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ABSTRACT
The Catholic Church embarked upon an ambitious project of property development in the nineteenth century that transformed the Irish built environment and landscape. People responded energetically to fundraising drives for churches, convents, monasteries and welfare-focused institutions. The acquisition of significant property and substantial capital by the Irish Catholic Church was a major source of its power, which continued into independent Ireland. Much of this wealth came to the Catholic Church through bequests, donations, and returns on investment, which were managed by the relevant dioceses and orders. This article focuses on the episcopacy of Archbishop William Walsh of Dublin during the 1880s and 1890s to understand the way in which the management of the archdiocese of Dublin’s financial resources shaped the social, economic, and political development of Ireland’s capital city. By focusing on the management of one of the most significant bequests under Walsh’s supervision – the Egan Bequest – a complex story of religion, investment and infrastructure building is revealed. This activity helped produce a model of investor capitalism that shaped Dublin in ways that remain contested to this day.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. “The maternity hospital land war: a battle between principles and pragmatism,” Business Post, May 15, 2022; “Protesters call for state ownership of new maternity hospital,” Belfast Telegraph, May 14, 2022; “Does the government claim that NMH 299-year lease is effective ownership stack up?,’ Irish Times, May 11, 2022.
2. Enright, “‘Phantom Catholic threats’ and haunted legal futures: reading the deal over Ireland’s National Maternity Hospital”, Nursingclio.org, August 11, 2022; and Enright, “Benefactors and friends”, 151–69.
3. Cox, “Institutional space,” 673–707; Ó Corráin, “Catholicism in Ireland, 1880–2016,” 726–64; Barrington, Health, Medicine, and Politics in Ireland; and Barrington, “Catholic Influence on the Health Services,” 152–64.
4. Larkin, “Economic Growth”
5. Larkin, “Economic Growth”; and Kennedy, “Roman Catholic Church and Economic Growth,” 45–60.
6. Doyle, “The Irish Land Question,” 1–24.
7. Galavan, Dublin’s Bourgeois Homes.
8. Kocka, Capitalism: A Short History, 21–24.
9. Palacios, Catholic Social Imagination, 35–36.
10. See Beatty, “Problem of Capitalism”; and Doyle, “The Clergy, Economic Democracy and the Co-operative Movement”
11. Baker and Collins, “The governance of charitable trusts,” 162–83; and Johnson, Making the market.
12. The contemporary efforts of other religious organisations, notably the Salvation Army, to temper what were regarded as capitalist excesses went much further. See Strange and Roddy, “Banking for Jesus” Meanwhile other Protestant denominations directly appropriated the mechanisms and language of the stock market in funding themselves: see Short, “Investments in the Kingdom of Christ.”
13. Larkin, “Economic growth,” 869.
14. Maltby and Rutterford, “Investing in charities”; and Morris, “Market Solutions for Social Problems”
15. Prunty, Dublin Slums, 122.
16. Brady and McManus, Building Healthy Homes, 13.
17. O’Riordan, “Dublin Artisans’ Dwellings Company”.
18. Prunty, Dublin Slums, 125.
19. Prunty, Dublin Slums, 125–7.
20. Prunty, Dublin Slums, 176–7.
21. Maltby and Rutterford, “Investing in charities,” 273.
22. Brady and McManus, Building Healthy Homes, 65.
23. O’Riordan, “Dublin Artisans’ Dwellings Company”, 159.
24. DADC, Book of Reports, Half-years ending 31st December 1876 to 31st December 1896, Irish Architectural Archive (IAA), DADC Papers, 79/26.2/3/2
25. Edward Spencer, Secretary of DADC, to Archbishop Walsh, 13 November 1888, Dublin Diocesan Archives (DDA), Walsh Papers, Folder Laity, 1888.
26. Dublin Artisans Dwellings Co Limited Register of Shareholders, 1876–1938, IAA, DADC Papers, 3/1/1
27. See entry for year ending 31 December 1897 in DADC Share Ledgers Registers of Members, 1896–1932, IAA, DADC Papers, 3/2/2
28. NicGhabhann, “A development of practical Catholic Emancipation”
29. “Aughrim Street Church,” Evening Telegraph, January 28, 1907, DADC Newspaper Cuttings Book, IAA, DADC Papers, 2/4/3.
30. O’Riordan, “Dublin Artisans’ Dwellings Company”, 179–182.
31. “Aughrim Street Church,” Evening Telegraph, January 28, 1907, DADC Newspaper Cuttings Book, IAA, DADC Papers, 2/4/3.
32. Donovan, “The denominational character.”
33. Last will and testament of Miss Ellen Cruise (1856), DDA, Wills Collection C; and “Charitable bequests,” The Dublin Gazette, July 22, 1856.
