A sympathetic and kindly treatment of the Irish people, who had adhered so strongly to the Catholic faith, might well have been expected of the Catholic Queen. No trace of this appears, however, in her policy. The distinction between the Celtic and the Anglo-Irish Churches was to be maintained. Priests were "to be well chosen and sent out of England " to fill the Irish livings. When Dowdall, the Primate, desired leave of the Queen to pronounce ecclesiastical censures against " the ... Read More

The religious houses of Ireland had served many useful purposes in the social life of the people. They had provided hospitals for the sick, orphanages for poor children, refuges for the aged. The monks and nuns kept boarding schools, in which the boys and girls of the upper classes were educated. In a country where inns were few, they offered hospitality to travellers, sometimes even to the Lord Deputy himself. Learned men resorted to them. The establishments in the Pale supplied and ... Read More