https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5106-9911
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Abstract
This article examines the English and Welsh Catholic Church's reaction to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacks on London during the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’. English Catholic bishops vociferously condemned these attacks yet regularly faced criticism for their perceived inaction. Letters published in secular and religious newspapers, and also sent directly to English Catholic bishops, reveal a dismayed public who called for religious retribution in the form of excommunication. I argue IRA attacks on English soil fell into a ‘grey area’ of Church condemnation: a Catholic bishop would not comment on events outside his own nation. No Irish Catholic bishop had excommunicated an IRA member, so for an English bishop to do so would have been setting a precedent. However, the IRA’s shift to a bombing campaign in England had allowed English bishops to comment on the conflict in Northern Ireland. Subsequently, statements and actions by English bishops would directly impact on how Irish bishops could mediate the conflict in Northern Ireland. Provisional IRA attacks on London specifically garnered international press attention and greater focus on the reactions of the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, amplifying the English Catholic Church’s response more broadly. This article highlights the evolving relationship between Irish and English bishops, from one of mutual anger to one of mutual understanding, through an examination of three attacks: the Old Bailey bombing (1973); the Harrods Bombing (1983); and the London Docklands Bombing (1996). Drawing on seldom discussed archival material, religious papers, and correspondence, this article elucidates the entangled relationship between English and Irish Churches, suggesting that such a complicated relationship, at times, hindered the Irish Catholic Church’s ability to mediate the conflict and aide the peace process.
Notes on contributor
Dr Margaret M. Scull is an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the National University of Ireland, Galway as well as faculty at Syracuse University's London campus. She published her first book, The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-98 (OUP) in 2019.
ORCID
Margaret Scull http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5106-9911
Notes
1 Universe, 23 Dec. 1983.
2 While the formal name is the English and Welsh Catholic Church, from here the article will refer to it as the English Catholic Church for ease of understanding.
3 Universe, 23 Dec. 1983.
4 Ibid.
5 L. Hollen Lees, Exiles of Erin: Irish Migrants in Victorian London (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979), 45.
6 T. Murray, London Irish Fictions: Narrative, Diaspora and Identity (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012), 21.
7 Murray, London Irish Fictions, 23.
8 Hollen Lees, Exiles of Erin, 172.
9 E. Norman, The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), 29.
10 Hollen Lees, Exiles of Erin, 173.
11 Ibid. 165.
12 Murray, London Irish Fictions, 23–24.
13 Ibid. 23–24.
14 Ibid. 25.
15 Ibid.
16 N. Whelehan, The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 85.
17 Ibid. 95.
18 Murray, London Irish Fictions, 25.
19 Catherine Dunne, An Unconsidered People: The Irish in London (Dublin: New Island, 2003), 2.
20 Ibid. 4, 14–15.
21 Ibid. 15–16.
22 Ibid. 9.
23 https://www.londonirishcentre.org/history-of-lic [accessed 1 June 2019].
24 Murray, London Irish Fictions, 29.
25 Ibid. 29.
26 M. Hickman and B. Walters, Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain: A Report of Research Undertaken for the Commission for Racial Equality (London: Commission for Racial Equality, 1997), 234.
27 Whelehan, The Dynamiters, 27, 36–39, 46–47, 52, 249.
28 Hollen Lees, Exiles of Erin, 172–206.
29 Ibid. 244–46.
30 C. Wills, Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-war Britain (London: Allen Lane, 2017), 123–30.
31 Dunne, An Unconsidered People, 16.
32 S. Sorohan, Irish London During the Troubles (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2012), 27–29.
33 E. Delaney, The Irish in Post-war Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 129–69.
34 S. Bruce, Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); Bruce argues for the importance of the secularization thesis; R. Stark, ‘Secularization, R.I.P’, Sociology of Religion, 60:3 (1999), 249–73; Stark argues the secularization thesis has no merit; C. Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); Taylor argues that the ‘secularisation’ theory is not where the West eliminates religion for rationality and science entirely, but that secularism is a development of Western Christianity.
35 For more on the scholarly debate about the origins of the conflict, see M.M. Scull, The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968–98 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 12–20.
36 For more, see Scull, The Catholic Church.
37 In some cases more sources have become available earlier at a bishop’s discretion. When using documents from the archives I have removed names and included an individual’s religious identity only when they have self-identified.
38 Archives of the Archdiocese of Westminster (AAW), Cardinal Hinsley Papers (CHP), Hi. 2/190d, Press Statement, June 1939.
