Michael Kelly
“It is impossible to understand the motivation of the rebels without reference to the deep Catholic faith which inspired them”, writes Editor Michael Kelly
Easter week 1916 was one of the rare occasions that The Irish Catholic did not go to print. Located at offices in Middle Abbey Street, at the heart of the drama in Dublin, some members of staff became trapped by flames and gunfire and one staff member was killed by bullets flying through a staircase window.
The founding fathers of The Irish Catholic clearly positioned the newspaper in the camp of the Irish Parliamentary Party and my predecessors editorialised passionately in favour of the use of the parliamentary process and the resultant Home Rule proposals.
The first issue published after the surrender of the rebels spoke for many at the time when the editor thundered “the movement which had culminated in deeds of unparalleled bloodshed and destruction of property in the capital of Ireland was as criminal as it was insane”. Most Dubliners had been furious at the Rising, a fury which quickly turned on the British authorities as a result of the ruthlessness of the reaction to the rebellion. The execution of the leaders precipitated a change in mood that meant the battle for independence was inevitable.
In the aftermath of the Rising, Pearse’s words seem almost prophetic:
“And I say to my people’s masters:
Beware,
Beware of the thing that is coming,
beware of the risen people,
Who shall take what ye would not give.
Did ye think to conquer the people,
Or that Law is stronger than life and
than men’s desire to be free?”
This special souvenir edition of The Irish Catholic aims to put the events of Easter week 1916 in historic, religious and political context. It highlights the background that nourished the thirst for freedom and relies on eyewitness accounts of the events. We shine a light on the role of the Church, be that the heroic humanitarian work of priests in areas scarred by the fighting or the divided responses from the hierarchy at the time.
It is impossible to understand the motivation of the rebels without reference to the deep Catholic faith which inspired them. Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin writes in this issue that “the men and women of 1916 were men and women of faith”.
Much will be written and spoken over the next 12 months about the Easter Rising and the nature of our Republic. This, as Martin Mansergh argues, should not lead to a secular hijacking of the Rising or the adoption of a one-dimensional understanding of republicanism in a bid to push a secular agenda. To do so would be the ultimate betrayal of the founding principles of our Republic.