The failure of socialist republicanism in the Irish revolution and its aftermath - Part 6
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Bruree Workers Soviet Mills, 1921 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin.
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In April 1919, the British Army declared the city of
Limerick a Special Military Area under the Defence of the Realm Act, imposing a
requirement for civilians to carry permits issued by the Royal Irish
Constabulary in order to enter or leave the city. This action triggered a
defiant response from the people of that city involving a twelve-day long
strike, with the city effectively being run by a strike committee calling
itself the Limerick Soviet. The strike was eventually called off on Sunday 27
April, with most workers agreeing to the use of the permits and to a return to
work. On the day that the strike ended, Reverend W. Dwane, in an address to the
congregation of St Michael's Church in Limerick, used language indicating that
the clerical attitude to socialism and to militant industrial action in general
had remained remarkably consistent since the Dublin Lockout and earlier
episodes of industrial unrest in the first decade of the century. Reverend
Michael Phelan, in the Southern Star article mentioned earlier had,
while denouncing the evils of socialism, stated that there is "no class
that stands with cleaner hands than the clergy" in terms of its
"desire to see the toiler uplifted and his lot made brighter".
Similary, in his address to the Limerick congregation, Reverend Dwane claimed
that his "sympathies were always with the working classes" and that
he "was a great believer in the dignity of labour, and any help he could
give in raising the dignity of labour would be rendered by him on all
occasions". Nevertheless, he complained that the strikers had not
consulted the Bishop of Limerick or the clergy before embarking on industrial
action, and he stated that both were "totally opposed" to any
continuation of the strike. He hoped that in the future the workers would
"not allow themselves to be fooled or deceived" and that they would
"be guided only by leaders on whom they could rely and in whom they could
have full confidence" - in other words, the clergy.[1]
It is clear that many of the Catholic clergy, while sympathetic to the cause of
workers who experienced low pay or poor working conditions, regarded neither the
leaders, methods or ideology of socialism as appropriate remedies for those
ills.
These attacks by the Roman Catholic Church on the
principles of socialism continued throughout the 1920s, both before and after
the establishment of the Irish Free State. In 1928, the
Ulster Herald reported on a series of lectures, organised by the Dublin branch
of the League for the Kingship of Christ (also known as ‘An Rioghacht’), on the
subject of socialism. The lecturer, Reverend E. Cahill S.J., warned that, under
a socialist system, all “duties and rights in regard to family and country,
duties towards God Himself, cease to have any place or meaning” and that “the
Church disappears as a public institution and has no right or standing in a
Socialist State”.[2]
How pervasive was the influence of the Roman Catholic
Church and its clergy on the generation of men and women involved in the
industrial, political and military struggles of the revolutionary era and its
aftermath in Ireland? Kevin O'Shiel of the Irish Land Commission, who had been
Judicial Commissioner of the Dáil Land Courts from 1920-1922, in his long
statement to the Bureau of Military History, given in 1959, says of the town of
Omagh, in Ulster, where he grew up, that church attendance "was
universally practised by all religious groups".[3]
Nevertheless, later in the statement he contends that, powerful as the
religious motivation was in the Ireland of his time, it was not more
influential than the appeal of nationalism, which he describes as "the
only force that in our country equates to, and, when a clash comes, prevails
over that of faith and the Church, as has been demonstrated to-day by its
extreme devotees".[4]
The notion of nationalism trumping religious devotion
does not necessarily imply that socialism was equally immune to the power of
the Church to limit its influence, or that nationalists themselves would
necessarily have felt comfortable ignoring the anti-socialist counsels of the
bishops and clergy in order to embrace a socialist republican ideology. The
fact is that, while the Church did speak out against the more revolutionary
aspects of the independence movement as it developed particularly after 1916,
nationalism itself was embedded, to an extent, within the very outlook of the
Catholic Church in Ireland itself. O'Shiel mentions the "Instruction"
issued by Cardinal Logue, reminding priests of the dangers of associating with
those who plotted against "lawfully constituted authority". But this
action was taken because the Church was starting to become "apprehensive,
particularly at the number of young clergy that were coming out openly on the
side of the 'Shinners' [ie. Sinn Féin]".[5]
In April 1917, Count Plunkett, the newly elected Sinn Féin MP for Roscommon North,
held a ‘National Assembly’ at the Mansion House in Dublin, which was attended
by nationalists of all stripes, including delegates from Sinn Féin, Cumann na mBann, the
Gaelic League and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, as well as from various
trade unions. This convention, which was intended by Plunkett to unite the
various strands of advanced nationalism into a single organisation, was well
attended by members of the Roman Catholic clergy. According to Dublin’s Evening Herald, there were “about 120”
priests present, many of them “from far away places in the provinces”. A number
of priests spoke in favour of independence for Ireland and of Irish
representation at the expected post-war peace conference.[6]
According to the Derry Journal, which inaccurately characterised the meeting as
a “Sinn Féin conference”, there were “many letters of apology from priests
expressing sympathy with the movement.[7]
The idea promoted by the clergy, that there should be
a harmony of interests between Labour and capital, as opposed to the socialist
concept of class struggle, was certainly not absent within the Labour movement
itself. On Monday 6 August 1917 the twenty-third annual Irish Trade Union
Congress got underway in Derry. At the conference, the city’s mayor gave a
welcoming speech, in which he extolled the virtues of Derry’s workers who had
“done their duty in co-operating with capital and in securing the prosperity of
the city”. He hoped that the future “would not find capital and labour in
different camps” and that there would be “a community of interests between the
two”. The speech was, according to the Ulster Herald, greeted with applause.
The mayor was then further honoured with a vote of thanks.[8]
TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT POST
[1] 'Limerick strike ended: views of Bishop and
clergy' Irish Independent, 28 April
1919.
[3] K. O'Shiel, Bureau of Military History
witness statement, BMH WS 1770, p. 27.
[4] Ibid.,
p. 67.
[5] Ibid.,
pp. 656-657.
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