Courtney McGrailDear Editor, My congratulations on a magnificent 1916 supplement in the December 17 edition. While it is slightly invidious to suggest any one aspect of the uniformly excellent coverage for particular commendation, I think you are especially to be praised for acknowledging the diversity of opinions that existed, and still do, within the Church regarding the event, and for having resisted the temptation to airbrush those aspects of the Church’s immediate response that were critical of the Rising, and which were swiftly revised in the light of subsequent events. Would that all of the institutions that are commemorating the event show the same fidelity to the historical record!
May I suggest that following this excellent beginning the paper might consider reproducing on a weekly, or periodic, basis, some of its coverage of the seminal subsequent era in modern Irish history, from the Rising to the end of the Civil War – a period in which the Church was one of the most significant ‘players’.
Your readers may be interested to hear that the School of History in University College Cork will soon be formally launching a major research project that will examine the response of all the major denominations in Ireland to the events of the ‘revolutionary decade,’ and that as part of the preparations for same the chaplaincy within the college will be hosting a series of talks on the subject of the Catholic Church during the period, said talks to commence in January. Further details can be obtained at g.doherty@ucc.ie
Yours etc.,
Gabriel Doherty,
School of History,
University College Cork