Thomas Nulty Explained

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 7 July 1818, and died in office as the Irish Roman Catholic Bishop of Meath^[3] on Christmas Eve, 1898.^[4]

Biography

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 Great Famine. During the course of his first pastoral appointment, he officiated at an average 11 funerals of famine victims (mostly children or the aged) a day, and in 1848 he described a large-scale eviction of 700 tenants in the diocese,^[5] thought to have been near Lough Sheelin, a freshwater lough at a meeting point of Counties Westmeath, Meath and Cavan.

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.^{[6] [7]} Nulty was in agreement with the economic ideas of the progressive reformer Henry George. Nulty read George's book Progress and Poverty multiple times and agreed with every word.^[8] Henry George even said that 'Georgism' could just as well be known as 'Nultyism'.^[9]

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.^[10] Nulty was a friend and supporter of the Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell until Parnell's divorce crisis in 1889.^{[11] [12]}

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

External links

• Catholic Hierarchy
• Copy of 31 December 1881 letter from Thomas Nulty to the Dublin Freeman newspaper

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Tablet. Obituary. The Most Rev.Dr.Nulty, Bishop of Meath. 8 June 2014. 31 December 1898.
2. Web site: Navan & District Historical Society. Nulty, Bishop Thomas. 8 June 2014.
3. Book: Eubel, Conrad . Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi . 8 . 195, 382 . Monasterii Sumptibus et typis librariae Regensbergianae . 1913 . Latin. Digitized, University of Toronto.
4. Book: Canning, Bernard. Bishops of Ireland 1870–1987. . Donegal Democrat. 143–145. 1988 . 1870963008.
5. Web site: The Tablet. Ireland (From our Correspondent). 8 June 2014.
6. D. Bank & A. Esposito, British Biographical Index, London, K.G. Saur, 1990, Vol. 3 J-O, p. 1380 (referencing article on corresponding microfiche 824, 206, and which article cites the London Times for 26 December 1898 at page 4 and Brady's 1877 The Episcopal Succession, ii 361, as its sources)
7. Web site: Navan Historical Society – Nulty, Bishop Thomas . Navanhistory.ie . 2013-11-26.
8. Louis F. Post and Fred C. Leubusher, Henry George’s 1886 Campaign: An Account of the George-Hewitt Campaign in the New York Municipal Election of 1886 (New York: John W. Lovell Company, 1887).
9. George. Henry. Bishop, Archbishop and Guest. The Standard. 18 June 1887. 1. 1. 1 February 2016.
10. Web site: 'Back to the Land' (1881) by Dr. Thomas Nulty, Bishop of Meath | Lux Occulta . Lxoa.wordpress.com . 2011-05-29 . 2013-11-26.
11. Web site: Lawlor. David. Political priests: the Parnell split in Meath. historyireland.com/. 8 June 2014. 2010.
12. Book: O'Beirne Ranelagh. John. A Short History of Ireland. 2012. Cambridge University Press. 978-1139789264. 300. 3. 8 June 2014.