Irish Race in the Past and the Present by Thebaud Augustus J

Author:Thebaud, Augustus J. [Thebaud, Augustus J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781544633602
Google: ntzSAQAACAAJ
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2017-03-16T00:38:07+00:00

CHAPTER XI.

THE IRISH AND THE STUARTS.—LOYALTY AND CONFISCATION.

Upon the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, the son of the unfortunate Mary Stuart was called to the throne of England, and for the first time in their history the Irish people accepted English rule, gave their willing submission to an English dynasty, and afterward displayed as great devotedness in supporting the falling cause of their new monarchs, as in defending their religion and nationality.

This feeling of allegiance, born so suddenly and strangely in the Irish breast, cherished so ardently and at the price of so many sacrifices, finally raising the nation to the highest pitch of heroism, is worth studying and investigating its true cause.

What ought to have been the natural effect produced on the Irish people by the arrival of the news that James of Scotland had succeeded to Elizabeth? The first feeling must have been one of deep relief that the hateful tyranny of the Tudors had passed away, to be supplanted by the rule of their kinsmen the Stuarts— kinsmen, because the Scottish line of kings was directly descended from that Dal Riada colony which Ireland had sent so long ago to the shores of Albania, to a branch of which Columbkill belonged.

For those who were not sufficiently versed in antiquarian genealogy to trace his descent so far back, the thought that James was the son of Mary Stuart was sufficient. If any people could sympathize with the ill-starred Queen of Scots, that people was the Irish. It could not enter into their ideas that the son of the murdered Catholic queen, should have feelings uncongenial to their own. It is easy, then, to understand how, when the news of Elizabeth's death and of the accession of James arrived, the sanguine Irish heart leaped with a new hope and joyful expectation.

As for the real disposition of that strangest of monarchs, James I, , writers are at variance. Matthew O'Connor, the elder, who had in his hands the books and manuscripts of Charles O'Connor of Bellingary, is very positive in his assertions on his side of the question:

“James was a determined and implacable enemy to the Catholic religion; he alienated his professors from all attachment to his government by the virulence of his antipathy. One of his first gracious proclamations imported a general jail-delivery, except for 'murderers and papists. ' By another proclamation he pledged himself 'never to grant any toleration to the Catholics, ' and entailed a curse on his posterity if they granted any. ”

Turning now to Dr. Madden's “History of the Penal Laws, ” we shall feel disposed to modify so positive an opinion. There we read:

“It is very evident that his zeal for the Protestant Church had more to do with a hatred of the Puritans than of popery, and that he had a hankering, after all, for the old religion which his mother belonged to, and for which she had been persecuted by the fanatics of Scotland. ”

Hume seems to support this judgment of Dr.

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