ABSTRACT
Paul Cullen became archbishop of Armagh in 1849, after long service as rector of the Irish College in Rome, returned to Ireland the following year, was translated to Dublin in 1852 and created cardinal in 1866. The picture of Cardinal Cullen as a prelate whose brand of ultramontanism made him an inveterate opponent of Irish nationalism, both constitutional and revolutionary, ought not to have survived the work of Monsignor Corish, Fr MacSuibhne and Dr John Whyte. This chapter shows that it is a travesty to portray Cullen as an enemy of, or as indifferent to, Irish nationality, if it is obvious, but not surprising in a churchman, that he was reluctant to recognise the decisive importance of agrarian and political violence. It is equally obvious that his hostility to the protestants of the Black North implied a refusal of that understanding which he demanded of Britain for the catholic Irish.
