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Republic of Ireland

From Bahaipedia
 Ireland
First Bahá’í National Convention of Ireland, 1972.
Location of Ireland
National AssemblyIreland
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 4,986,526
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 1,700
History:
Firsts
 -  Pioneers 1906, Henry Culver
1906, Mary Culver 
 -  Local Assembly 1948, Dublin 
 -  National Assembly 1972 
How to contact:
 -  Phone (01) 6683 150 
 -  Email info@bahai.ie
Official Website https://bahai.ie/
Related media
Categories: Ireland • People

The Republic of Ireland is a country making up the southern portion of the island of Ireland located off the North-Western coast of Europe being bordered by Northern Ireland, a constituent of the United Kingdom, to the north. Christianity is the predominant religion and Irish and English are the official languages.

The island of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922 when the Irish Free State was established which evolved into into the current Republic of Ireland in 1949. Shoghi Effendi described the island as "spiritually one while politically divided".

THe Bahá’í Faith was first present in Ireland in the 1900s with efforts to establish a community beginning in the late 1940s with a community being firmly established in the 1960s. The community remains active to the present day.

History[edit]

The earliest recorded Bahá’ís in Ireland were Americans Henry and Mary Culver who joined the religion around 1906 shortly before Henry was appointed United States Consul to Ireland and they moved to Cork that year. They remained in Ireland until 1910 when Henry was transferred in his career although they did not actively teach the religion while in the country.[2]

In 1917 George Townshend, an Irish clergyman, was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith through correspondence with an American friend and in 1919 he wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and received a reply, however while he privately associated closely with the Bahá’í community he did not formally identify as a Bahá’í at this time.[3] As of 1921 T.R. and Joan Fforde, an Irish couple living in Dublin, publicly identified as Bahá’ís and met with John Esslemont when he visited Dublin that year.[2]

In 1940 Townshend, now Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral, publicly spoke on the Bahá’í Faith while delivering a sermon at the Cathedral marking the first public proclamation of the religion in Ireland,[4] and in 1945 the Bahá’í community of Great Britain began to seriously consider undertaking efforts to establish a community in the country.[5] In 1947 Mason Remey visited Ireland during a travel teaching trip across Europe,[6] and the countries first public Bahá’í meeting was held while he was in Dublin.[7]

In 1948 Ursula Newman pioneered to Dublin where she began serving as George Townshend's secretary,[8] and the same year Jean Hutchinson-Smith of Australia visited the city with her daughter and they assisted in holding an election to establish the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Dublin although the body later lapsed with teaching work progressing slowly throughout the 1950's.[9]

As of 1960 Dublin had Ireland's only Bahá’í community and that year a Bahá’í weekend school was held at Dun Laoghaire with participants from Ireland and Northern Ireland attending.[10] In 1963 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Dublin was re-established,[11] and by 1964 a Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds for Dublin had been secured.[12] In 1966 a Summer School for Ireland was held in Drogheda with Marion Hofman, Adib Taherzadeh, Richard Backwell and others facilitating courses,[13] and in 1968 a Summer School for the Bahá’í communities of Ireland and Britain was held in Dun Laoghaire which was attended by Hand of the Cause Jalal Khazeh,[14] who also attended the 1969 Irish Summer School.[15]

In February 1971 the Universal House of Justice announced Ireland was to establish an independent National Spiritual Assembly the following year, having previously been under the jurisdiction of the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles,[16] and that year the first Bahá’í Teaching Conference of Ireland was held.[17] Hand of the Cause William Sears attended the inaugural National Convention of Ireland in April, 1972, at which the countries first National Spiritual Assembly was successfully established.[18]

By 1973 there were six Local Spiritual Assemblies in Ireland,[19] and around this time Bahá’í youth, primarily from the Bahá’í community of Limerick which experienced rapid growth early in the decade, pioneered across the country expanding the spread of the religion to Donegal, Galway, Tralee, Cork, Clonmel, Kilkenny, Kilarney, and Drogheda.[20] Two Local Spiritual Assemblies were established in 1974 bringing the total to eight and the National Spiritual Assembly began holding training sessions on street teaching and focusing on consolidation of the community.[21]

Attendees of the 1982 Dublin Intercontinental Conference.

