THE
RED SCARE
The great fear in the thirties
was that atheistic communism would sweep the world and that
the very existence of Christianity was under threat. Pope Pius
XI had laid down the defeat of international communism as one
of the primary objectives of his pontificate and he had
galvanised Catholic opinion to that end. Catholic Ireland, of
course, was in the vanguard of such action. Publications
appeared such as Father Edward Cahill's book Ireland's
Peril and Professor James Hogan's pamphlet Could
Ireland become Communist? Professor Dermot Keogh has
written that 'One might be forgiven for reflecting that in the
1930s some of the more obsessional local writers on that theme
[the red scare] must have believed that when Joseph Stalin
woke up each morning his first thoughts turned inexorably
towards the subversion of Catholic Ireland.'[1]
The
Cosgrave government was not backward in using the
anti-communist line and it introduced coercive legislation,
the Constitution Amendment (No. 17) Act that became law on 16
October 1931. This legislation established a military tribunal
for political offences, massively extended police powers and
gave government the power to ban organisations. It was aimed
at all dissident forces in the country such as the IRA, Saor
Eire, the Communist Party etc., and was intended to stifle
opposition from the left. On Sunday 18 October 1931, the Irish
Catholic bishops issued a joint pastoral letter that was read
out in all the country's churches describing Saor Éire as
'frankly communistic'. The pastoral declared Saor Eire and the
IRA 'sinful and irreligious' and pronounced that no Catholic
could lawfully be a member of them.[2] On 20 October 1931 the
military tribunal was established, twelve organisations were
banned, and arrests, raids and searches were the order of the
day. Newspapers such as An Phoblacht and Workers
Voice were raided, repeatedly, until they were forced out
of business. IRA men and those on the left of politics went
into hiding or on the run.
In the general election campaign of 1932, the government, in
an attempt to counter the Fianna Fail challenge, played the
'red' card on a platform based on law and order and the
communist/subversive threat.[3] During the Civil War all the
leaders of the IRA had been excommunicated from the Catholic
Church. Most of the bishops who had agreed with that ban were
still in office in 1932 and were enthusiastic supporters of
the Cosgrave government. Among the higher echelons of
government and society the leaders of Fianna Fáil were
regarded with extreme suspicion, but Mr De Valera and his
party had been working assiduously since 1927 to allay those
fears and to re-assure the elites that the party could be
relied upon, if and when it took power. Mr De Valera had
convinced Cardinal MacRory, at a private meeting, that the
Fianna Fáil party was committed, totally, to the bishop's
pastoral call for solutions to the country's social and
economic problems that were in accordance with the traditions
of Catholic Ireland.
CATHOLIC
ACTION
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII in
the encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), which dealt with
the condition of the working classes, was the first pope to
speak against the abuses of capitalism. Social teaching was
further elaborated by Pius XI in his encyclical Quadragesimo
Anno (In the Fortieth Year).[4] In this encyclical, issued on
15 May 1931 the Pope recommended the setting up of social
study groups. The clergy were urged to promote such groups
among workers, youth and the employers, the better to study
social issues in a Catholic context and therefore to bring
decision making down to the local level. In a direct response,
Rev. Canon John Kelleher delivered a lecture entitled
Reconstruction of the Social Order on the principles laid down
in the Papal Encyclical.
| Owing
to social injustices the very existence of the
Christian religion was widely menaced. Capitalism
was approaching a deadlock brought about by its own
selfish abuses ... A vigorous practical Christianity
could survive even under the most corrupt Capitalist
system, but not under the Communism which threatened
to supersede it ... The great aim of social
legislation should be to re-establish vocational
groups through which employers and workers would be
united in one union with common aims and common
interests.[5] |
Catholic Action was a major recommendation of the 1931
encyclical. By Catholic Action, the Pope hoped that the laity
might become lay Apostles, soldiers of Christ, standing
side-by-side with the clergy, although always subject to the
authority of the Hierarchy. In January 1933, Mr. Dan Foley, as
President of the Waterford and District Worker's Council,
delivered a major speech at its annual meeting
| The
time is propitious. A young Government, with
sympathies towards the welfare of the masses, is
considering plans to combat unemployment, and one to
improve the prosperity of our people ... There is a
possibility of a re-modelling of the present
financial system in the interest of the many instead
of the few. The great question of ownership may be
examined in the light of the Pope's Encyclical, and
equality of opportunity may then be nearer the reach
of all ... This, fellow delegates, means a social
revolution of the better kind, and one in which we
should all play our part ... In keeping with the
dignity of the Council our share in that revolution
should be to act as guide for the workers in this
district in such a manner as to broaden their
outlook. We must get them to take a general survey
of the whole economic structure, and not confine
their thoughts to mere questions of wages and
working conditions. As President of the Council, I
would strongly recommend the Catholic workers to
interest themselves in the Catholic Action movement
and join the study groups.[6] |
On the conclusion of the President's address there was just
one dissenting voice— Edwards stood up and disagreed with
some aspects of it, 'especially where the speaker had said
that the Government sympathised with the masses.'[7] It was
clear that if a social revolution were to happen it would be a
conservative one, controlled by the Catholic Church.
