Providence and exile in early seventeenth-century Ireland

Providence and Exile in Early Seventeenth-Century IrelandAuthor(s): Marc CaballSource: Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 29, No. 114 (Nov., 1994), pp. 174-188Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30006741Accessed: 24-05-2016 11:56 UTC

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Irish Historical Studies. xxix. no. 114 (Nov. 1994)

Providence and exile in early seventeenth-century Ireland

T he depth of change which the country experienced in the reign of James I has become an axiom of early modern Irish historiography. The extension of crown

government throughout the island, the flight of the northern earls, the subsequent plantation in Ulster and the putative religious reformation of the indigenous inhabitants contributed to a climate of flux and tension. The burgeoning scholarly interest in this phase of Irish history has resulted in a more detailed understanding of administrative, political, regional and religious trends in the period. Progress has also been made in the study of contemporary mentalities. An interesting development has been the use of sources in the Irish language for the reconstruction of previously obscure intellectual currents amongst the Gaelic 61ite.' The recent appearance of Michelle O Riordan's monograph on the Gaelic reaction to the collapse of traditional society represents the fullest exposition yet of an interpretation which has characterised the early modem Gaelic ideological response to conquest and social change as fundamentally passive and backward-looking. O Riordan has, in effect, elaborated upon the conclusions of preceding commen- tators, notably Tom Dunne and Bernadette Cunningham, in portraying the Gaelic understanding of socio-political transformation as lacking in critical perception.2 This essay is intended as a further contribution to the elucidation of the mental climate of the time. More particularly, it will focus on two themes which figured

1 For such mental analysis see, in the case of the Old English, N. P. Canny, The formation of the Old English alite in Ireland (O'Donnell Lecture, Dublin, 1975); Aidan Clarke, 'Colonial identity in early seventeenth-century Ireland' in T. W. Moody (ed.), Nationality and the pursuit of national independence: Historical Studies XI (Belfast, 1978), pp 57-71; in the case of the Gaelic Irish see Michelle O Riordan, The Gaelic mind and the collapse of the Gaelic world (Cork, 1990) (for a review of this book see below, pp 259-60; for the New English see Nicholas Canny, The upstart earl: a study of the social and mental world of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, 1566-1643 (Cambridge, 1982); idem, 'Identity formation in Ireland: the emergence of the Anglo-Irish' in Nicholas Canny and Anthony Pagden (eds), Colonial identity in the Atlantic world, 1500-1800 (Princeton, N.J., 1987), pp 159-212; Brendan Bradshaw, 'Robe and sword in the conquest of Ireland' in Claire Cross, David Loades and J. J. Scarisbrick (eds), Law and government under the Tudors (Cambridge, 1988), pp 139-2.

2 O Riordan, The Gaelic mind; see also Marc Caball, 'The Gaelic mind and the collapse of the Gaelic world: an appraisal' in Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, xxv (summer 1993), pp 87-96; Tom Dunne, 'The Gaelic response to conquest and colonisation: the evidence of the poetry' in Studia Hib., xx (1980), pp 7-30; Bernadette Cunningham, 'Native culture and political change in Ireland, 1580-1640' in Ciaran Brady and Raymond Gillespie (eds), Natives and newcomers: essays on the making of Irish colonial society, 1534-1641 (Dublin, 1986), pp 148-70.

174


CABALL - Providence and exile in early seventeenth-century Ireland 175

prominently in the separate, but in this instance similar, communal reactions of the Gaelic Irish and the New English settlers to their respective political and social environments. It will be demonstrated that the Gaelic articulation of the themes in

question refutes Dunne's contradictory depiction of contemporary poetry in Irish, and by extension the Gaelic world-view, as 'highly pragmatic, deeply fatalistic, increasingly escapist and essentially apolitical'.3 In contrast to the reading of the Gaelic material, put forward especially by Dunne and O Riordan, which high- lights its supposed antiquarian and politically unrealistic character, it will be con- tended here that the contrary is true. In his analysis of the poems in the Leabhar Branach, Brendan Bradshaw argued that the evidence demonstrated a proactive and dynamic world-view.4 The conclusions drawn from the present analysis further underpin Bradshaw's interpretative schema and its emphasis on the positive aspects of Gaelic thought.

Employing bardic poetry, supplemented by prose, it is proposed to examine the native reaction to the societal turbulence outlined above within the contemporary interpretative framework of the notion of divine providence and the racial metaphor of the Israelites in their Egyptian exile. In the seventeenth century it was commonly thought that God continuously intervened in the affairs of men and in the world whose creation he had brought about. Realisation of his will or providence was either negative or positive, and negative providence was invariably perceived as retribution for sin. Providentialism was broad enough in scope to account for the fate of the individual sinner as much as the nation brought low by the sin of collective pride.5 It will be argued that the Gaelic literati, and by extension gaelicised Old English intellectuals, used the established concept of the manifestation of God's will, in this instance negative in tone, in their attempts to interpret the consolidation of English authority in Ireland and the consequent emasculation of the traditional Gaelic polity. A corollary of this notion was the comparison of the Gaelic Irish with the Israelites, expiating their sin as a people in foreign bondage, but none the less the chosen people of God, and therefore confident of eventual respite in the wake of appropriate repentance. Ironically, it was this same interpretative framework which prominent New English intellectuals, Anglican clergymen in particular, employed to contextualise their community's position as a racial and religious minority in a new country. The idea of providence was invoked to explain their predicament as a minority amongst a recalcitrant majority, while their presence in a foreign land was rationalised by the Israelite comparison and its attendant implications. However, it will be argued that the New English manipulation of both themes encouraged a degree of social and intellectual introspection which was to hinder gravely the advancement of Protestantism in Ireland. In contrast, the Gaelic invocation of the imagery of the Israelites and their messianic saviour, Moses, was considerably more dynamic in its political potential. The evidence

3 Dunne, 'The Gaelic response', p. 11. 4 Brendan Bradshaw, 'Native reaction to the Westward Enterprise: a case-study in

Gaelic ideology' in K. R. Andrews et al. (eds), The Westward Enterprise: English activities in Ireland, the Atlantic and America, 1480-1650 (Liverpool, 1978), pp 65-80.

