Thomas Nulty

The Most Reverend Dr. Thomas Nulty or Thomas McNulty (1818-1898) was born to a farming family in Fennor, Oldcastle, Co. Meath,[1][2] on July 7, 1818 and died in office as the Irish Roman Catholic Bishop of Meath[3] on Christmas Eve, 1898. Nulty was educated at Gilson School, Oldcastle, County Meath, St. Finians, Navan Seminary and Maynooth College. He was ordained in 1846. Nulty was a cleric during the Irish Potato Famine. During the course of his first pastoral appointment, he officiated at an average 11 funerals of famine victims (most children or the aged) a day, and in 1848 he described a large-scale eviction of 700 tenants in the diocese.[4]

Nulty rose to become the Most Reverend Bishop of Meath and was known as a fierce defender of the tenant rights of Irish tenant farmers throughout the 34 years that he served in that office from 1864 to 1898.[5][6] Thomas Nulty is famed for his 1881 tract Back to the Land, wherein he makes the case for land reform of the Irish land tenure system.[7] Nulty was a friend and supporter of the Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell until Parnell's divorce crisis in 1889.[8][9]

Dr. Thomas Nulty, who had attended the First Vatican Council in 1870, said his last mass on December 21, 1898.

References

  1. ↑ The Tablet (December 31, 1898). "Obituary. The Most Rev.Dr.Nulty, Bishop of Meath". Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Navan & District Historical Society. "Nulty, Bishop Thomas". Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Conrad Eubel Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, Volume 8, Page 195, and Page 382 Published: Monasterii Sumptibus et typis librariae Regensbergianae (1913, in Latin) digitized, University of Toronto
  4. ↑ The Tablet. "Ireland (From our Correspondent)". Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  5. ↑ D. Bank & A. Esposito, British Biographical Index, London, K.G. Saur, 1990, Vol. 3 J-O (ISBN 0-86291-393-4), p. 1380 (referencing article on corresponding microfiche 824, 206, and which article cites the London Times for December 26, 1898 at page 4 and Brady's 1877 The Episcopal Succession, ii 361, as its sources)
  6. ↑ "Navan Historical Society - Nulty, Bishop Thomas". Navanhistory.ie. Retrieved 2013-11-26.
  7. ↑ "‘Back to the Land’ (1881) by Dr. Thomas Nulty, Bishop of Meath | Lux Occulta". Lxoa.wordpress.com. 2011-05-29. Retrieved 2013-11-26.
  8. ↑ Lawlor, David (2010). "Political priests: the Parnell split in Meath". http://www.historyireland.com/''. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  9. ↑ O'Beirne Ranelagh, John (2012). A Short History of Ireland (3 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 300. ISBN 1139789260. Retrieved 8 June 2014.

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