The enactment from the 1690s of a series of discriminatory
measures directed against Catholic clergy and laity had an immediate
and distressing effect on County Clare. The first two decades of the
18th Century were particularly difficult. Restrictions on the practise
of Catholic worship placed the vast majority of the population outside
the protection of the law. For almost a century Catholics in Clare ceased
to matter in the public or commercial life of the country. Among other
restrictions, Catholics were forbidden to buy land, to inherit it from
Protestants or lease it for more than 31 years. Other legislation prohibited
Catholics from practising law, from teaching or running schools and from
holding office in government. They were also excluded from parliament,
the army and the navy. By 1728 they had completely lost the right to
vote.
In response to the 1704 Registration
Act, which required Catholic priests to register with the authorities,
45 Clare priests registered in Ennis on July 11th, 1704, each having 2
securicors of £50 each. Many priests refused to register however
and went into hiding. The wooded countryside and a sympathetic peasantry
afforded them a safe refuge. By 1710 all but two priests in the county
were deemed outlawed as the rest refused to take the Oath of Abjuration
introduced in 1709. The Oath denied the rights of the Stuarts to the throne
of England and affirmed that the succession belonged to the Protestant
line.
Alarmed at an outbreak of agrarian violence in 1711
Dublin Castle ordered William Butler, Clare High Sheriff to arrest
all priests in the county.
24 priests obeyed Butler's summons and were imprisoned in Ennis jail.
Their voluntary surrender impressed Dublin Castle and they were permitted
to leave the overcrowded and unhygienic jail and lodge in nearby houses.
The search for those who failed to surrender intensified. Despite having
the assistance of some of the prominent gentry the Sheriff captured only
two priests, John Moylan, P.P., Ogonneloe and William Connellann, P.P.,
Tulla. Edmund Gleeson, P.P., Clonlara, though discovered was not arrested,
being in very poor health. Butler’s difficulty was increased by
the refusal of his gaoler and many other Protestant gentlemen to assist
in the search. In a letter to Dublin Castle Butler remarked that it was
'easier to catch wolves or foxes than priests'. The native forests which
still abounded made detection of these priests extremely difficult. In
1714 the Protestant Bishop of Limerick complained to Dublin Castle that
one 'David Fitzgerald a friar' had escaped from his pursuers into the
refuge of the woods of County Clare. Nor was it easy to keep captured
priests in custody. In 1712 an elusive priest Flan Brodye escaped from
a Sixmilebridge constable. Recaptured in 1717 he was placed on board
a ship awaiting transportation when he again escaped. The £20 reward
offered for his recapture named him as Brodye, alias Brown, alias Culligan.
One of the greatest threats to the freedom of the priest lay with the ‘priest
catcher’. The infamous Edward Tyrrell, of Galway a professional
priest catcher, included in a 1712 report that Counsellor McNamara, of
Killaloe had 2 sons studying for the priesthood on the continent, Florence
McNamara at Louvain College, his brother at St. Germains. A warrant for
the arrest of Florence was later issued when he returned to serve in
Clare.
As the policy of extinguishing Catholicism
was gradually abandoned the position of the church improved. By
1731, there were 52 'Mass Houses' in the county, 55 priests plus a number
of 'strolling priests'. At intervals however, persecution still occurred.
With the threat of a Stuart invasion High Sheriff Westropp in 1745 ordered
searches in Ennis and West Clare towns 'for priests or arms' and closed
up the Mass Houses. These Mass houses were simple thatched structures
erected by impoverished communities. As the fortunes of the Catholic Church
improved those of the Protestant Church deteriorated rapidly. In 1763,
62 out of 76 parishes had no Protestant Church and most rectors were non-resident
in their parishes. The collection of tithes from an alienated people,
to support the established church, resulted in a great feeling of injustice
and intermittent outbreaks of agrarian violence during the 18th century.
Pasture land was free of tithes but the humble potato plot of the cottier
was not.
With the partial dismantling of the
Penal Code, in the late 18th century Catholics achieved further progress.
More substantial and ornate churches
were constructed. Progress was slow however. Dutton’s Statistical
Survey of Clare in 1808 remarks on Corofin market house also being used
as the Catholic chapel.
Sporadic efforts at proselytising in Clare came to nought despite some
initial successes. John Wesley visited Clare 6 times between 1756 and
1776 and met strenuous opposition from the Catholic clergy. The Moravian
settlement founded in Corofin in 1788 at the invitation of landlord Edward
Burton lasted only eight years.
By 1800 despite the ‘Penal Law’ enactments Catholicism remained
the religion of almost the entire Clare population. The governing and
propertied class however had become solidly Protestant. Provisions relating
to property had prevented any increase in the holdings of Catholic landlords.
These provisions were effectively enforced and almost completed the destruction
of the Catholic gentry in the county. Also many substantial Catholic
landowners converted to the established religion to ensure retention
of their estates. Thomas Arthur of Broadford, a descendant of an illustrious
Limerick Catholic family, who had an estate of over 3,000 acres in South
East Clare converted in 1750. Patrick Moloney of Tulla, Christopher O’Brien
Ennistymon, James Lysaght, Ballykeal, the Stacpools of Edenvale, O’Callaghan-Westropps
of Tulla were among many other Clare Catholic landowners who found it
advantageous to conform.
After 1760 the threat of a Catholic Stuart dynasty was
ended with the death of Cardinal Henry Stuart the last surviving son
of James III, "the
old Pretender". Thereafter, the Penal laws were gradually relaxed.
By the 1770’s Catholic priests and chapels were openly tolerated
(but still illegal). The first major relief came in 1771 with the Gardiner
Relief Act, which allowed Catholics to lease land. More favourable reliefs
for Catholics came under Grattan’s Parliament in 1782 and 1793.
The threat of a French invasion was a factor in granting further relief
to Catholics, and Maynooth Seminary was founded and grant-aided by the
government in 1795 to ensure a loyal priesthood. By 1800 the Penal laws
against the practice of religion, ownership of property and voting had
been removed. However, Catholics were still debarred from becoming M.P.s
or holding commissions in the army, while other restrictions precluded
more than one bell and also steeples on Catholic chapels. These last
vestiges of the Penal laws were not removed until after the historic
victory of Daniel O’Connell in the Clare election of 1828. However
relicts of the Penal times may still be seen in such features as Mass
rocks in the countryside, and in such practices as "station masses" which
are still held in some parishes.
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