposed to view with favour any ecclesiastical reforms which had their origin in the sister country. Thus from the days of Henry VIII. the Reformation movement was hindered in Ireland by national prejudice, and it never succeeded in gaining the allegiance of the Irish people as a whole. The policy which directed its progress was blundering and stupid, and reflects little credit on the English statesmen who were responsible for it. No attempt was made to commend the principles of the Reformation to the native Irish by conciliating national sentiment; and the policy which forbade the translation of the Prayer Book into the Irish language, and suggested that where English was not understood Latin might be used as an alternative, was doomed to failure from the beginning. And, in fact, the reformed church of Ireland is to this day the church of a small section only of the population.
The Reformation period begins with the passing of the Irish Supremacy Act 1537. As in England, the changes in religion of successive sovereigns alternately checked and promoted the progress of the movement, although in Ireland the mass of the people were less deeply affected by the religious controversies of the times than in Great Britain. At Mary’s accession five bishops either abandoned, or were deprived of, their sees; but the Anglo-Irish who remained faithful to the Reformation were not subjected to persecution such as would have been their fate on the other side of the Channel. Again, under Elizabeth, while two bishops (William Walsh of Meath and Thomas Leverous of Kildare) were deprived for open resistance
