Search Results for 'Anglican Church'

The continued unrest, murders, and large-scale protests as the Land War careered dangerously through the Irish countryside, led at last to some reform. William Gladstone’s Second Land Act of 1881 proposed broad concessions to the tenant farmer. But Parnell, the very effective leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was not satisfied. He said that tenants were still vulnerable to rent arrears and poverty resulting from poor harvests. He urged that the Act either accommodate these concerns, or be rejected.

In late November 1623, John Donne, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, fell ill, probably of typhus, or ‘spotted fever’, as it was called in his day. He was in his early fifties, a widower since the death of his beloved wife Anne in 1617, and the father of four daughters and a son, who carried his father’s name.

One of the oldest books I possess, bought at Kenny’s Bookshop many years ago, is a 1772 edition of The Book of Common Prayer, described by one historian as “the official doctrinal standard of the Church of England and most other churches in the worldwide Anglican Communion”.

I remember years ago when I would make my regular trawl of the seemingly endless shelves of Kenny’s Bookshop on Abbeygate Street, I would encounter any number of titles by Monsignor Ronald Knox (1888-1957). A virtually forgotten name now.

In the early years of the 20th century the Irish language increasingly was associated with poverty and backwardness. In the national school system, which was established in 1831, children had been beaten with what became known as a ‘tally stick’ if they were caught speaking Irish. Apparently every time a child was heard speaking Irish, a notch was cut on the stick, and the poor child received the same number of blows.

Of the group of 17th century poets, including John Donne and Andrew Marvel, to which Dr Johnson gave the name ‘metaphysical’, George Herbert is probably nowadays the least read.

The Irish Church Missions was the missionary wing of the United Church of England and Ireland. They were a very rich organisation and at the height of their endeavours, had an income of between £30,000 and £40,000 a year in this country alone. They first came to the west of Ireland, to Clifden, in 1849. Soon after a school was established in Galway, where a child might be given an evening meal and a night’s lodging after his attending a Bible class. They had two houses in Merchants Road, one named ‘The Dover School’.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu will address NUI, Galway’s Literary and Debating Society on Sunday February 15 at 5pm.