Ireland, John
IRELAND, JOHN: Two noted 19th century religious figures of this name:
IRELAND, JOHN (1) (1761-1842), English divine and dean of Westminster, was born at Ashburton, Devonshire, on the 8th of September 1761, his father being a butcher in that town. For a short time he worked in a shoemaker's shop. Subsequently he proceeded to Oxford, and in due course took holy orders. Through the interest of the earl of Liverpool he was in 1802 appointed a prebendary of Westminster Abbey, in 1815 he was promoted to the deanery of Westminster, and from 1816 to 1835 he was also rector of Islip, Oxfordshire. In 1825 he gave 4000 for the foundation at Oxford of four " Ireland " scholarships of the value of 30 a year each, " for the promotion of classical learning and taste." He also gave 500 to Westminster school for the establishment of prizes for Latin hexameters. He died at Westminster on the and of September 1842, and was buried in the abbey.
IRELAND, JOHN (2) (1838- ), American Roman Catholic prelate, was born at Burnchurch, County Kilkenny, Ireland, on the 11th of September 1838. In 1849 he was taken to the United States by his parents, who settled at St Paul, Minnesota Territory. After being educated in France for the priesthood, he returned to the United States in 1861; he was ordained at St Paul and in the following year he accompanied the sth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry south as chaplain. Subsequently he became rector of the cathedral at St Paul, and in 1870-1871 represented Bishop Thomas Langdon Grace (1814-1897) at the Vatican council at Rome. In 1875 he was appointed bishop of Nebraska, but at the urgent request of Bishop Grace the appointment was changed so that he might remain at St Paul as bishop-coadjutor with the right of succession ; at the same time he was made titular bishop of Maronea. In 1884 he succeeded to the bishopric, and in 1888 he became the first archbishop of the see. His liberal views gave him a wide influence and reputation both within and without the church, and he came to be looked upon as a leader of the " American " as distinguished from the " Roman " party in the clergy. His views were, however, opposed by several leading Catholics; and several of his administrative acts, notably his plan for the partial taking over of control of the parochial schools by the local authorities (known from the town in which it was first attempted, " the Faribault plan "), were strenuously attacked. He was prominently identified with the planting of Catholic communities or colonies in the North- West, with the establishment of the Catholic University at Washington, and with the Catholic total abstinence movement. The degree of LL.D. was] conferred on him by Yale University in 1901. He published The Church and Modern Society (1896).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
