Among those to welcome the new organisation is Sinn Féin President, Éamon de Valera, who promises all the support he can offer. CardinalMichael Logue, CatholicPrimate of Ireland, also offers his assistance: “Even if peace were restored, of which there seems little prospect at present, all the help which can be obtained shall be necessary, to restore the country from the wreck to which it has been reduced, and to help those who have been left destitute by the murder of those on whom they depended, or ruined by the destruction of their property.”
The Irish White Cross is managed by the Quaker businessman, and later Irish Free Statesenator, James G. Douglas. The organisation continues to operate until the Irish Civil War and its books are officially closed in 1928. From 1922, its activities are essentially wound down and remaining funds divested to subsidiary organisations. The longest running of these aid committees is the Children’s Relief Association which distributes aid to child victims of this troubled period, north and south of the border, until 1947. The head of the Children’s Relief Association is Áine Ceannt, the widow of Éamonn Ceannt who is perhaps one of the least known signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic.
Walsh is born at 11 Essex Quay in Dublin, the only child of Ralph and Mary Perce Walsh. His father is a watchmaker and jeweler. He inherits his sympathy for Irish nationalism and independence from his father, who has the boy enrolled in the Repeal Association before he is two years old. He is educated locally at Mr. Fitzpatrick’s School on Peter St. and at St. Laurence O’Toole Seminary School, Harcourt Street, Dublin. In 1856, he goes to the Catholic University of Ireland and three years later to St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he becomes Professor of Theology in 1867. He is appointed vice-president of Maynooth in 1878 and president in 1880. A poor preacher, he makes the press his pulpit, making a name for himself in the areas of land law and education.
Walsh is ordained into the priesthood on May 22, 1866. He is appointed Archbishop of Dublin on July 3, 1885, followed by his consecration on August 2, 1885. He serves in this position until his death in 1921 and is succeeded by Edward Joseph Byrne.
The Land issue divides the Irish hierarchy. Walsh supports agrarian reform on behalf of the rural population. He is openly sympathetic to Irish nationalism, and an advocate of both Home Rule and agrarian land reform. It is his support for this movement, led by Michael Davitt, which leads the Vatican to honour Michael Logue in Armagh with the dignity of Cardinal in 1893 rather than Walsh in Dublin.
Walsh serves on the Senate of the Royal University of Ireland (1883–84) and as part of the Commission of National Education (1885–1901). He is appointed Chancellor of the newly founded National University of Ireland in 1908, a position he holds until his death, after which he is succeeded by Éamon de Valera.
Walsh has been described as “the greatest archbishop of Dublin since Laurence O’Toole (Lorcán Ua Tuathail). Walsh Road in Drumcondra, Dublin is named after him.
Logue is born in Kilmacrennan, County Donegal in the west of Ulster on October 1, 1840. He is the son of Michael Logue, a blacksmith, and Catherine Durning. From 1857 to 1866, he studies at Maynooth College, where his intelligence earns him the nickname the “Northern Star.” Before his ordination to the priesthood, he is assigned by the Irish bishops as the chair of both theology and belles-lettres at the Irish College in Paris in 1866. He is ordained priest in December of that year.
Logue remains on the faculty of the Irish College until 1874, when he returns to Donegal as administrator of a parish in Letterkenny. In 1876, he joins the staff of Maynooth College as professor of Dogmatic Theology and Irish language, as well as the post of dean.
On May 13, 1879, Logue is appointed Bishop of Raphoe by Pope Leo XIII. He receives his episcopal consecration on the following July 20 from Archbishop Daniel McGettigan, with Bishops James Donnelly and Francis Kelly serving as co-consecrators, at the pro-cathedral of Raphoe. He is involved in fundraising to help people during the 1879 Irish famine, which, due to major donations of food and government intervention never develops into a major famine. He takes advantage of the Intermediate Act of 1878 to enlarge the Catholic high school in Letterkenny. He is also heavily involved in the Irish temperance movement to discourage the consumption of alcohol.
Logue publicly supports the principle of Irish Home Rule throughout his long reign in both Raphoe and Armagh, though he is often wary of the motives of individual politicians articulating that political position. He maintains a loyal attitude to the British Crown during World War I, and on June 19, 1917, when numbers of the younger clergy are beginning to take part in the Sinn Féin agitation, he issues an “instruction” calling attention to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church as to the obedience due to legitimate authority, warning the clergy against belonging to “dangerous associations,” and reminding priests that it is strictly forbidden by the statutes of the National Synod to speak of political or kindred affairs in the church.
