Memorial to John Ireland of Burnchurch, 1st Archbishop of St.Paul, Minnesota.

There is a distinctive roadside memorial at the farm opposite Burnchurch Tower.   It is a large 10 foot Celtic Cross, set back a bit from the road but enclosed within a railed area and encircled by a cut stone wall.  It reads "Sacred to the memory of John Ireland, First Archbishop of St Paul, Minnesota, USA,  Suaimhneas soirai da anam".  This Celtic Cross is a replica of the memorial placed over the Archbishop's grave in St Paul and was made by a monumental sculptor in St Paul and shipped to Ireland early in 1966.  This memorial was formerly unveiled at Burnchurch on 18th September 1966.
On a separate placque up on the wall surrounding the Celtic Cross is the following inscription " John Ireland 1838-1918, Patriot, Statesman, Priest of Christ.  His soul has gone out into all lands and his fame until the ends of the earth.   Suaimhneas siorai da anam" (Eternal Peace to his Soul).


John Ireland was born at Burnchurch, Parish of Danesfort,  county Kilkenny on 11th September 1838.

His parents were Richard Ireland, a carpenter by trade and Judith Naughton, Richard's second wife  Richard Ireland worked as a carpenter for the Flood family.  In the 1960s workmen carrying out repairs to Farmley House, the Flood home, discovered amongst other names, the name of Richard Ireland inscribed in the lead roof lap.
The children of this marriage, all in the Danesfort Register as being from Burnchurch are:-
1. Ellen baptised 30 November 1836. Sponsors: Garret Fleming and Atty Naughton (died young)
2. John baptised 11 September 1838. Sponsors: John Nougthon and Mary Marnell.
3. Richard baptised 29 Nov 1840, Sponsors: Richard Shirly and Catherine Kenehan (died young).
4. Ellen baptised 1 July 1842. Sponsors: Thomas McCabe and Mary Northon (Naughton).
5. Bess(Eliza) baptised 7th August 1844. Sponsors: Edmond Carty and Cath Marnell.
6. Richard baptised 23 Nov 1847. Sponsors: David Carty and Margaret Ryan.
7. Johanna baptised 7 August 1849. Sponsors: Thomas Rice and Honora Naughton.
Both Ellen (Mother Seraphine) and Eliza (Mother St John) entered the Community of the Sisters of St. Joseph of  Carondelet and were still alive in 1918.   In addition Richard Ireland had a daughter Mary Anne by his first wife whose name is unknown.
Richard Ireland left Kilkenny in 1849 to seek a better life in America; he was accompanied by his sister Nancy.   He initially settled in Burlington, Vermont before sending for his wife and children to join him in 1850.  In 1852 Richard decided to move the whole family to Minnesota and they arrived in St Paul in May of that year.
By this time the young John Ireland, highly intelligent and extremely pious, was showing signs of a religious vocation.  He was selected as a suitable candidate to be educated, free of charge, for the priesthood and he was sent to a seminary in Meximieux in France.  When John Ireland returned to St Paul in 1861 he was ordained as a priest at the early age of only 23 yr.  His rise within the Church was rapid.  In 1875 at only 37 he was ordained as a Bishop and in 1888, aged 49 yrs, he was appointed first Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Paul, Minnesota.    He was a priest for approximately 56 years and a Bishop for 44 years.
As a young priest he volunteered and served as Chaplain in the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War.  He proved popular with the men but exhausted his health with his pastoral duties, some on the battlefield.  A keen chess player, as Chaplain, he always carried with him a set of miniature chess men and a rubber blanket chess board and made a point of playing chess with the soldiers.
Archbishop Ireland had a strong and charismatic personality. He rose to be a leading civil and religious leader; his liberal views gave him a wide reputation and influence outside the Church and he worked closely with non-Catholics.  He was employed on diplomatic missions by both the Pope and the President of the United States and was on intimate terns with Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft.  In 1902 he represented President McKinley and the American people at the unveiling of a memorial in Paris, France, to the French revolutionary soldier and politician Layfayette.
Disturbed by reports of the poor social and economic conditions of the Irish immigrants crowding into the urban slums along the eastern seaboard, he was instrumental in founding the Catholic Colonisation Bureau of Minnesota.  This organisation bought good farm land, more than 400,000 acres, in rural areas only recently cleared of its native Sioux in the Dakota War of 1862.   Between 1876 and 1881, working with the railroads and the Minnesota State Government, he organised and directed the most successful rural colonisation programme bringing out more than 4000 Irish Catholic families from the slums in the east and settling them on farm land in Minnesota.  The scheme whilst highly successful did have one failure.  He organised for over 300 Gaelic speaking immigrants to be brought direct from Connemara to Minnesota.  These immigrants unfortunately knew nothing about farming, had no English and were ill prepared for life on the American prairie, especially during the severe winter of 1880 and this particular venture was not successful but otherwise this was a highly successful scheme for the betterment of poor immigrants.
Archbishop Ireland was especially keen to develop education and sought to harmonise Catholicism with American institutions. He founded the College (now University) of St Thomas in 1885, the Saint Thomas Academy and the St Paul Seminary.  In 1889 he also helped establish the Catholic University of America.

He died in St Paul on 25th September 1918 and was buried in the Calvary cemetery, St Paul, Minnesota.    Before he died he burnt all his personal papers.
His was a life of outstanding achievement and industry.   One of the Archbishop's sayings was "Pessimism is the devil's art".   Obviously he himself was an optimist and a proud son of county Kilkenny.   There is a well written and researched book  "The Life and Times of Archbishop John Ireland" written by Monsignor James H Moynihan, published in 1955 by Harper, New York.  
See also The Old Kilkenny Review 1967  Archbishop John Ireland.  (Pages 64-68).