The Ireland of Edward Cahill SJ 1868-1941: A Secular or a Christian State?

By Thomas Morrissey and Thomas J. Morrissey

Edward Cahill SJ was a well-known and influential figure in Ireland during the early decades of the new Irish state. As Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Sociology at the Jesuit House of Studies in Dublin, his research led him to view liberalism as the great enemy of the faith and spiritual values of the majority of the Irish people. He identified with liberalism the exclusion of God from public life and a strong emphasis on secularism, and also the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism. He sought to counter this by teaching a Christian sociology based on the papal social encyclicals. Cahill gathered around him a lay organisation of men and women drawn from all walks of life, known as An Ríoghacht, which became influential in the 1930s. Mr and Mrs de Valera were good friends of Cahill and shared many of his views. His magnum opus, widely read at the time, was entitled The Framework of a Christian State.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Messenger Publications
• Release date: Apr 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781788124300

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INTRODUCTION

The acceleration of changes and the more intensified pace of life has made the world of Edward Cahill seem a long way off; even though he lived within the memory of many people still living. In the 1920s and 1930s his name and writings were well known and his influence was felt among many sections of society. These were the years when the new Irish state was emerging and consolidating in the face of internal opposition and uncertainty. Among a considerable portion of the population there was a desire that the new state move away from the secular/liberal model that operated under British rule and establish a state distinguished by Christian values and Catholic social principles. Edward Cahill was a leading proponent of such views.

Ireland for much of his life was a British possession. There was a constant political drive for Home Rule which changed to a demand for fuller independence. The final eighteen years of his life were spent under an Irish government. Under both governments, however, many basic realities remained the same: there was widespread poverty, migration from the countryside into the towns and cities, emigration to Britain and the United States of America; agriculture remained the country’s main industry, and 92 percent of the population were Catholics and the vast majority of those practised their religion to some degree. Despite the extensive manifestations of religion, Cahill feared a progressive encroachment of liberal secularism into Irish life.

Edward had a happy childhood, one of eight children, on a farm in West Limerick. Early in life, he showed strong signs of patriotism and of social concern for the less well off. Like his friend in his adult years, Éamon de Valera, also from a Limerick rural background, he became concerned to improve the lot of the small farmer and the landless labourer. Social commitment, strong religious belief, and patriotic concern for the welfare of his country were intermingled in his life and determined much of his activity in the final quarter of his career.

At the age of fifteen years he entered the seminary for Limerick diocese then stationed at Mungret College. In his years there, he took a BA from the Royal University of Ireland, and was then moved to Maynooth to study theology. Coming up to his ordination, he joined the Jesuits. After some years of further training, he was ordained, and then sent back to Mungret to teach in the college’s Apostolic School. He spent twelve years in Mungret, first as teacher, then as director of the Apostolic School, and finally as Rector of the entire college. The Apostolic students were young men destined to work as priests across the English-speaking world. Edward brought to their formation the highest ideals. Many have thought that those years were the high-point of his career. Numerous priests in North America, South Africa, and Australasia paid tribute to the grounding he had given them in prayer, spirituality, education and love of country.

Edward’s patriotism, however, became a problem for his provincial superior. He was deeply interested in the Irish language, and through it became friendly during 1914–1915 with a number of members of the Irish Volunteers. He also ran a boys cadet corps in the school. In 1917 he was transferred to Clongowes Wood College and from there to Milltown Park, Dublin, where he was given the task of teaching Church History to Jesuit theological students drawn from all over the world. For many years he had read widely in Irish and European history.

In 1920 he was reappointed to the Apostolic School, which had wilted in his absence. It was a troubled time. Two of his close friends, successive mayors of Limerick, were murdered by the Black and Tans. In 1923 he had the first of the breakdowns in health that were to mark the remainder of his life. After a time in hospital, he returned to Milltown Park to teach Church History and also Sociology. He had been reading the works of Auguste Comte and been impressed by his influence. He longed, however, for a sociology more favourable to Christianity. When none appeared, he set about the task himself, basing his teaching on the social principles of Pope Leo XIII. Following a very extensive programme of reading, he embarked on a remarkable series of articles on Christian Sociology in the Irish Monthly. The series continued for a number of months. At the same time there were articles on a range of subjects, including: Patriotism, The Political State of Medieval Ireland, The Modern Labour Problem, Modern (or Unchristian) Capitalism, Ireland’s Peril, and numerous articles on different aspects of Freemasonry.

