Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (40 page)

National Association of Ireland
. Inspired by William J. O'Neill Daunt who sought to foster co-operation between Irish Catholics and English liberals and founded in Dublin in 1864 by Archbishop Paul Cullen (Dublin) and Archbishop Leahy (Cashel), the National Association was a Catholic middle-class pressure group which sought the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland. Members wanted the fund created by disendowment to be used for secular purposes such as social welfare and education and not for the concurrent endowment of the Catholic church as this was liable to be attended by state involvement in the running of the church. Other aims included the re-distribution of land in Ireland and the provision of state aid to denominational schools. The association required parliamentary candidates to pledge not to support parties holding policies on church and land issues contrary to its own. It failed to attract many MPs and only four National Association members were returned to parliament in 1865. Later John Blake Dillon cobbled together a group of 20 or so Irish liberal MPs to provide a coherent bargaining front to deal with the liberal government, a tactic which foreshadowed the ‘balance of power' tactic of the later Irish parliamentary party. The association survived into the 1870s largely as a talking shop. (Comerford, ‘Gladstone's first Irish enterprise', pp. 432–33; Corish, ‘Cardinal Cullen', pp. 13–61.)

National League
.
See
Nationalist Party.

National Library of Ireland
. Established in 1877, the National Library inherited both the premises and the library of the Royal Dublin Society in Kildare Street, Dublin. Manuscript acquisition began largely with the appointment of R. I. Best as director in the 1920s. The archives of
Ulster king of arms
were transferred to the library when that office was renamed the Genealogical Office in 1943. Under the directorship of R. J. Hayes, the library developed a collection of family and estate papers including the Ormond MSS and the Boyle papers. A large map and photograph archive was assembled. Over the years the library has compiled a massive microfilm collection of Irish-related documents held in archives worldwide, notably from the state papers in the Public Record Office, London and the manuscript collection of the British Library. Hayes'
Manuscript sources for the history of Irish civilisation
is the best guide to manuscript material in the National Library.

Nationalist Party
. Also known as the Irish Parliamentary Party or the National League, the Nationalist Party was a tightly-structured, highly-disciplined political party which developed from Isaac Butt's federalist Home Government Association of the 1870s with the achievement of home rule its overriding goal. Membership increased dramatically following the electoral reforms of 1884–5. Under Parnell's leadership the party achieved unprecedented electoral success in 1885 with the election of 86 Nationalist MPs, all pledged to sit, act and vote, as one. Parnell's earlier obstructionist tactics were abandoned as the party played the ‘balance of power' card to force the home rule issue centre stage in the 1880s and again between 1910– 14. Although riven by the crisis over the O'Shea divorce case the party survived and regrouped under John Redmond in 1900. Throughout much of its history the Nationalist Party focused on agrarian and Catholic issues and enjoyed the support of a majority of the Catholic clergy. The party's collapse as a parliamentary force from 70 seats in 1910 to six in the 1918 election is usually attributed to the emergence in the wake of the 1916 Rising of the more aggressively nationalist Sinn Féin. Commentators have also cited factors such as the party's adherence to an agrarian campaign in a society that was already undergoing structural diversification, its inability to engage with cultural nationalism, its failure to come to terms with Unionism and its active support for the First World War to account for its demise. It should be noted that electoral reforms in 1918 increased the number of voters to over two million (including women for the first time), almost two-thirds of whom had not voted in the 1910 election. (Connolly,
The Oxford companion
, pp. 381–2; Lyons,
The Irish parliamentary party
.)

