James Warren Doyle was born near
New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, 1786; he died at
Carlow, 1834. Hi father was James Doyle of Ballinvegga
New Ross and his mother was Anne Warren. His father
died before his birth and it was largely left up to his
mother to bring him and educate him. Anne Warren was a
Roman Catholic but of Quaker extraction. From an early
age, it seems, James was destined for the priesthood He belonged to a family, respectable but
poor, and received his early education at Clonleigh, at
Rathconrogue, and later at the Augustinian College, New
Ross. As a boy he would have witnessed the atrocities
of the Rebellion of 1798. In 1805 he joined the
Augustinian Order at Grantstown near New Ross and
continued his education at the University of Coimbra,
Portugal where he first manifested his great
intellectual powers. In the university library he read
everything,
Voltaire and Rousseau among the rest. As a
consequence his faith became unsettled; but his
vigorous intellect soon asserted itself, and
subsequently he became the fearless champion of the
Church in which he was born. During the Napoleonic
Peninsular War in 1807 he did sentry work at Coimbra,
and accompanied the English to Lisbon as interpreter,
and such was the impression he made at the Portuguese
Court that he was offered high employment there. He
declined the offer, however, and, returning to Ireland
in 1808, was ordained to the priesthood the following
year. Then for eight years he taught logic as Professor
of Theology at the Augustinian College, New Ross. In
1817 he became professor at Carlow College, and two
years later the priests of Kildare and Leighlin placed
him dignissimus for the vacant see. Their choice
was approved at Rome, and thus, in 1819, Doyle became
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.
At that date the effects of the Penal Laws were
still visible in the conduct of the Catholics. Even the
bishops, as if despairing of equality and satisfied
with subjection, often allowed Protestant bigotry to
assail with impunity their country and creed. This
attitude of timidity and acquiescence was little to Dr.
Doyle's taste, and over the signature of "J. K. L."
(James, Kildare and Leighlin) he vigorously repelled an
attack made on the Catholics by the Protestant
Archbishop of Dublin.
He also published an extremely
able pamphlet on the religious and civil principles of
the Irish Catholics; and a series of letters on the
state of Ireland, in which the iniquities of the Church
Establishment, the exactions of the landlords, the
corrupt administration of justice were lashed with an
unsparing hand. The clearness of style, the skilful
marshalling of facts, the wide range of knowledge
astonished all. And not less remarkable was his
examination before two Parliamentary committees in
London. Seeing his readiness and resource, the Duke of
Wellington remarked that Doyle examined the committee
rather than was examined by them. He joined the
Catholic Association, and when O'Connell was about to
contest Clare, Doyle addressed him a public letter
hoping "that the God of truth and justice would be with
him".
After Emancipation these two great men frequently
disagreed, but on the tithe question they were in
accord, and Doyle's exhortation to the people to hate
tithes as much as they loved justice became a
battle-cry, in the tithe war. Meantime nothing could
exceed the bishop's zeal in his diocese. He established
confraternities, temperance societies, and parish
libraries, built churches and schools, conducted
retreats, and ended many abuses which had survived the
penal times. He also waged unsparing and incessant war
on secret societies. He died young, a martyr to faith
and zeal.
His published writings, pastoral, political,
educational and inter-denominational still read
extremely well and are much consulted by historians: A
Vindication of the religious and civil principles of
the Irish Catholics (1823);
Letter on the state of Ireland (1825); An essay
on the Catholics claims (1826). He was an ally of
O’Connell in the fight for Catholic Emancipation. He
gave extended evidence on the state of Ireland in
Westminister to parliamentary enquiries in 1825, 1830
and 1832. The project of building Carlow Cathedral of
the Assumption crowned his most remarkable life. The
Cathedral opened at the end of November 1833. The
Bishop was ill for a number of months before his death
on 15 June 1834. He is buried in the Cathedral in front
of the Main Altar. Biographies of J.K.L. have been
produced in the nineteenth century.
Source:
kandle.ie & newadvent.org
- The information contained
in these pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing
with others researching their ancestors in Ireland.
- © 2001 County Carlow
Genealogy IGP
