Some Notes and Comments on "The Irish Franciscan Mission to Scotland" by Rev. Cathaldus Giblin, O.F.M.

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The late Senator Concannon, writing many years ago on the Irish Missions to Scotland in Penal Days, commented that the work o f these zealous Irish priests had received scant acknowledgment from Scottish historians. What she said is true, but Scots Catholic historians should not be blamed too much for this state o f affairs. The fact is that in Scotland itself we have scarcely any records of the history of Catholicity in the West Highlands and Hebrides, during the Penal Era, and so far, it has not been practicable for any Scots Catholic historian to tap the rich resources of the Propaganda Fide archives at Rome, or the archives o f the various religious orders, which, from bases in Ireland, did so much to preserve Catholicity among the Scottish Gaels. It is mainly a task for the orders concerned to retrieve, from the oblivion o f their monastic archives, the names and deeds o f the seventeenth century missionaries w h o m they sent to Scotland. Such information would assuredly be welcomed by Scottish historians.