5 For the idea of providence see Keith Thomas, Religion and the decline of magic (Harmondsworth, 1978 ed.), pp 90-132; Blair Worden, 'Providence and politics in Cromwellian England' in Past & Present, no. 109 (1985), pp 55-99.


176 Irish Historical Studies

for both communities is discussed separately, while general conclusions are argued in a concluding section.

I

In his important paper on the reaction of the Gaelic literati to the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne in 1603, BreandAn 0 Buachalla has highlighted the role exercised by the concept of divine providence in the Gaelic intellectual understanding of contemporary political and social upheaval. However, it is important to note that this motif did not originate in the Stuart period, and the pedigree of its Stuart provenance and usage is to be traced to Elizabeth's reign.6 The idea that the Elizabethan military and administrative consolidation of power in Ireland was the consequence of the Gaoidhil having incurred the wrath of God was forcefully expressed by an otherwise obscure Leinster doctor and scribe, Corc Og O Cadhla, in a marginal note to a medical manuscript he was copying in 1578.7 In the course of a brief political commentary on the state of the country at the time of writing, in which he remarks on recent happenings and denies the validity of the queen's claims to religious supremacy, he specifically attributes the cause of the predicament of the Irish to God's anger with them.8 Further corroboration of O Cadhla's viewpoint from the Elizabethan period is provided in a poem attributed to Maolmhuire 0 hUiginn (d. c. 1590), sometime archbishop of Tuam and brother of the distinguished bardic poet Tadhg Dall 6 hUiginn.9 In the piece beginning A fhir thtid go Fiadh bhFuinidh, apparently composed in Rome as a poetic bon voyage for a fellow exile returning to Ireland, 0 hUiginn expresses the opinion that the collective pride of the Gaoidhil has resulted in God allowing the English to establish themselves in Ireland. Like O Cadhla, he treats the presence of the English as the unfortunate product of God's negative attitude to the Irish on account of their unacceptable behaviour, which in this instance he specifies as undue pride.'0

Enough evidence is extant to suggest the existence of a strain of thought amongst the Gaelic literati to the effect that their people had merited the censure of God by their failure to observe his laws. In the version of Pairlement Chloinne Tomdis

composed in the first decade of the seventeenth century, the author of this richly allusive social satire directs attention to what he considered the contemporary unnatural ordering of Gaelic society. In his burlesque parody of Gaelic nouveau- riche elements, the anonymous writer implies that their delusions spring from a failure to comply with the ordinances laid down by St Patrick for the conduct of their ancestors." Furthermore, by the time of Elizabeth's reign 'Clann Tomais', or

6 Breandain Ó Buachalla, 'Na Stfobhartaigh agus an t-aos 16inn: Cing S6amas' in R.I.A. Proc., lxxxiii (1983), sect. C, pp 81-134.

7 For 0 Cadhla see John Bannerman, The Beatons: a medical kindred in the classical Gaelic tradition (Edinburgh, 1986), p. 106.

8 Paul Walsh (ed.), Gleanings from Irish manuscripts (2nd ed., Dublin, 1933), pp 159-61. 9 See The bardic poems of Tadhg Dall 0 Huiginn (1550-1591), ed. Eleanor Knott (2 vols,

London, 1922-6), i, p. xvi. 10 T. F. O'Rahilly (ed.), Measgra ddnta (2 vols, Dublin, 1927), ii, no. 52, p. 141, 11 53-6. 11 N. J. A. Williams (ed.), Pairlement Chloinne Tomdis (Dublin, 1981), 11 102-16; Marc

Caball, 'Pairlement Chloinne Tomiis I: a reassessment' in Eigse, xxvii (1993), pp 47-57.



the non-aristocratic Irish, were distinguished by their contentious pride and had long ago exceeded the social limitations prescribed for them by Patrick. Indeed, the members of the parliament from which the satire takes its name are criticised for their indifference to God.12 The evidence of the Pairlement, which is arguably much more sophisticated in its import than the snobbish lampoon of churldom which has been the traditional interpretation of the text, provides a valuable insight into the thinking of its author and his perception of societal malaise within the Gaelic polity.'3 He clearly feels that society has reached a crisis point in terms of its internal structures, a situation which can be traced to the fundamental disregard of Clann Tomdiis for the divinely ordained scheme of social order and observation.

Geoffrey Keating's Trf bior-ghaoithe an bhdis ('The three shafts of death'), a lengthy and ornate devotional tract finished in 1631, contains an extended commentary on the idea of the Irish suffering for their transgressions. He enumerates the perceived misdeeds of his generation with blunt precision.14 The accusations he directs against the Irish, of greed and covetousness, are echoed by the author of Pairlement Chloinne Tomdis, who accuses Clann Tomtiis of avarice and irreligion.15 As in the Pairlement, there is a sense of the infringement of the natural order by the unacceptable behaviour of the Irish. Interestingly, Keating uses terms such as cineadhaibh bochta na hEireann, Catoilice Eireannach and daoine sgaoilte na hEireann rather than the racially exclusive Gaoidhil to make it clear that he is speaking about both the Gaelic Irish and the Anglo-Irish in the context of contemporary afflictions.'6 While such concern for precise terminology certainly reflects the ethnic background of Keating, it is also a result of the racial rap- prochement between the Gaoidhil and the Old English, evident in Gaelic literature from the reign of Elizabeth I onwards.

