University of Virginia Library

OF THE RELIGION OF THE STREET-IRISH.

Having now given a brief sketch as to how the
Irish people have come to form so large a
proportion of the London street-sellers, I shall
proceed, as I did with the English costermon-
gers, to furnish the reader with a short account
of their religious, moral, intellectual, and phy-
sical condition, so that he may be able to con-
trast the habits and circumstances of the one
class with those of the other. First, of the reli-
gion of the Irish street-folk.

Almost all the street-Irish are Roman Catho-
lics. Of course I can but speak generally; but
during my inquiry I met with only two who
said they were Protestants, and when I came to
converse with them, I found out that they were
partly ignorant of, and partly indifferent to, any
religion whatever. An Irish Protestant gentle-
man said to me: "You may depend upon it, if
ever you meet any of my poor countrymen who
will not talk to you about religion, they either
know or care nothing about it; for the religious
spirit runs high in Ireland, and Protestants and
Catholics are easily led to converse about their
faith."

I found that some of the Irish Roman Catho-
lics — but they had been for many years resident
in England, and that among the poorest or
vagrant class of the English — had become indif-
ferent to their creed, and did not attend their
chapels, unless at the great fasts or festivals, and
this they did only occasionally. One old stall-
keeper, who had been in London nearly thirty
years, said to me: "Ah! God knows, sir, I
ought to attend mass every Sunday, but I
haven't for a many years, barrin' Christmas-day
and such times. But I'll thry and go more
rigular, plase God." This man seemed to re-
sent, as a sort of indignity, my question if he
ever attended any other place of worship. "Av
coorse not!" was the reply.

One Irishman, also a fruit-seller, with a well-
stocked barrow, and without the complaint of
poverty common among his class, entered keenly
into the subject of his religious faith when I
introduced it. He was born in Ireland, but had
been in England since he was five or six. He
was a good-looking, fresh-coloured man, of
thirty or upwards, and could read and write well.
He spoke without bitterness, though zealously
enough. "Perhaps, sir, you are a gintleman
connected with the Protistant clargy," he asked,
"or a missionary?" On my stating that I had
no claim to either character, he resumed: "Will,
sir, it don't matther. All the worruld may know
my riligion, and I wish all the worruld was of
my riligion, and betther min in it than I am; I
do, indeed. I'm a Roman Catholic, sir;" [here
he made the sign of the cross]; "God be praised
for it! O yis, I know all about Cardinal Wise-
man. It's the will of God, I feel sure, that he's
to be 'stablished here, and it's no use ribillin'
against that. I've nothing to say against Pro-
tistints. I've heard it said, `It's best to pray
for them.' The street-people that call thim-
selves Protistants are no riligion at all at all. I
serruve Protistant gintlemen and ladies too, and
sometimes they talk to me kindly about religion.
They're good custhomers, and I have no doubt
good people. I can't say what their lot may be
in another worruld for not being of the true
faith. No, sir, I'll give no opinions — none."

This man gave me a clear account of his
belief that the Blessed Virgin (he crossed him-
self repeatedly as he spoke) was the mother of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and was a mediator with
our Lord, who was God of heaven and earth —
of the duty of praying to the holy saints — of
attending mass — ("but the priest," he said,
"won't exact too much of a poor man, either
about that or about fasting") — of going to con-
fession at Easter and Christmas times, at the
least — of receiving the body of Christ, "the rale
prisince," in the holy sacrament — of keeping
all God's commandments — of purgatory being
a purgation of sins — and of heaven and hell.

[Description: 915EAF. Page 108.]

I found the majority of those I spoke with, at
least as earnest in their faith, if they were not
as well instructed in it as my informant, who
may be cited as an example of the better class
of street-sellers.

Another Irishman, — who may be taken as a
type of the less informed, and who had been
between two and three years in England, hav-
ing been disappointed in emigrating to America
with his wife and two children, — gave me the
following account, but not without considering
and hesitating. He was a very melancholy
looking man, tall and spare, and decently clad.
He and his family were living upon 8d. a day,
which he earned by sweeping a crossing. He
had been prevented by ill health from earning
2l., which he could have made, he told me, in
harvest time, as a store against winter. He had
been a street-seller, and so had his wife; and
she would be so again as soon as he could raise
2s. to buy her a stock of apples. He said,
touching his hat at each holy name, —

"Sure, yis, sir, I'm a Roman Cartholic, and
go to mass every Sunday. Jesus Christ? O yis,"
(hesitating, but proceeding readily after a word
of prompting), "he is the Lord our Saviour, and
the Son of the Holy Virgin. The blessed saints?
Yis, sir, yis. The praste prays for them. I —
I mane prays to them. O, yis. I pray to them
mysilf ivery night for a blissin', and to rise me
out of my misery. No, sir, I can't say I know
what the mass is about. I don't know what I'm
prayin' for thin, only that it's right. A poor
man, that can neither read nor write — I wish I
could and I might do betther — can't under-
stand it; it's all in Latin. Iv'e heard about
Cardinal Wiseman. It'll do us no good sir;
it'll only set people more against us. But it
ain't poor min's fault."

As I was anxious to witness the religious zeal
that characterizes these people, I obtained per-
mission to follow one of the priests as he made
his rounds among his flock. Everywhere the
people ran out to meet him. He had just re-
turned to them I found, and the news spread
round, and women crowded to their door-steps,
and came creeping up from the cellars through
the trap-doors, merely to curtsey to him. One
old crone, as he passed, cried, "You're a good
father, Heaven comfort you," and the boys play-
ing about stood still to watch him. A lad, in a
man's tail coat and a shirt-collar that nearly
covered in his head — like the paper round a
bouquet — was fortunate enough to be noticed,
and his eyes sparkled, as he touched his hair
at each word he spoke in answer. At a con-
versation that took place between the priest and
a woman who kept a dry fish-stall, the dame
excused herself for not having been up to take
tea "with his rivirince's mother lately, for thrade
had been so bisy, and night was the fullest
time." Even as the priest walked along the
street, boys running at full speed would pull up
to touch their hair, and the stall-women would
rise from their baskets; while all noise — even a
quarrel — ceased until he had passed by. Still
there was no look of fear in the people. He
called them all by their names, and asked after
their families, and once or twice the "father"
was taken aside and held by the button while
some point that required his advice was whis-
pered in his ear.

The religious fervour of the people whom I
saw was intense. At one house that I entered,
the woman set me marvelling at the strength of
her zeal, by showing me how she contrived to
have in her sitting-room a sanctuary to pray
before every night and morning, and even in
the day, "when she felt weary and lonesome."
The room was rudely enough furnished, and the
only decent table was covered with a new piece
of varnished cloth; still before a rude print of
our Saviour there were placed two old plated
candlesticks, pink, with the copper shining
through; and here it was that she told her
beads. In her bed-room, too, was a coloured
engraving of the "Blessed Lady," which she
never passed without curtseying to.

Of course I detail these matters as mere facts,
without desiring to offer any opinion here, either
as to the benefit or otherwise of the creed in
question. As I had shown how the English
costermonger neither had nor knew any religion
whatever, it became my duty to give the reader
a view of the religion of the Irish street-sellers.
In order to be able to do so as truthfully as
possible, I placed myself in communication with
those parties who were in a position to give me
the best information on the subject. The result
is given above, in all the simplicity and impar-
tiality of history.