Series 9 - Edmond Ronayne memoir

8 sub-series

Citation from a published source: Ronayne, Edmond (1900). Ronayne's Reminiscences: A History of his Life and Renunciation of Romanism and Freemasonry. Chicago: Free Methodist Publishing House.

[This manuscript contains outdated attitudes or language that does not reflect the current views or positions of the University of Galway Library. Reader discretion is advised.]
Edmond Ronayne was born in 1832 in Gurtrue (now Gortaroo) near Youghal in County Cork, spending his childhood in an exclusively Irish-speaking district. Per Kerby A. Miller et al.: 'It is difficult to connect and analyse the fragments of Ronayne's long life, which, as related in his memoir, arguably unfolded in four fairly discrete stages. First was the period between 1832, when he was born in Gurtrue [Gortaroo], and 1841, when his aunts moved to Killeagh; before 1841, Ronayne was the illiterate Irish-speaking child of poor farm labourers, immersed in peasant folk culture. Second was the period between 1841, when he began attending Killeagh's National School, and 1849-50, when he left Killeagh and journeyed to Cappamore; between those dates, Ronayne became literate in English and an insatiable scholar; he embraced modern 'devotional revolution' Catholicism (and perhaps was on course for the priesthood); and, most important, in Black '47 he lost his family, his home, many neighbours, and nearly his own life. Third was the longest and most complex period between 1850 and 1875-76, which began in Cappamore with his initial, intellectual conversion to Protestantism, continued through his successive school- teaching positions in Munster, Quebec City, and Chicago, and was marked by deep involvement in the Masonic Order. Finally, the last stage, between 1875-76 and his death in 1911, began with Ronayne's break from Freemasonry and his second and more profound conversion to evangelical Protestantism, which in turn launched his last career as an anti-Masonic agitator and lay-preacher.'
A scholarly analysis of his autobiography can be found in: Kerby A. Miller, Ellen Skerrett, and Bridget Kelly, 'Walking Backward to Heaven? Edmond Ronayne's Pilgrimage in Famine Ireland and Gilded Age America', in Ireland's Great Famine and Popular Politics, Enda Delaney and Breandán Mac Suibhne, eds., New York: Routledge, 2015, pp. 80-141.

Three folders belonging to this series are housed in Box 16 due to space limitations: P155/15/9/6, P155/15/9/7, and P155/15/9/8.