History of Early Pi^inting in Ireland 17 



Turning from Dublin to see what progress printing had 

 made in other parts of Ireland, we find that in 1642-3 the 

 Catholic Confederation, then in possession of Waterford and 

 Kilkenny, feeling the necessity of a press for the purposes of 

 their organization, sent for one to the Continent, and this press 

 was operated by a printer named " TJionias Bourke," first in 

 Waterford and later on in Kilkenny. The purposes for which 

 this press was used were of course almost entirely to carry on 

 the political work of the Confederation, but about the same time 

 (as has been not long since brought to light by a communication 

 to me from the Revd. E. Hogan, S.J.), there was a press in use 

 belonging to the Jesuit Order in Kilkenny, and the Confederate 

 Catholic Council, for some alleged fault in one document printed 

 by the Jesuits, seized the press and made use of it themselves. 

 When the Cromwellian Party subsequently took Waterford they 

 would seem to have seized the Confederate press there and used 

 it for their own purposes. 1 was inclined to think at one time 

 that Bourke's press was moved from Waterford to Kilkenny, but 

 I do not know if this was certainly so. Printing was found to 

 be an absolute necessity for any important party for carrying on 

 their work, and as long as the Confederate Catholics held Water- 

 ford they had a press there and, later on, one in Kilkenny, 

 though possibly this may have been the press which they took 

 from the Jesuits there. When the Duke of Ormond, as Viceroy 

 of Ireland and the King's representative, obtained possession of 

 Kilkenny, he utilized the press there for printing Proclamations 

 for Charles I. and then for Charles II. 



Mr. Robert Steele, the eminent bibliographer, pointed out to 

 me some years ago that a Proclamation by the Papal Nuncio, who 

 took a large part in Irish affairs in the early Cromwellian times, 

 was printed with different type from that used by Bourke. 

 Perhaps this Proclamation was printed at the press which was 

 taken from the Jesuits, either before or after that happened. 



The Cromwellian conquest put an end to the presses of 

 Waterford and Kilkenny save that the press in Waterford was 



