The Irish Papal Army
Genealogical research has highlighted for me this week a glaring hole in my knowledge of Irish history - The Irish Papal Army.
In 1860, Pope Pius IX, alarmed at the ambitions of the general, Giuseppe Garibaldi and others to unify Italy as one country, sent out a plea to Catholics across Europe to donate funds for a papal army. His aim: to protect the papal states in central Italy from the Risorgimento that was taking over the region. Up until this point Italy was made up of small independent states, but if the reformers had their way, they would be be brought together to form the united Kingdom of Italy. This Pius could not tolerate.
In 1860, Pope Pius IX, alarmed at the ambitions of the general, Giuseppe Garibaldi and others to unify Italy as one country, sent out a plea to Catholics across Europe to donate funds for a papal army. His aim: to protect the papal states in central Italy from the Risorgimento that was taking over the region. Up until this point Italy was made up of small independent states, but if the reformers had their way, they would be be brought together to form the united Kingdom of Italy. This Pius could not tolerate.
The
plea was heard loudly in Ireland. A number of papal emissaries arrived
in Dublin in March 1860 hoping to raise an Irish battalion to help drive
Garibaldi's forces back from the papal states. The emissaries also
hoped to raise funds to support them. The response was enormous. Word
quickly travelled across the country, and emboldened by their faith (and
presumably as a sign of protest against their British rulers who
supported the re-unification) the huge sum of £80,000 was raised by the
Irish public. To put this in perspective, one inflation calculator
suggests that it would be worth about £7.45 million today.
Amongst
the donors according to the Carlow Post (July 1860) was my 3 x great
grandfather, James Stynes. Christened in Killabin, Co. Laois in 1835 he
would have been 25 at the time, when he donated 2 shillings to the
pope's cause (around £8.50 in today's money). Though he is far from the
biggest donor (his neighbours, the Byrnes Family donated £3, for example
- around £250 today) the sum is not insignificant for a farmer living
at that time. A bit of preliminary research suggests that James could
have bought 12 loaves of bread with this five years later in 1865.
Needless
to say, the papal army was not a great success. Some 1400 Irishmen went
to Italy to fight for the pope, but with poor organisation and
resources they were ill equipped to fight Garibaldi's forces. In the 18
day struggle, some 100 Irishmen were wounded or killed and most of the
papal states conquered by the Kingdom of Italy.
An extremely interesting account of the Irish Papal Army by Robert Doyle for History Ireland Magazine (2010) can be found here
An extremely interesting account of the Irish Papal Army by Robert Doyle for History Ireland Magazine (2010) can be found here
Comments
Post a Comment