See Michael O’Riordan and John Hagan papers, Irish College Rome. I am most grateful to the archivist, Vera Orschel, who helped greatly in the completion of this research.
Canning, Bernard J., Bishops of Ireland 1870–1987 , Donegal Democrat , Ballyshannon, 1987, p. 42.
Ibid .
Ibid ., p. 239.
See Joyce, P.J., John Healy, archbishop of Tuam , Gill, Dublin, 1931.
Canning, Bishops of Ireland 1870–1987 , pp. 317–18.
Hanley, John J., The Irish College Rome , Irish heritage series no. 64, Dublin, 1980. See also Silke, John, Relics, refugees and Rome: an Irish guide , Irish College, Rome, 1975, p. 82 ff.
O’Riordan, Michael, Catholicity and progress in Ireland , Kegan Paul, London, 1906.
Murphy, Brian P., The Catholic Bulletin and republican Ireland with special reference to J.J. O’Kelly (‘Sceilg’), Athol, Belfast, 2005.
See Magennis, Peter E., ‘Monsignor John Hagan’ and other articles in The Catholic Bulletin , vol. xx, no. 4, April 1936.
Leslie, Shane, Long shadows – memoirs of Shane Leslie , John Murray, London, 1966, p. 262.
See aan de Wiel, Jérôme, ‘Archbishop Walsh and Mgr Curran’s opposition to the British war effort in Dublin, 1914–1916’, passim.
Walsh, William J. Walsh, archbishop of Dublin , p. 571.
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Morrissey, William J. Walsh, archbishop of Dublin , 1841–1921, p. 272 ff.
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 8–9, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Ibid .
Ernest Blythe, later a minister in the Irish Free State, was a northern Presbyterian. He was prominent in radical politics and a friend of the IRB man, Bulmer Hobson. In early 1915, Desmond FitzGerald visited Blythe in Dublin. He told him that the decision had already been taken to hold a rising during the war. The same source was convinced that Germany would win the war. See FitzGerald, Garret, (ed.) Desmond’s Rising: memoirs 1913 to Easter 1916 , Liberties, Dublin, 2006, pp. 78–79.
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 9–10, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Ibid .
Ibid ., pp. 11–13.
Ibid .
Ibid ., p. 16.
Ibid , pp. 20–21.
Ibid ., pp. 18–19.
Ibid .
Curran to Hagan, 23 January 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ó Brolcháin, Honor (ed.), Plunkett Dillon, Geraldine, All in the blood: a memoir of the Plunkett family, the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence , Farmar, Dublin, 2006, pp. 208–9.
Ibid ., pp. 14–22.
Murphy, Brian P., Patrick Pearse and the lost republican ideal , James Duffy, Dublin, 1991, p. 77 ff.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , p. 158.
Desmond Williams, T., ‘Eoin MacNeill and the Irish Volunteers’, in Martin (ed.), Leaders and men of the Easter Rising , p. 135 ff.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , p. 176 ff.
See Lynch, Diarmuid, The IRB and the 1916 Rising , Mercier, Cork, 1957, pp. 102, 131, and footnote on latter page.
McGee, Owen, The IRB: the Irish Republican Brotherhood, from the Land League to Sinn Féin , Four Courts, Dublin, 2005, p. 356.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , pp. 201–8.
Ibid ., pp. 210–11.
Leslie, Shane, Cardinal Gasquet , Burns Oates, London, 1953, p. 247.
Dr Jérôme aan de Wiel has written about this letter in his doctoral thesis, ‘The Catholic church in Ireland, 1914–1918’, submitted to the University of Caen, France, 1998, pp. 197–205. See also his ‘Archbishop Walsh and Mgr Curran’s opposition to the British war effort in Dublin, 1914–1916’.
In a letter to Casement, dated 11 April 1916, Count Plunkett wrote: ‘I do not suppose that any material change has occurred in Irish affairs since I left Dublin on 29 March.’ See O’Rahilly, Aodogán, Winding the clock: O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising , Lilliput, Dublin, 1991, pp. 180–81.
Ibid ., p. 178. Also Murphy, Patrick Pearse and the lost republican ideal , pp.77–78.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , p. 211.
O’Rahilly, Winding the clock: O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising , p. 179.
Kelly, J.N.D., ‘Benedict XV’, in The Oxford dictionary of popes , OUP, Oxford, 1986, p. 315.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , p. 211.
‘Archbishop Walsh and Mgr Curran’s opposition to the British war effort in Dublin, 1914–1916’, p. 197, footnote.
Ibid .
Ibid .