If Keating berates contemporary Irishmen for their moral turpitude, past generations are also condemned for their inadequacies. His references to old transgressions are not simply academic, for Keating maintains that the descendants of sinners are often punished for the crimes of their ancestors (Qir dioghlaidh Dia go meinic ar an saoghal so coirthe na sinnsear ar an sliocht tig uatha).17 Referring to God's warning to the Israelites in Exodus 20:5 that the sins of their fathers are visited upon their children, Keating claims that many families have suffered misfortune because of their forefathers' deeds.'8 One immediate effect of God's

anger in the case of adultery, he argues, is the failure of many aristocratic families to produce a male heir, thus leaving their line in abeyance (gan mac do bheith ag gabhdil a oighreachta). He instances several lords who failed to produce a male heir. 19 Indeed, he attributes the success of the Anglo-Normans to the adultery of

12 Williams (ed.), Pairlement, 11402-3, 417-26, 754. 3 For the traditional interpretation of the Pairlement see Vivian Mercier, The Irish

comic tradition (Oxford, 1962), pp 155-60. 14 Tri bior-ghaoithe an bhdis: Sdathrain Cditinn do sgriobh, ed. Osborn Bergin (2nd ed.,

Dublin, 1931), 11 3542-51 (my translations unless otherwise stated). 15 Williams (ed.), Pairlement, 11 417-26. For the irreligion of Clann Tomaiis see the

incident where Labhris ridicules the priest giving him the last rites (11 1157-70). 16 'unfortunate races of Ireland', 'Irish Catholic', 'dissolute people of Ireland' (Tri

bior-ghaoithe, ed. Bergin, 11 6048-9, 6107, 3543). 17 Ibid., 11 5338-9. 18 Ibid., 11 5356-61. 19 Ibid., 11 5439-52.



Rory O'Connor and Dermot MacMurrough.20 While it is arguable that Keating, himself of Anglo-Norman descent, is in this case providing ideological imprimatur for the presence of the Old English in Ireland, the more important point to be made is that he displays a finely developed notion of the realisation of divine will and its potential to shape the destinies of different peoples. This interpretative paradigm dominated Irish intellectual thought. For example, the Dominican scholar and diplomat Dominic O'Daly (1595-1662), in a history of the earls of Desmond written in Latin, which he published in Lisbon in 1655, ventures to suggest that the Geraldines were consigned to oblivion because of 'some awful delinquency of theirs', which caused God to bring upon them his 'vengeance, for he is most just, and punishes those who transgress his laws'.21

Since Breanddin 0 Buachalla has already dealt at length with the manifestation of providentialist thought in bardic poetry, it is only necessary here to allude to some relevant examples, before going on to examine the implications of the Israelite motif, which adds an important and dynamic codicil to the elucidation of the Irish predicament by reference to the providentialist paradigm. For instance, the poet Lochlainn 6 Da"laigh, in his Cdit ar ghabhadar Gaoidhil?, which was probably composed around the time of the Ulster plantation, is specific in attributing what he considers the distress of the Gaoidhil to God's anger with them. He also declares that while the dispossession of the Irish may be nominally ascribed to the English, it is, in fact, the work of God.22 The occupation of their lands by Scots and English settlers at the expense of the natives has one very simple explanation according to 0 Dailaigh: the revenge of God (Dioghaltas DJ as adhbhar ann).23 The northern poet and associate of the O'Donnell family, Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird, in his Frith an uainsi ar Inis Fdil alludes to 'misbehaviour in other times' and poses a rhetorical question: who of the Irish can say they have not merited the wrath of God?24 Like Keating, he is adamant that both communities, Old English and Gaelic Irish, have by their behaviour caused Ireland to suffer great upheaval.25 This idea is not confined simply to the bardic poetry corpus; it also occurs with regularity in the work of the non-professional successors of the

fill. The unidentified author of Do chuala sceal do chdas gach 16 me speaks of the sins of his generation causing God to punish the Irish, which combined with the evil potential of ancestral wrong-doing (peaca an tsinsir, claoine an tsdisir) has resulted in divine retribution. Were God favourably disposed to Ireland (dd mbeith Dia le hiathaibh F6dla), claims the poet, the island would be blessed with good fortune.26

20 Ibid., 11 5462-6. Cf. Sedn 0 Conaill's Tuireamh na hEireann (composed c. 1655-9) in Cecile O'Rahilly (ed.), Five seventeenth-century political poems (Dublin, 1952), pp 59-82, 11 253-8.

21 C. P. Meehan (trans.), The Geraldines, earls of Desmond, and the persecution of the Irish Catholics (Dublin, 1847), p. 121. For O'Daly see Benvenuta Curtin, 'Dominic O'Daly: an Irish diplomat' in Studia Hib., v (1965), pp 98-112; D.N.B., art. Daly, Daniel.

22 Text and translation in William Gillies (ed.), 'A poem on the downfall of the Gaoidhil' in Eigse, xiii (1969-70), p. 208, quatrain 19.

23 Ibid., p. 209, quatrain 26. 24 Duanta Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird, ed. Tomis 6 Raghallaigh (Galway, 1930),

no. 14, pp 208-11, quatrains 7, 8-11. This poem was addressed to Hugh O'Neill (d. 1616), probably after he had left Ireland for the continent in 1607.

25 Ibid., p. 212, quatrain 12. 26 Padraig de Bruin, Breandan 6 Buachalla and TomBs 6 Concheanainn (eds), Nua-

dhuanaire (3 vols, Dublin, 1971-8), i, no. 26, pp 31-4, 11 28, 44, 77.



He presents an extensive list of the crimes which he claims have merited the Lord's wrath: indifference to the commandments, rape, divorce, theft, false oaths, gluttony, disrespect for the clergy, the destruction of churches, and materialism.27 The author of this poem also declares that it is not so much the might of the English which has brought the Irish low, but rather God's revenge.28

From this brief survey of the providentialist motif in bardic and non-professional poetry, it will be apparent that the notion of providence was invoked by the poets to account for the social and political turbulence of early modem Ireland. The sins of the Irish, both past and present, had moved God to chastise the island and its people by subjecting them to the onslaught of the English. It was not the intrinsic strength of the foreign invaders which permitted their progress in Ireland; the English had only succeeded with the connivance of God, who desired to punish the Irish. The evidence examined so far is also indicative of the existence of a current

of thought which discerned considerable change in Irish society. In addition to the obvious areas such as political and religious development, there is a perception of the loosening of social barriers within the Gaelic world, the growth of individual economic materialism, and a general coarsening of personal morality.

