Richard Allen (1803–1886) was a draper, a philanthropist and abolitionist in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

. Allen raised £20,000 to help the

Irish famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

by writing letters to America.

Life

Allen was born to Edward and Ellen Allen at

Harold's Cross Harold's Cross () is an affluent urban village and inner suburb on the south side of Dublin, Ireland in the postal district D6W. The River Poddle runs through it, though largely in an underground culvert, and it holds a major cemetery, Mou ...

near Dublin. He was the second of fifteen children. Allen was an orthodox Quaker and his business was in textiles but his interests were in reform, temperance and the abolition of slavery. He married Ann Webb in 1828. In 1837, Allen was one of three founding members, with

James Haughton James Haughton may refer to: * James Haughton (police officer) Sir James Haughton, CBE, QPM (26 February 1914 – 26 January 2000) was Chief Inspector of Constabulary from January 1976 to July 1977. He joined Birmingham City Police in 1935 ...

and Richard Davis Webb, of the Hibernian Antislavery Association. This was not the first antislavery association but it was acknowledged to be the most active. Allen served as the secretary of this association. Allen founded the ''Irish Temperance and Literary Gazette'' and used this publication to forward his ideas and those of the Anti-Slavery Association. Opposition to slavery in Ireland had a long pedigree. As was the case in Britain, its most prominent Irish supporters were Protestant, notably Methodists, Quakers and Unitarians, and meetings were generally held in Nonconformist churches. One of the greatest contributions to the anti-slavery debate was made by the flamboyant and controversial Irish nationalist,

Daniel O’Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, champion of Catholic Emancipation. Richard Allen's parents home is proposed to be a protected building, because Allen was brought up there and also because it became a Plymouth Brethren Orphanage around 1860.Protected structures application
, Dublin In 1840 his portrait was included with other notables in a painting of the 1840

World Anti-Slavery Convention The World Anti-Slavery Convention met for the first time at Exeter Hall in London, on 12–23 June 1840. It was organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, largely on the initiative of the English Quaker Joseph Sturge. The ex ...

in London. In 1846, Allen attended another World convention in London. This time the subject was temperance and Allen was one of the speakers. Allen noted that he had been visiting Dublin's Bridewell prison and considered that parts were becoming empty because of the increase intemperance. Famine was rife in Ireland and in 1847 Allen wrote letters to America to explain the people's plight.

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

acknowledged the effect that Allen's letters to America had attracted. He estimated that £20,000 pounds had been raised.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Richard 1803 births 1886 deaths Irish writers Irish Quakers Philanthropists from Dublin (city) Irish abolitionists People from Harold's Cross 19th-century Irish people 19th-century Irish philanthropists Quaker abolitionists