Quakers in Ireland

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) have a long history in Ireland; their first recorded Meeting for Worship in Ireland was in 1654 at the home of William Edmundson in Lurgan.[1]

They were known for entrepreneurship, setting up many businesses in Ireland, with many families such as the Goodbodys, Bewleys, Pims, Lambs, Jacobs, Edmundsons, Perrys and Bells were involved in milling, textiles, shipping, imports and exports, food and tobacco production, brewing, iron production and railways industries.[2] William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania, converted to Quakerism while dealing with his father's estates in Ireland. He attended meetings in Cork.[3]

The Quakers founded the town of Mountmellick, Co. Laois, in 1657 led by William Edmundson. There is a quaker burial ground in Rosenallis, Co, Laois.[4]

Ballitore in Co. Kildare, in 1685 was planned as a Quaker town,[5] it was here a Quaker school was founded by Abraham Shackleton (ancestor of the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton) in 1726, many Quakers from all over Ireland attended as did many non-Quakers. Among the famous non-Quakers to go there were Henry Grattan, Cardinal Paul Cullen, James Napper Tandy and Edmund Burke.

In 1692 the Quakers opened a meeting house in Sycamore Alley, off Dame Street in Dublin, these premises expanded with the purchase of property backing on to Eustace Street. The Quakers building on Eustace Street, purchased in 1817, is the former Eagle Tavern, it is where the Dublin Society of the United Irishmen was formed in 1791.[6] In 1988 they sold some of their property on Eustace Street, which became the Irish Film Institute.

The Cork Street Fever Hospital, Dublin was founded by Quakers in the early 19th century. The Royal Hospital, Donnybrook in Dublin, was also originally a Quaker hospital.[7] There was a Quaker grave yard in Cork street, and one in York Street off St. Stephen's Green which was sold and for the Building of the Royal College of Surgeons.[8]

The Quakers were known for setting up relief measures in their localities during the Great Famine [9]

The Society was one of the six religious denominations recognised by article 44.1.3 of the Irish Constitution, which was adopted by popular plebiscite in 1937.[10] This reference was deleted from the constitution via the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland in 1972 along with that of the other recognised denominations and the "special position" Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.

The Society decided at Ireland Yearly Meeting 2018 to allow same-sex marriages in their Meetings for Worship.[11] The Society was represented at the second inauguration of the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins in 2018.[12]