Religious Strife Between Protestants and Catholics on Omey Island

The Church of England Magazine - Church Pastoral-aid Society, London

Under the superintendence of Clergymen of the United Church of England and Ireland
December 1853

The two following were received in acknowledgement of some of the parcels of clothing sent by kind friends. I answer to the last appeal:

From the missionary at Sallerna: “With feelings of the most lively gratitude I beg to inform you that the parcels of clothing for the schools at Omey Island and Sallerna have all been disposed of according to your directions. The poor children are most wretched for want of food: a poor widow told me yesterday that her children had not tasted for two days; and it was truly lamentable to witness the distress of herself and her four little girls, You will rejoice to hear that the attendance has been very little decreased notwithstanding the want of food. There have been about sixty girls in Sallerna school yesterday; and, while I was speaking to them, one poor thing fainted from the effects of hunger and exhaustion. Our enemies are rejoiced at the state of things. The trial is a severe one; but the faith of the children fails not. A little boy told me yesterday that he knew by experience what is to pray for daily bread. The school at Omey Island has been quite full the whole week: the poor children expressed their determination to pray, and asked me to pray with them, at the same time remarking that when their heavenly Father thinks it fit he will send them food.”

London: John Hughs, 12 Ave-Maria Lane

The Church of England Magazine, Volume 35, pp. 111-112

J. Burns 1853

Original from the New York Public Library

Digitized, August 29, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/o56nwmz

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Persecution in Connemara

[Protestant Missionaries are Threatened on Omey by Catholic Residents]

In one of the far western districts of Ireland called Connemara, in the County of Galway, where the Irish Church Missions have so long and usefully laboured, a series of outrages have been poured upon the converts, school-teachers and preachers. It appears that a Roman Catholic priest went visiting the various schools of this Protestant Mission, used most vilest and insulting language, when affirming his right to make such visits. For this he was summoned to the court of Clifden and was compelled to apologize. This so exasperated the Romanists, that they gave vent to their anger by denunciations and violent harangues. These soon had their effect on an excitable and superstitious, but otherwise peaceable population, and they culminated in outrages which almost led us back to the Dark Ages.

A Mission Church, used also as a school-house in the island of Omey, was wrecked by a riotous mob on Friday, 28^th of February. Another school-house at Barnahalia was similarly treated a few days afterwards, in the most wanton and unprovoked manner, while the lives of the teachers were endangered. One of the Missionaries and his daughter were endangered, on the same island were attacked on the 1^st of March. The daughter of one of the Omey teachers says: - [“]The priest visited the school on Thursday last, and beat my dear father with a heavy stick. My father then turned him out and a crowd gathered. The priest went on waving his stick to the mob to come help him, but did not find where he was going, until he fell over a rock out-side the school door and hurt his head. So then they said father beat him – pointing to father. They then threw stones. My mother was hit with one, but not much hurt. Stephen Courrey was here too, and the priest beat him several blows. They had to get into the house and block up the doors with desks and forms. The mob broke every one of the school windows, and tried to break the doors, but did not succeed, thank God; for if they had, every one of us would, we believe have been murdered there and then.” Five or six hundred men were collected by the priest on the road from chapel to Streamstown. They insulted the converts, broke the windows of their houses, and threatened to burn two others.

Nothing but the bare wall of the Belleck school-house are standing. Someone had put a burning coal in the thatch of the house, by which it was set fire to, and burned down. The teacher, Mr. Young, with his wife and family, after passing through great peril and trial, were saved. Another teacher lay down in dread of their house being burned down any night, it also being thatched. The roof had been fired in two placed, when there was no fire inside.

A friend writing from the west, after describing some of these outrages, says -“The police of Clifden have really saved the lives of whole families; so these misguided men had to return to their homes without being appeased by the blood of a few scattered and inoffensive Protestants. Well, at this present moment the police are night and day guarding these Protestants, who at this time are really prisoners in their own houses for they are now wrecks.” When the Rev. J. Conerney and his daughter were attacked by a merciless mob, he cried out to them not to kill his daughter, but to beat him instead; but no use, both of them were badly bruised, and their lives might have been taken away, but not for the appearance of two policemen on the scene.

