Life
1841-1918; Archbishop of Tuam; b. Ballinafad, Co. Sligo, 14 Nov.; son of schoolteachers; ed. at his parents school and Ballyrush; entered Summerhill Dioc. Coll., Athlone, 1858, and transferred to Maynooth, 1860; ord., diocese of Elphin, 1867; his parent moved to Yorkshire after quarrel with parish priest, continuing his support as noviatate in Maynooth; ord. 1867 and appt. curate at Ballygar and later Grange (1871-78), where he built a new curate’s residence - being at odds with the nationalist parish priest; contrib. antiquarian notices based on his exploration of the region (e,g., Irish Monthly); app. rector of St. Asaph’s classical school in Elphin; won chair of theology in Maynooth, 1879; contrib. to Irish Ecclesiastical Review, expressing conservative opinions contra Land League and Parnellism;
entered controversy with John Henry Newman over Biblical inaccuracies alleged by the latter, 1884, and conducted correspondence which was terminated by Cardinal MacCabe; appt. tit. bishop of Macra and co-adjudicator of Clonfert, 1884, and denounced the Plan of Campaign in face of his diocesan Bishop Patrick Duggan; secured Papal condemnation of boycotting, proposed by the plan and branded Castle Bishop in Clanricarde - centre of the activities and location of his Portumna home - through a window of which a bullet was fired in 1890; issued Ireland’s Ancient Schools & Scholars (1890); issued A Centenary History of Maynooth (1895) - completed in eight months; met with A. J. Balfour and took sides with the Conservatives as more likely to advance Catholic education in Ireland; retained faith in the Union but supported Home Rule; issued Centenary History of Maynooth (1895);
served on the University Education Commission of 1901; anointed Archbishop of Tuam, 1903; formed a friendly association with William and Sophie O'Brien and served on the boad of the Agriculture and Technical Institution fnd. by Horace Plunkett; revived the Croagh Patrick pilgrimate, 1905; criticised INTO (Nat. Teachers) for refusing to toast the king, 1906; fnd. Tourmakeady Gaelic College but quarrelled over its control; strenuously opposed campaign to make Irish compulsory for matriculation at the NUI, treating advocacy of this view as a direct defiance of his diocesan bishop’s authority, 1909–10; supported John Redmond’s call for recruits in WWI; issued Life and Writings of St. Patrick (1905) - promptly overshadowed by J. B. Bury’s Life of Patrick (1905);
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Works
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Quotations
Ireland’s Ancient Schools & Scholars (1890) - Preface: ‘It has been the author’s purpose in the following pages to give a full and accurate, but at the same time, as he hopes, a popular account of the Schools and Scholars of Ancient Ireland. It is a subject about which much is talked, but little is known, and even that little is only to be found in volumes that are not easily accessible to the general reader. In the present work the history of the Schools and Scholars of Celtic Erin is traced from the time of St. Patrick down to the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland. The first three centuries of this period is certainly the brightest page of what is, on the whole, the rather saddening, but not inglorious record, of our country’s history. It was not by any means a period altogether free from violence and crime, but it was certainly a time of comparative peace and security, during which the religious communities scattered over the island presented a more beautiful spectacle before men and angels, than anything seen in Christeudom [sic for Christendom] either before or since. It is an epoch, too, whose history can be studied with pleasure and profit, and in which Irishmen of all creeds and classes feel a legitimate pride. / It has been questioned, indeed, if the Monastic Schools of this period were really so celebrated and so frequented by holy men, as justly to win for Ireland her ancient title of the Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum - the Island of Saints and Scholars. We venture to hope that the following pages will furnish, even to the most sceptical, conclusive evidence on this point.[...]' (p.[v.] (Note: Table of Contents [pp.ix-xiii] cover XXIV chaps. and give a per-page listing of the saint and monastic community mentioned in each.) [Available online at Internet Archive;20.02.2024.]
