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Abstract
Differences in the reactions of the Irish Catholic Church to the hunger strikes of Terence MacSwiney and Robert ‘Bobby’ Sands can be explained through the Church's relationship with the British government. The Church supported MacSwiney's 1920 hunger strike, whereas the tiered hierarchical structure of the Church split in response to Sands’ strike in 1981. Two major reasons account for the differing reactions to these protests: the Church's desire to control Irish education in 1920; and the magnification of class and political differences between the Church clergy and hierarchy in 1981. The Church was united in its support of Irish republicanism during MacSwiney's strike. By the late nineteenth century, the British government had ceded most control over Ireland's primary and secondary education to Protestant and Catholic churches. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1921, when the Free State government gave the Catholic Church even greater autonomy over education, the Church changed its position on hunger striking. During Sands’ 1981 strike, many lower-class Irish clergymen, who cared less about British political sensitivities than the hierarchy, sympathised with the hunger strikers’ cause. Meanwhile, the Irish and English hierarchies continued to condemn violence and hunger striking.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank the Dublin, Southwark and Westminster diocesan archives as well as Fathers Desmond Wilson, Joseph McVeigh, Raymond Murray and Bishop Edward Daly.
Notes
1 A quote attributed to MacSwiney. This version in Hannigan, The Hunger Strike That Rocked the World.
2 While the Second Vatican Council emphasised the definition ‘Catholic Church’ to include the laity, this article uses the term to refer to the clergy and hierarchy. Due to length restraints, the role of the Holy See will not be discussed in this article.
3 For a more in-depth discussion of the historical evolution of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Republican, see Whyte, Citation1984; Kenny, Citation2000 and Inglis, Citation1998.
4 Daily Herald, ‘New Tragedy of Hunger Strike’, 20 August 1920. Daily Chronicle, ‘Sentence on Lord Mayor of Cork’, 20 August 1920.
5 The National Archives, Kew (TNA), PCOM 8/349, File on Terence MacSwiney.
6 These demands included: the right not to wear prison uniforms, the right not to do prison work, the right to associate freely with other prisoners, the right to a weekly visit, letter and parcel and the right to organise educational and recreational pursuits and full restoration of prison sentence returned.
7 Controversy surrounds these events. While republicans argue that the British government did promise to grant these concessions, others disagree to the validity of those claims. See Beresford, Ten Men Dead and Hennessey, Hunger Strike: Margaret Thatcher's Battle with the IRA 1980–81.
8 David Beresford, The Guardian, ‘Bobby Sands dies after 66-day fast', 5 May 1981.
9 This paper will define Catholic Church clergy as vocational priests who worked in parishes, hospitals, schools and prisons.
10 After MacSwiney's funeral, Fr Dominic O'Connor joined the Mid Cork IRA brigade as their chaplain. He was tortured by the Black and Tans, then arrested by the British government. O'Connor received a five-year sentence of penal servitude at HM Prison Pankhurst on the Isle of Wight. The British government released him after the 1922 general amnesty. After the civil war he fled the country and served as a chaplain in Oregon, USA where he died in 1935. See Heffernan (Citation2014: 126–127; 186–187).
11 Dublin Diocesan Archives (DDA), Very Rev. Fr John Canon Waters, ‘Protest Made by the Catholic Chaplains at Mountjoy Prison including reply from the General Prisons Board’, text sent to Archbishop Walsh, 12 April 1920, 380/2 (Priests, Diocesan and other Dioceses), Walsh Papers, 1.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.: 2.
14 DDA, Committee of Parishioners, Donnybrook to Archbishop Walsh, 10 September 1920, 380/4 (1920/Laity), Walsh Papers, 1.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.: 2.
17 DDA, B.O. Bowman to Archbishop Walsh, 15 September 1920, 380/5 (1920/Laity), Walsh Papers.
18 A reply from Archbishop Walsh to the Donnybrook parishioners has not been found.
19 Robert Sands, ‘Monday 2 March 1981’, in The Diary of Bobby Sands (Dublin, Citation1981), 17. Sands, ‘Wednesday 4 March 1981’, Diary of Bobby Sands, 21.
20 Ibid., ‘Tuesday 3 March 1981’, 19.
21 TNA CJ 4/3040, Note for the Record of Meeting with Fathers Toner and Murphy held in PUS's office Belfast, 5 December 1980. TNA CJ 4/3041, Departmental newsletter by D J Wyatt concerning Fr Toner telephone call on 28 November 1980, 1 December 1980.
22 Linen Hall Library, Fr Denis Faul and Fr Raymond Murray, ‘Hunger Strike 2: Why British rule has failed to solve prison problems’, (March 1981).
23 Ibid.
24 Interview with Fr Joe McVeigh, 14 April 2014.
25 Amigo first became involved with the Irish as a young parish priest working in London's east end. He had been holidaying on the Island at the outbreak of the First World War. Further, Amigo wrote to The Times in 1916 to ask the editor to stop attacks on Irish bishops who fought against national conscription of Irishmen.
