Lord Farnham, the 1947 Cavan team, and Winter conversions
In this week's Times Past column, Jonathan Smyth recalls some further memories of Fr. Eddie Brady...
In 1947, Cavan’s big All-Ireland win, beating Kerry 2-11 to 2-7 in the Polo Grounds, New York, meant, an even more jubilant crowd awaited their homecoming. A 15,000 strong throng gathered to greet the Cavan team in Cavan Town’s Farnham Gardens. The players arrived to a rousing reception, as the men absorbing the atmosphere to the uproarious delight that emanated from the county fans.
‘Addresses of welcome’ were delivered by local dignitaries, including Michael Harding Snr who was present that day to represent Cavan County Council. The reception for the returning football team went perfectly. However, a closer look at the finer detail, later showed there was something the organisers failed to consider when picking the venue for the celebrations. Seventy years later, Fr Eddie Brady made an interesting revelation.
He told me that: ‘In September 1947 when Cavan won the All-Ireland final in the Polo Grounds in New York there was a huge welcome in Cavan for the team. It was held in the Farnham Gardens in Cavan in a vacant plot between Wesley Street (opposite the old library) and Town Hall Street.’ He went on: ‘The celebrations were held in those gardens, which were the property of Lord Farnham and, evidently, the GAA secretary presumed that this was waste ground so he did not seek permission from Lord Farnham.’
Continuing, Fr Eddie added: ‘Lord Farnham said nothing so nobody knew of the trespass and it was only seven years later in 1954 that his agent Mr Calbreck told me and said that Lord Farnham and he were very happy to keep it quiet and unknown.’
And what were Fr Eddie’s memories of the local Lord in those days? ‘About Lord Farnham in the 1940s’, he said, ‘I recall that he was a very well respected and popular person' and that 'there was a Huntsman’s Club (beagles) in my parish of Castletara and they used to go hunting with Lord Farnham and others on horseback’.
Winter conversions
Another time, Fr. Eddie suggested that I might look at an account in Fr Dan Gallogly’s book about the time when Roman Catholics were invited to the evangelical Lord Farnham's Bible studies in the mid-1820s. This became known as the Second Reformation. Fr Brady’s suggestion, I thought, would make an interesting column for Times Past.
Those who spent the winter under Farnham’s hospitality, were called winter protestants, and their conversion generally had little in the way to do with spiritual matters. But rather, their motives were a type of protection against the winter elements of cold and a lack of food. It had more to do with survival by any means possible. Afterwards, most families returned to their original faith as soon as the thaw came, and food was again plentiful.
Cavan's Second Reformation happened a long time ago during the winter of 1826 to 1827. It started when the Church of Ireland came under the influence of William Magee, an ‘evangelical’ Archbishop of Dublin, who set his church to war with the Roman Catholic Church.
Fr Gallogly explained that the 'collapse of the linen industry in Cavan' during the early years of that decade, created poverty, leading to near starvation for the poorest families. The food and warmth provided by the evangelicals proved tempting.
An early convert to the Archbishop Magee's reformation plan was the rich landowner John Maxwell Barry, 5th Baron of Farnham, whose portfolio amounted to 28,000 acres. The Baron, along with his sister Julia and his nephew Henry Maxwell MP, devoted their time and money to the new reformation, which from the Catholic Church's perspective amounted to little more than fanatical proselytism. The Farnhams' palatial home became a centre where converts were permitted to stay.
The Baron did a thorough job at record-keeping and wrote down all the names of those who converted. Between October 1826 and November 1827, he recorded 511 conversions in handwritten lists, coming from every parish in the county from Castlerahan to Gowna. Amongst the converts, were a number of poor protestants who pretended to be Catholics in order to get food and clothes.
On January 26, 1827, a meeting was held in the old Courthouse, Cavan Town, so as to form a society for the promotion of the new Reformation. A report was later produced on the speeches delivered. The report was edited by the Rev N.J. Halpin and printed by Richard Moore Tims in 1827. An original copy was archived by the Local Studies section of the County Library in Cavan.
Lord Farnham, who chaired the meeting at the old Courthouse, told the people that three school masters came to him in September 1826 and said that they wished to publicly recant their religion and become Protestant. By October 8, many more began arriving to Farnham's house, they too, wishing to change faith.
A letter from Pat Morgan to the editor of The Daily Evening mail on February 21, 1827, stated: 'I went to Cavan Church, at 12 o’clock, and heard Mr Collins or Mr Spaight preach an eloquent sermon in said church. From thence I went to Farnham Castle, where the thirty-two were assembled who during the day I saw read their recantation in said church. Mr Pope preached another eloquent sermon there. I heard him preach the following morning at Farnham Castle also. From all that I could understand from the information I received, my own firm belief now is, that the number of Roman Catholics, above 400, has been really converted. I also believe that there has been no bribery in the Reformation that has taken place in Cavan.'
Fr Eddie said, there was a popular song sung by some Roman Catholics at home inviting those apostate people to come back to their homesteads, ‘as we are now digging the spuds so there is plenty to eat at home'. By the end of 1827 the Farnhams' ‘Reformation’ had all but fizzled out.
Fr Dan Gallogly's account of the Second Reformation can be read his book: 'The Diocese of Kilmore, 1800-1950'.
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