THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS AND IRISH NATIONALISM 1865–1890: A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS

Abstract

After a long eclipse, Cardinal Manning seems to be slowly coming into his own: Vincent A. McClelland, Robert Gray, James Pereiro, and David Newsome have recently contributed to this long overdue reappraisal. A fresh look has been taken at many aspects of his work, but so far his political role has not attracted much attention, and since Shane Leslie in 1921 and Denis Gwynn in 1951 last took an interest, subject has been largely ignored. I wish here to reopen subject and study relation of English Catholics to Irish nationalism under his episcopacy. The Gladstone Diaries and correspondence, my own work on H. E. Manning and Social Question, and Professor Alphonse Chapeau's collection of Manning Papers formerly housed in library of Universit? Catholique de l'Ouest in Angers, have helped me track course of Manning's involvement with Ireland from 1865 to 1890, a twenty-five year period covering growth of Fenianism, Land War, and Parnell's rise and fall. The Irish question was no part of Manning's inheritance as Archbishop of Westminster. His predecessor, though himself an Irishman, had been wary of getting caught in this hornet's nest. A trueborn Englishman, Manning loved Catholic Ireland and managed to use his influence in high political circles for sake of peace and justice in sister-island until Britain, faced with a quasi-revolutionary situation in 1880s, tried to use authority of Rome to make Irish Catholics more amenable to British rule and approached Pope for sake of quieting Ireland, forcing Manning to side with his Irish brethren when English Catholics chose to stand by class and privilege. Delated by Times as the active promoter of separatist intrigues, dissuaded by Archbishop of Dublin to publish his Address to Irish People because he was viewed as real author of revolt of Irish Party against Parnell, Cardinal Manning seems to have been yet another victim of tragedy that wrecked career of a brilliant politician and shattered prospects of Ireland when Home Rule appeared so near at hand. Was Parnell's hubris responsible for eventual catastrophe, was it English Catholics' short sightedness, their archbishop's extreme and mistaken views or Nonconformists' Puritanism, will be up to reader to decide. But rapprochement