Catholic Irish in America

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 22, 7 June 1923, Page 13

Catholic Irish in America

(By Rev. Owen B. McGuire, D.D., in tlio London Catholic Times.)

An article dealing with this subject in the Fortnightly Review, quoted in the Catholic Times of January 27, gives food for reflection. The writer places the number of American Catholics of Irish origin at five millions. I do not agree with his particular conclusions, nor indeed with his premises and arguments. A Protestant official of the Census Bureau at Washington has recently, at the request of the N. Catholic W.C., written an article on the Catholic population of the United States, and ho concludes that “a conservative estimate” would place it at twenty-three millions. I believe —and I.have given some study to the subject— of these, ten millions are of Irish origin. I believe also, however, that if the descendants of all the Irish Catholics who came to what is now United States territory since 1641 were Catholic to-day they would number over twenty millions. I agree, therefore, with the writer’s main contention that The Leakage Has Been Enormous. The subject is too vast and the causes of the leakage too numerous and complicated to be treated in an article. I shall refer here to but one aspect of the question—loss of the Faith to the descendants of the Irish Catholics who came to New England alone “in Colonial times”—-that is, before the American Revolution. Much light has been thrown on this part of the question in recent years, especially by the work of Dr. Walsh and Mr. Michael O’Brien. Catholic immigration to New England, previous to the Revolution, was chiefly, though not exclusively, Irish; and hence the question arises: In what proportion did the Irish Catholic immigration of the period stand to the Irish Protestant and British? Recent investigation has upset all former assumptions of Protestant and anti-Irish historians on this subject. Dr. Walsh’s Opinion. Dr, James J. Walsh, who began to write on the question some twenty years ago, has lately expressed, the opinion “it seems probable that those Irish who were transported or came of, their own free will [to New England] actually rivalled in numbers the English settlors who came before the middle of the seventeenth century,” and ho and others have shown that this Catholic stream from Ireland continued to flow down to the Revolution, when, according to Mr. Michael O’Brien’s incontestable evidence, thirty-seven percent. of the muster-roll of Washington’s army bore distinctly Irish-Gaelic surnames. An American Catholic priest has recently said that if Ireland’s nationhood, and its consequent right to retain, safeguard, and propagate its own native religion, had been conceded in 1621 instead of in 1921, half the population of North America might to-day very well be Catholic. That statement may seem preposterous in view of what has been put forth as “history” ; but it was supported by arguments that make it finite credible. However, this aspect of the subject can lie treated at another time.

Dean Swift and the Irish Catholics.

■ In reading the following it should he borne in mind that the Puritans came only in 1621, and then in small numbers. A lurid sidelight is thrown on the question stated above by Dean Swift’s essay, “A Modest Proposal,” written in 1729, just a century before Catholic Emancipation. The Dean’s essay gives a graphic description of the condition of the Irish Catholic population at the time he wrote, and of the causes and circumstances of their emigration. In this respect it is of intense interest, and helps towards an answer to the question proposed. The essay is, of course, a satire, the most terrible of Swift’s, in the penning of which, as I think Taine remarks, not a muscle of'his face is seen to move or suggest a smile. But it is well known that to enhance this air of seriousness and reality in such writing. Swift is always scrupulously exact in giving figures and in details. It may, accordingly, be assumed that his estimate of Irish statistics and his description of Irish social conditions are as accurate as it was possible to obtain at the time he wrote. The Dean on the Condition of the Population. He estimates the entire population of the island at one and a half million. It may be assumed that little more,

if more at all, than one million were Catholics. The picture he draws of their condition is truly appalling,- but amply borne out by collateral testimony. “In town and country,” he says,, one “sees the streets, the roads, and the cabindoors crowded by beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.” What proportion of the whole popu at,on he would class as “beggars” is indicated where speaking of the “beggar’s child,” he says: “In this class I reckon all the' cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the [so called] farmers.” He “calculates there may be about 200,000 couples whose wives” are of child-bearing age. From these he “subtracts 30,000 couples who are able to maintain their own children.” Having made other deductions for various reasons, he concludes that there remain 120 000 children born annually into families without any visible means of support. His “Modest Proposal” is to keep 20,000 of these for “breed,” and to fatten the others for sale at one year, to make select dishes for “persons of quality The landlords, “as they have already devoured most of the parents,” would have a prior right to purchase he children. To let them live longer is against national economy; for he reasons : “I am assured by our merchants that a boy or girl before twelve years old is no saleable commodity; and even when they come to this ago they will not yield more than three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the Exchange which cannot turn to account the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that amount.” Tiaffic in Irish Men and Women. From which it is plain that in the days of Swift a brisk traffic was still carried on by the “merchants” in Die commodity referred to in the following passage from Bagonal quoted by Dr. Walsh: “As one instance out of many, Captain John Vernon was employed by the Commission of Ireland into England and contracted on their behalf with Mr. Daniel Sellick and Mr. Leader under his hand bearing date of September 14, 1653 [76 years before Swift wrote] to supply them with 250 women of the Irish nation above 12 years and under the age of 45. Also 300 men above 12 years and under 50 to be found in the country within 12 miles of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Waterford, and Wexford, to transport them into New England » that, was but one order, and the traffic was going on as late as 1753. It will bo noticed that the minimum age at which they became a “saleable commodity” in 1729 is the same as that stated in this order. The Manufacture of Crime, That thousands of Irish Catholics were transported for crimes during this period is, of course, well known “The law” made “crimes” numerous, and they could be and were manufactured as occasion demanded. But there was a. constant emigration, which was in a certain sense “free ” and surpassed in numbers that of the “criminals.” Swift indicates this also. “As they grow up they either turn thieves for want of work or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain or sell themselves to the Barba does.” “America generally” can and should be substituted for “the Barbadoes.” Unable to find work to help themselves or their dependents, they sold themselves for free passages and a small sum they could leave behind with their unfortunate families. In America they were accepted as bond slaves who could redeem themselves by labor for a fixed number of years. Hence they were called “ Redeni ptioners.” The “merchants” and skippers of course, pocketed the profits from sale in America. ’ The “Modest Proposal” and the Emigration. The causes of this “free” emigration, as well as the conditions they left behind, are also indicated in the “Mo dest Proposal”: “As to the young laborers, they are now almost in as hopeless condition they cannot get work and consequently pine away for want of nourishment,” so that “when they, are accidentally hired to common labor they have not the strength to perform it.” As for “that vast number of poor people who are aged, diseased, or maimed . . . I am not in the least pained on that matter because it is. very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, filth and vermin, as 'fast as can be expected.” No wonder those able to work if fed, were willing to leave “their dear native land.” *

