The first publication to examine is Desmond Bowen’s “Souperism: Myth or Reality?” This text provides a confined study of the issue of proselytization in the dioceses of Ballina and Killala, Co. Mayo and Achonry, Co. Sligo, during the Famine. It also provides a very substantial history of the churches in Connaught leading up to the Famine. The area of the book which is most important to this study are chapters eight and nine. In these he specifically examines the Missionary settlements in both Dingle and Achill. In regards to the Dingle mission his account is mainly a history of the settlement leading up to the start of the Famine. He takes a quite objective view on the settlement, a view which is not always prevalent when writing about such a sensitive matter and this is found throughout the book as a whole. When he does touch on the issues surrounding the Famine in Dingle, he is more interested in discussing the more positive roles that both the Protestant and Catholic clergy had in the area. He uses excerpts from the two Kerry newspapers of the time, ‘The Kerry Evening Post’ and ‘The Kerry Examiner’, to further this point. “When a Protestant clergyman, Matthew Moriarty, visited his Dingle home, he told the readers of ‘The Kerry Evening Post’ of 6 January 1847: ‘The Roman Catholic priests of this district almost live in their saddles, and even so, I am sure, they cannot minister the rites of their church to all who die within its pale,’ Both papers supported Catholic and Protestant clergy who joined in protest when Tralee harbour was filled with food-stuffs.” The important point to understand here is that these two newspapers had opposing religious and social views. ‘The Kerry Evening Post’ was a publication which was more conservative leaning, and favoured the Protestant view, while ‘The Kerry Examiner’ was more liberal and sympathetic towards the Catholic predicament. That Bowen was highlighting these instances where both opposing newspapers shared in their admiration for the good work done by both sides of the religious divide, shows that his objective here is to give a balanced account of the work being done. Bowen makes very good use of primary source material for his study. He takes various quotes from the newspapers of the time, but also makes use of contemporary, first-hand accounts written during the time such as Asenath Nicholson’s ‘Ireland’s Welcome to a Stranger’ and D. P. Thompson’s ‘A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the change in Religious Opinion now taking place in Dingle’. These books will be examined later in this study. It is these contemporary accounts which Bowen uses to examine the colony. He does not provide any research of his own, relying on these publications to give a fairly incomplete view of the Dingle mission.
The Essay on Catholics And Protestants
To all who care - I have noticed that over the years of my studies, I have seen Catholics and Protestans argue countless hours of non-stop debates over petty little things about the Catholic church. For example: "Do not worship Mary..." "Saints are not real..." "The pope is usless..." ETC. Now, I do not want to make anyone feel small here, because we are ALL mighty warriors for Christ when we ...
Bowen’s chapter on Edward Nangle and the Achill mission suffers the same faith as Dingle. He gives a good background history of the settlement leading up to the Famine, yet does not adequately delve into the problem of proselytizing on the colony during the Famine. He does provide an excellent account of Nangle’s life on the mission, which leaves a strong impression on what type of character he was. “There is little doubt that much of the religious strife in Connaught in the pre-famine era was the direct result of Nangle’s intransigence. He even quarrelled with the mission at Dingle, and his criticism of Gayer which appeared in ‘The Christian Examiner’ in 1841 reflects the tension which existed between the two colonies.” He points to the fact that even Nangle’s most ardent followers realised that he was a difficult man to form cordial relationships with. “Lord William Conyngham Plunket, who was the Evangelical Bishop of Meath when Henry Seddall wrote his memoir of Nangle in 1884, ‘Edward Nangle, Apostle of Achill’, apologized for Nangle’s brusqueness in the preface to Seddall’s book: ‘Mr. Nangle was doubtless at times headstrong in forming his opinions, stubborn in holding them, and harsh in giving them expression.’” His account of the Achill colony during the famine years is again inadequate. He focuses more on the work done on the colony and uses evidence from publications such as the ‘Achill Herald’ and Seddall’s book to give evidence of the labour the mission provided for the local people. The problem with this is that these publications are not very reliable because of their close ties to the colony and Nangle himself. The ‘Achill Herald’ was printed and distributed from the colony itself and was in reality no more than a propaganda tool to raise money for the mission.
The Essay on Famine & Poverty and Famines
The phenomenon of famine has been widely described and analyzed in socio-political literature. The topic has been considered a controversial one in terms of its definition and its definitive features. In a recent revision of the concept of famine, “Poverty and Famines,” Amartya Sen retains part of classical vision on famine offered by Malthus, distinguishing “regular starvation,” which is a “ ...
The title of Bowen’s book is somewhat misleading. It does not fully try to dispel or facilitate the question of ‘souperism’ during the famine and it is not a comprehensive study of the methods used to bring Catholics into the Protestant fold. The aim of the book is to provide a more reasonably and objective view of the proselytization efforts occurring in Ireland before, during and after the famine. While he provides a good background to the missions in both Dingle and Achill, he does not delve deep enough into the issues surrounding ‘souperism’ in these areas.
