July
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 wild Irish,” who resisted the authority of the Crown, the permission was accorded.
The restoration to his native land of the long-exiled Gerald of Kildare, and of the chief O’Connor Faily are the only two gracious acts for which Ireland has to thank Mary Tudor. That her religious persecutions did not extend across the Channel was no merit of hers. In Ireland there were no Protestants to persecute. The Irish Catholics, always friends of toleration, gave help and shelter to many of those who had fled from England to escape the religious tyranny that prevailed there.
Of all the evils and miseries which afflicted Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, none certainly caused suffering so widespread or produced results so evil as what is called ” the Plantation Policy.” It was during Mary’s reign that this policy may be said to have begun.
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May
Above : Picture Of Sir John Perrott
The Established Church the Deputy regarded as a State Department, to be strictly controlled by the Government, but at the same time to be maintained in such a position of dignity and honour as would command the respect of the people.
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