The cathedral of choice for Britain’s Irish

Dear Editor, Fr Tom Grufferty deplored the lack of a Catholic presence at the President's visit to Britain and suggested a visit to Westminster Cathedral should have been included. On the contrary, Southwark Cathedral should have been a 'pit stop' for the President because, when Terence McSweeney, the Mayor of Cork, died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison on October 25, 1920, Cardinal Bourne refused to receive his body at Westminster Cathedral but Archbishop Amigo of Southwark received his body instead and thus endeared himself to the Irish nation, a memory that still endures among the more enlightened Irish in Britain.

Fr John Hayes

Gorey,

Co. Wexford.