In his sociological and historical studies, Cahill became convinced of the problem posed to Catholicism by Liberalism. ‘Liberalism’ is frequently identified in later times with concern for freedom and human rights, but for Cahill, looking to Liberalism in mainland Europe in the 19th century and its subsequent history, he saw it as a secular outlook that excluded mention of God from public life and undermined Christian values. He also saw it as advocating the laissez-faire capitalism that caused so much exploitation and suffering. At a time when Catholicism in Ireland seemed flourishing, he feared for its future. The Irish people had been subjected to Liberalism for more than a hundred years and their values were more undermined than appeared on the surface. Moreover, the values of Economic Liberalism, or laissez-faire Capitalism, had become part of Irish business life. His research indicated to him that a key driving force in Liberalism was Freemasonry with its wide network of lodges and secret membership. His many articles on Freemasonry gave rise to a book in 1930 entitled: Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement. It proved controversial. The fact that it was marked by careful research and the reading of original sources resulted in favourable reviews in Catholic publications in Britain, America and mainland Europe, and in some non-Catholic works. It ran to a second edition.

Meantime, following the papal advice to involve lay people in the Church’s apostolate, Edward gathered around him a number of men drawn from all backgrounds who were interested in social reform and in Christianity. To them he lectured on Catholic Sociology and from his meetings with them emerged the organisation known as An Ríoghacht. It supported his ideas and his writings, and played an active part in Catholic Action in the 1920s and 1930s. Among the aims of its members was the development of the New Ireland into a Christian State. It was an idea and aim that had considerable support. The means to it was to be the papal social teaching. Fr Cahill felt that his friend de Valera had similar ideals. Towards the formal Christianising of Ireland, Edward produced his largest book – The Framework of a Christian State. With de Valera in government and plans for a new Constitution, it was natural for de Valera to ask Fr Cahill for proposals regarding the Constitution. This led to a Jesuit committee being formed and a draft document being brought to de Valera by Cahill. Not content with that, Cahill also added suggestions of his own. Around the same time, two members of An Ríoghacht were appointed to the Commission of Inquiry into Banking (1934–1938). They, like Fr Cahill, viewed Banking as a means to serve the people and not just a purely profit making enterprise. They emphasised a social side to economics; and they believed that to establish true social and political reform the country should have its own independent currency. The Banking Commission was divided in its final report. The majority of members, however, followed a conservative line resistant to change. It proved a triumph for the Department of Finance and a setback for de Valera, members of An Ríoghacht and other supporters of reform.

Edward Cahill spoke out strongly against the Majority Report, which had been supported by the one Catholic bishop on the commission. In this, as in some of his writings, he was subjected to severe censorship from within the Jesuit order. It was a difficult era for religious superiors. The anti-Modernist spirit still reigned, fresh ideas in theology or social teaching could easily be misconstrued, and politically the wounds of the civil war were still raw and allegiances were polarised.

In his final years, Edward kept writing. In a year and a half he produced a number of article and pamphlets, as well as actively promoting a plan he had for lessening the migration from the countryside to the towns and cities. In 1941, he had his final bout of sickness. After a long illness, borne with great patience, he died on 16 July. Next day, the various newspapers chronicled his death with laudatory headlines. His funeral at the Jesuit Church, Gardiner Street, Dublin, was attended by a large number of clergy, and in attendance were the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera and Mrs de Valera, some members of the Dail and the Senate, and a wide range of friends and acquaintances. He would have been surprised, had he lived, to find that within a decade a number of his and An Ríoghacht’s proposals for the improvement of the country were taken up by Clann na Poblachta, and that Seán MacBride had among his advisers some members of An Ríoghacht. Personally, Edward Cahill was remembered for many years as an author, a leading figure in the many-sided Catholic Action Movement, a lover of his country and its language, a man, who by his enthusiasm and Christian idealism, in the aftermath of Civil War, bonded men and women together in the quest for social reform in a new Ireland, and finally he was remembered as a kindly, approachable man who had time for others and especially for the poor.

