THEY WERE known as “soupers”, and their converts were nicknamed “jumpers”, but Achill’s 19th century missionary colony now deserves its own “healing”, according to the organisers of an inter-denominational blessing on the south Mayo island today.
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam Dr Michael Neary and Church of Ireland Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry Dr Patrick Rooke are due to lead a “marking” of hitherto unnamed graves in four churchyards and graveyards at Dugort, Achill, this afternoon.
A total of 190 unmarked 19th century burial places have been identified, according to the Rev Val Rogers, rector of the Aughaval group of parishes, which includes St Thomas’s of Dugort.
“The names of many of those buried are known, but in most cases we don’t know whose bones lie where,” Rev Rogers has said.
St Thomas’s was the principal church of the controversial Achill mission, founded by the Rev Edward Nangle in 1831.
As Rev Rogers explains, the mission was part of a wider push by English and Irish evangelicals in the early 1800s to “convert and save the Irish from what were considered Roman Catholic errors, ignorance and neglect”.
Food was provided as well as primary education in Irish, while training, employment and orphanage care were promised.
This led to accusations that the mission leaders were “soupers”, promising soup in return for conversion, while their converts were named “jumpers”, from the Irish “d’iompaidh sé” (he turned).
In 1837, the Catholic archbishop of Tuam John McHale tried to counter the influence of what were termed “venomous fanatics” by establishing a school and Franciscan monastery at Bunnacurry. Several more Catholic schools were founded on Achill.
“God knows the full faith story of those buried by the mission, but it’s time we ensured that they all have Catholic as well as Anglican blessing,” Rev Rogers said.
The service takes place at St Thomas’s Church at 2pm today.
