Maynooth Grant
The Maynooth Grant was a cash grant from the British government to a Catholic seminary in Ireland. In 1845, the Conservative Prime Minister,
Background
The
Overview
Peel made the proposal to increase government funding to Maynooth College in 1845. Under his proposal, the seminary would receive upwards of £26,000 annually and a grant of £30,000 for repairs.[2] Peel's colleagues warned repeatedly that it was politically dangerous for the Party, but Peel felt he had to do it lest Ireland explode. Peel realized that there was agitation in Ireland to repeal the union in 1843. Catholic clergy were active and Peel hoped to win over their support and separate them from popular nationalism.[3]
Conservatives led by the
In 1845, John Plumptre, member of Parliament for East Kent and an opponent of the Grant, issued an address, saying:[5]
As you value His favour, as you deprecate His frown, as your hearts and your altars are dear to you; as you would retain and enjoy for yourselves, and transmit to your children, the blessings and privileges which belong to you as Protestants, I beseech you to oppose, with all zeal and firmness, with all temperance and calmness, with all loyal attachment to your Sovereign--with all union among yourselves--with all charity towards all men--with all prayer and supplication towards God--this fresh inroad about to be made upon your consciences,--this new and deep wound to your highest and holiest feelings.
This is strong evidence of the moral implications of the issue in Parliament.
The Anti-Maynooth Conference was held in London with over 1,000 delegates from England and Ireland and more than a million signatures were collected to oppose the grant.
Also contributing to the political unrest was a group known as the "Voluntaryists," who were also opposed to the grant. Their issue with it was not, however, over any sort of religious difference. They opposed the idea of the government granting money to any private institution of higher education, and so were upset about the Maynooth Grant.
The 1845 Maynooth bill (which became the
While the grant was controversial, and weakened Peel's government, it set a precedent, and within three years, government support was being given to Catholic schools in England.
References
- ^ "The Maynooth Grant". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
- ^ Donal Kerr, "Peel and the Political Involvement of the Priests." Archivium Hibernicum 36 (1981): 16-25.
- ISBN 9780750952163.
- ^ Wohl, Anthony S. "Speech against the Maynooth Grant by John Plumptre, MP". Victorian Web. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
Further reading
- Arnstein, Walter L. "Queen Victoria and the Challenge of Roman Catholicism." Historian 58.2 (1996): 295-314.
- Gash, Norman. Sir Robert Peel: The Life of Sir Robert Peel after 1830 (1972) pp 456–80.
- Kerr, Donal. "Peel and the Political Involvement of the Priests." Archivium Hibernicum 36 (1981): 16-25. online
- Kerr, Donal A. Peel, priests, and politics: Sir Robert Peel's administration and the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, 1841-1846 (Clarendon Press, 1982).
- Machin, George IT. "The Maynooth grant, the Dissenters and disestablishment, 1845-1847." English Historical Review (1967): 61-85. online
Primary sources
- Hardy, Philip Dixon. The Maynooth grant, considered religiously, morally, and politically : with documentary proof that it was originally obtained by fraud and perjury, and that its continuance is a subsidy to idolatry and sedition (1853) online, a typical opposition pamphlet.