John McHale, Archbishop of Tuam, Is Born in Trawler, Co. Mayo

John MacHale (6 March 1791) – 7 November 1881) was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist.

John MacHale was born in Tubbernavine, near Lahardane, County Mayo, Ireland. Bernard O’Reilly places the date in the spring of 1791, while others suggest 1789 more likely.

His parents were Patrick and Mary (née Mulkieran) MacHale. He was so feeble at birth that he was baptised at home by Father Andrew Conroy, who later was hanged during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

His father, known locally as Pádraig Mór, was a farmer, whose house served as a wayside inn on the highroad between Sligo and Castlebar.

Although Irish was always spoken by the peasants at that time, the MacHale children were all taught English. John’s grandmother, however, encouraged him to retain his knowledge of Irish.

He laboured and wrote to secure Catholic Emancipation, legislative independence, justice for tenants and the poor, and vigorously assailed the proselytizers and the government’s proposal for a mix-faith national school system. He preached regularly to his flock in Irish and “almost alone among the Bishops he advocated the use of Irish by the Catholic clergy”