John Haughton Steele’s dilemma and courage

The year was 1910 and a Protestant clergyman was holidaying in Rome, enjoying his days rambling, and exploring the streets. He stepped into a church away from the Spring air to pray and, in a twinkling of an eye, or rather after many years of deliberation, his heart was changed. The minister's motivation for visiting Rome was derived from an uneasiness he felt about the entangled history bestowed upon his fellow countrymen.

In the cool of the church, the Rev John Haughton Steele knelt and quietly prayed. The clergyman lived and earned his livelihood on the Crom estate in Fermanagh and, from childhood, had sought out the ancient history of Ulster whose lands had changed ownership under the ancient plantation schemes.

I would like to mention Eugene Babbington Wilson who recently reminded me of the story of John Haughton Steele.

In 1933, some years after Steele’s death, a biography that was published received a positive review in the Irish Press. They missed a detail though, which Bridie M. Smith Brady, The Anglo-Celt’s history columnist was adamant should be corrected. She sent in a letter to the paper's editor.

Surreptitiously, Bridie informed them that the review failed to mention something that ‘might interest your readers to know'. Continuing, she enlightened readers of the Irish Press about Fr Steele who now 'slept his last in Cavan town’ and that ‘a modest granite stone’ marked ‘his last resting place near the main door’ of the town's prominent cathedral (this was the original building).

Steele was born in Dublin city on June 6, 1850. At the baptism Dr Samuel Haughton presided as John’s godfather. Sam Haughton was a distinguished Trinity College scientist and a cousin on his mother’s side. The baby's father Dr William Steele was the lofty headmaster master from the late 1850s to the early 1890s of Portora Royal School in Fermanagh and rector of Devenish on lower Lough Erne.

The headmaster son grew deeply fascinated by stories of monastic settlement at Devenish Island. His father William was an important person in the community and served as chaplain to various Lords-lieutenants. Educated at Portora Royal, John afterwards entered Trinity College Dublin where his father, as one account appears to suggest, had been the first to open the university's doors to Catholic students.

John Steele’s cleverness was evident, and he was only ever bettered academically by his late brother Frederick, who tragically drowned on Lough Erne. Another attribute of the future priest was his fearless sportsmanship, and contemporaries observed that no risk was too big for him when a worthy challenge presented itself. In those formative years, the scholar's interests and encounters with fellow students gave him an opportunity to meet others of different creeds.

Following his graduation in 1873, he was ordained and made curate of Devenish, in his father's parish. When the Earl of Erne, a grandmaster of the Orange Order, required a new chaplain, the situation was offered to the curate, and on accepting the position, John departed his familiar surroundings of Devenish for the relative comfort of the Crom estate.

On the estate, he frequently met local Catholic priests and embraced every opportunity to engage in conversation. St Patrick was Steele’s inspiration for pursuing a religious life and his mother brought him up with a devout attitude towards Saint Patrick, and in turn he styled himself in the mould of the patron Saint and was heard to say he would never aim to be anything less than that as a priest.

In the winter of 1909, Steele’s ill-health led him to the beautiful town of Bordighera, Italy, where a friend offered a house for him to stay and recuperate. Bordighera’s locals may be the envy of the Catholic Church because they have an exclusive right to annually supply palm fronds to the Vatican on Palm Sunday. Steele had a growing interest in the Catholic Church and acknowledged that the trip to Italy gave him the perfect opportunity to see Rome.

On that remarkable Spring Day in March 1910, the 60-year-old clergyman had knelt and prayed upon the flagstones of church in Rome, his petition lasting for an hour, as he reflected on his life and the changes, he felt certain to come. His mind was made up and yet he felt uneasy because he knew not everyone would approve back home in Fermanagh.

When Steele stood up to leave, something else caught his eye. It was the two inscriptions engraved into the floor. The names were distinct and, on the spot where he knelt. So, he leaned forward to clearly read the words. The spot marked the graves of O'Donnell and O'Neill, the prominent clan leaders from Ulster who were exiled to Europe, and now lay buried beneath the church’s nave. They were Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who died in 1616, and Rory O'Donnell, who died in 1608.

John Haughton Steele realised that he had walked into the Church of the Franciscans, Saint Peter in Montorio that day. The experience was more than a coincidence and he now felt assured in his conviction of becoming a Catholic priest.

The following day was St Patrick's Day. Steele got up, dressed, and went over to the president of the Irish College in Rome, and requested two things, firstly he wanted some shamrock, and secondly, he asked if he might be permitted to attend High Mass and to sit amongst the seminarists.

Later that year Steele was fully received into the Catholic Church and moved to live at Erdington Abbey, Birmingham. But, before leaving his old rectory in Fermanagh, he auctioned his possessions. By then unwell, he remained in Birmingham until 1919 in the care of German lay brothers.

When the German lay brothers were ‘repatriated’ at the end of the First World War, it was the Bishop of Kilmore who kindly offered Fr Steele a place to stay at St Patrick’s College, Cavan. In the following year, Fr Steele died. His death occurred on St Patrick’s Day.

Fr John Haughton Steele remained on good terms with the adherents of his former faith and, during the year of his conversion, he wrote a book for the Crom estate on the history of the Earls of Erne. Change for Steele did not mean an entire rejection of his past life. If ever you are in Cavan Town, perhaps, take a moment to look in to the Library where a copy of ‘The Dilemma of John Haughton Steele’ can be found in the Local Studies.