My thanks as author are due to members of the Cahill family, especially to Mrs Maureen Murphy, niece of Fr Cahill, and her daughter, and to Pat Cahill, a grand-nephew. In the Rathkeale area, great assistance was provided by John Shanahan, who, with his colleagues, was most generous with his time and his knowledge of local history. Also most supportive was Fr Alphonsus Cullinan, then parish priest of Rathkeale, now Bishop of Waterford.

In completing the book, I am indebted to Valerie Corrigan for the typing and to Fiona Fitzgerald for many manuscript copies. The interest and expertise of Damien Burke, in the Irish Jesuit Archives, and the assistance of the staff in Milltown Park’s splendid library, were invaluable. Greatly appreciated also is the computer skill and generosity of Piaras Jackson and Dermot Roantree. Finally, my thanks and appreciation once again to my Provincial, Fr Tom Laydon, for his on-going interest and encouragement, and to my respective communities in Manresa, Clontarf, and Milltown Park, for their consideration and support.

CHAPTER ONE

1868–1897: From Birth to Ordination

Early years and background

Edward Cahill was born into an unusual family situation at Callow, Ballingrane, Rathkeale, County Limerick, on 19 February 1868. His mother, née Lucy Culhane, had previously married a well-to-do farmer, Denis O’Dea, by whom she had three boys and a girl. In 1866, when her husband died, she married Patrick Cahill. He had come from the Askeaton area, County Limerick, to work at the O’Dea farm. Their union produced three boys and a girl. Edward, as a result, grew up in a large family, with two brothers and a sister, and three half-brothers and a half-sister. Such evidence as has survived indicates that the O’Dea children were well treated by their step-father and that the combined family lived happily together.¹

Little is remembered locally about the O’Dea children. None of them stayed in the locality. One of them, however, is remembered as having married a Miss McCarthy, whose family had a furnishing business. He became a successful businessman in Dublin. His furnishing business of Messrs. O’Dea and Co., Stafford Street, was associated with the much publicised ‘O’Dearest Mattress’. He died in 1932. The Requiem Mass at the Church of the Patrons, Rathgar, was celebrated by his half-brother, Fr Edward Cahill, SJ. The large attendance included members of the Dáil and other distinguished guests, including Mr J Milroy, president of the National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association, of which Michael O’Dea was a past president.²

The farm on which Edward grew up, and which he fondly re-visited, consisted of some forty six acres. It was limestone land but with stones below the surface. Not suitable for tillage, apart from basic crops for the family, Pat Cahill kept milch cows and did some breeding and selling of cattle. Milk was brought to Newbridge Creamery a few miles distant. As he grew up, Edward probably accompanied his father to the creamery. A rough road was being developed in those days, but much of the local travel was across the fields, sometimes following what were known as ‘Mass paths’, going back to penal times. An old Mass rock was situated behind the Cahill house. A short distance away, at Cappagh, the Catholic Church had been rebuilt in 1839. Edmund Cahill (later called Edward) was baptised there; and some years later made his way across the fields to the National School at Cappagh where he mixed with Palatine Children, whose story he must often have heard.

