IN PENAL DAYS

New Zealand Tablet, 15 June 1911, Page 1115

IN PENAL DAYS

THE DIFFICULTIES UNDER WHICH IRISH PRIESTS WERE EDUCATED Since the foundation of Maynooth and the relaxation of the Penal Laws (says an exchange) the education of the Irish priests has been carried on under favorable conditions. jVi But before that Irish . aspirants for the sacred service of the altar had -almost - insuperable; difficulties to contend with. The principal college at which they went through their course abroad was the famous Irish College at Paris. • To that great institution students came from all the provinces of Ireland. .r. In those days the journey to Paris 'was no , excursion for pleasure. It was attended with much hardship and many dangers. First of all, it was by-law, a crime to leave the kingdom .to receive Catholic education, and "parents who sent their children abroad! for that purpose were exposed to the rigors of the Penal Code. ■: Hence -students deft Ireland with much secrecy, and in many cases sailed in, vessels bound for France, under the title of merchant’s clerks. '- Nor was the journey to and from the Continent devoid of incident.

■o • ~MI. ' when Patrick tJoseph " Plunket set fdut^for Paris, he travelled as articled to a Dublin", merchant, m s 1779 when' he left the Irish College to a return to Ireland as Bishop of Meath the vessel in which he sailed was captured by the privateer Paul. Jones. The Bishop's books and papers were seized, but on the petition of the Superior of the college they, were eventually restored to him through the good offices : of Benjamin Franklin, :ther the representative in Paris ; of-. the United States^' Many other incidents of such journeys J are :; recorded. Father Jeter O'Neill; "in memory of whose "fortitude under persecution a statue has recently been"'erected'in ; Youghal, was waylaid as he passed through the Bois de Boulogne in his journey to the college, but armed with 4 % u shillelagh lie quickly : put his assailants to flight. -,&mf:. . ,:, But perhaps the fullest account of the incidents of the journey is found in an extract from the -, diary of Dr. Charles O'Donnell, Bishop of Derry. Charles O'Donnell, already in priest's orders, set out for Paris in July, 1777 Ihe extract runs thus— Left Strabane, July £ slept'that SKP* at Widow Duggan's; second night at Castleplayney. Ihird day rode to Drogheda, stayed .there, two nights, hupped and? took breakfast with the ladies of the nunherv. Became acquainted with Father Burrell, -arid some pentfemen besides.; Fourth day of my journey went to Dublin on the stage coach, stayed there two- nights. Took .-the packet boat for Liverpool at 5 o'clock afternoon. Had a pleasant vienv of the country going down the Lifrey, the Hill of Howth to the left hand* the Wicklow -Mountains to the right, which we had in view next morning, likewise Holyhead, sailed. down the 'Welsh coast, and arrived at Liverpool on the 16th at 8 p.m. That evening (the next we presume after his arrival), I took my seat in the Liverpool Fly, and i set out for London at 5 o'clock. Drove all night. -Dined at Litchfield, about one hundred miles from Liverpool Supped that night at Meridon, about 30 miles off. Went to Coventry, St. Albans, and Highgate.- From thence to London, where. I arrived at 8 o'clock p.m. on : the 19th day of the month. Stayed two .nights, having heard Mass in Lincoln Field.:Chapel. . Took passage on the Dover stage. Went by Queen's Head Inn, eight miles;from London to Rochester. From thence to Canterbury twentyfive miles, to Dover, fifteen miles; seventy-three miles from London to Dover. That night we slept at Dover. Entered the College, at Pans on 26th July, 1777.' " "' '• - ~ These facts will help us to realise in some faint way the conditions under-which our clergy sought their education ,-in the ; dark days ; of ; persecution now happily ... gone