Republican News · Thursday 24 October 2002

The IRA and the Catholic Church

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The IRA, 1926-36, is a new academic study of the army based in large part on the papers of Maurice (Moss) Twomey, who was chief of staff during this period and left a vast quantity of written material to which author Brian Hanley was given access. Here we print a second edited extract. The book will be launched on 31 October by Four Courts Press and is available from all good bookshops nationwide, including Sinn Féin outlets, priced at €24.95 (hardback).

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The IRA membership was largely composed of Catholics yet was regularly denounced by the Catholic Hierarchy. During the Civil War the Bishops' pastoral of October 1922 had condemned the Anti Treatyite campaign as 'murder before God'.

In October 1931 the Bishops had issued a pastoral attacking the IRA for wanting through Saor Éire to 'impose upon the Catholic soil of Ireland the same materialistic regime... as now dominates Russia'. In 1934 and 1935 the Lenten Pastorals again denounced the organization.

An Phoblacht was still the only newspaper where it was likely to find an attack on religious orders exploitation of children through the Industrial School system

Individual Bishops such as of O'Doherty of Galway, Kinnane of Waterford and O'Brien of Kerry regularly reminded their flock that no Catholic could 'lawfully belong to the IRA'. There is evidence that some clerical condemnation was directly due to state influence. Prior to William McNeely, the Bishop of Raphoe, administering confirmation in Dungloe during 1929 the local Garda Superintendent had spoken to the area's priests about the Anti-Annuities campaign. As a result the Bishop delivered a long condemnation of the campaign which the Gardai believed had a 'good' effect locally. However, as Patrick Murray has shown, even during the Civil War there remained an element within the Catholic Church who were sympathetic to Anti-Treatyite republicanism. Most of this support was to gravitate towards Fianna Fáil however, and aside from a tiny minority of clerics the Church remained hostile to the IRA throughout this period.

While the IRA publicly stated that as an Irish revolutionary body it expected nothing less than condemnation from the same church that had denounced the Fenians, the internal repercussions of such condemnation were important. The popular mood of anti-communism was reflected among the IRA's officer corps and rank and file and forced the leadership to articulate their views in ways it was hoped would not draw criticism from the church. There had always been a tendency to present radical social views as in line with Catholic or at least Christian teaching and this was the case increasingly after 1933. By 1935 the IRA was arguing that its economic and social policy would give 'practical application to the teachings of Christianity'. They were not unique in this as even the left wing Citizen Army could accuse De Valera of having decided to serve 'Mammon instead of Christ' by implementing capitalist policies. It is important to stress that the worries about IRA policies being contrary to the church's teaching was not confined to any one region, and much of the most intense hostility to 'communism' came from within the Dublin Brigade. The 1933 IRA Convention unanimously accepted the addition of a clause to the 'Constitution of the Irish Republic' which stressed that the 'propagation of irreligious doctrines, or the suppression of religion' were not the aims of the IRA. The period from 1929 onwards saw a major revival in popular Catholicism, with the Emancipation celebrations and the Eucharistic Congress of 1932. Many Belfast IRA members attended the Congress and it is probable that many others did also along with the large numbers of ordinary Irish Catholics. Indeed the IRA ordered its units to take the opportunity of the return of emigrants for the Congress to explain its policy to the 'exiles' and attempt to recruit them. Although not all the IRA leadership were Catholic and certainly not all devout, they did operate largely within this milieu. This was reflected in the practice of the IRA in saluting Catholic Churches while on parade and saying the rosary at commemorations.

The IRA did express more open hostility to lay Catholic organisations. The Ancient Order of Hibernians was seen as 'exactly of the same nature' as the Orange Order. The Irish National Foresters on the other hand were non-political and IRA members were allowed join them if they wished. Twomey saw the emergence of the Knights of Columbanus as a 'worst form of Hibernianism than the AOH'. He believed that Catholic propagandists had exaggerated the influence of the Freemasons in order to create support for groups like the Knights. The Masons were only a 'bogey' while the Knights were dangerous because they seemed to have some influence within Fianna Fáil.66 He also considered the campaign against Gralton to have been inspired by the Knights. Twomey was correct in his belief that the Knights had made inroads into Fianna Fáil. In fact several leading figures in the party were members.

The question of the Knights was kept in republican minds by the long running controversy over the non-appointment of a Sligo republican to the Town Clerkship. Robert Bradshaw had been editor of the Connachtman, the only local newspaper to have taken an Anti-Treaty position during the Civil War. He had been active in the IRA during that period and was still a supporter in 1932. He was also a Protestant. He seemed to have strong support from Sligo Corporation when he was appointed temporarily to the position in 1933. However the Minister for Local Government overruled this decision and replaced him. An Phoblacht denounced this as anti-Protestant sectarianism, inspired by a sinister secret society. Bradshaw took his case to the High Court where it was alleged that the Knights had instigated a whispering campaign against him, telling people that he was an atheist. Bradshaw lost his case and An Phoblacht bemoaned the influence of new 'Irish Klux Klan'. Certainly the Minister for Local Government, Seán T O'Kelly was a Knight of St. Columbanus, as several personalities involved in campaigning for Bradshaw's replacement seem to have been. In a sequel to the case during 1937, Bradshaw regained the position of town clerk when the previous occupant of the job was dismissed.

The IRA's protestations over the Bradshaw case would carry a little more weight had they not gone along with the tide of objection to the appointment of Letitia Dunbar Harrison as a librarian in Co Mayo during 1930. The IRA accepted that as a non-Irish speaker she was unsuited to the job, but realising that most objectors were more concerned about her religion then her mastery of the language also tried to condemn sectarianism. In this they took no different a position then many within Fianna Fáil.

However while the IRA certainly made concessions to sectarianism it never tried to lead a movement based on it. The various Catholic Action groups drew their support from other sources. An Phoblacht was still the only newspaper where it was likely to find an attack on religious orders exploitation of children through the Industrial School system. The IRA argued that the 1929 Emancipation celebrations presented a picture of Catholic suffering and Protestant tyranny only in order to turn young Catholics into 'zealots' devoted to hating 'fellow Christians'. The reports of the vast Christian Front rallies during 1936 contain no mention of republican participation. But it is notable too how little IRA concessions towards Catholic teaching muted clerical hostility. De Valera's populist republicanism satisfied those clerics who had been unhappy with the Treaty settlement and the IRA's radicalism, no matter how non threatening to Catholic power in reality, was still too dangerous for the Church to tolerate.