While the Old Testament Book of Exodus is the obvious source for the motif of the enslaved Israelites, its source of dissemination in the case of Gaelic literature is more likely to be apocryphal than canonical. Given the apparently greater popularity of the vernacular apocrypha than the Bible in the medieval and early modem Irish tradition, it seems probable that the comparison of the Israelites with the Gaoidhil was mediated through an apocryphal text such as the prose version of Saltair na Rann.29 At any rate, what was undoubtedly a long-established motif in the Gaelic literary tradition acquired a new and dynamic resonance in the context of the early modem period.30 In Keating's Tri bior-ghaoithe an bhdis the imagery of the Israelites, brought low by their pride and subjected to Egyptian tyranny, is prominent throughout the tract. However, in the case of the Israelites, God had chosen Moses to deliver them from the Egyptian enslavement.3' The idea that God

27 Ibid., p. 33, 11 79-88. 28 Ibid., 11 73-6.

29 For the popularity of the apocrypha in the Irish tradition see Martin McNamara, 'The Bible in Irish spirituality' in Michael Maher (ed.), Irish spirituality (Dublin, 1981), p. 45. The prose version of Saltair na Rann has been edited and translated by Myles Dillon, 'Scdl Saltrach na Rann' in Celtica, iv (1958), pp 1-43; cf. Martin McNamara, The apocrypha in the Irish church (Dublin, 1975), pp 16, 35. As well as the prose version of the Saltair, two other texts may be cited in relation to the Israelite motif. The text entitled Stair Mac nisrahel

mentioned in the booklist of Tadhg 0 Duinn (fl. 1475) may have been similar to the extant tract Teacht Chloinne Israel, a history of the Exodus and Joseph which is possibly sixteenth- century in date. I am indebted to Professor Ann Dooley, University of Toronto, for drawing

my attention to the 0 Duinn booklist. B.M. cat. Ir. MSS, i, 56; Padraig 0 Fiannachta, Cldr ldmhscribhinni Gaeilge (2 vols, Dublin, 1978-80), i, 108. For the O Duinn booklist see Cuthbert McGrath (ed.), 'Notes on i Dhuinn family' in Collect. Hib., ii (1959), p. 16; cf. K. W. Nicholls (ed.), The 0 Doyne (0 Duinn) manuscript (I.M.C., Dublin, 1983), pp 116-17 n. 18.

30 Kim McCone, Pagan past and Christian present in early Irish literature (Maynooth, 1990), pp 67-8; Sein 0 Tuama, 'Tdamai iasachta i bhfiliocht pholaitidil na Gaeilge (1600-1800)' in Iiigse, xi (1964-6), pp 207-8.

31 Tri bior-ghaoithe, ed. Bergin, p. 124, 11 3931-4. For the figure of Moses in medieval Irish literature see John Hennig, 'The literary tradition of Moses in Ireland' in Traditio, vii (1949-51), pp 233-61.



had punished the Irish for their sinfulness, as he had the children of Israel, lent itself to further development by extending the comparison to posit the emergence of another Moses to lead the Gaoidhil from their version of the Egyptian exile. While the Gaelic articulation of providentialist causation accounted for their predicament, it provided no immediate promise of political or social relief for the Irish. Therefore the providentialist schema of interpretation was further supplemented by the dynamic potential of the imagery of a second Moses and the need for repentance before God in the face of Gaelic wrong-doing.

The northern file Fear Flatha 0 Gnimh probably composed Mo thruaighe mar tdid Gaoidhil! in the aftermath of the Ulster plantation.32 This powerfully political poem is noteworthy for the distinct dichotomy drawn between the oppressed Gaoidhil and the dominant newcomers. The strength of the settlers means that the Irish are now exiles in their own homeland (Gaoidhil 'na ndroing dhebrata). They are, in fact, like the children of Israel in their Egyptian captivity (Cosmhail re

Cloinn Isra-hl / thoir san Eighipt ar didrtan / Mic Mhileadh um Bhdinn a-bhus). Significantly, 0 Gnimh laments the absence of another Moses (an t-athMhaoise) to liberate the Gaoidhil from their current state of oppression.33 Fear Dorcha Ó Mealláin (fl. c. 1650) in a poem of exhortation beginning In ainm an Athar go mbuaidh, which he apparently composed for those facing removal to Connacht in the aftermath of the Cromwellian wars, employs the Israelite comparison to encourage the Gaoidhil to bear with their distress, in the knowledge that God's help is at hand. He recounts that the Hebrews, who were enslaved in Egypt, were enabled to flee by God, who parted the waves of the Red Sea to allow them to cross. From him also, declares the poet, they received food and water. 0 Mealliin holds that the Irish will be accorded similar treatment by God, for the God of the Israelites

is the same as the God of the Irish (lonann Dia dhadinn agus dh6ibh). The poet urges his listeners to strengthen their religious resolve and to accept their Catholicism with pride (Md ghoirthear dhaoibhse Pdipis/ cuiridh fdilte re bhur ngairm).34 In general, it is clear that the invocation of the fate of the Hebrews and the alleviation of their plight by Moses is a positive codicil to the explanatory function of the providentialist motif. The militant implications of Moses liberating his co- religionists from their enslavement transferred to the Irish context are obvious. The literati are placing the Gaelic experience in an historical context, while at the same time introducing the possibility of a dynamic model of reaction.

An extensive and explicit articulation of the Israelite and Moses themes occurs

in Fearghal ig Mac an Bhaird's poem beginning M6r do mhill aoibhneas fireann, which he composed sometime between the departure of Hugh O'Neill from Ireland in 1607 and his death in Rome in 1616.35 The poem is essentially an extended

32 In relation to 0 Gnfmh see Cuthbert McGrath, 'Ollamh Cloinne Aodha Buidhe' in Eigse, vii (1953-5), pp 127-8; Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie, 'The east Ulster bardic family of O Gnimh' in Eigse, xx (1984), pp 106-14. For the text of Mo thruaighe mar tdid Gaoidhil! see O'Rahilly (ed.), Measgra, ii, no. 54, pp 144-7. The poem's date of composition is discussed ibid., p. 206, and in T. F. O'Rahilly, '0 Gnfmh's alleged visit to London' in Celtica, i (1950), pp 330-31.

