‘My repeated troubles’: Dr James Gallagher (bishop of Raphoe 1725-37) and the impact of the Penal Laws

Abstract

Dr James Gallagher was a bishop in Ireland at a time when the penal laws had effectively removed the leadership of the Catholic church. By the terms of the Banishment Act of 16971 all Catholic bishops, vicars general, deans and regular clergy were ordered to leave the kingdom within a year. By 1703 only three bishops remained, namely Dr Edward Comerford (Cashel), Dr Michael Rosseter (Ferns) and Dr Patrick O’Donnelly (Dromore).2 By 1707 only one bishop remained in Ireland and he was being held prisoner in Dublin. Very few of the bishops who left after the enactment of the Banishment Act ever returned to their dioceses and it would take another 40 years for all vacant dioceses to once again be filled.3 As a result, those episcopal consecrations which did take place in the first quarter of the eighteenth century were conducted with extreme caution. A special dispensation regarding the consecration of new bishops was in place for Ireland, and it was not necessary to have two bishops presiding at the consecration of a new bishop.4 Once consecrated, the pastoral mission of a Catholic bishop was a difficult and challenging one during the first half of the eighteenth century, especially for those attached to dioceses on the western seaboard or in the province of Ulster. In the west poor travel infrastructure, general poverty among the Catholic population, and less developed ecclesiastical structures than those obtaining in