The Anti-Maynooth Campaign: A Study in Anti-Catholicism and Politics in the United Kingdom, 1851-69 (Protestantism, Ireland)
The study examines a compaign by ultra-Protestant militants to abolish the government grant to St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. This campaign was but one element in the anti-Catholic tradition of Victorian Britain. The anti-Maynooth campaign had both a parliamentary and an extra-parliamentary character, and printed sources form the basis for studying the two. Of particular value were the organs of sectarian public opinion, such as the Catholic weekly Tablet, and the ultra-Protestant Bulwark. Parliamentary debates and printed public petitions were valuable for exposing the process and rhetoric of the campaign. The thesis is that although a theologically based anti-Catholic viewpoint impelled the campaign forward, the moderate political environment of the British parliament repelled this effort repeatedly. The grant to Maynooth involved more than religion, it involved the Irish question. British parliament saw the grant as a necessary measure of conciliation towards Ireland, and political expediency advised the continuation of the grant as a means of pacifying Irish discontent with British rule. The generally moderate nature of the British political State was one which excluded religious militancy from considerations of practical politics.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign