학술논문
1 In the old groove: Traditional political alignments
Document Type
Book
Author
Source
Freedom and the Fifth Commandment: Catholic priests and political violence in Ireland, 1919–21. :15-34
Subject
Language
Abstract
By the beginning of 1919, the Irish Parliamentary Party had all but vanished from the political stage and Sinn Féin had taken over as the main political force in Ireland. The swing from home rule politics to republicanism also occurred among the clergy, although a substantial and influential section remained critical of the republican party. Conservative priests continued to press for solutions that fell short of an independent republic, and emphasised the importance of striving for ‘attainable goals’. The chapter examines this group of priests and analyses how their attitudes developed under the pressure of political reality. It also assesses the impact that these priests had on general clerical opinion.
The guerrilla war waged between the IRA and the crown forces from 1919 to 1921 was a pivotal episode in the modern history of Ireland. This book addresses the War of Independence from a new perspective by focusing on the attitude of a powerful social elite: the Catholic clergy. The close relationship between Irish nationalism and Catholicism was put to the test when a pugnacious new republicanism emerged after the 1916 Easter rising. When the IRA and the crown forces became involved in a guerrilla war from 1919 onwards, priests had to define their position anew. Using a wealth of source material, much of it new, this book assesses the clergy’s response to political violence. It describes how the image of shared victimhood at the hands of the British helped to contain tensions between the clergy and the republican movement, and shows how the links between Catholicism and Irish nationalism were sustained.
The guerrilla war waged between the IRA and the crown forces from 1919 to 1921 was a pivotal episode in the modern history of Ireland. This book addresses the War of Independence from a new perspective by focusing on the attitude of a powerful social elite: the Catholic clergy. The close relationship between Irish nationalism and Catholicism was put to the test when a pugnacious new republicanism emerged after the 1916 Easter rising. When the IRA and the crown forces became involved in a guerrilla war from 1919 onwards, priests had to define their position anew. Using a wealth of source material, much of it new, this book assesses the clergy’s response to political violence. It describes how the image of shared victimhood at the hands of the British helped to contain tensions between the clergy and the republican movement, and shows how the links between Catholicism and Irish nationalism were sustained.