34. Thomas J. Ryan, Analysis of will of Bridget O’Brien (1876), DDA, Wills Collection M-O.
35. Thom’s Irish Almanac, 1513
36. In the sense his name appears on lists making various demands and collecting for the O’Connell Compensation fund “Saint Audoen’s parish – the O’Connell compensation fund,” Freeman’s Journal, November 28, 1839; “St Audoen’s parish,” Freeman’s Journal, December 4, 1840; “St Audoen’s parish,” Freeman’s Journal, November 8, 1841. After O’Connell’s death his name (and sometimes that of his brothers) also frequently appeared on petitions published to encourage “aggregate meetings of the Catholics of Dublin.” “Sympathy with the Pope,” Freeman’s Journal, January 4, 1860
37. The Nation, March 13, 1852.
38. “Donations will be most gratefully received,” Freeman’s Journal, March 8, 1851; and “St. Clare’s female orphanage,” Freeman’s Journal, March 2, 1867
39. “At a meeting held … ,” Freeman’s Journal, December 21, 1853
40. NLI Will calendar, http://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/reels/cwa/005014889/005014889_00411.pdf
41. For example, in spring 1867 alone, Egan donated £1 towards CBS Synge St £1 to the Deaf and Dumb Institute at Cabra, and 10 shillings to a testimonial for the curate of St Audoen’s, making him, in all cases, one of several dozen who did so (or indeed gave more). “Thanks after sermon,” Freeman’s Journal, March 8, 1867; “Testimonial to the Rev. C.P. Nolan,” Freeman’s Journal, April 10, 1867; “Catholic Institution for the Deaf and Dumb,” Freeman’s Journal, April 13, 1867
42. “St. Vincent’s hospital,” Freeman’s Journal, September 13, 1867; “St. Vincent’s hospital and dispensary,” January 22, 1868; “Acknowledgements,” January 29, 1869
43. “Deaths,” Freeman’s Journal, February 5, 1870.
44. Edward McCabe to Cardinal Cullen, February 7, 1870; February 10, 1870, Cullen papers, DDA, 321/7/III/9 & 10
45. Testimony of Egan’s solicitor at the court of probate in 1870 suggests as much. “Court of Probate” Freeman’s Journal, December 15, 1870
46. Last will and testament of Charles Egan (1868), DDA, Wills Collection D-F.
47. “Rental and particulars of most valuable fee-simple, freehold and leasehold estates, situate in the counties Killkenny, Tipperary, Limerick, Galway, Queen’s County, Kildare, Dublin and City of Dublin” (1876), Landed Estates Records, National Archives of Ireland, via Ireland, Encumbered Estates, 1850–1885 database, ancestry.com.
48. Ibid.
49. “Landed estates court,” Leinster Express, July 8, 1876.
50. “Court of Probate,” Freeman’s Journal, December 15, 1870
51. Presbytery of St. Audoen’s Church, Buildings of Ireland, https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50080536/saint-audoens-roman-catholic-church-high-street-dublin-8-dublin
52. “Landed estates court,” Leinster Express, July 8, 1876.
53. “In the landed estates court, Ireland,” Leinster Express, April 27, 1872
54. “To the executors of the late Charles Egan,” Freeman’s Journal, May 19, 1875; “Court of probate,” Freeman’s Journal, December 1, 1876.
55. “£5000 will be paid,” Irish Daily Independent, June 10, 1893.
56. Will and codicil of James Egan (1849) DDA, Wills Collection D-F.
57. “Court of Probate,” Freeman’s Journal, December 15, 1870
58. Trustees of Charles Egan, September 14, 1912, DDA, Wills Collection D-F.
59. Taylor, “Trust, friends, and investment;” Knight, “Reading the ticker tape”
60. Murphy, Politics of Dublin Corporation, 178.
61. “The Lord Mayor’s Financial Scheme,” The Nation, September 15 1888.
62. “Editorial” Freeman’s Journal, October 16, 1888.
63. “Dublin Corporation Redeemable Stock,” Cork Examiner, November 18, 1890.
64. “Editorial” Freeman’s Journal, September 20, 1890.
65. James Talbot Power, Census 1901, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Ballybrack/Carmenhall___Leopardstown/1316743/ [accessed 12 July 2022]
66. “The City Stock,” Freeman’s Journal, December 9, 1889.
67. James Talbot Power to Archbishop William Walsh, March 5, 1890, Dublin Diocesan Archive (DDA), Walsh Papers, Box 246, 1890 – Laity Correspondence.
68. Talbot Power to Walsh, March 5, 1890, DDA, Walsh Papers, Box 246, 1890 – Laity Correspondence.
69. Sexton to Walsh, April 12, 1890, DDA, Walsh Papers, Box 246, 1890 – Laity Correspondence.
70. Last will and testament of Hugh Blayney (1877), DDA, Wills Collection A-B.
71. Sexton to Walsh, October 20, 1890, DDA, Walsh Papers, Box 246, 1890 – Laity Correspondence.
72. Sexton to Walsh, October 27, 1890, DDA, Walsh Papers, Box 246, 1890 – Laity Correspondence.
73. “The Housing of the Working Classes,” The Nation, January 4, 1890.
74. Cullen, “Provision of working and lower-middle class housing”; Dickson, Dublin, 379–424; McManus, “Blue Collars, ‘Red Forts’, and Green Fields”; Muldowney, “Responses to the Housing Crisis”; Minutes; Minutes of Evidence given at the arbitration held in the arbitration Room of the Four Courts, Dublin on 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th October, 1890, between the Alliance and Dublin Consumers’ Gas Company and the Corporation of Dublin to settle the amount to be paid by the Corporation to the Alliance Gas Company for the Purchase of the Public Lighting Plant of the City; also Appendices showing original cost of plant &c. and extract from the award of the arbitrators (Dublin: Dollard Printinghouse, 1891).
75. Larkin, “Economic Growth,” 866.
76. See note 13 above.
77. Fanfani, Catholicism, 2–3.