33 O'Rahilly (ed.), Measgra, ii, 146-7, 1148, 65-8, 77-80. 34 De Brtin et al. (eds), Nua-dhuanaire, no. 28, pp 36-7, 11 33, 41, 45-6. 35 Mac an Bhaird's reference to O'Neill's possible return from Rome would suggest

that it was composed after O'Neill's arrival in Rome in 1608 and at some point up to the time of his death there in 1616 (R.I.A., MS 23 F 16, p. 72).



appeal to O'Neill to return to his native land as liberator. The beauty of the country has proved to be a fatal enticement for many invaders. O'Neill himself has endured various hardships because of Ireland, yet he will be recompensed for all the tribulations he has suffered. Once he restores Ireland to her rightful integrity, peace and prosperity will be had throughout the country.36 If O'Neill does not return home, it will mean that his country will have lost all hope of help.37 The poet urges the exiled lord not to disprove the old prophecies regarding the appearance of a great saviour, but rather to validate them by his arrival.38 Mac an Bhaird's subsequent comparison of O'Neill with Moses further elaborates upon the politicised tone of the imagery of the prophesied hero. He declares that the lord of the O'Neills will be another Moses, leading the Irish from the strife of their land (Biaidh 'na athMhaoisi aguinn).39 The poet proceeds to the circumstances in which Moses was born, how God chose him to lead the Hebrews from Egypt, their escape through the Red Sea aided by God, and Pharaoh's untimely end. The poet spells out the implications of the story he has just outlined: Hugh is Moses, the children of Israel are the Gaoidhil, while Pharaoh represents the foreigners of Ireland (clann Israhdl meic Mhileadh ... Maoisi Aodh no a ionnamhail).40 When

O'Neill returns to Ireland with the exiled Irish children of Israel (Il cloinn losrahtl Eirind), claims Mac an Bhaird, he will alleviate the distress of all.41 His return will

vindicate the ancient prophecies to that effect. Furthermore, he will overcome the English, and their sway will cease.42 It is Hugh who will sever the connexion of the English with Ireland, especially with their expulsion from Dublin.43

M6r do mhill aoibhneas Eireann is an important exposition of the political potential contained in the comparison of the Irish with the Hebrews; in this case the imagery is further refined by the casting of O'Neill in the messianic role of Moses. Mac an Bhaird's openly expressed view that the return of the earl of Tyrone would signal the end of English hegemony in Ireland reveals the extent to which the thought of afile could be impregnated with a deeply political sense of nationality. While the poem provides another example of the contemporary Gaelic framework of interpretation, its most interesting aspect is the way in which the poet exploits the figure of Moses as a symbol of positive reaction. In tone the poem is reminiscent of the later aisling genre, where a Stuart liberator across the water was looked to for the provision of succour for the oppressed Gaoidhil. The depiction of the Irish in terms of the Israelites in their Egyptian exile is an instructive contemporary interpretation of the position of the Gaoidhil within their own country. The

36 M6r do mhill aoibhneas Eireann remains unpublished; it is extant in two manuscripts: R.I.A., MS 23 F 16, pp 70-73 (the O'Gara manuscript, written in the Low Countries between 1655 and 1659); and the nineteenth-century B.L., MS Eg. 111, ff. 63-64r (see B.M. cat. Ir. MSS, i, 382-3). In the O'Gara manuscript the date 10 December 1655 follows directly after this poem (p. 73); this is presumably the day of its entry into the manuscript. The poem has been edited by Padraig O MachAin in his 'Poems by Fearghal Og Mac an Bhaird' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1988), ii, poem XII, pp 719-62. I am grateful to Dr 0 MachBin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, for providing me with a copy of his edition of the poem. All quotations cited here, however, are from R.I.A., MS 23 F 16.

37 R.I.A., MS 23 F 16, p. 71. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid.

40 Ibid., p. 72. 41 Ibid.

42 Ibid. 43 Ibid.



evidence reviewed above is unambiguous in portraying them as besieged exiles in their own homeland, awaiting a messianic liberator.

Another positive option articulated by the Gaelic literati in their analysis of socio-political upheaval centres on the idea of Irish repentance before God. Put simply, they posited the notion that the Gaoidhil could hope to regain the favour of God, whose wrath they had incurred by their sins, if they repented of their crimes and sought his forgiveness. Lochlainn 0 Dailaigh in Cdit ar ghabhadar Gaoidhil? adduces the example of the Israelites as a people who had merited the enmity of God by their behaviour, yet when they repented of their transgressions he forgave them. The poet urges the Irish to follow their example (Aithrighe a-nois dd nds sin / truagh nach dtanuid meic Mhilidh) in order to procure the expiation of their wrong-doing.44 Likewise, Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird in Frith an uainsi ar Inis Fdil, a poem addressed to the earl of Tyrone, proclaims the necessity of repentance before God to secure his forgiveness. He warns the Irish to atone immediately for their misdeeds, because the time of repentance is at hand (th'aire ribh, a chlann chroidhe / ag sin am na haithrighe).45 The non-professional heirs of the fill also stress the necessity for appropriate contrition. The anonymous author of Do chuala sceal do chdas gach 16 me appeals directly to Jesus for the restitution of justice, the only hope of the Irish.46 The prospect of securing God's forgiveness presents a second dynamic option to the Gaelic analysis of the negative providence which they felt they were subject to at this period. Combined with the political potential of the Israelite and Moses imagery, the notion of repentance demonstrates the intellectual subtlety and resourcefulness of the vernacular reaction to social and political challenge. The Gaelic literati are essentially positive and optimistic in their response to that challenge.