The Round Towers and Holy Wells of Ireland (Dublin: CTS [1898?]). 28pp. [the latter title printed first]; excerpt, ‘There are certain superior persons, even amongst Catholics, who deem any religious reverence paid to those holy wells to be superstitious; and they are inclined to sneer at the ignorant pity of the simple faithful who perform their devotions at the sacred springs, or attribute any healing efficacy to their waters ... But the waters of Jordan alone could cleanse the leprosy of the scoffing Syrian, and so we can hardly blame our poor people, who, in their strong and simple faith, believe that the prayer at the blessed well and the washing in its waters have more value than the doctor’ medicine. With non-Catholics, who do not reverence even the Cross of Christ, we do not reason here. But Catholics ought to know better than regard all these observations as superstitious. It is true that they may sometimes degenerate into superstition; but the Catholic instinct that shows reverence to the relics of the saints, and venerates the holy fountains which they blessed and used in the service of the Church, is not supersitious. We may, indeed, well venerate them, for some of the ancient holiness lingers round them still, and it is not too much to hope that the saints who blessed them may still look down from their high place in Heaven [... ...] the Church has no sympathy with the hollow smile and frozen sneer of those superior persons who, with all their wisdom, do not understand the things of the Spirit of God [13-14]. Round Towers makes reference to present republication of O’Brien’s Essay on the Round Towers (new ed. Lon. 1898), and calls it ‘not worthy of a serious refutation’, the style ‘puerile and turgid’, and the alleged facts unfounded; quotations inaccurate, &c.
The Four Masters [paper prev. read as lect. to Maynooth students in aula Maxima] (no title-page; 16pp.); quotes O’Curry, ‘It is no easy matter for an Irishman to suppress feelings of deep emotion when speaking of the Four Masters; and especially when he considers the circumstances under which, and the objects for which, their great work was undertaken.’; Kilbarron Castle described in sonnet by ‘poor D’Arcy M’Gee’. Further quotes: ‘Never unto green Tirconnell / Came such spoil as Brother Michael / Bore before him on his palfrey. / By the fireside in the winter / By the seaside in the summer / When the children are around you/And your theme is love of country / Fail not then, my friends I charge you / To recall the truly noble / Name and works of Brother Michael / Worthy chief of the Four Masters / Saviour of our country’s Annals.’ The reverend author concludes, At the very time that the Masters were writing, Strafford was maturing plans in Dublin for the further despoiling the native chiefs, who had yet escaped the sword and halter. [... &c.; 16]
The Life and Writings of St Patrick, with appendices, by the Most Rev. Dr. Healy, Archb. of Tuam; Dublin M. H. Gill; Sealy, Bryers, and Walker 1905, 754pp. [frontis. port.] Preface, ‘Our chief purpose in writing this new Life of St Patrick, when so many Lives already exist, is to give a fuller and, we venture to hop, more exact account of the Saint’s missionary labours in Ireland than any that has appeared since the Tripartite Life was first written. For this purpose, we have not only thoroughly studied Colgan’s great work and made ourselves familiar with the really valuable publications of our own times, but we have, when practicable, personally vidited all the scenes of the Saint’s labours, both at home and abroad, so as to be able to give a local colouring to the dry record ... /We have no new views to put forward. We shall see to follow the authority of the ancient writers of the Acts of St Patrick, which we regard as in the main trustworthy. Those who do not like miracles can pass them over, but the ancient writers believed in them, and even when purely imaginary these miraculous stories have an historical and critical value of their own.’ [iii]. Note that Healy categorises the Ancient authorities as pre-1172, the medieval as 1172 to 17th century; and the Modern as the rest, ‘including Colgan and Usher, who have written from that date (ad. 1600) to the present time.’ He does not distinguish Stokes, et al., by name.
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References
Dictionary of National Biography (RIA 2009) - article by Patrick Maume incls. personal and family information: ‘[...] The presence in the parish of a Patrician church, the legendary battlefield of Moytura, and the Curlew Pass laid the basis for Healy’s later fascination with Irish history and, in particular, the golden age of the early Irish church. He later claimed that he was descended from medieval chieftains. [...] During his time at Maynooth, Healy’s parents lost their schoolteaching positions after quarrelling with a new parish priest, who thought Mark Healy incompetent. The family moved to Halifax, Yorkshire, where Mary Healy opened a school; this was forced to close by a local priest who disliked its rivalry with the local convent school and insinuated that a woman who behaved in such a manner could not possibly have a son at Maynooth. Mary Healy enabled John to complete his seminary studies by working as a lacemaker, while his siblings were employed in factories; in later years he provided his mother with a home and shared his household with relatives, citing St. Patrick as his model.’ (Available online; accessed 13.09.2024.)
