Liam Murphy, The Life of Dr. Thomas Hussey, 1746-1803:
Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (Kingdom Books, Dublin, 2016), ISBN
978-0-9524567-8-0, pp 175.
On a wall in the grounds
of Holy Trinity Cathedral on Waterford’s Barronstrand Street is a thick limestone
memorial with the following inscription: ‘D. O. M. Hic jacent sepultae exuviae
mortales Reverendis: & Illustris: Dom. Thomae Hussey L.L.D. Qui per septem
annos Ecclesiam Waterfordiens: et Lismoriens: rexit Obiit anno 1803 Die Julii
11mo Aetatis 62o Requiescat in Pace’. It takes only a
little rudimentary Latin translation to learn that here are buried the remains
of Thomas Hussey, once Catholic Bishop of Waterford and Lismore.
Hitherto,
those wishing to learn more about Hussey’s life and times had a range of
sources which they could consult. There was an article by Patrick Power in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in 1935, and
more recently an entry by Dáire Keogh in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, among several others. What was
lacking was a full, comprehensive and up-to-date biography, and Liam Murphy has
filled that gap with what will surely become the definitive work on this
remarkable prelate.
Born
in Co Meath in 1746, Hussey led a fascinating and varied life. In addition to
being Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in his later years, Hussey also became
the first president of Maynooth College when it was established in 1795. His time as chaplain to the Spanish Embassy in
London led indirectly to him gathering intelligence for the Spanish during the
American War of Independence, and subsequently acting as a diplomat in
Anglo-Spanish negotiations.
Murphy’s
approach is basically chronological, with greater focus on some elements of
Hussey’s career (unsurprisingly, scant information survives concerning his
formative years, and these take up a mere six pages). A whole chapter is
devoted to the pastoral letter he wrote in April 1797, concerning Catholic
soldiers being forced to attend Protestant services, publication of which ‘was
probably Hussey’s most famous action’. The pastoral is also reproduced in full
as an appendix. Much of the pastoral consists of condemnation of what Hussey
described as ‘this impolitic tyranny’. The pastoral prompted a series of
pamphlets in angry response. Murphy is effective in placing the document in
context. Its tone was widely considered to be intemperate, and those who took a
dim view of the pastoral included his fellow bishops.
One
of the threads running through the book is Hussey’s relationship with the
philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke, and Murphy draws heavily on Burke’s
published correspondence. Hussey attended Burke’s funeral and there is a belief
that not only was he present during Burke’s final days, but that he also
received him into the Catholic Church.
Murphy
explains in the introduction that the book began life as an MA thesis completed
in UCC in 1968. In its new incarnation, it takes account of relevant
scholarship published in the intervening decades, and it is to the author’s
credit that the sewing together of original thesis and new material is
seamless. Occasional indications of when the original work was written are to
be found, however – for instance in the bibliography, the Rebellion Papers are
located in the Public Record Office, not the National Archives. Typographical
errors occur, but not in abundance, and those that do are generally
insignificant.
Canon
J. Anthony Gaughan in his foreward to the book describes it as ‘a valuable
contribution to the history of the diocese of Waterford and Lismore’; this it
undoubtedly is, and to the history of Irish Catholicism more broadly.
Cian Flaherty
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