CULLEN, Cardinal. The Pastoral Letters and other Writings of Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin. Edited by the Rt. Rev. Patrick Francis Moran, D.D. Bishop of Ossory.

Three volumes. Dublin, Browne, 1882. pp. (1) viii, 873, (2) vi, 802, (3) x, 813. Fine set in original cloth gilt. Rare.

Sir Shane Leslie gave us his assessment of Cullen: ""Cardinal Paul Cullen, Ultramontane and Constitutional, who ruled the Irish bishops and therefore Ireland for a quarter of century. No Irish man since O'Connell has been more bitterly attacked by English and Irish alike. He warred with uncondescending grace against Dublin Castle, the Fenians, the Gallican spirit and [Protestant] Archbishop Whately [of Dublin]. Though he crushed the rising nationalism of Ireland yet at heart he was Irish of the Irish ... though he condemned the Fenians he snatched the Fenian General [Thomas] Bourke from the gallows on the eve of his execution. The executive at Dublin Castle were too startled to resist. Fenians and Orangemen feared him alike.

[L2 8A]