I have read many times that Priests could be greedy when it came to 'donations' for the various ceremonies in which they participated. It is recorded that many marriages were performed by 'defrocked' priests who would wander the country and who charged less money than their 'frocked' counterparts. These men recorded the marriages which they performed in their notebooks and all of their notebooks were lost in the fire in the Four Courts. There are two sides to every coin and every story and each side should be presented. John Keegan was an author and poet from Co. Laois. His works were published in many of the journals and papers while he lived. John lived in Killeaney, near Shanahoe in Laois and was 33 years of age when he died in 1849. He lived with his parents in the home of Thomas Moloney, his mothers brother who was a hedge school teacher who then taught children out of doors. his mothers name was MAry. This letter from John Keegan appeared in 'Dolman's Magazine in 1845. Letters of John Keegan to Dolman's Magazine 17 September 1845 Sir, It appears that the anti-Catholic press of London is still indefatigable in its slanderous attacks on the venerable and high-minded priesthood of Ireland. A paragraph is now running through the low Irish Orange newspapers, copied from the Times, denouncing the Irish Catholic priests as tyrants and extortioners, and inveighing against the exorbitancy of their 'fees', particularly with regard to marriages, baptisms, 'offerings' at funerals, and 'blessing of cattle'. Base and ignorant calumniators! I know the Irish Catholic clergy as well, perhaps, as any man of my rank and years in this kingdom, and consequently am able to bear testimony to the utter falsehood of those charges. It is alleged that in parts of Ireland the 'fee' for marriages is sometimes as high as £20 (May be 20 guineas: is listed in the book as 20l). True: but why is it not added that those cases are indeed 'few and far between', and never occurring but when the contracting parties are wealthy and respectable, and willing as they are able to make their parish priests 'the better of them', as we say, at their weddings? Not a word is said about the innumerable marriages of persons in the poorer grades of life, for which the officiating priest never claims or receives one farthing. Not a syllable about the many cases in which peasant-marriages, proving unusually unfortunate, the marriage-fee is generously returned to the poor struggling wretches. Oh no; these bright instances of the charity and generosity of the Irish priests are left in the shade, and they are shewn forth as heart-hardened, merciless, and avaricious tyrants. Shame! shame upon such base and villainous conduct; and shame upon the British people, who allow themselves to be duped by the foul misrepresentations of those mercenary and hypocritical slanderers! When an Irish peasant contemplates getting married, he gives notice to the priest of his parish: the 'banns' are duly published from the altar, and on the appointed day the parties attend at the residence of the clergyman, where the ceremony is performed. If the bridegroom can afford it, he pays the priest £1 (seldom more is given, and more is never asked) as his fee; but if he states his disability to pay, or if he appears unusually distressed, the priest officiates cheerfully without the least demand in the shape of remuneration. When a marriage occurs in wealthier classes, the priest, and sometimes his co-adjutors, are invited to the house of the bride's family. They seldom refuse to attend - more with a view to indulge the good-natured pride of their parishioners, and to maintain that feeling of affection and cordiality which ever subsists between the people of Ireland and their clergy, than through any self-interested or pecuniary motive. The ceremony is there performed; the bridegroom pays whatever he chooses, and on the distribution of the 'bride's-cake', the friends of both parties give some trifling silver coin - the whole amounting to a sum averaging from ?£3. to ?£5 (again 3l and 5l in the text) . - in a few cases, when the parties are 'very well off', perhaps to ?£l0. Then there is a group of beggars at every Irish wedding - perhaps there are thirty. To each of them the priest gives a sixpence or a shilling, and to the piper or fiddler, he gives half a crown or five shillings. In the morning, when he gets from bed he finds his door blockaded by all the beggars and 'poor widows' and 'fatherless children' in his parish. They have heard of 'the wedding' they know the priest has had a 'Wind-fall' and the opportunity is too good to he suffered to escape. They come en masse to make their claims; and, before the siege is raised, the pocket of the clergyman is nearly as empty as ever. Here is a faithful statement from one who has no motive which might induce him either to 'extenuate' or 'set down aught in malice'. It is very true that the marriage-fee sometimes does amount to ?£20 (20l) . and even more; but these cases occur only when the marriage takes place in the very highest class of the Irish Catholic gentry, and the proceeds are generally disposed of in the manner I have stated. With respect to that charge which represents the Irish priest as encouraging early and improvident marriages for their own selfish gain, I will merely observe that I have been regularly in attendance at public worship during the last twenty years, and I fearlessly assert, that there is no subject connected with the social condition of the peasantry, to which the attention of their priests is more assiduously directed that to their marriages, and that I never saw an instance of sch unions being introduced, that the priest did not publicly denounce and reprobate that reckless practise, and caution his parishioners against the results invariable arising from improvident and ill-assorted marriages, I had intended to notice the other equally ill-grounded charges against our beloved clergy; but, as this letter has already run to a greater length than I anticipated, I must defer my observations on those matters to the next publication of your invaluable Magazine. I am Sir, Yours respectfully, J.K