A briefing document prepared for the pope relating to the Easter Rising is being made public for the first time. The pink-bound La Recente Insurrezione In Irlanda (the recent insurrection in Ireland) was only discovered in the archives of the Archdiocese of Dublin two years ago. There are only two known copies in existence. The other is in the Vatican Library.
The document was prepared at the insistence of Pope Benedict XV who was strongly anti-violence and who made repeated appeals to the various factions during the first World War.
It was written by Msgr Michael O’Riordan, the rector of the Pontifical Irish College Rome, on September 1st, 1916, and it was discovered by a researcher who was looking through the papers of Msgr Michael Curran, the secretary to Archbishop William Walsh at the time of the Easter Rising.
Its contents have never been translated into English, but a note with it states the “perfidy of the British government from the early days of the Home Rule movement is charted”. The document will go on display, along with other archival material from the Archdiocese of Dublin’s files at Clonliffe College, as part of Culture Night.
The pope had been briefed on the volatile situation in Ireland before the Rising broke out, by Count George Plunkett whose son Joseph Mary Plunkett went on to be one of the signatories of the Proclamation.
“From what we have gathered so far, the only other copy is a photocopied one in the Irish College in Rome,” said diocesan archivist Noelle Dowling.
Priests of the archdiocese were caught up during the Rising and there is voluminous correspondence within the files that relate to Easter Week.
Two letters from Gen John Maxwell, who ordered the execution of the leaders of the Rising, will go on display. Writing to Archbishop Walsh, Gen Maxwell said he wished to ask for possible assistance relating to a “delicate question”.
Some people were using Requiem Masses said for the “repose of the souls of those unfortunates who suffered death for the leading part they took in the late deplorable rebellion, to make political demonstrations outside the churches and chapels in which Masses are said”. He recommended that those taking part in such Masses should “disperse quietly after they had been said and take no part in such demonstrations”.
In another letter, Archbishop Walsh rebuffs Gen Maxwell’s attempts to honour priests who had exhibited “individual cases of special gallantry or devotion”. Archbishop Walsh responded by stating that there were indeed so many acts of gallantry that it would be “invidious to treat these cases as if they were exceptional”.
Among the other items is a letter from Mabel FitzGerald, the wife of Irish Volunteer Desmond FitzGerald and mother of future taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. It is addressed to Archbishop Walsh and pleads with him to intervene with the British government to get her husband’s 10-year jail sentence reduced.
Mrs FitzGerald acknowledges that her husband was in the GPO, but protested that he was only there in a civilian capacity distributing food and Red Cross provisions. “He was neither responsible for it, nor took a prominent or even a belligerent part in it, his sentence is quite disproportionately severe even among sentences which are all harsh,” she stated.
Ms Dowling said the items on exhibition for Culture Night would be part of a bigger exhibition next year. “It has generated a lot of interest even among our own priests,” she added. “Parishes and priests have been contacting us saying they have further material.”