II

The published sermons of three Anglican clergymen who migrated to Ireland from England and Scotland in the reign of James I provide some evidence of the New English perception of their situation in the country where they had settled. Since the sermon formed so vital a part of Protestant culture, the printed material is examined here in order to highlight some salient aspects of its content, especially in relation to the themes of providence and the Egyptian exile.47 While the printed sermons often deal with abstruse theological points or are given over to anti- Roman diatribes, they also shed much light on New English self-perception in the Jacobean period.48 The sermons are coloured by the notion of an English Protestant people surrounded by an idolatrous and politically disloyal native

44 Gillies (ed.), 'A poem on the downfall', p. 209, quatrain 24. 45 Duanta Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird, ed. O Raghallaigh, no. 14, pp 210, 216,

quatrains 8, 23. 46 De Bnin et al. (eds), Nua-dhuanaire, no. 26, pp 31-4, 11 91-2. 47 Peter Burke, Popular culture in early modern Europe (London, 1978), p. 226. 48 For such anti-Catholic invective see George Andrewe, A quaternion of sermons

preached in Ireland (Society of Stationers, Dublin, 1625); John Rider, The coppie of a letter sent from M. Rider, Deane of Saint Patricks, concerning the newes out of Ireland, and of the Spaniards landing and present estate there (London, 1601).


CABALL - Providence and exile in early seventeenth-centuiy Ireland 183

populace. Given their minority status in Ireland, it is not surprising that these clergymen sought to articulate the New English position by reference to the imagery of the Old Testament, and in particular to the theme of the Israelites in their Egyptian captivity.49 Their feeling of isolation was further compounded by the unsuccessful course of the Protestant Reformation in Ireland.

The three divines lived and worked in Ireland in the 1620s. The Scot, Henry Leslie (1580-1661), who studied at the University of Aberdeen, arrived in Ireland in 1614. Having taken holy orders in 1617, he proceeded to rise rapidly within the Church of Ireland; appointed dean of Down in 1627, he was subsequently con- secrated as bishop of Down and Connor in 1635. He fled his diocese because of the 1641 rebellion, and died in 1661, shortly after his translation to Meath. The sermon considered here was delivered by Leslie before Lord Deputy Falkland at Christ Church, Dublin, in 1625.50 Stephen Jerome (d. c. 1650) was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and served as a priest in Yorkshire. He appears to have come to Ireland in the early 1620s in the company of Lord Beaumont, Viscount Swords. He obtained a benefice at Tallow, then an important centre in the Munster plantation with a sizeable English population. Around 1623-4 he secured an appointment as chaplain to Richard Boyle (1566-1643), first earl of Cork.51 The third member of the trio is Richard Olmstead, a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; he served as a clergyman in Suffolk, where he made the acquaintance of a family with Irish connexions. This link may have prompted him to come to Ireland with his family in 1622. He secured the ministry of Clonenagh in Queen's County (near Mountrath, County Laois) and the patronage of a local English colonist, Sir Charles Coote. Olmstead's two published tracts originated as sermons given in Clonenagh, the second appearing in 1630 thanks to the encouragement of Primate Ussher.52

The sermons of Leslie, Jerome and Olmstead, while worthy of study in a broader historical and theological framework, are subject to a narrow focus of inquiry here.53 The material is sifted with a view to forming an understanding of

49 For the Protestant depiction of England as a modern Israel see C. Z. Wiener, 'The beleaguered isle: a study of Elizabethan and early Jacobean anti-Catholicism' in Past & Present, no. 51 (1971), p. 28. Cf. Hiram Morgan, 'Writing up early modern Ireland' in Hist. Jn., xxxi, 3 (1988), p. 708; T. C. Barnard, 'Crises of identity among Irish Protestants, 1641-1685' in Past & Present, no. 127 (1990), p. 53.

50 D.N.B., art. Leslie, Henry; J. B. Leslie, Armagh clergy and parishes (Dundalk, 1911), pp 59-60; J. B. Leslie and H. B. Swanzy, Biographical succession lists of the clergy of the diocese of Down (Enniskillen, 1936), p. 9; Alan Ford, The Protestant Reformation in Ireland, 1590-1641 (Frankfurt am Main, 1985), p. 205.

51 D.N.B., art. Jerome, Stephen; J. Venn and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols, Cambridge, 1922-54), pt 1, ii, 473; Ford, Protestant Reformation, p. 205; Michael MacCarthy-Morrogh, The Munster plantation: English migration to southern Ireland, 1583-1641 (Oxford, 1986), p. 257.

52 Venn, Alumni, pt 1, iii, 280; J. B. Leslie, Ossory clergy and parishes (Enniskillen, 1933), pp 298, 327; Ford, Protestant Reformation, pp 205-6. For Sir Charles Coote (d. 1642) see John O'Hanlon et al., History of the Queen's County (2 vols, Dublin, 1907-14), ii, 771.

53 Alan Ford has utilised the writings of Leslie, Jerome and Olmstead in his exploration of the predestinarian theology and apocalypticism of the Church of Ireland. See Ford, Protestant Reformation, ch. 8; cf. idem, 'The Protestant Reformation in Ireland' in Brady and Gillespie (eds), Natives & newcomers, pp 50-74.



New English perceptions of the working of providence, their analysis of their position in Ireland and in relation to the native population, and their cognizance of the need for repentance before God. In the concluding section it is argued that a review of both the Gaelic and New English evidence demonstrates a common intellectual framework of explication amongst both communities. Yet while their conceptual tools of analysis are the same, the ultimate thrust of each reaction to a common set of interpretations differs in quality and potential.

The notion of providence, either negative or positive, as an expression of God's all-powerful will was a dominant one in the intellectual outlook of the Protestant community. At this period such was the pervasiveness of providentialist thought that the manifestation of providence was as likely to be invoked to account for individual fortunes as much as those of the entire community. Nicholas Canny has demonstrated the intellectual utility of the concept in Richard Boyle's approach to the course of his career. By attributing his success to divine favour, Boyle was invoking higher sanction for his actions.54 Likewise, an obscure country rector such as Devereux Spratt, sometime minister in Kerry, could resort to the notion of providence to explain his misfortunes. Spratt, who had been besieged in Tralee by the 1641 rebels and was captured and enslaved by Algerian pirates on his way home to England, after some misgiving interpreted his fate as an expression of God's desire to have him minister to the Christian captives in north Africa.55 On a wider level, the anonymous author of a tract entitled Advertisements for Ireland, written around the year 1623, interpreted the influence of divine providence in the distressed state of Ireland. The writer considered that the sins of the Irish natives had caused them to incur the wrath of God, who had visited the island with various afflictions. He interpreted the sovereignty of James I as an omen of hope, hailing him as the restorer of Ireland's fortunes.56 Providence as a concept was multi-layered, and sufficiently pliable in scope to explain individual and communal fates within a framework of Christian belief.