Sale of Irish Catholic Children. Besides these two classes—transported “criminals” and “free” emigrantsthere was another. Notwithstanding Swift’s information from the “merchants,” it is certain that even while he was writing, and for long after, a brisk business was carried on in the deportation and sale of Irish Catholic children under twelve years of age. It had begun after the defeat of- the Confederacy in 1642. Prendergast, whoso Work on the' Cromwellian settlement I have not at hand, furnishes the evidence for that period. O’Hanlon (History of the Lotted* States, page 47 ss.) estimates that between 1641 and 1654 no less than 100,000 Irish Catholics of all ayes were sold into the West Indies and North American colonies. Later on “the crowded exportation of Irish Catholics was a frequent event” (Lingard, xi, 131). That this traffic embraced children and that they were a / very “saleable commodity” in New England, at the very time Swift was writing his essay, is shown in the following passage quoted by Dr. Walsh from Mrs. Johnson, a. New England Protestant writer (Narrative of the Capture): “in the year 1730 (Swift wrote in .1729) my great-uncle, Col. Johnson V i I lard, while at Boston -was invited to take ,a walk on the Long Wharf to view some transports who had just landed from Ireland. A number of gentlemen present were viewing the. exercise of some lads who were placed , 0,1 shore to exhibit their activity to those who wished to purchase. My uncle spied a boy of some activity of about ten years of age, who was the only one in, the crew who spoke English. He bargained for him. I have never been able to learn the price; but as be was afterwards my husband I am willing to suppose, that it was a considerable sum. He questioned the boy about bis parentage and descent, etc.” The story elicited '.“makes,it very clear that frequently boys, and probably the girls, were stolen from their families.*’ “In 1748,” she says, “Gov. Shirley gave him a. lieutenant’s commission." In the period 1641— 1654 the merchants of Bristol had agents treating with the Government for Irish men, women, and children to be sent to the West Indies and New England. At last, when thosq dealers in Irish flesh became bolder and began to seize English children and force them on board their slave ships, the Government revoked the orders. But from Mrs. Johnson’s testimony it is clear that nearly three generations,later the traffic was still going on in Ireland. The law, was evaded easily. Lost to the Catholic Church. The descendants of. these people of every class (I am now speaking only of New England) have been all lost to the Church. Absolutely all. And but a very small portion of their descendants can be traced to-day in the American Protestant population. The only indication of their Irish origin would he the surname. But in the. case of the children it may be assumed that they were given the name of the family into which they were purchased or even adopted. Airs. Johnsons husband received the name of her greatuncle. Again, probably not five per cent, of those Irish immigi ants knew their names in English. Even if there was a will to preserve the Irish name, it was written down as it sounded (in Gaelic) to the Puritan ear, or some English name that sounded like it was written in its stead.

Italian Caseys and .Murphys. Me have abundant evidence of how such things happen to-day in America, where one finds Italian Caseys and Murphys , etc. But it is also certain that the name was frequently changed deliberately to conceal the Irish Catholic origin. 3hey did. however, undoubtedly change the character of the original Puritan population. Many writers of non-Irish origin have noted this of American character in general. “The average American,” wrote one of these a few years ago, “so far as I have known him, even when he has not an Irish name, is in character nWe Irish than he is English.” Bill Nye, the famous humorist, was of the same opinion. And the opinion of Chief Justice Taft is not very different. I quoted his words some time ago in the Catholic Times.. As I have said, the -subject is vast and complicated, and I fear I have already strained the editor’s patience and space. I shall only add at present one more suggestive argument.

* Colonial Militia. Muster Rolls. Notably Dr. Walsh, but also some other Catholic writers, have in recent years shown that in several New England towns whose archives they investigated the muster roll of the local colonial militia contained a majority of Irish-Gaelic surnames; and in one or two cases I can now recall they were nearly all Irish. If Ireland’s right to order her own life, and to care for and protect her own people, had been conceded in 1641 instead of in 1921, the descendants of these people would to-day be Catholic, if not in New' England, then somewhere else. No home government with a thought for the welfare of its own people would have allowed their emigration in the manner in which Irish emigration has taken place down even to last year. Even throughout the entire nineteenth century it was always a disorganised, heartless, purposeless dumping on foreign shores of an unprotected population, pure, simple, and religious, but totally ignorant of where they were going and of the dangers of faith and morals that awaited them. Misericordia Bel quod non sumus consumptr.