The Henson Journals

[59]

Tuesday, June 3rd, 1924.

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After breakfast the Archbishop fetched me in his car, & brought me to Christ Church, where the clergy of the diocese had come together for a "quiet day". I gave two addresses, the one on the parson's personal life; the other – on the "ministry of the word". The clergy were very attentive, and, I hope they were edified. This function ended, I returned to the Provost's House, and, having bade farewell to the Provost & Mrs Bernard, went with Ella to the station. We travelled to Armagh, having to pass a customs' office at the frontier of Northern Ireland.

The archiepiscopal palace is a fine Georgian house, built in 1770, & surrounded by some 400 acres of land. It contains a noble series of portraits of the archbishops since the Reformation. The Cathedral which is itself a comparatively modern building stands on the site of the church of S. Patrick. But it is said to have been burned down no less than 17 times. There is a rather pretentious Roman Cathedral in Armagh. Half the population is Roman Catholic, and the remainder are equally divided between Irish Churchmen and Presbyterians. The Archbishop walked with me for an hour in the garden before dinner, and we talked much. He is certainly a man of unusual intellectual distinction, and a curious impulsive candour which is very attractive. He shares to the full the dislike & distrust of everything Roman which prevails in Ulster, and his attitude towards the Free State cannot be called sympathetic!

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