A Military Congregation

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter II (19) | Start of Chapter

My young companion then accompanied me to Irishtown, and we heard a sermon from "Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The organ and music were excellent and appropriate, and the Queen's regiment, cap-a-pie in warlike habiliments with furbished guns and bayonets in their pews, made a most peculiar set-off to the principles of the text, which are "peace and good will to men." But never did a hundred of young soldiers in any house of God do more credit to good air, food, and exercise, than did these. Each had his prayer-book, and read with as much apparent devotion as though the success of a battle depended on it.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.

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An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

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