Turbulence
was widespread among the working classes in the city. There
were strikes, marches and meetings, although the workers were
careful to assure the employers and the Church that whilst
they were striving for workers' rights the struggle was not
tainted by communism—and that the workers remained good
Catholics. There was a large meeting of the unemployed workers
in the People's Park at which a committee was appointed to
press for the right to work. The chairman of the new
association declared that there was no communistic element
attached to the association and Mr. D. Nash explained that
they were non-political and non- sectarian.[8]
In
February 1933, a Catholic study movement, known as the St.
Thomas Aquinas Study Circle, had been initiated in the city,
presided over by Archdeacon Byrne. In an address to the Circle
the Provincial of the Dominican Order, Fr. Finbarr Ryan,
explaining the need for Catholic study, told the packed
audience that it was
| A
lay action to be carried on by lay people, by
persons in every state and rank of society. It was
work to be carried out, not by separate individuals
but by organised bodies, and such organised bodies
could lay claim to the title of representing
Catholic Action only when they were in immediate
connection with the Church and under the direction
of the Hierarchy.[9] |
A hearty vote of thanks to the speaker was
proposed by Mr. Liam Raftis who said 'as far as the menace of
Communism was concerned, they would uphold the motto of the
city, Urbs Intacta Manet.' Mr. Raftis was supported by Mr. Dan
Foley President Waterford Worker's Council and by Rev. Brother
Flannery, Superior Mount Sion and the proposal was adopted by
acclamation.[10]
RESPONSE
OF THE WATERFORD LEFT
On
the other side of the political spectrum, Peter O'Connor had
formed a Workers Study Club where the members, including
Edwards, studied the writings of leading socialist figures
such as Marx and, especially, James Connolly. Edwards recalled
| I
had got the writings of Marx and Lenin by this time
... When I went to Dublin for the Saor Éire
meeting, I called down to Connolly House, in Great
Strand Street, the Communist Party headquarters,
where I met Johnny Nolan. I bought a lot of books
from him. At that time we held packed discussion
groups every Sunday night to which the public were
invited.[11] |
Some
of the members were also members of the Irish Revolutionary
Workers Group. In 1933, this group disbanded and out of its
ashes came the (re-formed) Communist Party of Ireland. A group
of young men in the city, including Edwards and Peter
O'Connor, had been dissatisfied for some time with the
leadership of the IRA, particularly with that organisation's
emphasis on military rather than political action. O'Connor
was a reader of the Irish Workers Voice, the paper of
the Irish Revolutionary Workers Group, and he asked that an
organiser be sent from the Dublin headquarters to organise the
unemployed workers in Waterford. The organiser who arrived was
Seán Murray, later to become the first secretary of the
Communist Party of Ireland. His arrival in Waterford moved
public agitation onto an altogether higher level and
confrontation between the employers and the workers (employed
and unemployed) was common. Strikes were common in the city at
that time. The Waterford News reported, on 4 November
1932, that the teachers had met to voice their opposition to a
threatened pay cut and in December 1932, the road-workers in
the Asphalt Company went on strike. In January 1933 all the
men of the Plasterer's Society struck. The plasterers involved
were all employees of John Hearne, and this was when Edwards
first came into conflict with the local Catholic Hierarchy.
John Hearne, a close personal friend of Archdeacon Byrne,
asked Byrne to mediate in the strike. Edwards said of Hearne
that he was 'constantly in and out of the presbytery.'[12]
