29 Facts About Edward Cooney

Edward Cooney was an Irish evangelist from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Edward Cooney was the third of eight children and joined the family business after finishing his schooling.

Edward Cooney began combining his business travel with lay preaching around Ireland.

Edward Cooney became one of the early leaders of a church founded by William Irvine after leaving his business career.

Later, after Irvine's ouster, Cooney began to criticise the development of hierarchy within the Two by Twos, its taking of a name for official purposes, and abandonment of other of its original tenets.

Edward Cooney continued his worldwide missions as an itinerant evangelist until his death in 1960.

Edward Cooney was born in 1867 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, the third of eight children.

Edward Cooney was baptised into the Church of Ireland at St Anne's parish church there.

Edward Cooney's father was William Rutherford Cooney, a prominent local merchant, and his mother was Emily Maria Carson Cooney.

Edward Cooney was educated first at the Enniskillen Model School.

Edward Cooney went on to attend the Portora Royal School.

Edward Cooney was remembered by a classmate as "one of the nicest and best behaved" students at that time.

Edward Cooney developed the infection, and they were sent to their uncle in Australia to recuperate.

William worsened during 1887, and Edward Cooney took him to Ceylon where his mother and sister met them.

Edward Cooney returned to Australia, while William was taken to Ireland.

Edward Cooney travelled throughout Ireland on behalf of his family's business, and during the 1890s began preaching in the towns which he visited.

Edward Cooney was profoundly influenced by Irvine's vision of a return to the method of ministry as commanded in Matthew 10, and regarded Irvine as "a prophet raised up by God".

Four years later, Edward Cooney abandoned the family business, sold all his possessions, and joined Irvine's new movement.

Edward Cooney denied starting the movement and testified in court that William Irvine had the founding role.

Edward Cooney's younger brother Alfred was a solicitor and worked on various legal matters for members of the Two by Twos.

Edward Cooney bequeathed a small annual income to Edward on condition that he give up preaching and return to the Church of Ireland.

Edward Cooney did so because he thought Irvine was falling away from the movement's original ideals, and hoped that those would be restored.

That Edward Cooney was free to preach wherever he felt led, and did not believe that he had to submit his messages to be approved by the regional Overseers became a situation the latter would no longer tolerate after having attempted to persuade him to operate within their new framework.

Edward Cooney's excommunication was finalised during an extraordinary meeting held on 12 October 1928 at the home of Andrew Knox in Lurgan, Northern Ireland.

Letters were circulated warning that Edward Cooney had been disfellowshipped, and those who continued contact with him were expelled.

Edward Cooney became a non-person within the Two by Twos, his name was omitted as author of hymns that he had written for their hymnal, and they denied that he had any connection with their movement.

Edward Cooney was instrumental during the late 1930s in setting up a treatment program for alcoholic indigents in Birmingham, Alabama.

Edward Cooney had circumnavigated the globe 3 times in his missions by the early 1950s.

Edward Cooney died in 1960 and is buried in Mildura, Victoria, Australia.