Erris, Father O'Donovan of Loughrea, and many others--men
with whom I have worked and taken counsel, and who represent, I believe,
an ever increasing number of their fellow priests.[22]

My position, then, towards the influence of the Roman Catholic
clergy--and this influence is a matter of vital importance to the
understanding of Irish problems--- may now be clearly defined. While
recognising to the full that large numbers of the Irish Roman Catholic
clergy have in the past exercised undue influence in purely political
questions, and, in many other matters, social, educational, and
economic, have not, as I see things, been on the side of progress, I
hold that their influence is now, more than ever before, essential for
improving the condition of the most backward section of the population.
Therefore I feel it to be both the duty and the strong interest of my
Protestant fellow-countrymen to think much less of the religious
differences which divide them from Roman Catholics, and much more of
their common citizenship and their common cause. I also hold with equal
strength and sincerity to the belief, which I have already expressed,
that the shortcomings of the Roman Catholic clergy are largely to be
accounted for, not by any innate tendency on their part towards
obscurantism, but by the sad history of Ireland in the past. I would
appeal to those of my co-religionists who think otherwise to suspend
their judgment for a time. That Roman Catholicism is firmly established
in Ireland is a fact of the situation which they must admit, and as this
involves the continued powerful influence of the priesthood upon the
character of the people, it is surely good policy by liberality and fair
dealing, especially in the matter of education, to turn this influence
towards the upbuilding of our national life.

To sum up the influence of religion and religious controversy in
Ireland, as it presents itself from the only standpoint from which I
have approached the matter in this chapter, namely, that of material,
social, and intellectual progress, I find that while the Protestants
have given, and continue to give, a fine example of thrift and industry
to the rest of the nation, the attitude of a section of them towards the
majority of their fellow-countrymen has been a bigoted and unintelligent
one. On the other hand, I have learned from practical experience amongst
the Roman Catholic people of Ireland that, while more free from bigotry,
in