National Repeal Association
. Founded in 1840 by Daniel O'Connell, the National Repeal Association attempted to repeat the mass agitation technique which delivered
Catholic emancipation
in order to achieve the repeal of the
Act of Union
.
See
Young Ireland.

national school
.
See
Education, National System of

nave
. The main body of the church. In medieval times the upkeep and maintenance of the nave was the responsibility of the parish, the
chancel
being the responsibility of the tithe-owner.

neolithic
. (Gr.,
neo
, new +
lithos
, stone) Neolithic farmers reached Ireland about 5,500 years ago equipped with polished axe heads which enabled them to clear forest openings, cultivate cereals and raise domestic animals. Large tombs or megaliths such as the
court tomb
, the
passage grave
and the
dolmen
are relics of neolithic colonisation.
See
Larnian folk, Sandelians.

Ne temere
. In 1907 the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide drafted the
Ne temere
decree which was promulgated by Pope Pius X to come into effect in April, 1908.
Ne temere
required that all inter-faith marriages be celebrated by a Catholic priest in order to be valid under Catholic canon law. The non-Catholic partner was required to sign a contract pledging not to interfere with the religion of the Catholic partner. Catholic partners would endeavour to bring their non-Catholic spouses to the true faith and all children of the marriage were to be baptised in the Catholic faith and educated in Catholic schools. Finally, either before or after the Catholic marriage ceremony, the couple were not to present themselves for marriage before a minister of any other religion. In Ireland these stipulations had already become practice following the
Synod of Thurles
in 1850.

New English
.
See
Old English.

new interest
. The ‘new interest' comprised Catholics who had purchased lands from the 1660s, the titles to which were based on the Restoration land settlement. Unlike the majority of their co-religionists, they were lukewarm about attempts to repeal the settlement because they feared the loss of their newly acquired estates.

New Light
. A term which refers to the views of a liberal group of
Presbyterian
ministers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which opposed the requirement of the
Synod of Ulster
that all candidates for the ministry subscribe to the
Westminster Confession
, the Presbyterian confession of faith. The non-subscribing New Light group formed a majority within the synod and throughout the eighteenth century subscription was dispensed with, many subscribers leaving to find a home among the
Seceders
. In the nineteenth century the position was reversed. The New Light group, tainted by
Arianism
(the belief that Christ was neither fully human nor possessed of a divinity identical with God), was forced to secede from the Synod in 1830 to form the
Remonstrant Synod
. When subscription was re-imposed the Seceders merged with the Synod of Ulster to form the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
.

Newsplan
. A census of Irish newspapers listing all newspapers held in the main libraries in Ireland and in the British Library, their publication dates, location and availability in microfim and hard copy. Newspapers are listed by title and the report contains a town and county index. (O'Toole,
Newsplan
.)

Newtown Act
(1747). The act (21 Geo. II, c. 10) which removed the necessity for burgesses and freemen to reside in their respective boroughs in order to vote in parliamentary elections. Newtown led to the creation of a large number of honorary and absentee freemen whose sole connection with the borough was to appear at election time and vote as required. In time absenteeism became the rule for freemen. Almost 140 of the 150 freemen of the borough of Dingle, Co. Kerry, did not even reside in the county and the freemen of Kinsale borough resided to a man in Ulster.
See
borough, franchise, freeman.

nil debit
. (L.) He owes nothing, the usual plea in an action of debt.

nisi prius
, hearing of
. (L., unless before) Originally a writ commanding a sheriff to empanel a jury at the court of Westminster on a certain day unless the justices of
assize
previously came to his county and tried the case. Justices of assize had the power to conclude cases begun in the fixed courts and which had been brought to the point where the verdict of a local jury was necessary – that is,
nisi prius
– because the cases were adjourned to another meeting of the
king's bench
or
common pleas
unless before
that meeting the justices of assize should have visited that county.
Nisi prius
was introduced in Ireland in the sixteenth century.

noble
. A gold coin worth 6
s
. 8
d
. or half a
mark
, first introduced in 1351.
See
angel.

nocent
. Guilty.

nomina parentum
. In Catholic baptismal registers, the name of the parents.

nomina patrinorum
. In Catholic baptismal registers, the name of the godparents.

nomina sponsorum.
In Catholic marriage registers, the Christian names of the couple.