The Palatines of County Limerick came from the German Palatinate following its annexation by Louis XIV of France early in the eighteenth century. Some 10,000 sought refuge in England. Not welcomed there, most were shipped to North America. More than three thousand, however, were forwarded to Ireland. Being Protestant in religion, they were, by Act of Parliament 1709, intended to contribute to ‘the strengthening and securing [of] the Protestant interest in Ireland.’³ They received land, were enrolled in the local Yeomanry militia, and were issued with muskets. Most of them, however, emigrated to America after some years. A prime mover behind the settlement in County Limerick was Sir Thomas Southwell, who, in 1712, settled some 130 German Protestant families in his estate in the townland of Ballingrane outside Rathkeale. Later in the century, John Wesley found staunch followers among these Palatines. The Memorial Methodist Church at Ballingrane commemorates the Embury, Heck and Ruttle families that emigrated from there in 1760 and were reputed to have been instrumental in the founding of a separate Methodist Church in North America. The families that remained in County Limerick never used their muskets against their Catholic neighbours. They settled in quietly, worked hard, and introduced new farming methods to the region. Their children inter-married with the local people.⁴ By the time of Edward Cahill’s youth, in the 1870s, they were an accepted part of the community. They had refused to involve themselves in politics or to take any part against their Catholic neighbours. They were, according to a contemporary author, ‘a quiet inoffensive people’, temperate and industrious, ‘with a great flair for horticulture and bee-keeping’.⁵

From the Census of 1901 it is easy to calculate that Edward’s father, Patrick, was 29 years of age when Edward was born. His wife, Lucy, was three years older. Edwards’s brothers, Patrick and John, were still living on the farm in 1901. John had been born in 1872, Patrick two years later. A niece, Mary O’Regan, is mentioned as housekeeper. Edward is not mentioned, neither is his sister, Ellen. She had entered a religious congregation, the Sisters of St Augustine, based in Belgium. The congregation had a mission in India. Ellen served for many years in schools in the Punjab region. She never returned to Ireland, though she did return to Belgium. The Sisters had a convent and school at Coutre in West Flanders. One of her nieces, Lucy, a daughter of Patrick Cahill, was sent to Coutre for her secondary education.⁶

Edward had long since left home by 1901. As the O’Dea boys were not interested in farm work,⁷ Edward, as the eldest boy of the Cahill family, was, presumably, active in the farm from an early age – helping in the milking of the cows, travelling with his father to the creamery, helping with the hay at harvest and caring for the horses and perhaps learning to ride. Patrick Cahill had a reputation as a hardworking, progressive farmer who also kept a number of horses, half-bred as well as dray animals. At the same time, Edward did well at school. From his time at the National School, and at the family fireside, he acquired an interest in Irish history and strong national feelings. The memory of the Famine was still fresh in the region. As he walked to Rathkeale, some four miles away, he passed the mass grave of the Famine victims, the hundreds, maybe thousands, who died on ‘the path of death’, as starving and sick they struggled to reach the Poor House at Rathkeale. Such vivid memories, conjoined with further knowledge of history acquired at Mungret College, gave rise to a deep love of the countryside and a nascent desire to improve the lot of its population, especially the less well off.

Life in Mungret College

Early on, his mind turned to fields other than those of the farm. His family were observant in their Catholic beliefs. He felt drawn to the priesthood. Despite the costs involved, his parents supported him. In 1883, at the age of fifteen years, he entered Mungret College. The College contained an Apostolic School and the Seminary for the Limerick diocese. Edward entered as a Seminary student. He shared classes with the Apostolic School students. The Apostolic School had been founded in 1880 by an Irish Jesuit, William Ronan, to cater for young men who wished to become priests but had not the financial means required for entry to the usual Seminary colleges.⁸ At the Apostolic school, the students were financed largely by bursaries from bishops with dioceses in English speaking countries outside Ireland. The bishops, in turn, expected their protégés to devote their lives to working in their dioceses. The Apostolic students were destined to serve mainly in North America and Britain, but some went to Australasia, India, South Africa, even South America and China. Sharing class with such students was a broadening experience for Edward.

Mungret College had opened as a college for Apostolic students, Seminarists and some lay boys just a year before Edward arrived there. ⁹ The college started with about thirty Apostolic students and a similar number of Seminarists. Many of them, like Edward, were prepared for the Intermediate Examinations and for the Matriculation Examination which gave entry to the degree courses at the Royal University of Ireland. Mungret was accepted as a recognised college of the University and, thereby, was enabled to offer degree courses in Arts. In January 1884, Edward was present at the first conferring of degrees at the college. It took place ‘with great solemnity in the presence of