39 AAW, CHP, Hi. 2/190d, Patrick Fleming to Arthur Hinsley, 1 July 1939.
40 Ibid. Arthur Hinsley to Éamon de Valera, 5 July 1939.
41 Ibid. H.M. to Hinsley, 19 Aug. 1940.
42 Ibid. P.B. to Hinsley, 12 Aug. 1940.
43 There is little evidence to suggest Hinsley reached out to the Westminster government or that he influenced the granting of these work visas.
44 G. McGladdery, The Provisional IRA in England (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006), 60.
45 Ibid. 61.
46 Ibid. 10.
47 Ibid. 4, 61.
48 R. English, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (London: Pan, 2012), 163.
49 K. Conway, Southside Provisional: From Freedom Fighter to the Four Courts (Dublin: Orpen Press, 2014), 131.
50 Ibid. 131.
51 English, Armed Struggle, 163.
52 S. O’Doherty, The Volunteer: A Former IRA Man’s True Story (London: Strategic Book Group, 1993), 148.
53 J. Hagerty, Cardinal John Carmel Heenan: Priest of the People, Prince of the Church (Leominster: Gracewing Publishing, 2012), xxvi.
54 Catholic Herald, 5 Dec. 1941.
55 Hagerty, Cardinal John Carmel Heenan, 43–45.
56 Catholic Herald, 24 Nov. 1941.
57 On 30 Jan. 1972, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association planned a march through Derry to protest against internment without trial. The British Army shot at the crowds, killing 13 unarmed Catholics; another man later died from his injuries.
58 Irish Press, 4 Feb. 1972.
59 Ibid.
60 An Phoblacht, 18 May 1973.
61 AAW, HE 1-1-2, Sermon by Heenan, 17 Mar. 1974.
62 Ibid.
63 AAW, HE 1-1-2, J.L.L. to Heenan, 13 Mar. 1972.
64 Ibid. T.G. to Heenan, 22 May 1973.
65 Universe, 23 Mar. 1973.
66 Catholic Herald, 16 Mar. 1973.
67 Ibid. F.F. to Heenan, 21 Nov. 1972.
68 Ibid.
69 Ibid. A.T.P.M. to Heenan, 16 May 1972.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid. C.B. to Heenan, 23 Oct. 1973.
73 Ibid. I.B. to Heenan, 23 Nov. 1974.
74 Fell was the assistant priest at All Souls Church in Coventry and was arrested with six others after police uncovered an IRA bombing plot, though he pleaded not guilty to charges of arson and conspiracy. The courts convicted Fell on all charges. An Phoblacht, April 1973; Times, 19 Oct. 1973.
75 AAW, HE-1-1-2, Y.A.K. to Heenan, 27 Nov. 1973.
76 Ibid. Heenan PS to Y.A.K., 30 Nov. 1973.
77 A. Harris, Faith in the Family A lived religious history of English Catholicism, 1945–82 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 35.
78 AAW, HE-1-1-2, H.M. to Heenan, 9 Jan. 1975.
79 Universe, 8 June 1973.
80 Cardinal William Conway is not mentioned in Hagerty’s exceptional biography of Heenan.
81 D. Renshaw, ‘The violent frontline: space, ethnicity and confronting the state in Edwardian Spitalfields and 1980s Brixton’, Contemporary British History, 32:2 (2018), 240–41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2018.1434001.
82 An Phoblacht, 5 July 1974; Irish Post, 24 Aug. 1974.
83 Times, 12 June 1974.
84 Ibid.
85 Birmingham Diocesan Archives (BDA), C.L. to Dwyer, 12 Dec. 1971.
86 Times, 13 June 1974.
87 Irish Post, 24 Aug. 1974.
88 Evening Mail, 22 Aug. 1974.
89 Irish Times, 19 Dec. 1983.
90 Times, 19 Dec. 1983.
91 AAW, E5567, A.H. to Hume, 19 Dec. 1983.
92 See M.M. Scull, ‘The Catholic Church and the Hunger Strikes of Terence MacSwiney and Bobby Sands’, Irish Political Studies, 31:2 (2016), 282–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2015.1084292.
93 Times, 23 July 1982.
94 The Provisional IRA bombed Harrods once in 1974 and again in 1993. These bombings were much smaller in scale and resulted in no deaths but a small number of injuries. McGladdery, Provisional IRA in England, 240 and 250.
95 TNA, FCO 87/1570, Foreign Office Restricted Telegram to Holy See, 19 Dec. 1983.
96 Times, 27 Dec. 1983; Ibid. 29 Dec. 1983.
97 During his tenure as Archbishop of Westminster and head of the English and Welsh Catholic Church, Cardinal Basil Hume brought an entirely fresh approach to the Catholic Church in wider British society. For more, see A. Howard, Basil Hume: The Monk Cardinal (London: Headline Book Publishing, 2005).
