ABSTRACT
The Irish Mission never had a programme or, indeed, a formal institutional embodiment. This chapter examines the Mission’s structure and organisation, which, given the lack of an official framework, responded to changing environmental conditions by following consuetudinary principles. This flexibility allowed the Mission to adapt to changes in the number of would-be missionaries, irregularities in the evaluation of candidates, and abuses committed by the missionaries after the concession of their viatica. Political events in the British Isles also had an impact on the Mission, especially during Oliver Cromwell’s protectorate and his anti-Catholic policies. In addition to this historical narrative, the chapter also deals with a series of factors that came to affect the Mission’s central issue: the Cádiz pension. The accession of Thomas Walsh to the bishopric of Cashel; the demands posed by certain individuals and the Society of Jesus, who tried to impose their control over the pension; and the allocation of some of the funds to the Royal Scottish College in Madrid in 1627 were important milestones in the governance of an increasingly active Mission. The death of Walsh in 1654 returned the management of the pension to the Crown, which nevertheless continued its policy of sponsorship towards the Irish missionaries, who, therefore, also acted as agents of the Spanish king.
