Courtney McGrailThomas Hussey (1746-1803): Bishop of Waterford & Lismore
by Liam Murphy
(Kingdom Books, €20)
J. Anthony Gaughan
This is a splendid account of Thomas Hussey, a remarkable Catholic bishop of the late 18th Century, a man who lived through the decline of the Penal Laws and the rise of a more confident Catholic middle class.
Liam Murphy skillfully sets out the influences which moulded Hussey.
Born in March 1746 into the Ireland of the penal laws which were used by the Protestant Ascendancy to keep the Catholic majority in subjection, he spent seven of his formative years studying for the priesthood in the English College in Seville and thereby absorbed the culture and post-Tridentine theology of the continent.
Following his ordination in 1769 he was appointed as chaplain to the Spanish Embassy in London, which post he retained for the rest of his life. During his years in London he became acquainted with some of the leading figures in society.
These included Edmund Burke, the distinguished parliamentarian, with whom he formed a life-long friendship. The high regard in which Hussey he was held led his election as a member of the Royal Society in 1792.
Subsequently these London connections enabled him to be successful in a number of interventions.
He was able to secure the services of Richard, son of Edmund Burke, for the Committee of Catholics of Ireland in their struggle to end the religious discrimination of the Penal Laws.
He played a crucial role in the establishment of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and served as its first president.
He was appointed Chaplain General of King George III’s Catholic soldiers in Ireland and ensured that Catholic soldiers had access to their own chaplains.
Hussey was appointed Bishop of Waterford & Lismore in 1796 and, as the author illustrates, his episcopate was assertive and confrontational in sharp contrast to that of his colleagues in the Irish hierarchy.
His determination to this end was clear from the outset. Consecrated at a lavish liturgy in Dublin, he chose to govern his diocese from the splendid new cathedral at Waterford – his predecessors had resided Carrick-on-Suir or Clonmel.
Determination
Nowhere was his determination more clear than in a pastoral he published in 1797 in which he railed against the legal injustices and cruelties of the penal period. One of his priorities as bishop was education and Hussey played an important part in the founding of the Irish Christian Brothers by Edmund Rice.
As a result of his pastoral, in which he characterised the Church of Ireland as a sect, Hussey became obnoxious in the sight of the Irish administration and somewhat embarrassing to the Catholic establishment.
Accordingly he resigned the presidency of the Royal College (Maynooth) in May 1792, and left Ireland.
For this reason Hussey’s voice was silent in 1798, but on the subject of the Union his intervention was characteristically frank, stating his preference for ‘a union with the Beys and Mamelukes of Egypt to that of being under the iron rod of the Mamelukes of Ireland’.
Hussey returned to Ireland in 1802 and died suddenly at Tramore, while bathing there in July 1803.
Even in death he aroused strong emotions: an angry Orange mob attempted to throw his remains into the River Suir during his funeral procession.
This meticulously researched study is a valuable contribution to the history of the diocese of Waterford and Lismore during the Penal Law period.