98 Ibid. 139–212.
99 Catholic Standard, 5 Mar. 1976.
100 McGladdery, Provisional IRA in England, 113.
101 W. FitzGerald, Father Tom: An Authorised Portrait of Cardinal Tomas Ó Fiaich (London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990), 76–80.
102 Ibid., 82–83.
103 Catholic Herald, 25 Aug. 1978.
104 Universe, 23 Dec. 1983.
105 Catholic Herald, 23 Dec. 1983.
106 Universe, 30 Dec. 1983.
107 Universe, 23 Dec. 1983.
108 Ibid.
109 Irish Times, 19 Dec. 1983; Guardian, 20 Dec. 1983; Times, 20 Dec. 1983. It appears the Westminster government took this comments seriously enough for PM Margaret Thatcher to hold an ‘informal meeting’ to consider the prospect of proscribing Sinn Féin; TNA, FCO 87/1570, ‘Harrods Bombing: Possible Banning of Sinn Féin’, 19 Dec. 1983.
110 TNA, FCO 87/1570, ‘Terrorist Activities Generated by the Northern Ireland Situation’, 11 Oct. 1983.
111 This article only denotes an individual’s religious orientation when the individual has self disclosed this information in their correspondence.
112 AAW, E5567, A.H. to Hume, 19 Dec. 1983.
113 Ibid.
114 Catholic Herald, 6 Jan. 1984.
115 Ibid.
116 AAW, E5567, A.E.W. to the Catholic Chaplain of the University of London, copy sent to Hume, 8 Jan. 1984.
117 Ibid. J.W.H. to Hume, date unknown.
118 Ibid. S.M. to Hickson, 6 Jan. 1984.
119 Ibid. L.P.B. to Hume, 31 Dec. 1983. No reply can be found.
120 Ibid. A.M. to Hume, 18 Dec. 1983. No reply can be found.
121 Ibid. D.W.H. to Hume, 19 Dec. 1983.
122 Ibid. M.H. to Hume, 19 Dec. 1983.
123 Ibid.
124 Ibid. Hume to M.H., 6 Jan. 1984.
125 Guardian, 23 Dec. 1983.
126 Universe, 23 Dec. 1983.
127 Ibid.
128 Catholic Herald, 23 Dec. 1983.
129 Ibid. 10 Feb. 1984.
130 Universe, 23 Dec. 1983.
131 For more see Hickman and Walter, Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain.
132 For more see M. Power, ‘Reconciling State and Society? The Practice of the Common Good in the Partnership of Bishop David Sheppard and Archbishop Derek Worlock’, Journal of Religious History, 40:4 (2016), 545–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9809.12328.
133 Belfast Telegraph, 19 Dec. 1983.
134 Irish Press, 19 Dec. 1983.
135 Guardian, 23 Dec. 1983; AAW, E5567, M.H. to Hume, 19 Dec. 1983; AAW, E5567, A.M. to Hume, 18 Dec. 1983; AAW, E5567, D.W.H. to Hume, 19 Dec. 1983.
136 E. Moloney, Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland (London: Faber & Faber, 2010), 488.
137 Tablet, 17 Feb. 1996.
138 Ibid.
139 C. Mitchell, Religion, Identity, and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of Belonging and Belief (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), 115.
140 Irish Times, 12 Feb. 1996.
141 Catholic Herald, 23 Feb. 1996.
142 McGladdery, Provisional IRA in England, 163–64.
143 Ibid. 193.
144 The Vatican did not appoint Daly to Archbishop of Armagh until 6 Nov. 1996.
145 AAW, E5608, Drafts of statement on the Carlton Club bombing, June 1990.
146 Ibid.
147 Ibid. ‘Cardinal Hume speaks on the death of Ian Gow, MP’, 30 July 1990.
148 Elliott, Catholics of Ulster, 474.
149 Ibid. 298.
150 AAW, E5608, ‘Joint statement by Cardinal Hume and Cardinal Daly’, 26 Mar. 1993.
151 Ibid. ‘Comment by Cardinal Hume given to The Universe’, 30 Mar. 1993.
152 Ibid. Untitled Hume statement, 2 Apr. 1993.
153 Ibid. ‘Statement by Cardinal Hume on the IRA Ceasefire Announcement’, 31 Aug. 1994.
154 Catholic Herald, 23 Feb. 1996, 4.
155 Ibid.
156 Ibid. 5.
157 Ibid.
158 Interview with Fr Gerry McFlynn, 6 Nov. 2018.
159 AAW, E5608, ‘Message sent by Cardinal Hume to Cardinal Cahal Daly, Archbishop of Armagh in response to Cardinal Daly's statement of 11 July 1996’, 11 July 1996.