The Irish famine?

Private relief and proselytism or ‘Souperism’

Private charities provided essential relief but the activities of a few were controversial. This is because some private relief was associated with proselytism, that is, missions to convert poor Catholics to Protestantism. Those who changed their religion in return for relief were given disparaging names: ‘soupers’, ‘jumpers’, or ‘perverts’. A few charitable bodies read bibles to the poor to whom they gave food. In the genuine belief that they were saving souls, a small number of Protestant evangelicals used the hunger of the Catholics as an means to convert them. In the west of Ireland, famine missionaries, such as the evangelicals Rev. Hyacinth Talbot D’Arcy and Rev. Edward Nangle, tried to win converts in this way . Some evangelicals believed, no doubt sincerely, that the British Government had caused the Famine by giving a grant to Catholic education, to Maynooth College in 1845: ‘It is done, and in that very year, that very month, the land is smitten, the earth is blighted, famine begins, and is followed by plague, pestilence and blood.’ On the total failure of the potato crop in 1846 there was a quick rise in demand for the services of these missions and by the spring of 1847 they were employing over 2000 labourers and feeding 600 schoolchildren each day. By 1848, the number of schoolchildren attending the mission schools had increased to over 2000, and 3000 adults were employed carrying out relief works, out of a total population of 7,000.

Another well-known missionary who worked in the west of Ireland was Michael Brannigan, a convert from Catholicism to the Presbyterianism and a fluent speaker of Irish. In 1847 he established 12 schools in counties Mayo and Sligo, and by the end of 1848 they had grown to 28, despite ‘priestly opposition.’ Attendance soon dropped when the British Relief Association began providing each child with a half-pound of meal every day, but this ended on 15 August 1848 when funds ran out.

The worries of the Catholic church are well put in a letter from Fr William Flannelly of Ballinakill, Co. Galway, to Daniel Murray, Archbishop of Dublin, 6 April 1849: ‘It cannot be wondered if a starving people would be perverted in shoals, especially as they [the missionaries] go from cabin to cabin, and when they find the inmates naked and starved to death, they proffer food, money and rainment, on the express condition of becoming members of their conventicles.’ The Freeman’s Journal condemned this as ‘nefarious unchristian wickedness.’ The Pope felt worried enough to urge the Catholic hierarchy to oppose the work of missionaries and, on one occasion, he reprimanded the bishops for not doing enough to protect their flocks.

By 1851 the main missions claimed that they had won 35,000 converts and they were anxious to win more. Shortly afterwards, 100 additional preachers were sent to Ireland by the Protestant Alliance. Well-provisioned missionary settlements in such destitute areas as Dingle and Achill Island attracted many converts. The missions were generally opposed by the Church of Ireland. The impact of the missions was, in the end, slight and tended to be localised. Some charitable organisations (including orders of nuns) believed that the distress gave them an opportunity to teach the Irish peasantry ‘good’ habits of hard work. The missions, and even more so the illiberal reaction of the Catholic clergy, tended to encourage sectarianism. Besides, many converts had to go elsewhere because of hostility and contempt in their own communities.

Fratton Fred wrote: »

http://archiveislam.com/how-muslims-helped-ireland-during-the-great-famine.html

Covered numerous times across the web and actually believed by many.