The Preacher and the Prelate
The Preacher and the Prelate

Author: Patricia Byrne

Publisher: Merrion Press

Published: 2018-04-03

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1785371703

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This is the extraordinary story of an audacious fight for souls on famine ravaged Achill Island in the nineteenth century. Religious ferment swept Ireland in the early 1800s and evangelical Protestant clergyman Edward Nangle set out to lift the destitute people of Achill out of degradation and idolatry through his Achill Mission Colony. The fury of the island elements, the devastation of famine, and Nangle’s own volatile temperament all threatened the project’s survival. In the years of the Great Famine the ugly charge of ‘souperism’, offering food and material benefits in return for religious conversion, tainted the Achill Mission’s work. John MacHale, powerful Archbishop of Tuam, spearheaded the Catholic Church’s fightback against Nangle’s Protestant colony, with the two clergymen unleashing fierce passions while spewing vitriol and polemic from pen and pulpit. Did Edward Nangle and the Achill Mission Colony save hundreds from certain death, or did they shamefully exploit a vulnerable people for religious conversion? This dramatic tale of the Achill Mission Colony exposes the fault-lines of religion, society and politics in nineteenth century Ireland, and continues to excite controversy and division to this day.

The Great Irish Famine
The Great Irish Famine

Author: Christine Kinealy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1350317225

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The Great Irish Famine of 1845-51 was both one of the most lethal famines in modern history and a watershed in the development of modern Ireland. This book - based on a wide range of little-used sources - demonstrates how the Famine profoundly affected many aspects of Irish life: the relationship between the churches; the nationalist movement; and the relationship with the monarchy. In addition to looking at the role of the government, Kinealy shows the importance of private charity in saving lives. One of the most challenging aspects of the publication is the chapter on food supply, in which Kinealy concludes that, despite the potato blight, Ireland was still producing enough food to feed its people. The long-term impact of the tragedy, notably the way in which it has been remembered and commemorated, is also examined.