Bishop James Doyle

James Warren Doyle, O.E.S.A. (1786–1834) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland, who used the signature “JKL”, an acronym from “James Kildare and Leighlin.” A campaigner for Catholic Emancipation up to 1829, he was also an educator, church organiser and the builder of Carlow cathedral.

Doyle was born close to New Ross, County Wexford in 1786. He joined the Augustinian friars in 1805 at Grantstown, County Wexford and then studied for his doctorate at Coimbra in Portugal (1806–08). His studies were disturbed by the Peninsular War, during which he served as a sentry in Coimbra. Later, he accompanied the British Army with Wellington's forces to Lisbon as an interpreter.

Following Doyle's return to Ireland, he was ordained to the priesthood on 1 October 1809, at Enniscorthy. From 1810–13, he was a member of the Augustinian community at Ross. In July 1813, Doyle was appointed to a professorship at Carlow College, holding the Chair of Rhetoric and from 1814, the Professorship of Theology.

Michael Corcoran, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, died on 22 February 1819. Doyle was a popular choice of the clergy and bishops of the Archdiocese of Dublin and was chosen by the Holy See as Corcoran's successor. He was formally named in August 1819 and was duly consecrated in Carlow Parish Church on 14 November. During his fifteen-year tenure as Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Doyle earned respect nationwide for his polemics in furtherance of the Catholic position in both Irish and British society, and in supporting the work of the Catholic Association. His books on pastoral, political, educational and inter-denominational matters provide a rich source of material for social and religious historians (see below). He was a close ally of Daniel O’Connell in the political campaign for Catholic Emancipation which was finally passed in 1829 by the Wellington government.

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