Stephen Jerome, in common with Richard Olmstead and Henry Leslie, articulated a vision of society and country where sin was perceived to be ever- present. This obsession with moral transgression is a noteworthy element in all three men's thinking. To begin with, the native Irish population, by their adherence to Roman Catholicism, were supposedly irredeemably immersed in a mire of sin and sloth. Olmstead complained of the political disloyalty of the Catholic population and their close links with Spain, and in general spoke fearfully of the Roman church.57 His depiction of Ireland is of a country in the advanced stages of depravity, a condition which he interprets as potentially disastrous if and when the design of providence is fulfilled.58 It is important to bear in mind this perceived background of ungodly belief and the latent military threat of continental

54 Canny, The upstart earl, ch. 3. 55 Mary Hickson, Ireland in the seventeenth century, or the massacres of 1641-2, their

causes and results (2 vols, London, 1884), ii, 385. For a note on Spratt see J. B. Leslie, Ardfert and Aghadoe clergy and parishes (Dublin, 1940), p. 27.

56 Advertisements for Ireland, ed. George O'Brien (Dublin, 1923), p. 2. 57 Richard Olmstead, Sions teares leading to joy: or the waters of Marah sweetned. First

preached at Clonenagh in the Queenes County in severall sermons, and now published for the benefite of the church (Society of Stationers, Dublin, 1630), pp 129-3 1.

58 Ibid., p. 2.



Catholicism in an examination of English awareness in Ireland at this time. English Protestant consciousness was also affected by the minority status of the community and its cultural divergence from the majority in terms of language and religion.59

However, the Protestant apportionment of sin was not unilateral. All three clergymen laid stress on their perception of the high degree of turpitude amongst the New English themselves.60 The corollary of such behaviour was the inevitable experience of adverse providence, unless a suitably repentant disposition were adopted in time to pre-empt the ill-effects of divine wrath. Olmstead calls for a change of attitude amongst the Protestant population in emotionally charged language:

Oh that wee that are Ministers could see the Protestants of our times, lamenting not only their seldome, but frequent evils committed by them, by which they scandalize our Religion & Profession amongst the Sottish Papists, that they might be low in their own eyes, and almost swallowed with griefe, then should wee gladly administer wholesome cordials to refresh their fainting spirits.61

In an earlier sermon, published in 1627, Olmstead warned that 'the fruites of Gods wrath are all plagues, externall upon the body, estates &c.' and called for contrition amongst the New English, singling out the nobility and gentry for particular attention.62 Stephen Jerome considered both Ireland and her sister island England to be havens of iniquitous conduct.63 God, he argued, had employed sundry means, of varying degrees of impact, to wean his Protestant people from wrong-doing, but so far all to no avail.64 Jerome characterised his fellow countrymen as inveterate sinners, who were indifferent to the potential of redemption.65 God had punished his people, as he did the Israelites, with plagues and disasters such as famine and pestilence.66

Henry Leslie, likewise, interpreted recent famine as the initial stage of God's punishment, and an omen of further afflictions unless repentance were forthcoming.67 He was unambiguous in identifying the result of sin: divine punishment.68

59 A different interpretation of New English consciousness is to be found in Nicholas Canny, 'Dominant minorities: English settlers in Ireland and Virginia, 1550-1650' in A. C. Hepburn (ed.), Minorities in history: Historical Studies XII (London, 1978), pp 51-69.

60 Henry Leslie, A warning for Israel, in a sermon preached at Christ-Church, in Dublin, the 30. of October, 1625 (Society of Stationers, Dublin, 1625), p. 40.

61 Olmstead, Sions teares, p. 83. 62 Richard Olmstead, A treatise of the union betwixt Christ and the church, or mans

felicitie and happinesse. First preached in severall sermons (Society of Stationers, Dublin, 1627), pp 62-3, 242.

63 Stephen Jerome, Irelands jubilee, or joyes Io-pean, for Prince Charles his welcome home (Society of Stationers, Dublin, 1624), p. 86.

64 '... hee hath come as neere us, as to Israell, in drawing the furie and brandished sword of his wrath' (ibid., p. 159).

65 Ibid., p. 160. 66 Ibid., p. 159. 67 Leslie, A warning for Israel, p. 6. His reference to famine is probably an allusion to the

harvest difficulties of the period 1621-4; for these food shortages see Raymond Gillespie, 'Meal and money: the harvest crisis of 1621-4 and the Irish economy' in E. Margaret Crawford (ed.), Famine: the Irish experience, 900-1900 (Edinburgh, 1989), pp 75-95.

68 Leslie, A warning for Israel, p. 32.



The only way to evade calamity was to repent before God.69 Such was the Protestant fixation with God's punishment that, later, the 1641 rebellion was interpreted as his punishment upon an irreligious English population in Ireland. For instance, it was claimed by Bishop Bedell's son William that 'there wanted not some forerunning tokens of this calamity, but they were not heeded'. He went on to claim that moral laxity at all levels of society had contributed to a situation where God had covered the English 'with a cloud in that day of His anger'.70 Another of Bedell's biographers Alexander Clogie, made a similar claim, when he highlighted what he took to be the moral iniquity of the English community before 1641.71 Not alone did New English Protestants condemn the native Irish population for their supposed idolatry and immorality, but they also stressed what they felt was the sinfulness of members of their own community and the consequent need for repentance in order to avert negative providence.

