 He was O'Connellite in that he tolerated his clergy speaking on political matters, specifically the issue of the day which was the Repeal of the 1800/1 Acts of Union 1800 and in this regard he was in conflict with his Metropolitan bishop William Crolly.He witnessed at first hand the Irish Famine and wrote of "corpses lying out in the fields...and none but the clergy can be induced to approach.