Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacKenna, Theobald
MACKENNA, THEOBALD (d. 1808), Irish catholic writer, was secretary to the catholic committee in Ireland previous to 1791, but upon the secession of the moderate and anti-democratic party under Valentine Browne, fifth viscount Kenmare, in the December of that year he became the mouthpiece of the seceders, whose fears were aroused by the French revolution. Though a catholic in faith, MacKenna was conservative in his political views, and from 1793 was frequently employed to write on behalf of the government. Eager for catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, he displayed great repugnance to the republican and separatist policy advocated by Wolfe Tone, and he strongly combated Wolfe Tone's views in a pamphlet of 1793, entitled ‘An Essay on Parliamentary Reform, and the Evils likely to ensue from a Republican Constitution in Ireland.’ MacKenna favoured the idea of a union with England, and was recommended by Thomas Lewis O'Beirne [q. v.], bishop of Meath, to Lord Castlereagh to write in its favour. A memoir of his on the project, published in 1799, bases its expected advantages on the necessity under which England, once the union was achieved, would be placed of fostering the prosperity of all her dominions as a counterpoise to France. Like the vast majority of Irishmen, MacKenna was bitterly disappointed when the union was followed by neither religious concessions nor political reforms. His later pamphlets therefore were devoted to calling the attention of the government to their broken pledges. In 1805 he published a very long tract, entitled ‘Thoughts on the Civil Condition and Relations of the Romish Clergy, Religion, and People in Ireland.’ In this he suggested to the government the advisability of raising the Irish catholic church to the dignity of an establishment by assuming the nomination of its bishops, and providing stipends for its clergy. His last pamphlet, ‘Views of the Catholic Question submitted to the good will of the People of England,’ denounced the continued refusal of justice to the Irish catholics, and commented upon the practice of maintaining exceptional legislation for Ireland, in distinction to other parts of the British Empire. MacKenna died in Dublin on 31 Dec. 1808.
[MacKenna's own works (for list see Brit. Mus. Cat.); Castlereagh Correspondence, iii. 353; Lecky's Hist. of Engl. in Eighteenth Cent. vols. vii. viii.; Gent. Mag. 1809, pt. i.; Taylor's Univ. of Dublin, p. 467.]