Given their immersion in the scriptures, it is not surprising that Leslie, Olmstead and Jerome should turn to the Bible, and to the Old Testament in particular, for a schematic framework within which to interpret their collective experience as a minority in Ireland. The imagery of the Israelites in Egypt was invoked as a comparison of what they felt was their presence amongst a socially divergent majority.72 The corollary of this comparison, that the New English were especially dear to God, served to confirm their feelings of superiority vis-a-vis the indigenous inhabitants.73 This paradigm, furthermore, allowed for a margin of Protestant sinfulness, in the knowledge that God might intervene on behalf of his chosen people. The idea that they were worthy of the Lord's favour, and that the native Catholic population was beyond redemption, had important implications for the broader success of the Reformation in Ireland.74 In Stephen Jerome's opinion, Ireland constituted the 'English-Irish Israel' of the Protestants in that country, and he avowed that the New English were a chosen people just as the Israelites had been in Egypt.75 Like the Hebrews, the Protestants had broken their covenant with the Lord.76 As with the Israelites, the New English had been afflicted with various punishments by God, who, claimed Jerome, was willing to make a second covenant with his people. The earl of Cork's chaplain argued that the Lord had been considerably more lenient with his Protestant people than with the Israelites.77

69 Ibid., p. 42. 70 E. S. Shuckburgh (ed.), Two biographies of William Bedell (Cambridge, 1902), p. 57. 71 Ibid., p. 166; cf. Strange and remarkable prophesies and predictions of the holy,

learned, and excellent James Usher, late L. Arch-Bishop of Armagh, and Lord Primate of Ireland (London, 1678), pp 2-3.

72 Ironically, Sir Thomas Smith writing about his projected plantation on the Ards peninsula in a tract published in 1572 proposed to entice potential settlers in the following terms: 'Let us, therefore, use the persuasions which Moses used to Israel, they will serve fitly in this place, and tell them that they shall goe to possesse a lande that floweth with milke and hony, a fertile soile truly if there be any in Europe' (George Hill, An historical account of the MacDonnells ofAntrim (Belfast, 1873), p. 409).

73 See Stephen Jerome's comments: 'So to reflect upon our selves, for this our English Israeli, hath not the Lord sequestred and separated us from Pagans and heathens, yea even from Turkes, (and Jewes themselves)' (Jerome, Irelands jubilee, p. 153).

74 Ford, Protestant Reformation, pp 244-5. 75 Jerome, Irelands jubilee, pp 90, 151, 204. 76 Ibid., pp 154-5. 77 Ibid., p. 162.



Henry Leslie held that the sins of his people had exceeded those of the Hebrews.78 He discerned the hand of God in various afflictions upon England, and warned that unless repentance were forthcoming, Ireland would suffer next. Recalling the plight of the Jews in exile, he spoke of his community as resembling them: 'Wee sojourne here in a land of darkenesse, like Egypt'.79 In sum, the New English had equalled the Israelites in their depravity, and the time for repentance had come.80 The imagery of the Israelites' exile provided a convenient formula for Anglican divines in their efforts to rationalise their community's position in a land where they formed a minority.

III

It has been demonstrated here that two apparently quite distinct social and linguistic communities, the Protestant New English and the Roman Catholic Gaoidhil and the gaelicised Old English, resorted to a common intellectual framework in which to locate and explain their respective predicaments in early seventeenth-century Ireland. Their explication of social and political circumstance by reference to the providentialist topos, a universal unit of religious and secular thought in early modem Europe, derived from a common need to account for their fortunes within the context of Christian belief or more precisely within the confines of God's will. While tracing their position to the manifestation of divine providence, be it negative or positive, an element of reassurance was introduced to the providentialist schema by comparison with the Israelites, God's chosen people, in their Egyptian captivity. Both communities, by force of circumstance, perceived themselves to be in a state of siege, and the Israelite theme thus provided each group with an adaptable historical precedent. This comparison permitted ideological provision for an inevitable degree of moral laxity on the part of those invoking this schema of interpretation. Furthermore, the implication that a community was specially chosen by God was a signal of optimism in the face of vicissitude.

The thrust and effect of each community's utilisation of the providential paradigm and the consequent Israelite comparison differed. The idea that they were God's chosen people induced an illusion of social and moral superiority amongst English Protestants vis-d-vis the indigenous Catholic population. This sentiment further translated itself, no doubt stimulated by the poor progress of the reformed church in Ireland, into a strain of thought which held the Catholic population to be so innately depraved as to be beyond redemption. This in turn may have encouraged a lukewarm attitude to attempts made to win the Irish to the Anglican church. Accordingly, the Protestant espousal of the Israelite theme was essentially static and negative in impact, in so far as it encouraged a tendency amongst New English Protestants to focus upon themselves rather than to expand their social and religious horizons. In contrast, the Gaelic articulation of the theme of the Israelites' exile was largely dynamic and positive. By casting themselves in the role of the Hebrews, the Irish were, like the New English, seeking the legitimacy which this

78 Leslie, A warning for Israel, p. 5. 79 Ibid., p. 11. 80 Ibid., p. 42.



identification imparted. However, unlike the New English interpretation, the Gaelic redaction of the theme was further refined by their contemporary politicisation of the messianic role of Moses. While the Gaelic literati utilised the providentialist topos to explain their predicament, and the Hebrew schema to contextualise their position, their allusion to Moses or a potential second Moses struck a note of militant optimism within the overall context of explication. The invocation of Moses was a politicised statement of positive anticipation. The political potential of the motif certainly refutes that reading of contemporary literature which has characterised the Gaelic mental response to change as antiquarian and passive. The present essay has demonstrated the opposite in its examination of the concepts of providence and exile.81

MARC CABALL Brussels

8' For the modern reverberations of the Israelite theme in Ireland see Marianne Elliott, Watchmen in Sion: the Protestant idea of liberty (Derry, 1985), pp 6-8; lan Paisley, 'The three Hebrew children' in Seamus Deane (ed.), The Field Day anthology of Irish writing (3 vols, Derry, 1991), iii, 371; Declan Kiberd, 'Bloom the liberator' in Times Literary Supplement, 3 Jan. 1992, pp 3-6, esp. p. 3.


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Providence and exile in early seventeenth-century Ireland

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