St. Michael's Church Register 1753 and the last years of Penal Laws

Some time in the 1970’s while I was living in Dublin, I was contacted by a local man who had in his possession a church register for St. Michael’s, Athy. He explained how he had rescued it when the old St. Michael’s Church was being demolished in 1960. How or in what circumstances the register needed to be rescued was never satisfactorily explained to me but fortunately I was able to ensure its subsequent return to the Parish. I had the opportunity of examining the register in which the first entry was made in August 1753. The laws forbidding Catholics from exercising their religion was still on the Statute Books as were a multiplicity of enactments which restricted Catholics from receiving education, entering a profession or holding public office. Following the passing of an Act in 1696 banishing all priests from Ireland, a list of all priests were required to be compiled on a county basis. That Act was apparently not strictly enforced, for eight years later priests who were still in the country were required to report to their local Clerk of the Peace. Every catholic priest had to give his name, address, age, his parish, date and place of ordination and the name of the Bishop who ordained him. At Athy Quarter Sessions in 1704, Fr. John Fitzsimons reported himself as the Parish Priest of Athy since 1697, having been ordained in 1673 by Archbishop Oliver Plunkett. A State of Popery Report of 1731 recorded “Mass house” in Athy which had been built during the reign of King George I between 1714 and 1727. The Report noted that “it had two priests while there was no popish school in the town”. At the same time, Castledermot had three Mass houses, four priests, two of whom lived as farmers and three “popish schools”. The neighbouring village of Castledermot had more facilities for Catholics than the town of Athy which might suggest a majority of non catholic overseas settlers in the one time fortress town on the river Barrow. The building of a Catholic church in Athy in the early years of the 18th Century might indicate that local enforcement of the penal laws was somewhat relaxed. The return of the Dominicans to Athy in 1743 after an absence of several decades supports that view. Nevertheless, the local Parish Priest who may have been Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick ensured that the Parish Church was built off a side street in the town. The church which was torched and destroyed in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion was built in what is now known as Chapel Lane. Despite the lack of strict enforcement of the penal laws, the Dublin Castle authorities still required Catholic activities to be monitored. A letter sent by Mr. J. Jackson, a member of Athy Corporation, to the Dublin Castle authorities in March 1673 noted that “he could not find that there is or has been any popish priests or regular clergy in this corporation”. He then went on to explain that “the priest lives in the Queens county about two miles from the town”. Jackson did not mention the existence of the Mass house which would tend to show that the penal laws were not strictly enforced at that time. I wonder whether the limited religious toleration had evaporated by 1758 when the following entry was made in the earlier mentioned Catholic register of St. Michael’s. One entry in the register for 1758 was made on January 26th with the next entry on December 3rd which was preceded by the note which explained that the blank was “occasioned by the prosecution against the Reverend Mr. Callaghan”. I have a note of a Fr. Callaghan as a Curate in Athy in 1758 but have no further information about him. I have not discovered the nature of the prosecution against Fr. Callaghan but assume it related in some way to a breach of the penal laws. Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick was Parish Priest at that time and he was succeeded in 1758 by Canon James Nele. In Athy during Fr. Fitzpatrick’s time as Parish Priest, two other religious groups were subjected to the same penal law codes as the Catholic’s. Rev. Dr. Thralkield and Rev. Robert Rutherford were ministering in and around Athy on behalf of the Presbyterian church while for about 31 years prior to 1751 Rev. John McGachin was the local Presbyterian Minister. The Society of Friends known as Quakers also had a presence in Athy as early as 1672 and like Catholics and Presbyterians were subjected to the provisions of the penal laws. The Quakers formed a commercially active group in the town but it would take several decades before a Catholic commercial middle class emerged in Athy. The enforcement of the penal laws and their effect on religious practice and Irish society generally in the 18th Century is difficult to unravel. What we do know is that religion took second place to politics after the passing of the Repeal Act of 1793 and the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 with the emergence of a Catholic middle class.