Logue opposes the campaign of murder against the police and military begun in 1919, and in his Lenten pastoral of 1921 he vigorously denounces murder by whomsoever committed. This is accompanied by an almost equally vigorous attack on the methods and policy of the government. He endorses the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921.
In 1921, the death of Cardinal James Gibbons makes Logue archpriest (protoprete) of the College of Cardinals. He is more politically conservative than Archbishop of DublinWilliam Joseph Walsh, which creates tension between Armagh and Dublin. In earlier life he was a keen student of nature and an excellent yachtsman.
Cardinal Michael Logue dies in Ara Coeli, the residence of the archbishop, on November 19, 1924, and is buried in a cemetery in the grounds of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh.
O’Donnell, son of Daniel O’Donnell, a farmer, and his wife, Mary (née Breslin), is one of nine children in a family that claim descent from the O’Donnells of Tyrconnell. He is educated in the High School, Letterkenny, the Catholic University, Dublin, and St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth. He is ordained to the priesthood on June 29, 1880. In that same year he is appointed to the staff of St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, holding the chairs of Dogmatic and Moral Theology. In 1884 he becomes dean of the revived post-graduate Dunboyne Institute and in 1885 is awarded his STD. From his desk in Maynooth he pours out a continuous stream of articles on moral theology and canon law.
O’Donnell becomes Bishop of Raphoe on February 26, 1888, and is consecrated by Cardinal Michael Logue on April 3 in Letterkenny. With superior qualities of mind and body, he is a benign figure who is yet gifted with sharp political acumen. He has the most distinguished episcopate, locally and nationally. He undertakes and completes prodigious building projects including a superbly sited neo-gothic cathedral, St. Eunan’s Diocesan College, and the Presentation Monastery and Loreto schools and an extension to Loreto Convent, all in Letterkenny.
He is appointed coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh on January 14, 1922, and succeeds Cardinal Logue on November 19, 1924. On December 14, 1925, Pope Pius XI makes O’Donnell a Cardinal.
O’Donnell takes an active part in the social, political, and economic life of Ireland. A staunch activist for social justice, as Bishop of Raphoe, he is a member of the first Committee of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, founded by Sir Horace Plunkett. In 1918, when representing the nationalist’s side at the Irish Convention, he opposes John Redmond‘s amendment intended to bring about unanimity on All-Ireland Home Rule.
Joseph MacRory, an Irish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who serves as Archbishop of Armagh from 1928 until his death in 1945, is born in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, on March 19, 1861.
MacRory is one of ten children of Francis MacRory, a farmer, and his wife, Rose Montague. He studies at St. Patrick’s College, Armagh, and St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth. He is ordained to the priesthood on September 13, 1885, and serves as the first president of St. Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon from 1886 to 1887. MacRory teaches Scripture and Modern Theology at St. Mary’s College, Oscott in England until 1889, when he is appointed Professor of Scripture and Oriental Languages at his alma mater of Maynooth College. In 1906, he co-founds the Irish Theological Quarterly. In 1912, he is made Vice-President of Maynooth.
On August 9, 1915, MacRory is appointed Bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Benedict XV and receives his episcopal consecration on November 14 from Cardinal Michael Logue. During his tenure, his life is threatened repeatedly due to the turbulent atmosphere in Belfast. He is a member of the Irish Convention from 1917 to 1918.
MacRory is the papal legate at the 1933 laying of the foundation stone of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in England. He also serves as one of the cardinal electors who participate in the 1939 papal conclave which ultimately selects Pope Pius XII.
MacRory is a strenuous opponent of social injustice, National Socialism, Protestantism, and the Partition of Ireland. It is MacRory who suggests to Eoin O’Duffy that he raise an Irish Brigade to aid Generalissimo Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, he voices strong objections to conscription in the North.
MacRory is a supporter of the Gaelic League. Errigal Ciarán GAC, one of the most famous GAA clubs in Ireland, plays at Cardinal MacRory Park in Dunmoyle, County Tyrone, which is built in 1956 in his honour.
After a brief illness, Cardinal MacRory dies on October 13, 1945, at the age of 84 from a heart attack at Ara Coeli, the residence in Armagh. He is interred in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Cemetery, Armagh.
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