On March 1, 1842, twelve years after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been organized, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to Mr. John Wentworth, editor and proprietor of the Chicago Democrat newspaper. In it he wrote:
“I have written the following sketch of the rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-day Saints, of which I have the honor, under God of being the founder.” In the letter he gave a brief overview of the history of the Church and the Articles of Faith.
Joseph Smith also noted “No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing: persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny (slander) may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited very clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”
He then concluded, “Proud of the cause which they have espoused . . . have the Elders of this Church gone forth . . . it [the Church] has also spread into England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, where, in the year 1840, a few of our missionaries were sent, and over five thousand joined the Standard of Truth; there are numbers now joining in every land. (See History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 535-541)
Many are aware of the history, growth and development of the Latter-day Saint Church in England, Scotland and Wales, but less is generally known about Ireland. This website is dedicated to the documentation of the history of the Church in Ireland and the contributions the Irish made to early Mormonism in the 19th century. Some of this information is contained under the heading – “Articles.” Written transcripts of fourteen oral interviews of Latter-day Saints in Ireland in 1987 are included under “Interviews.”
The Articles of Faith, or basic beliefs, of the Church are under the heading “Beliefs” along with other sources where additional information can be obtained. Locations of twenty-six contemporary congregations of Latter-day Saints in Ireland are also noted.
And finally, under “Immigrants,” over five hundred Irish Mormon Pioneers are identified who joined the Church there or elsewhere and immigrated to western America by 1900 A.D. to gather with other Latter-day Saints in the Intermountain area. Many of the names can be reviewed on the website www.familysearch.org.
Approximately seven million Irish immigrated to the United States and Canada by the end of the nineteenth century due, in part, to a series of famines in their country. The greatest famine was the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1847) when Ireland’s population decreased from eight million to four million during the following decade. About one million died of starvation and another three million Irish immigrated, mostly to North America.
Many Irish immigrants or their descendents were among the early converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States and Canada. The numerous Irish famine refugees who accepted the gospel in these and other countries could have been part of the fulfillment of latter-day revelation which declared that God would gather His people “by the mouth of my servants . . . and by the voice of famine.” (See Doctrine and Covenants 43:23-25)
An Irishman, Elder George Wilson, wrote the following from Ireland on September 17, 1884:
"The Gospel is for all nations of the earth, then why not include Ireland? I, for one, am interested in having the Gospel preached in my native country. There are many in Ireland who are just as honest and virtuous as are to be found in any other part of the world, and why not give it an equal show with other parts of this great empire? It is plain to my mind that the Lord has a great and mighty work to perform in this land . . ." (Millennial Star, XLVI, 1884, p. 667.)