Irish Times Notes18 Apr 20

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

Migrants – Past & Present

Before the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, migrants were much in the news as millions of people were driven from their homelands by famine, war and oppression. In Ireland, the government has been seeking, with perhaps rather less expedition than many would wish, to fulfil its obligations to the international community by providing a safe haven and an opportunity to build a new life for a small number of migrants. Many Church of Ireland congregations have been happily augmented by the new arrivals as they seek to find a place to use their talents, while the Church has also been involved with the vexed issue of direct provision seeking to provide hope and opportunity in an increasingly difficult environment.

But, of course this is not new. Persecution of the French Calvinists, which became more intense after the death of King Henry IV in 1610, encouraged emigration and following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had provided a measure of religious toleration, in 1685, there was a substantial flight of French Protestants. Many ended up in Ireland – one estimate suggested 10,000. An Act for Encouraging Protestant Strangers, first introduced by the Duke of Ormond in 1662, had provided a legal basis for French Protestants to settle in Ireland and enable them to pursue their trades, and they were joined after the Williamite wars by soldiers who chose to settle in Ireland after the conflict was over. Most settled in Dublin but there were also substantial settlements in Lisburn and  Cork while in Portarlington Lord Galway established a military colony, and in time virtually all conformed to the Church of Ireland.

The French settlers, Huguenots as they came to be called, brought to Ireland a range of skills and abilities which significantly enhanced Irish economic and cultural life. Among the best remembered, perhaps, are Louis Crommelin who established a linen manufactory in Lisburn, and the La Touche family who became important in Dublin banking circles, while others worked as goldsmiths and in the manufacture of silk, lace, sailcloth and glass.

But as is the way with migrants not all were able to follow their metier and had to adapt their talents to their new circumstances. One such was Élie Bouhéreau,, a native of La Rochelle, who studied medicine and became a medical doctor in his native town. As religious persecution of Protestants increased in France Bohéreau was excluded from the medical profession and in 1686 fled to England and pursued a career in the diplomatic service. He came Ireland in 1697 with the prominent Huguenot refugee, Lord Galway, and under the patronage of Archbishop Narcissus Marsh became the first keeper of Marsh’s Library. He was ordained in the Church of Ireland and was Precentor of St Patrick’s cathedral until his death in 1719.

Bohereau’s diary for the years 1689–1719, and his accounts for the period 1704 1717, which have survived in Marsh’s Library, have been published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission. both in the original French and in an English translation. In the words of the introduction, they ‘give fascinating insights into the life of a refugee from the French provinces, who suffered persecution and exile during the 1680s, sided with Britain against Louis XIV in the long–running wars of the period, and lived out the last decades of his life in the Liberties area of Dublin’

As we have come to expect of the IMC this is a work of impeccable scholarship presented in an attractive and accessible fashion.