My family talked a lot about Ireland and I've done some reading on my own, so here is some background on Irish history.

The English invasion and oppresseion -- with religious differences -- in Ireland started officially in the 12th century when Pope Adrian IV gave Henry II (a Frenchman who became king of England) the title of "Lord of Ireland." Things went downhill from there. Here are a few details.

By the 15th century, the English were using the term Pale to describe the area in Ireland that they held as their own -- Dublin, the capital, and land around it. The Pale became larger over time, and gradually took in several counties. The English conquered land in Ireland outside the Pale, but it was impossible for them to treat it as part of the Pale because of the number of troops needed, and the fact that the Irish continued to rebel in different parts of the country.

The 16th century was wild. In 1539 the Irish monasteries were taken by the English and destroyed. The church in Ireland had always been organized around monasteries, so this was a great blow. In 1541, Henry VIII of England was declared King of Ireland by the Engish landowners sitting in the Irish Parliament. In 1585, the English mapped Ireland and divided the whole country into counties. They named the counties, but some of the names were so Anglo that much later the Irish renamed them.

During the first four decades of the 17th century, the English carried out the Plantation of Ulster; that meant that they brought in Scots people and gave them the businesses, the homes, the land of Irish Catholics, who were sent to the poorest part of Ireland, the west coast. In 1649-1653, Cromwell came to Ireland, devastated great parts of the country because the Scots in Ulster were not always well treated by the Irish who sometimes attacked them. No more Catholic landowners. Many Irish were sent as slaves to the West Indies. (Many married black people, their descendants known as "Black Irish.") In 1695, the English passed the Penal Laws, punishing Irish Catholics severely. These laws remained in effect until the early 1800s, but were most often enforced later than that.

Many revolts, but 1798 was a big revolt--Rebellion of the United Irishmen. Centered in the north, the southeast, and the west; 30,000 Irish rebels were killed. One of the important big rebellions was in 1803, the year after Mary Frances Clarke's birth: the Emmett Rebellion. Robert Emmett was a United Irishman, a Protestant, lost the war, was brought to Dublin to be hanged, where he gave a long and very fine speech to the Irish about the way things ought to be. Daniel O'Connell, an Irish Catholic and a smuggler, was elected to the Parliament from Co. Clare in 1828, wasn't allowed to take his seat, but fought for it for several years and finally won. This was the first big victory for the Irish.

Potato Famine, 1845-1849. Etc., etc.

Let's look at the religious thing. The Penal Laws brougt terrible realities to Catholics in Ireland. No Catholic churches were allowed, only chapels on side streets or alleys; small, poor buildings. The extant Catholic churches in good condition were taken over by the Church of Ireland -- Anglicans -- or the Church of Scotland -- Presbyterians. Very few pastors were allowed Catholics in Ireland. Dublin had 150,000 people by 1800, a vey large Catholic population, and two or three Catholic pastors. Few priests in the whole country. Lots of priests in jail, even killed in the centuries since 1695. No religious women known as such. That the reason for the Mrs. in the newspaper articles. (I do think that this background had a lot to do with Mary Frances Clarke not always using a title and never wearing a habit. She knew that women could be good religious and not have either.) Christ Church was first a Catholic establishment, but in the 16th century it was taken over by the Anglicans, later the Presbyterians, and became their cathedral in Dublin. St. Patrick's Cathedral was originally Catholic, but was seized by the Anglicans and is still theirs today.

The Catholics in Dublin had no cathedral for over 200 years because of the above. In the second decade of the 19th century, a church was started north of the Liffey, often called the Immaculate Conception or St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral. Catholics in Dublin were so poor that it took years for them to get enough money together to pay for the construction; the church was finished, but because of shaky finances, the church had to be kept shut and the vaults below were filled with kegs of whiskey, the space rented by the English liquor establishment. About 1829, the rent of the vaults brought enough money to pay for the previous construction and the church was dedicated. It is the parish sometimes mentioned as perhaps the Clarke's. Catholics wanted to build it on a prominent street, but the English refused that request, so it was located on Marlborough St. It is called a Pro-Cathedral, because of the Anglican and Presbyterian churches known as Cathedrals.

All of the above is just a taste of the background.

by Jane McDonnell, BVM