Anti-Maynooth Conference was a conference hosted in London in May 1845 by Conservatives, evangelical Anglicans and the Protestant Association to campaign against the

Maynooth Grant The Maynooth Grant was a cash grant from the British government to a Catholic seminary in Ireland. In 1845, the Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, sought to improve the relationship between Catholic Ireland and Protestant Britain by i ...

and British State funding of the Roman Catholic

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland. The college and national seminary on its grounds are often referred to as Maynooth College. The college was of ...

. Opponents of the Maynooth Bill formed a committee and held a conference in the Rotunda, in Dublin. In England, The Protestant Association has set up the ''Anti-Maynooth Committee'' composed of Anglicans, Congregationalists, Methodists and Presbyterians. The Committee collected over 10,000 petitions with over 1.2 million signatures against the Maynooth Bill. The common platform shared by strands of Protestantism was quite unique, although their reasoning was quite different, mainstream Anglicans opposed the Maynooth Grant since it undermined the Established Church whereas non-conformists opposed it since they were opposed to all state religious establishments and Evangelicals opposed the bill since it undermined attempts to convert Irish Catholics to the Protestant Faith. The Maynooth Bill was introduced by Sir

Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...

in April 1845. Sir Culling Eardley the former Liberal MP served as chairman of the Committee and Conference. Thomas Thompson served as Secretary to the Dublin Anti Maynooth Committee. The conference in London between 30 April and 3 May 1845 with over 1000 participants from Ireland and Britain attend held in Exeter Hall, London. Active in the campaign against the Maynooth Grant was the Rev. A.S. Thelwall who compiled the minutes of the 1845 meeting.PROCEEDINGS - ANTI-MAYNOOTH CONFERENCE OF 1845. WITH AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, AND AN APPENDIX
COMPILED AND EDITED (AT THE REQUEST OF THE CENTRAL ANTI-MAYNOOTH COMMITTEE,) by Rev. A.S. Thelwall MA, London. The 1845 Maynooth Bill (which became the

Maynooth College Act 1845 The Maynooth College Act 1845 ( 8 & 9 Vict. c. 25) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. St Patrick's College, Maynooth was established by the Maynooth College Act 1795 as a seminary for Ireland's Catholic priests. The British ...

( 8 & 9 Vict. c. 25)), was carried by 323 to 176 votes, and the

was increased.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anti Maynooth Conference St Patrick's College, Maynooth

Maynooth Maynooth (; ) is a university town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to Maynooth University (part of the National University of Ireland and also known as the National University of Ireland, Maynooth) and St Patrick's College, Maynoo ...