Editing Daniel O'Connell (section)

===The Queen's Colleges controversy===
In 1845, [[Dublin Castle administration|Dublin Castle]] proposed to educate Catholics and Protestants together in a non-denominational system of higher education. In advance of some of the Catholic bishops (Archbishop [[Daniel Murray (bishop)|Daniel Murray]] of Dublin favoured the proposal),<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25550110 |first1=M. Angela |last1=Bolster |first2=Geo. J. |last2=Browne |first3=D. |last3=Murray |title=Correspondence Concerning the System of National Education between Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin and Bishop George J. Browne of Galway |journal=Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society |volume=37 |year=1979 |pages=54–61 |jstor=25550110 |access-date=16 September 2020 |archive-date=17 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200917055625/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25550110 |url-status=live }}</ref> O'Connell condemned the "godless colleges". (Led by [[John MacHale|Archbishop McHale]], the bishops issued a formal condemnation of the proposed colleges as dangerous to faith and morals in 1850).<ref name="Foster" />{{rp|331–332}}<ref name=":9">Gwynn, Denis (1948), ''O'Connell, Davis and the Colleges Bill'', Dennis Gwynn, Cork University Press.</ref> The principle at stake, of what in Ireland was understood as "mixed education", may already have been lost. When in 1830 the government proposed to educate Catholics and Protestants together at the primary level, it had been the Presbyterians (led by O'Connell's northern nemesis, the evangelist [[Henry Cooke (minister)|Henry Cooke]]) who had scented danger. They refused to cooperate in National Schools unless they had the majority to ensure there would be no "mutilating of scripture."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Modern Ireland |last=Shearman |first=Hugh |publisher=George G. Harrap & Co |year=1952 |location=London |pages=84–85}}</ref><ref>Andrew R. Holmes (2007), ''The Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian Belief & Practice 1770–1840'' Oxford</ref> But the vehemence of O'Connell's opposition to the colleges, was a cause of dismay among those O'Connell had begun to call [[Young Ireland]]ers{{snd}}a reference to [[Giuseppe Mazzini]]'s anti-clerical and insurrectionist [[Young Italy (historical)|Young Italy]].<ref name=":13" />

When the ''Nation'''s assistant editor (and promoter of Irish in print), [[Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician)|Thomas Davis]], a Protestant, objected that "reasons for separate education are reasons for [a] separate life".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Story of Daniel O'Connell |last=Macken |first=Ultan |publisher=Mercier Press |year=2008 |location=Cork|isbn=9781856355964|pages=120}}</ref> O'Connell declared himself content to take a stand "for Old Ireland", and accused Davis of suggesting it was a "crime to be a Catholic".<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|title=Thomas Davis and Ireland: A Biographical Study|last=Mulvey|first=Helen|publisher=The Catholic University of America Press|year=2003|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0813213037|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ikdUr7-_bLkC&pg=PA180|pages=180|access-date=22 August 2020|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204357/https://books.google.com/books?id=ikdUr7-_bLkC&pg=PA180|url-status=live}}</ref>