John Mac Hale - Childhood

Childhood

He was so feeble at his birth that he was baptized at home by Father Conroy, who, six years later, was hanged during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Though Irish was always spoken by the peasants at that time, the MacHale children were all taught English. When he was old enough John ran barefoot with his brothers to the hedge school, then the sole means of instruction for Catholic peasant children, who on fine days did their lessons in a dry ditch under a hedge, and in wet weather were gathered into a rough barn. John was an eager pupil, and listened attentively to lives of saints, legends, national songs, and historical tales, related by his elders, as well as to the accounts of the French Revolution given by an eyewitness, his uncle, Father MacHale, who had just escaped from France. Three important events happened during John's sixth year: the Irish Rebellion of 1798; the landing at Killala of French troops, whom the boy, hidden in a stacked sheaf of flax, watched marching through a mountain pass to Castlebar; and a few months later the brutal execution of Father Conroy on a false charge of high treason. These occurrences made an indelible impression upon the child's mind. After school hours he studied Irish history, under the guidance of an old scholar in the neighborhood. Being destined for the priesthood the boy was sent to a school at Castlebar to learn Latin, Greek, and English grammar. In his sixteenth year the Bishop of Killala gave him a busarship at St Patrick's College, Maynooth at Maynooth.