Life
1739-1823; b. Porterstown, Co. Dublin; ed. Dominicans, Rome, from fifteen;
ord. 1762; prior of St Clement’s, Rome, 1772; bishop of Ossory, 1776;
supported Government; withheld support from Catholic Committee, 1780-90;
denounced Whiteboys and preached civil obedience; Adminstrator of Armagh,
1781-82; consulted by Lujke Gardiner prior to framing of relief bills
of 1778 and 1782; Archbishop of Dublin, 1786; condemned 1798 Rising and
gave support to legislative union; opposed French Revolutionary principles;
helped found Maynooth college to avoid revolutionary contamination of
clerical students; attacked Defenders and United Irishmen, 1975; issued
Pastoral Instructions on the duties of Christian Citizens (1793),
containing assertion that Catholics were fit to enjoy benefits of a free
constitution; repeated condemnations of violence during Rebellion of 1798;
accepted Veto from its first inception at a meeting of the hierarchy at
Maynooth in Jan. 1799; following the Union and the non-materialisation
of Emancipation, he continue to endorse it, losing the popular struggle
with O’Connell, 1813-15; laid foundation stone of pro-Cathedral,
1815; d. 11 May 1823, leaving barely enough for his own funeral; succeeded
by Daniel Murray. ODNB DIB DIH
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Commentary
Conor Cruise O’Brien, The Great Melody (Sinclair Stevenson
1992), writes: Dr Troy preached pacifism in a pastoral letter and parties
of Defenders surrendered their arms. Burke wrote to Hussey, ‘The
Catholicks have foolishly, in all senses disarmed themselves. If the disarmament
had been common to all descriptions of disorderly persons the Measure
would have been excellent. &c.’ (Burke, Corr. VIII, pp.351-2;
O’Brien, pp..529-30.)
Thomas Bartlett, review of Daire Keogh, The French Disease, the Catholic Church and radicalism in Ireland 1790-1800 (Four Courts Press 1993), Linenhall Review (Spring 1994); the radicalism of the 1790s was a much graver threat to the Catholic Church in Ireland than all the penal laws (mostly repealed by then) and the hierarchy, notably Archbishop Troy of Dublin, proved extremely adept at steering their way through the conflicting demands of people, priests, the Vatican and Dublin Castle. The result was that while the Irish parliament was a casualty of the 1790s, going out with the Union, the Catholic church emerged strengthened by its experience in the crisis years.
Dáire Keogh, ‘ Catholic responses to the Act of Union’, in Dáire Keogh & Kevin Whelan, eds., Acts of Union: The Causes, Contexts and Consequences of the Act of Union (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2001), writes that Archbishop Troy appeared at the Catholic Convention and declare the bishops ‘second to no decription of Catholics [in the demand] for emancipation’ (Troy to T. Bray, 8 Dec. 1972, Cashel Dioc. Arch.; p.160). Further, ‘The Catholic Committee was already dissolved, while the leading catholic radicals, tainted by their association with the United Irish cause and rebellion, were forced underground. In their absence, Troy became the acknowledged voice of Irish catholics, an ironic development which palaced him in an unenviable position, given his conspicuous loyalism throughout the decade. / Troy’s immediage task was to counter the polemical atacks in print, but of greater concern was the overwhelming fear and insecurity felt by catholics for their future whch [Bishop James] Caulfield [of Ferns] attributed to “their crazy union, that had caused more disunion throughout this country, than it had every perhaps experienced before.” [Caulfield to Troy, 6 Sept. 1799; Dublin Dioc. Arch.;] / Troy was particularly concerned at the revenge the orangemen had begun to inflict on the catholic community. The burning of the chapel of Ramsgrange, County Wexford, on 19 June was the first of sixty epidsodes ove the next two years [...]’ (Keogh, p.161.) Further, Keogh quotes Troy on the Veto: ‘We all wish to remain are we are, and we would do so were it not that too many of the clergy were active in the wicked rebellin or did not oppose it [...] If we had rejected the proposal in tot, we would be considered here as rebels [...] If we agreed to it wthout rference to Rome, we would be branded as schismatics.’ (Leter to J. Concanen [Spring 1800], Dublin Dioc. Arch.; Dáire Keogh, op. cit., 166.)
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Quotations
Pastoral instruction ot the Roman catholics of the Archdiocese
of Dublin, by the Most Rev. Dr Thomas Troy (Dublin: P Wogan 1798),
16pp, ‘But is it by rebellion, insurrection, tumult, or seditious
clamour on your part, that these incapacities are to be removed? Is it
by adopting or countenancing the modern French principles of licentious
liberty and anarchical equality that you are to recommend yourselves to
your ruler ... Is it from the enemies and scoffers of revealed religion
... that you are to be protected in the free exercise of the Catholic
faith?’ (p.13) SEE Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English,
The Romantic Period, 1789-1850, Vol 1 (1980).
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Notes
Steadily loyal: Troy was described by Patrick Duignenan as ‘a
steady loyalist’ [to the Crown] (see Dáire Keogh, ‘The
Battle for Affection: The Catholic Church and Radical Politics, 1790-1800’,
Bullán, Vol. 2, No. 1, Summer 1995, p.41.)
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