24 Facts About John MacHale

John MacHale was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist.

John MacHale laboured and wrote to secure Catholic emancipation, legislative independence, justice for tenants and the poor, and vigorously assailed the proselytizers and the government's proposal for a mix-faith national school system.

John MacHale preached regularly to his flock in Irish and "almost alone among the Bishops he advocated the use of Irish by the Catholic clergy".

John MacHale's parents were Patrick and Mary MacHale.

John MacHale was so feeble at birth that he was baptised at home by Father Andrew Conroy, who later was hanged during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

John MacHale's father, known locally as Padraig Mor, was a farmer, whose house served as a wayside inn on the highroad between Sligo and Castlebar.

John MacHale's grandmother encouraged him to retain his knowledge of Irish.

Father John MacHale continued his lectures at Maynooth until 1820, when he was nominated professor of theology.

John MacHale preached Irish and English sermons, and superintended the missions given in the diocese for the Jubilee of 1825.

John MacHale called on the Government to remember how the Act of Union in 1800 was carried by William Pitt the Younger on the distinct assurance and implied promise that Catholic Emancipation, which had been denied by the Irish Parliament, should be granted by the Parliament of the Empire.

John MacHale was the first prelate since the Reformation who had received his entire education in Ireland.

Archbishop John MacHale now began in the newspapers a series of open letters to the Government, whereby he frequently harassed the ministers into activity in Irish affairs.

John MacHale led the opposition to the Protestant Second Reformation, which was being pursued by evangelical clergy in the Church of Ireland, including the Bishop of Tuam, Thomas Plunket.

John MacHale condemned the Poor Law, and the system of National Schools and Queen's Colleges as devised by the Government.

John MacHale founded his own schools, entrusting those for boys to the Christian Brothers and Franciscan friars, while Sisters of Mercy and Presentation Nuns taught the girls.

John MacHale did not possess that suavity of manner which is so invaluable to leaders of men and public opinion, and so he alarmed or offended others.

Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of Propaganda, who had serious disagreements with Dr John MacHale, declared he was a twice-dyed Irishman, a good man ever insisting on getting his own way.

The death of Daniel O'Connell in 1847 was a setback to John MacHale as were the subsequent disagreements within the Repeal Association.

John MacHale held a high mass for the Manchester Martyrs following their execution and in 1869 he was among the only two Irish bishops to refuse to appeal to the Pope to condemn the Fenian movement.

John MacHale wrote to O'Connell's son that it "was the assertion of the primitive right of man to enjoy in security and peace the fruit of his industry and labour".

John MacHale voted against the doctrine of papal infallibility on the first ballot on the basis that it was an inopportune time to promulgate it; he absented himself from the final ballot, which adopted it.

John MacHale had opposed this election as far as possible, but submitted to the papal order.

John MacHale preached his last Irish sermon after his Sunday Mass, April 1881.

John MacHale compiled an Irish language catechism and prayer book.