State of the Irish Established Church

Above : Irish Church From 19th Century

THE Fenian outbreak had both enraged and astonished the English people. They had believed that the Irish had no longer any cause to be dis¬contented with the rule of the British Government; that, in point of fact, they were not discontented. At first indignation was the more prominent feeling, but, when this had had time to cool, the more thoughtful began to seek an explanation, not chiefly of the actions of the Fenian themselves, but of the general sympathy with which they were regarded by huge numbers of people in every part of Ireland who had been in no way connected with the rebellion.
The most probable explanation appeared to be that there were still grievances unredressed ; the most obvious course was to endeavour to redress them.
Projects of Disestablishment existed.

One institution there certainly was in Ireland which was an anomaly; even, viewed in some aspects, an absurdity. This institution was the Protestant Established Church. This Church had been set up during the century which followed the Reformation, on a scale which would enable it to provide for the spiritual needs of the entire population of Ireland. It was provided with a sufficient number of archbishops, bishops, rectors, other ecclesiastical dignitaries, and curates. Churches for its services were built; tithes and dues should be paid to it by all; yet, of the 5f million persons or thereabouts who lived in Ireland in 1861, not much more than one out of every ten desired or would have accepted the ministrations of the Church of Ireland clergy. Four and a half millions were Catholics ; of the remainder, more than half a million were Dissenters, chiefly Presbyterians. There had been hints of Disestablishment as early as 1835, a»d these had been repeated in 1844 and in 1849. The project, however, met with little favour, and nothing more was heard of it for several years.
Amongst the masses of the Irish people there was not the smallest hostility felt towards the clergy of the Established Church, now that the Tithe Act had made them no longer the collectors of a detested impost.

In contrary, they were often very popular in their districts, where parson were frequently close friends. Many had generously Prl tnemselves in work for the relief of the victims of the Famine, this was remembered with gratitude. That much public money aI1 spent on episcopal salaries and so forth was a matter too remote the cognisance of the ordinary man to arouse in him any keen
feeling of injustice. Thus if the British Government selected the Irish Church Establishment as the grievance first to be attacked, its selection was certainly not due to any special insistence by the Irish themselves on this particular point.