by John Healy

“ Once she held aloft the lamp of truth, and was a shining light to all Western Europe. The Lord may again choose her for the accomplishment of His high and holy purposes. When that call comes, God grant that she may be ready! ”

“ If we are to pay attention to the foreign sources of information which have come down to us, we must believe that the Irish Church had sunk so low that there was nothing to regret in its final extinction. Immorality and incest are said to have been openly practised in the land; and it must be admitted that several authorities bear the same testimony. Nothing in the native sources of information, however, would lead us to conclude that there was the least truth in the charge. ”