Booksellers & Libraries
De Burca Catalogue (1997) lists Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars (Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum). With large folding coloured map of Ireland shewing the Ancient Schools. Dublin, Sealy, 1890, xviii, 638pp. [V.good, £75].
Belfast Central Public Library holds The Ancient Irish Church (1892) & Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum (1893) [appar. the same]; Maynooth College (1895). Life and Writings of St. Patrick (1905); Irish Essays (1908);
Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast) holds Memories of Father Healy (London 1898; 1904).
University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum, or Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars (1908) 651p; Irish Essays, Literary and Historical (1908); The Life and Writings of St. Patrick (1905) 754p; Maynooth College and Its Centenary (1895), 774p.
Note: UUL also holds History of the Diocese of Meath, Vol. 1 [of 2] (Dublin: APCK, 37 Dawson St. 1908 [Sealy, Bryers & Walker]), 3335p.[?], by John Healy, D.D., rector of Kells and Canon of St. Patrick’s, Dublin [i.e., Protestant]. Available as .pdf at Internet Archive - online; some extracts to be found under Anthony Dopping - as supra.
Vol. II beginning with Chap. XXIV: The Revolution: [1] Deputation to the Prince of Orange; [2] Thanksgiving Services ... &c.: Chap. XXIV: ‘As soon as the issue of the battle of the Boyne was known, there was a great sigh of relief from the whole Protestant community of Ireland. After the fight, King Wiliiam proceeded towards Dublin, and pitched his camp at Finglas. The church clergymen who were left in Dublin immediately formed themselves into a deputation, and waited on the Prince of Orange. They were headed by the Bishop of Meath, who in their name presented an address of welcome and congratulation, at the same time expressing their loyalty to him, and their prayers for his welfare.’ (p.1; for extracts on Bishop Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Kildare and later Meath, see further under Dopping - as supra.)
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Notes
Oliver St. John Gogarty: Gogarty draws extensively on Archbishop Healy in I Follow St Patrick (1938), p.57f.; &c. - citing him as accusing that some authors of ‘giving loose reins to their speculations as to the birthplace of Patrick’, and goes on to illustrate the Archbishop’s own improbable advocacy of Boulogne, after Lanigan; this, Gogarty holds, is likely to leave ‘an impression of confusion’ on the mind of the reader; in the lengthy passage that he cites, Healy writes with respect to Fiacc’s reference to Nemthur that ‘We find, moreover, in this very same region, the modern Tournehm (Nethur reversed)’, to which Gogarty exclaims in a single paragraph, ‘“Tournehm (Nethur reversed)!”’ without further comment; Healy is scornful of Dr. O’Brien, emertus professor of Maynooth, in his conjecture that St. Patrick was born in the Greek-speaking town of Emporium, Spain [59]; to all these conjectures, Gogarty answers by quoting Patrick on his British homeland (p.58); note that Gogarty jocosely takes issue with Healy’s account of the church measured out by Conall for Patrick [p.210],
Further: Gogarty cites at length the narrative of Eithne and her sister, converted by Patrick at the well of Cliabach or Clechach, nr. Cruachan, as narrated fully in Dr. Healy’s Life of St Patrick (1905), including verses by Aubrey de Vere’s Legends [see de Vere, q.v.], to all of which Healy attaches the remark: ‘We have here given the account of the Book of Armagh, word for word. To add to it would be to spoil it. The same account, in almost exactly the same words, is given in the Irish of the Tripartite; so we may fairly assume it gives us not only an exact, though brief, account of what happened by Clebach Well, but also a fair summary of St. Patrick’s preaching to the people whom he was about to baptise there. [… &c.]’ (Gogarty, p.231.)
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