Fr. Patrick Quaid

[Sduddy]

Hi Sharon

The following explanation as to why a Limerick man such as Fr. Quaid was appointed administrator for a parish in Co. Clare may be already known to you, but it was new to me: in her article, “Rev. Jonathan Furlong – Sagart na Gaeilge – (1799-1857)” in The Other Clare, Vol. 27, (2003), Eilís Ní Dheá (writing in Irish) explains that Fr. Furlong was a Limerick man, but was appointed a priest in the Killaloe diocese because of a shortage of priests there in the early part of the 19th century. This was because of the great increase in the population. She quotes Ignatius Murphy (The Diocese of Killaloe 1850-1904 p 450): “by 1800 each priest was serving close to 3,500 people”. As late as 1834, there were three parishes still without a priest.
Ignatius Murphy says,

the bishops also set out to recruit priests who had been ordained for other dioceses. Most of them were from Limerick and Ossary ….I have identified eight Limerick and six Ossary priests who arrived in Killaloe in the 1820’s and 1830’s and were incardinated as priests of the diocese….
The priests who opted to join Killaloe in the 1820’s and the early 1830’s included men who made a strong impact in the diocese, Patrick Quaid, Patrick Sheehy, Jonathan Furlong and Patrick O’Meally … (Murphy, Ignatiius, The Diocese of Killaloe 1850-1904, pp 397-8)

Sheila

[smcarberry]

I am all ears on anything that provides context for Fr. Quaid's leaving behind his longtime Limerick home ground. Thanks very much for these observations; as you likely know, I don't have access to the Ignatious Murphy work. There was a lot going on in Clare then and specifically this parish's area in the 1820s -30s that made a priest's calming influence so important. When I eventually do my article, there can only be a bit of space devoted to the turbulence of that era, to leave enough to get across the extent to which Patrick Quaid made his life's work to be the pastor that his flock needed, as well as a reliable interface with the upper-crust society that could impact his parishioners.

In return for all these helpful references (it was almost 2 years ago that you sent the death mention for Fr. Quaid's brother), see the posting I next make on books by a Clare historian writing in the early 1900s.

Sharon C.