Particulars of these and other outrages have been laid before the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and there is good reason to hope that the Connemara Protestant Missions will soon receive the full protection they so much need.

THE ILLUSTRATED MISSIONARY NEWS, CONTAINING MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD by S.W. PARTRIDGE

Published 1879. 14^th annual volume

p. 52 – May 1, 1879

London: S.W. Partridge and Co.

Original: Oxford University

Digitized November 16, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/ohq55mv

Popish Persecution in the West of Ireland

We are exceedingly sorry to learn that the Popish persecution in Connemara still continues. That cause must be bad which needs for its promotion such cruel and unjustifiable conduct as the Roman Catholics in this district have lately manifested. The admirable schools of the Irish Church Missions have been the great object of attack. The school of Belleck, with its warm-hearted, intelligent, well-taught children, and its valuable school-mistress, was the first visited by the priest; and the teacher, her blind husband, and helpless children were nearly burned alive in their beds. The school-house is now a heap of charred ruins. The following sketch of a visit to the Isle of Omey is by the Rev. Canon Cory. He says, -

Recalling a visit to the island by a group of protestant missionaries and the police.

They followed our little party with hideous yells and the fiercest imprecations. “May the curse of God rest on ye all, ye devils,” was the mildest phrase.

THE ILLUSTRATED MISSIONARY NEWS, CONTAINING MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD by S.W. Partridge

p. 143 – December 1879

Original: Oxford University

Digitized: November 16, 2006

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Outrage in Connemara

Matters have come to a terrible crisis in Clifden. The following details will speak for themselves. Mr. McNeice, the schoolmaster of Omey, who was attacked and beaten in his own school on the 28^th of February, has been practically a prisoner in his own house, and guarded by police ever since. Omey Island is a peninsula at low water, and Mr. McNeice, on Sunday, decided on going to Sallerna Church, accompanied by two policemen, and went at an early hour to endeavor to avoid annoyance. On passing the Roman Catholic Chapel of Claddaghdhuff, however, he was attacked by a multitude who were assembling for worship, and assailed with stones and sticks, kicked and beaten in the most brutal manner.  He was carried bleeding into a house, the police vainly endeavoring to defend him until they were themselves nearly overpowered, and were compelled to fire. Mr. McNeice lay wounded and bleeding until additional police and the resident magistrate and the police officer arrived, when he was conveyed under a strong escort to the police barracks. Such scenes of violence as these are a natural result of exhortations of an excited nature addressed to the bigoted passions of the people. The outrages referred to will, no doubt, be dealt with by the authorities.”

The Church Record

The Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England

Dublin, January 1, 1879, p. 98

Original: Harvard University

Digitized: September 23, 2008

http://tinyurl.com/opq4mfe

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Diabolical Outrage in Connemara

Connemara has been the scene of extreme excitement during the past few days, the climax of which was that on Thursday two of the mission schools were destroyed. It appears that a Roman Catholic clergyman went into the mission school on the Island of Omey to see about some Catholic boys, and as alleged, insulted and assaulted the teacher, when the latter retorted _____ struck the priest, and since then the scenes there have been disgraceful. All the available constabulary reserve have been sent there, and have had a hard time of it. Further outrages are threatened. Another correspondent writes that at three o’clock on Thursday morning Mrs. Young’s, the Belleck School, about two miles from Clifden, was set on fire, only the bare walls are left standing. Providently no life was lost, but the school and house are completely gutted. Mrs. Young the teacher of the school is married to a pensioner, who is blind, and is in delicate health.

The Church Record

The Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England

Dublin, January 1, 1879, p. 98

Original: Harvard University

April 1, 1879

pp. 123-124

http://tinyurl.com/od9ne78

Contributed by Maria Montoro Edwards
Posted by Mary Lydon Simonsen