In 1982 a major Intercontinental Teaching Conference called by the Universal House of Justice was held in Dublin at which almost 2,000 Bahá’ís from sixty countries gathered to consult.[22] Later the same year a new National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds was secured in Dublin,[23] with four local Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds being secured across the country throughout the 1980's.[24] In 1984 the Association for Bahá’í Studies in English was established in Ireland, although it moved its base of operations to the United Kingdom in 1989,[25] and in 1988 a National Bahá’í Women's Committee for Ireland became officially affiliated with the countries Council for the Status of Women.[26]

In 1992 a delegation of Bahá’ís from Northern Ireland were granted a joint audience with the President of the Republic of Ireland alongside other groups at which a statement on the Bahá’í view of the role of women in achieving peace was conveyed.[27] In January 1994 the Bahá’í community of Ireland sponsored a conference to commemorate the United Nations International Year of the Family with representatives of thirty organizations participating.[28]

In 1997 an All-Ireland Bahá’í Teaching Conference was held in Derrygonnelly, Northern Ireland, which was the first major national teaching conference held for Ireland since 1972.[29] The Bahá’í community of Ireland also achieved greater public prominence that year being invited to send representatives to an Interfaith Service for the official National Day of Commemoration event,[30] and also to send representatives to the inauguration of the President of Ireland.[31] In 1998 the Fiftieth Anniversary of the establishment of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Dublin was celebrated with the President of Ireland attending the commemoration event at which they gave a talk,[32] and around the same time the National Association of Bahá’í Women in Ireland was established at the direction of the National Spiritual Assembly.[33]

In 2004 the Bahá’í community of Ireland hosted a forum on intercultural families at the Dublin Bahá’í center which received media coverage and praise from the Irish Minister for Social and Family Affairs,[34] and in 2005 the community held a conference on establishing unity in diversity also in Dublin.[35] In 2010 the President of Ireland visited the Dublin Bahá’í Centre marking the first time a President had visited the building.[36]

In 2015 the Bahá’í community of Ireland held a conference on cultural integration in Kilkenny,[37] and in 2018 the President of Ireland hosted a Bahá’í delegation at a reception at which he thanked the Bahá’í community for its practical and positive contributions to the country.[38] In 2021 the Bahá’í community of Ireland started the podcast Comhrá to promote grassroots conversations.[39]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://bahai-library.com/armstrong-ingram_early_irish_bahais
  3. ↑ Baha'i News (1973). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 506, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1973). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 506, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1945). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 176, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ Baha'i News (1947). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 199, Pg(s) 16. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News (1948). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 205, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press, London. p 48
  9. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 681. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (1960). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 350, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1975). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 535, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ Baha'i News (1965). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 406, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Baha'i News (1966). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 429, Pg(s) 6. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ Baha'i News (1968). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 453, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ Baha'i News (1969). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 464, Pg(s) 10. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ Baha'i News (1971). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 481, Pg(s) 1. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 283. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ Baha'i News (1972). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 495, Pg(s) 22. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 283. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ Baha'i News (1975). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 535, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 302. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 192. View as PDF.
  23. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 188. View as PDF.
  24. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 175. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 464. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 419. View as PDF.
  27. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 22 (1993-1994), Pg(s) 88. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 58. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 25 (1996-1997), Pg(s) 106. View as PDF.
  30. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1999). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 26 (1997-1998), Pg(s) 124. View as PDF.
  31. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1999). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 26 (1997-1998), Pg(s) 130. View as PDF.
  32. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2000). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 27 (1998-1999), Pg(s) 127. View as PDF.
  33. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2000). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 27 (1998-1999), Pg(s) 87. View as PDF.
  34. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2006). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 33 (2004-2005), Pg(s) 87. View as PDF.
  35. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2007). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 34 (2005-2006), Pg(s) 65. View as PDF.
  36. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/774/
  37. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1064/
  38. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1239/
  39. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1510/
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