nominy money, nominy penny
. A sum of 5% paid to the land agent on the return of goods distrained for non-payment of rent.

nonage
. Below the age of 21 years, not of full age.
See
majority.

non assumpsit
. (L.) The plea of a defendant in a personal action in which he denies having entered into a promise.

non-conformist
. A Protestant, such as a Presbyterian, who did not conform to the Anglican church (also a
dissenter
). Strictly speaking Catholics were also non-conformists.

non-cure
. A religious sinecure. An Anglican benefice which did not involve the performance of any religious ceremony since it did not have a congregation. The minister appointed to the non-cure simply collected the emolument pertaining to the benefice. Under the
Church Temporalities Act
(1833) the ecclesiastical commissioners were entitled to void all such appointments when they next became vacant (with the exception of those under lay patronage) and to appropriate the income from the non-cure.

non est culpabilis
. (L.) He is not culpable, the plea in an action of trespass.

non est inventus
. (L.) He is not to be found, the return of a sheriff following the failure of a felon to answer at five successive county courts.

non-subscribers
. Between 1719–26, a dissenting group of Presbyterians who refused to subscribe to the
Westminster Confession
, the statement of Presbyterian doctrine.
See
Presbyterian, Remonstrant Synod, New Light, Seceders, Southern Association.

Non-Subscribing Presbyterian church
.
See
Unitarians.

non utlagat
. (L.) He is not guilty.

notary, notary public
. A legal clerk who took affidavits or depositions and attested the authenticity of deeds and documents.

novel disseisin
, assize of
. The form of action of writ and hearing before a jury began with the assize of
novel disseisin
and was adapted to other cases of civil dispute such as
mort d'ancestor
.
Novel disseisin
(recent deprivation of seisin) determined whether an individual had unjustly disseised (dispossessed) another of his freehold. It was introduced at the Assize of Northampton in 1176 when judges were ordered to hear actions to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been dispossessed arising from May 1175.

nuncupative will
. A death-bed testament in which the testator's last wishes were recorded and witnessed.

nuns
. The paucity of contemporary records makes it difficult to ascertain the size and state of female religious houses in the centuries prior to dissolution of the monastic institutions. A small number of earlier Celtic female abbeys appear to have continued into the late medieval period to become
Arroasian Augustinian
houses through the influence of St Malachy. Malachy also founded female houses including St Mary's Abbey, the chief Augustinian house, at Clonard in Co. Meath (c. 1144) which had 13 daughter houses. From 1223–4 Kilcreevanty became the leading Augustinian house in Connacht and when Clonard declined c. 1383 it was superseded by Odder. Other female congregations active in Ireland in the middle ages included the
Cistercians
, the Benedictines and the
Franciscans
(represented by six houses of the Order of St Clare in 1316). Female religious were frequently attached to male monasteries where they served in the almonries and hospitals and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries female congregations of the
Franciscan Third Order Regular
are recorded in the west and north of Ireland. At the
dissolution
the convents were suppressed and their temporalities confiscated, the superiors receiving small pensions by way of compensation. During the Counter-Reformation attempts were made to revive or establish convents but with little success and according to the Report on the State of Popery there were only nine nunneries operating in Ireland in 1731. The foundation of the Presentation Sisters in 1776 initiated the process that was to result in the great nineteenth-century conventual efflorescence. In 1800 there were only 120 nuns living in 11 houses in Ireland. By 1900 37 female religious orders were active, comprising 8,200 sisters dispersed in 327 communities across the island. The Brigidines (1809), the Sisters of Charity (1815), the Loreto nuns (1821) and the Sisters of Mercy (1828) joined older established orders such as the Dominicans, the Carmelites, the Poor Clares and foreign orders such as the Ursulines and Sisters of St Louis to provide a broad range of welfare, health and educational services.
See
Popery, Report on the State of.(Clear,
Nuns
; Hall,
Women
; Magray,
The transforming power
.)

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