Time moves on, it is now 1848. No longer by himself, his wife and children having joined him in Ireland. It is the year of the rebellion. The Protestant population are to be massacred. It is no secret that this will happen, the only thing that is not known is when the uprising is to happen. Naturally precautions are taken. He tells us that rumour has it that the massacre is to take place on a Sabbath evening. "All the Protestants in the village were in a state of great alarm," he writes, "the four coastguards were patrolling the place and it was arranged that at the first alarm all were to fly to the curate's cottage. .... I cannot tell you how sickening a sight it was to see these armed men, the coastguards, and their store of weapons in our peaceful cottage. Then evening came, and just before eleven in rushed the servant shrieking, 'they're coming! they're coming!' Snatching the baby from the cradle my dear wife flew upstairs to the other three children. .. Oh the anguish of that moment, and yet how many of the Lord's own children have encountered such in all its disastrous consequences! But how shall I tell you my relief when that agonizing suspense was broken some hours later by the information that the party seen in the distance were police and not the expected assassins. Oh the interposing goodness of a gracious God! Never, never shall I forget it."

The crisis was averted by the suspension of Habeas Corpus which at that time struck terror into the minds of those who were to rise up in rebellion and the rebellion petered out. He writes, "We knew that nothing like ample succour could be afforded. We could do nothing but stand still and see his salvation .... it (the suspension of Habeas Corpus) struck terror into their hearts and the rebellion died away."

I have already referred to a little of his ministry at Templemore. He speaks at length, both in the pages of the Gospel Magazine and in his journal of the scenes of abject poverty and degradation that were in that land in those days, and the awful influence of the church of Rome upon the superstitious Irish.

1848 was the year of the rebellion, again I have referred to this. But notwithstanding all those things inflicted upon the Protestant population by the Roman Catholic peasantry and the RC priesthood, Doudney felt that he wanted to do something to help alleviate the intense poverty suffered by the people. After 4 years in the parish he had the idea of setting up a printing school for the benefit of the boys of the parish. There was an ordinary day school but there was no employment for the boys after they had left school and, as Doudney knew about the printing industry he conceived the idea of setting up a press in Bonmahon. But a printing school on the west coast of Ireland was somewhat different to setting up a school in London or in Bristol, where he was to repeat the same experiment some few years later.

The presses had to be purchased, the type had to be purchased, the boys who were by and large, illiterate had in the first place to be taught how to read, then they had to be taught how to set type. After this they had to be taught to proof read, then they had to be taught the art of letterpress printing, then came the binding. The paper had to be imported and then the finished books had to be sold and distributed.

Notwithstanding all these difficulties, he went ahead and in 1851 through the medium of the Gospel Magazine he invited and obtained subscriptions for the reprinting of John Gill's Commentary on the Bible. The whole project was completed in 6 volumes in 1853. To see those volumes one can understand that it was no mean achievement to undertake this reprint. Doudney tells us that the commentary contains "nearly 47 million letters" and the 2250 sets printed required 25 tons of paper, comprising eight-hundred thousand separate sheets of paper. But Doudney's watchword was "Forward" and he continued with the work, printing, not only the Gospel Magazine and Old Jonathan which had a monthly circulation of 15,000 but the printing school reprinted Rutherford's Letters, Gill's Sermons on the Song of Solomon, Gill's Cause of God and Truth, Keach's Scripture Metaphors and his Exposition of the Parables &c. - It is interesting to note that most of these books have been reprinted by photolithography in recent years.

Doudney's ministry in Ireland came to an end in 1857. Through his ministrations in the village a prominent Irish Roman Catholic was converted to Christ. When this was found out, the man said that he dared not stay in Ireland for fear of his life, so he left Ireland and he went to London and found work there. The blame for all this, naturally fell on Doudney. Anathemas were pronounced by the RC priests, an effigy of him was carried through the streets and publicly burnt, with one young man firing a blunderbuss at the effigy. He received a number of anonymous death threats and after the long months of persecution through which he was wonderfully helped and sustained, he considered that he was unable to continue in this situation any longer. In addition to the Roman Catholic persecution, the work at the printing schools could not be maintained. Printing work was difficult to obtain and costs exceeded income. Reluctantly Doudney closed the printing schools and concluded that his ministry at Bonmahon was ended.

"He that watches providence will never want a providence to watch."