Una McDix, writing from Rathfarnham, continued the exchange in a letter to the Irish Press on 9 June 1933. She doubted the veracity of the count’s report: ‘Surely the ordinary Catholic conception of the pope is as the father of all Christians, even of those who do not recognize his authority. Would a father bless one of his sons for trying to shoot another of his sons, no matter how just his quarrel? I can imagine the pope blessing O’Connell’s repeal movement, which certainly would have succeeded without bringing on Ireland the nemesis which inevitably follows war.’ She did not ‘doubt Count Plunkett’s sincerity, but I am convinced there was some misunderstanding. It is so easy to believe what we wish to be true. I am a Catholic and a republican in the sense that I want complete separation; but I no more believe in war than I believe in one man shooting another because he has a quarrel with him. National civil resistance will accomplish much more than force.’ In answer to her query, the editor of the Press wrote the following: ‘It is history that the popes granted indulgences to those who took part in the Crusades and (see Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol. iv, p. 543) equated service in these wars with the building of churches and monasteries. Pope Gregory XIII met James Fitzmau-rice in Rome in 1575 and promised him several ships of munitions and provisions (see Pastor’s History of the Popes, vol. xix, p. 407). The Pope sent Rinuccini to Ireland in 1645 “with a good supply of arms, ammunition and money” ( Catholic Encyclopaedia , vol. xiii, p. 61). In all these cases the defence of religion was either the sole or the main objective, but they answer the point raised by Mrs McDix.’
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , p. 211.
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 37–9, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , p. 211.
Ibid .
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 22–25, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Curran to Hagan, 16 April 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
Plunkett Dillon, All in the blood , pp. 214–15.
Curran to Hagan, 19 April 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid .
Ibid ., 22 April 1916.
Ibid .
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 28–34, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Curran to Hagan, 23 April 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 35–37, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
See O’Connor, Sir James, History of Ireland 1798–1924 , Arnold, London, 1925, p. 278; this is quoted in Walsh, William J. Walsh, archbishop of Dublin , pp. 592–93.
Martin, F.X., (ed.), Tierney, Michael, Eoin MacNeill: scholar and man of action, 1867–1945 , Clarendon, Oxford, 1980, pp. 219–24.
MacRory to O’Riordan, 4 May 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Curran to Hagan, 8 May 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome. Curran had been awoken earlier that morning by stones being thrown up at his window. He was, he wrote, expecting to be arrested himself, ‘and I had actually a bag ready, packed,
to take with me’. He recognised William Kelly, the archbishop’s butler, among a group of three other men. When he went downstairs, he met the brother of Séamus Mallin who was to be shot at 3am. He wanted the archbishop to intervene to seek a reprieve. Curran said it was out of the question owing to Walsh’s condition. He inquired who else was to be shot that morning and was told Éamonn Ceannt (who had been in the class below Curran in school), Con Colbert and Seán Heuston. He went on to say mass for all who had been shot later that morning. Ceannt, it might be noted, had been part of an Irish delegation to visit the Holy See in 1908. Seán T. O’Kelly recalled that he had played the bagpipes for Pope Pius X.
He added: ‘O’Connell Street is a smoking ruin from Cathedral Street to Eden Quay and from Henry Street to Elvery’s. Other houses, though standing, are shattered and torn. I suppose 500 civilians and more solders have been killed or wounded. The Volunteers did not lose so many. One redeeming feature was their conduct. They fought courageously against numbers and equipment. They fought cleanly – no drink, no looting, no personal vengeance and no unnecessary destruction of property. The soldiers, too seemed a decent lot – there was no signs of racial hatred and no unnecessary violence.’ Ibid .
Whyte, ‘1916 – revolution and religion’ in Martin (ed.), Leaders and men of the Easter Rising , p. 221.
Quoted in Canning, Bishops of Ireland 1870–1987 , pp. 242–44.
Whyte, ‘1916 – revolution and religion’ in Martin (ed.), Leaders and men of the Easter Rising , pp. 221–24.
Fogarty to O’Riordan, 16 June 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid .
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), p. 84, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
The Cork Examiner , 17 May 1916.
Cohalan to O’Riordan, 2 July 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), p. 82, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Ibid ., p. 83.
Morrissey, Thomas J., Bishop Edward O’Dwyer of Limerick, 1842–1917 , Four Courts, Dublin, 2003, pp. 47–288, passim.
O’Dwyer to O’Riordan, 4 May 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid ., 18 May 1916.
Morrissey, Bishop Edward O’Dwyer of Limerick, 1842–1917 , p. 378.
O’Dwyer to O’Riordan, 31 May 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Morrissey, Bishop Edward O’Dwyer of Limerick, 1842–1917 , p. 379.
Roughneen to O’Riordan, 9 June 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid .
