The Life of Edmund 1762-1810

An Irish businessman, father and husband, founder of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers.

The years 1762 to 1844 were a period of tremendous importance as vast changes were taking place in the political, economic and social structures of many lands.

In the year 1762 the world had a lot to occupy its attention. Foremost was the Seven Years War in which nearly all European nations were embroiled until 1763. Among the chief causes was the fight between Britain and France for supremacy on the seas, and in North America, the West Indies and India. As a result of her success, Britain would stand foremost among the European powers in the extent of her overseas colonies, which would be extended to include New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Hong Kong. A supply of raw materials for industry as well as precious stones and metals was assured. The age of intensive missionary activity, the search for souls, was also being launched on a vast scale.

Monsieur Jean Jacques Rousseau had created quite a stir with his new book Le Contrat Social, which opened with the words “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”, and his new theory of the sovereignty of the people was eagerly discussed throughout France. So too was the recent decision of the Parlement of Paris to abolish the Jesuits, confiscate their property and secularize the members. The French Revolution would become the result of a long and careful attack on existing institutions by clever writers and thinkers who influenced an intelligent public. Eventually the revolutionary ideas of liberalism and nationalism spread throughout Europe by war. Karl Marx moved to Paris in 1844 and there he met Friedrich Engels. Together they produced The Communist Manifesto in 1847.

In Manchester there was talk of “muck and money”, for the new canals had cut the price of coal by 50%. The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions were underway. Robert Peel had just invented a new carding machine that was transforming the cotton trade, Josiah Wedgewood had started to produce his famous chinaware and would soon be in mass-production allowing the wooden platters and earthenware bowls to be replaced in people’s homes. Farming methods and the time-honoured communal system of small holdings were being replaced by intensive and partly-mechanised processes on the fenced-off lands of the of the capitalist farmer. The handiwork of the cottages was being overtaken by power-driven machines in urban factories, and people left the countryside in search of jobs there. The demand was such that women and children were employed in the factory and the mine. While the conditions were deadly – long hours for low pay, costly food, filthy hovels, streets rotten with sewage, and towns disease-ridden - human life was too cheap to worry about.

In Ireland the Whiteboys and other secret societies – papists and anarchists, protesting high rents, wretched living conditions, recurring famines and high tithes paid to an alien church – were upsetting the country with their attacks on tithe collectors and animals. The Parliament was in session and had just generously voted £112,000 to educate young Catholics caught begging on the streets, to bring them up as Protestants.

People began to emigrate to the large cities of Britain, hoping to find employment in the factories. Priests and religious went with them, including the Brothers who went to Preston in 1825.

What was perceived as toleration in not enforcing some of the Penal Laws was considered by others as a sign of contempt – Ireland had been defeated and the whip was no longer needed. The Catholic Relief Act of 1792 conceded permission for a Catholic to open a school without first acquiring a licence from the Protestant Bishop. Since 1791 the United Irishmen, under Wolfe Tone, was open to Catholic members in an attempt to show that Catholics and Protestants could live and work in harmony. Edmund witnessed the futile rebellion of 1798 and saw how the Act of Union of 1800 failed to grant Catholic Emancipation. He saw the growth of the Catholic Association under the leadership of O’Connell, eventually leading to Emancipation in 1829.

Across the Atlantic the colonists were developing their country, striking out on their own, now that the French menace in Canada had been removed. In 1776, when Edmund was 14, the American colonies declared their independence.