Anti-Catholic agitation in
Wolverhampton (part 8)
The Irish Church Mission
For part of the period under review there was an organized
attempt by Church of England clergymen in Wolverhampton to try to
counter the influence of Catholicism upon the natives of Ireland. They
gave their support from the start to the work of the Irish Church
Mission which was set up in 1849 with the aim of converting Ireland to
Anglicanism. This society in its first year claimed to have persuaded
10,000 Irish Catholics to leave the Church of Rome, [WC 18th
Feb1852] within four years its income rose from £4,694 to £37,182, which
led Rev Dalton to boast that its success was "an example of the triumph
of God’s blessed word over the darkness of centuries of superstition of
a fallen Church..." [WC 21st Feb 1853] Just as its support
locally and nationally had been at its peak during the time of high
Irish immigration, its popularity fell away dramatically during the
1860s as the number of Irish entering this country declined. By 1867,
the total annual income of the Irish Church Mission had fallen to
£6,000. [WC 18th
Dec 1867] Looking at the membership of the Mission, it would appear that,
as in other Protestant denominations, it was the Evangelical ministers
in the Church of England who were at the forefront of the attack on
Catholicism.
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