Ryan to O’Riordan, 23 June 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Douglas Hyde (An Craoibhín) wrote a letter to O’Riordan on 7 August 1916, asking him to sign a petition, drawn up by Denis J. Coffey, the president of UCD, against the possibility of MacNeill’s execution. He said that Sir Bertram Windle, president of University College Cork, and Dr Bergin were among those who were willing to sign. Hyde’s note pointed out: 1) that MacNeill was a ‘scholar of eminence who has specially devoted his attention to certain very important fields of research which on account of their difficulty and obscurity have attracted but few workers’; 2) there was ‘at present no one qualified to fill his vacant place in this department of scholarship’; 3) ‘in the interest of learning we feel that Mr MacNeill should be placed in a position to continue the work for which he is best qualified, and in which he has already gained a distinguished name.’ Hyde wanted MacNeill to have the use of writing materials, and ‘at least a small selection of the books bearing on his studies’. O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Martin (ed.), Tierney, Eoin MacNeill: scholar and man of action, 1867–1945 , p. 225.
Ibid ., p. 241.
Irish Catholic Directory , 1917, p. 519.
Letter found in the archives of the Vatican by Jérôme aan de Wiel; copy in O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Irish Catholic Directory , 1917, pp. 517–18.
Ibid .
Andrews, C.S., Dublin made me: an autobiography , Mercier, Cork, 1979, pp.89–90.
Catholic Bulletin , vol. vi, no. 6, June 1916, pp. 249–53.
Catholic Bulletin , vol. vi, no. 7, July 1916, p. 337.
Curran to O’Riordan, 29 July 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid .
Curran to Hagan, 30 July 1916, John Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid .
Statement by Fr Michael Curran, WS 687 (section 1), pp. 159–63, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Ibid ., p. 159.
See Irish Catholic Directory , 1917, pp. 521–52.
Curran to O’Riordan, 30 August 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
O’Dwyer to O’Riordan, 31 August 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid ., 21 September 1916.
O’Flanagan to Hagan, 5 September 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
Morrissey, Bishop Edward Thomas O’Dwyer of Limerick, 1842–1917 , p. 385 ff.
Logue to O’Riordan, 20 August 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
No original copy of the ‘Red Book’ is to be found in the archives of the Irish College, which merely contains, in the O’Riordan papers, a photocopy of a Vatican Archive copy, deposited by Dr aan de Wiel.
The ‘Red Book’, pp. 20–22, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid ., pp. 26–33.
Ibid ., p. 38.
Ibid ., pp. 38, 43.
Cohalan to O’Riordan, 14 October 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Logue to O’Riordan, 28 October 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
O’Dwyer to O’Riordan, 29 September 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Ibid .
MacCaffrey to Hagan, 20 December 1916, John Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
O’Donnell to O’Riordan, 6 November 1916, Michael O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome. I am grateful to Professor Matthew MacNamara for deciphering this letter.
Ibid .
Curran to Hagan, 15 October 1916, Hagan papers, Irish College Rome.
McKenna to O’Riordan, 24 November 1916, O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome.
Bureau of Military History: testimony of Michael Curran
The editors are grateful to Noelle Dowling, archivist, Dublin Archdiocesan Archives, for the above information, which was taken from the Irish Catholic Directories 1907–1961 and Sherry, Richard et al., Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin, 1859–1959: College history and centenary , Irish printers, Dublin, 1962.
Easter ethics
Dudley Edwards, Ruth, Patrick Pearse: the triumph of failure , Taplinger edition, New York, 1977, pp. 284–85.
Cited at the Irish government website on 1916, www.taoiseach.ie (downloaded 11 April 2006).
To pick one contextual factor at random: consider the extreme reaction of the Conservative party to the removal of the Lords’ veto in 1911 and the home rule bill of 1912. Its relevance to ethical analysis (as distinct from historical explanation) of the Easter Rising is not about whether it excuses the Rising, but about the degree to which the leaders of the Rising properly grasped its political significance and acted accordingly.
De Valera noted as much, fifty years later; see Coogan, Tim Pat, De Valera: long fellow, long shadow , Hutchinson, London, 1993, p. 680.
Nor can we minimise this by pointing to a lack of insight into democracy. Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland 1600–1972 , Allen Lane, London, 1988 cites the following (pp. 510–11): ‘when Kevin O’Higgins declared that a man who killed without a constitutional mandate from the people was a murderer, Liam Mellowes, reasonably enough, interjected: “Easter week?” The ghosts of Pearse’s rhetoric were hard to lay.’
See Foster, Modern Ireland 1600–1972 , p. 506. The issue is arguable, and h
as been vigorously argued. However, the mere fact that the issue is arguable suffices here: it is not obvious that the IRB’s war of 1916–21 got more than Redmond’s party got in 1914. They certainly didn’t get more on the north, and may well have got less than a Redmondite Dublin government might have got. Given the Cumann na nGaedheal government’s achievement in transforming the relationship between the British parliament and other dominion parliaments leading to the significant Statute of Westminster 1931, de Valera’s use of the 1936 abdication crisis to be rid of the monarchy, and his managing to negotiate the ports out of British hands in 1938, it is hard to believe that armed force had ever been needed.
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