Guiomar González Corona_______________ 
                     The Catholic Church in the Irish Civil War

AUTOR: Guiomar González Corona

Born in Granada, Spain, Guiomar González Corona has a Degree in History from the University of Granada. She also spent three years at the University College of Cork in Ireland where she studied English and undertook a Masters in Historical Research about Government and Politics in 20th Century Ireland.

TÍTULO: The Catholic Church in the Irish Civil War

The seek of my research is try to analyze the position of the Catholic Church in Ireland during the Irish Civil War, 1922-1923.

Irish History has always been strongly infl uenced by the Church and I do not consider this fact in terms of right or wrong. Regarding the Irish Independence War, the role of the Church was very remarkable due to the confrontation between Catholics and Protestants. According to the 1911 Census, 89.6 per cent of the population of the future Free State was Catholics.

However, once the independence was achieved, the split in the Irish society was between Catholics against Catholics. Due to the circumstances, the fi rst question that came to my mind was, what role did the Catholic Church take?

LEER UN FRAGMENTO: The Cathoclic Church in the Irish Civil War

Of a country that was facing the dangers of disintegration. Most Rev. Dr. Fogarty argued that the people of Ireland were sick and tired of war; after 700 years under the “foreign terror”, the Irishmen needed to rest and enjoy their own rights, which did not mean surrender. According to bishop Fogarty the Treaty offered an opportunity to build a ‘great and prosperous Ireland’. ‘Unless we are careful, we may fi nd ourselves one day without either Treaty or Republic’. Together with Bishop Fogarty another three bishops, McHugh from Derry, O’Dea from Galway and Brown from Cloyne, illustrated how Ireland had won an immense increase of freedom which allowed the country her own national judgement and would in most of the national matters without any outside interference (20). Archbishop Gilmartin of Tuam aimed the prayers of Holy Mass to be offered to God, who ‘may guide their native Government in the discharge of their onerous duties’; Archbishop Byrne of Dublin ‘affi rmed the new Government’s right to public support, since it would have knowledge of our people’s needs and may be expected to take a real interest in solving the many problems that concern our people’s well-being’ (21).

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