The Presbyterian Church in Ireland: A Popular History

172 Pages·1999·5.414 MB·English

by  Finlay Holmes

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THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND

Finlay Holmes
The Presbyterian Church
in Ireland
A Popular History
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First published in 2000 by
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55A Spruce Avenue, Stillorgan Industrial Park,
Blackrock, Co Dublin
Cover by Bill Bolger
Origination by The Columba Press
Printed in Ireland by Colour Books Ltd, Dublin
ISBN 1 85607 284 3
Copyright © 2000, R. F. G. Holmes
Contents
Introduction 7
1. The First Presbyterians in Ireland 9
2. Laying the Foundations of an Irish Presbyterian Church 26
3. The Eighteenth Century 49
4. The Nineteenth Century: Outreach at Home and Abroad 84
5. The Twentieth Century: Changes and Challenges 123
Select Bibliography 160
Index 163
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Introduction
I was glad to have the invitation of The Columba Press to write a
popular history of Irish Presbyterianism. It gave me an opport¬
unity to revise and simplify my earlier history. Our Irish
Presbyterian Heritage, published in 1985 for the Publications
Board of the Irish Presbyterian Church and intended primarily
for Presbyterian church members. It is hoped that this popular
history will inform a wider public about Irish Presbyterianism,
who they are, where they have come from and what they have
done and are doing in their obedience to Christ.
Frequently caricatured as dour bigots, that is not how they
see themselves, and if we are to understand the Irish historical
experience since the early seventeenth century, we need to take
into account their distinctive role in that experience. Why was it,
for example, that some Presbyterians were prominent among
the founding fathers of Irish Republicanism in the late eight¬
eenth century and participated in the 1798 rebellion against
British rule in Ireland, yet most Irish Presbyterians became ar¬
dent Unionists in the course of the nineteenth century?
Quotations in the text indicate my indebtedness to many
other historians and I have provided a select bibliography to ac¬
knowledge that indebtedness more specifically.
Finally, my thanks are due to Sean O Boyle and The Columba
Press for their helpfulness in the process of publication and to
my wife, Josephine, great grand-daughter of the first Irish
Presbyterian missionary to China, who has encouraged me to
complete this history and have more time to enjoy the leisure of
retirement and see more of our seven grandchildren.
Finlay Holmes
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