26 Southwark Diocesan Archives (SDA), R66, 80a, Herbert E. Hall to Bishop Peter Amigo, 27 October 1920. R66, 74, Letter from J.E. James to Bishop Peter Amigo, 26 October 1920.
27 SDA, R66, 89, ‘Maunder’ to Bishop Peter Amigo, 29 October 1920.
28 Bourne and Amigo disagreed over the financial crisis in the Southwark diocese. Bourne's questioning of Amigo's management of the diocese created even further divisions between the two prelates.
29 Westminster Diocesan Archives (WDA), David Lloyd George to Cardinal Francis Bourne, 29 November 1920, Cardinal Bourne Papers.
30 DDA, Cardinal Logue, Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland petition to the British government on behalf of the hunger strikers, 1920.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 DDA, Telegram Archbishop Walsh, 28 October 1920, 380/5 (1920/Laity), Walsh Papers.
34 DDA, Terence MacSwiney to Archbishop Walsh, 8 April 1920, 380/4 (1920/ Laity), Walsh Papers.
35 SDA, R62a, Published Letter from Mary MacSwiney to Cardinal Francis Bourne, 26 September 1920.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 SDA, R62b, Published Letter from Mary MacSwiney to Archbishop Randall Davidson, 26 September 1920.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 SDA, R62, Mary MacSwiney to Bishop Peter Amigo, 26 September 1920, 1.
42 DDA, Mary MacSwiney to Archbishop Walsh, September 1920, 380/4 (1920/ Laity), Walsh Papers.
43 TNA PREM 19/504, Cardinal Ó Fiaich telegram to Margaret Thatcher, 27 April 1981.
44 TNA PREM 19/504, Margaret Thatcher letter to Cardinal Ó Fiaich, 28 April 1981.
45 See TNA PREM 19/504, Cardinal Terence Cook telegram to Margaret Thatcher, 23 April 1981 and TNA PREM 19/504, Cardinal Timothy Manning telegram to Margaret Thatcher, 25 April 1981.
46 Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life, 28 October 1965 in Fuller, (2002) Irish Catholicism since 1950.
47 Interview with Fr Joe McVeigh, 14 April 2014. Interview with Fr Des Wilson, 1 September 2014. Interview with Fr Raymond Murray, 11 February 2014.
48 Other scholars have challenged the class narrative in their work on English identity. However, while more work needs to be done for the case in Ireland, that is beyond the scope of this article. See Jon Lawrence (Citation2006) and Colls & Dodd (Citation1986).
49 Interview with Bishop Edward Daly, 2 June 2015.
50 This act, formally known as the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-health) Act, would temporarily release prisoners on the condition that they would then return to prison on a specified date to continue their sentence.
51 DDA, Very Rev. Fr John Waters, ‘Protest Made by the Catholic Chaplains at Mountjoy Prison including reply from the General Prisons Board’, text sent to Archbishop Walsh, 12 April 1920, 380/2 (Priests, Diocesan and other Dioceses), Walsh Papers, 1.
52 Linen Hall Library, Fr Denis Faul and Fr Raymond Murray, Hunger Strike: the search for solutions, (May 1981).
53 WDA, Hume Papers, E5567 Ireland General, Cardinal Basil Hume to two priests, 1 June 1981.
54 WDA, Hume Papers, E5567 Ireland General, two priests to Cardinal Basil Hume, 5 June 1981.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 For more on martyrdom and the republican cause, see Doyle (Citation2015).
58 DDA, Byrne Papers, E. Byrne to W.T. Cosgrave, 28 October 1923.
59 DDA, Sinn Féin standing committee to Archbishop Byrne, 20 November 1923, (1920/Laity), Byrne Papers.
60 Ibid.
61 DDA, Archbishop Byrne to President W.T. Cosgrave, 28 October 1923, Byrne Papers, 1–2.
62 Ibid.: 3.
63 Ibid.: 4.
64 DDA, President W.T. Cosgrave to Archbishop Byrne, 18 November 1922, Byrne Papers.
65 DDA, George Noble Plunkett to Archbishop Byrne, 24 July 1922, Byrne Papers. George Noble Plunkett to Archbishop Byrne, 26 July 1922.
66 DDA, D. Allen to Archbishop Byrne, 27 November 1922, Byrne Papers.
67 DDA, Cornelius ‘Conn’ Murphy to Archbishop Byrne, 26 January 1923, Byrne Papers.
68 DDA, Kathleen Costello, Nelly O'Ryan and Annie O Null to Archbishop Byrne, 19 April 1923, Byrne Papers.
69 DDA, Abhlín Ní Cinnéidíg to Archbishop Byrne, 16 November 1922, (Politics General 1922), Byrne Papers, 1. Mary MacSwiney went on two hunger strikes, one in autumn 1922 and another in spring 1923.
70 In November 1922, the government would first release Mary MacSwiney, then again in May 1923.