A hundred years ago Bishop Cohalan of Cork condemned both the repressive actions of Britain’s usurping forces in Ireland and the measures of the Liberationist Volunteers under the command of the Government established by Irish voters according to the principle of national self-determination.
President Michael D Higgins, no clericalist Rome Ruler, is, in this matter, Bishop Cohalan’s disciple.
In July 1921 C.P. Scott of THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, who deplored the repressive outrages of his friend Lloyd George in Ireland, met de Valera in London and sought the
latter’s acquiescence in Cohalan’s views. De Valera was having none of it and defended the conduct of Ireland’s defence forces in shooting spies and the armed enemies of
democratic government.
Bishop Cohalan went further and pronounced excommunication within his diocese of anyone ambushing the forces of repression.
Michael Collins expressed his views on the Bishop to Seamas O Maoileoin, an IRA Intelligence officer based in Limerick. I quote from O’Maoileoin’s superb Memoir –
“B’FHIU AN BRAON FOLA” –
“Seamas” ar seisean “If I had my way that – of a Bishop would be shot. There is neither sense nor reason in shooting uneducated idiots as spies and letting people like the Bishop of Cork get a way with it. According to the rules of warfare, any civilian aiding the enemy is a spy.
But I suppose our political friend wouldn’t agree to it.”
So Collins and de Valera would appear to have agreed on principles. (As does Michael D with Bishop Cohalan)
But Collins is right about his “political friends.” Shooting clergymen or journalists does not win popular appeal, however much some of them may deserve it.
Nevertheless, in 1921 and in the 1970s, Crown Forces murdered Catholic priests in Ireland – with impunity.
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