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William J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, 1841–1921

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2015

Thomas J. Morrissey S.J.
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Extract

William J. Walsh, a name no longer familiar to people, was in his lifetime so long and so vividly associated with the struggle for educational, social and political equality on behalf of the majority population in Ireland that his death seemed to mark the passing of an institution rather than of a man. For more than thirty years he was the leading voice of the Irish hierarchy, and his wide interests and penetrating intelligence found expression in many books and in an almost unending flow of letters to newspapers on topics as varied as education, theology, canon law, social justice, human rights, bimetallism, the environment, and arbitration. A poor preacher, he made the press his pulpit, so much so that irreverent Dublin wits termed him ‘Billy the lip’. His standing and influence was such that at his death the lord mayor of Dublin, Laurence O’Neill, felt moved to the extravagant observation that he was ‘the greatest archbishop of Dublin since St. Laurence O’Toole’. The remarkable fact that the coffin of an archbishop was draped in a tricolour, even as ‘the Troubles’ raged, spoke more emphatically than words how he was viewed by the nationalist population.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , October 2008 , pp. 231 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2009

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References

Notes

1 Larkin Foreword to William J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, 1841–1921 by Thomas J. Morrissey, S.J. (Dublin, 2000).

2 Dublin Diocesan Archives (Dublin Diocesan Archives, DDA), Walsh papers, in box ‘Walsh Biographical’.

3 Ibidem. Box 357. I. f. 350/2.

4 See ‘Walsh Biographical’ in DDA; also Rigney, J., ‘Bartholomew Woodlock and the Catholic University of Ireland, 1861–71’, vol. 2, PhD thesis Univ. College Dublin, 1995.Google Scholar

5 T. J. Morrissey, William J. Walsh, pp. 7–8.

6 25 Feb. 1775, see Larkin, Emmet, The Roman Catholic Church and the emergence of the modern Irish political system, 1874–78 (Dublin 1996), p. 157 Google Scholar.

7 T. J. Morrissey, op. cit., pp. 9–20.

8 Morrissey, T. J., Towards a National University. William Delany, S.J., 1835–1924 (Dublin, 1983), pp. 35–36.Google Scholar

9 Walsh, P. J., William J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin (Dublin, 1928), pp. 107–8Google Scholar. This well researched work had not available to it documents that emerged in later years, and was also constricted in treating of the archbishop’s final decades by the fact that many of the main participants were still living.

10 Butler–Walsh, 12 April, DDA. 357. I. f. 350/3.

11 On the Fellowship Controversy see Morrissey, : Towards a National University, pp. 89–97 Google Scholar, and William J. Walsh, pp. 35–46.

12 Ibidem. William J. Walsh…, pp. 54–55, 59.

13 Persico–Cardinal Rampola, 18 July 1887, Archivo Segreto Vaticano (ASV), ff. 82r–83v; also Collectanea Hibernica, nos. 24–5, pp. 167–8; and on Persico in Ireland see Morrissey, William J. Walsh, pp. 92–108. The quotation from Manning is taken from DDA, Manning to Walsh, 25 Dec. 1885: 357. I. f. 350/4.

14 ‘Relazione sulla condizione religiousa e civile d’Irlanda’ in Archivio Vaticano, Segreteria di Stato, anno 1888, rubrica 278, fasc. 2. ff. 135r, p. 105. The use ofr superscript signifies the text on the reverse side of the page.

15 Walsh–Croke, 12 Feb. 1889, in Larkin, , The Roman Catholic Church and the Plan of Campaign, pp. 181–2.Google Scholar

16 Croke–Kirby, 6 June. Kirby papers, Irish College Rome, cit. Larkin, op. cit., pp. 255–6.

17 R. Pigott–Walsh, 6 Feb. 1885, and 10 Feb.; in Walsh papers, DDA, f. 350/4, loose in box 357, II. Walsh had not been consecrated bishop at this stage.

18 P. J. Walsh, William J. Walsh…, pp. 393–4.

19 Walsh–Pigott, 9 March 1887. Walsh papers, DDA, in box marked ‘Politics’.

20 Larkin, E., The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and the fall of Parnell, 1888–91 (Liverpool, 1979), p. 288.Google Scholar

21 Morrissey, William J. Walsh, p. 141.

22 McClelland, , Cardinal Manning. His Public Life and Influence, 1865–92 (London, 1962), p. 198 Google Scholar; Bishop Edward Thomas O’Dwyer–Bishop Nicholas Donnelly, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, 18 Nov. 1892, in Walsh papers, DDA, Donnelly letters.

23 Walsh–Archbishop Michael Logue, 18 Dec. 1892, in Armagh Diocesan Archives (ADA), Toner transcripts of Walsh–Logue correspondence (pp. 129–99), p. 129.

24 Fr. Patrick O’Donnell–Walsh, 3 Jan. 1893, in Walsh papers, 1893, DDA, Box 365, I. f. 356/2–7.

25 Builder publications, 5 Jan. 1917. The list given is not exhaustive. Walsh papers, DDA, in vol. on ‘Church building in the diocese of Dublin, 1860–1916’.

26 In same volume, DDA.

27 Irish Catholic Directory, 1896, and see Morrissey, William J. Walsh, p. 151.

28 Morrissey, Ibidem, pp. 153–4.

29 Walsh–O’Dwyer, 27 Jan., 20 Feb. 1896. O’Dwyer papers, Limerick Diocesan Archives.

30 Bp. Donnelly–O’Dwyer, 27 May 1896, DDA, letters of Donnelly.

31 Walsh’s diaries 1896. Walsh papers, DDA, in box ‘Walsh biographical’.

32 M. V. Ronan, The Most Rev. W. J. Walsh, D.D., pamphlet, (Bray, Co. Wicklow, 1927), p. 12, in Walsh papers, DDA, file on ‘Walsh background’.

33 Ibidem, p. 14.

34 On social arbitration see Morrissey, op. cit., pp. 188–98.

35 Among the various works treating of the university question may be mentioned: Walsh, Archbishop, A Statement of the chief grievances of Irish Catholics in the matter of Education, primary, intermediate, and university (Dublin, 1896)Google Scholar, and The Irish University Question, the Catholic case: selections from speeches and writings (1885–97) of the Archbishop of Dublin, with an historical sketch of the Irish University Question (Dublin, 1897); Whittle, W., The university education question in Ireland: its difficulties and their solution (Belfast, 1889)Google Scholar; Birrell, Augustine, Things Past Redress (London, 1937)Google Scholar; Fergal McGrath, ‘The University Question’ in A history of Irish Catholicism, ed. P. J. Corish, (Dublin, 1971); T. J. Morrissey, Towards a National University…, William J. Walsh…, and Bishop Edward Thomas O’Dwyer of Limerick, 1842–1917 (Dublin, 2003).

36 Forward, 1 Nov. 1913, ‘The Children, the ITGWU and the Archbishop’.

37 Events relating to the archbishop at this period were preserved in the papers of his nationalist private secretary, Fr. Michael Curran. See too the latter’s statement to the Irish Military Bureau in Irish National Library archives, in S. T. O’Ceallaigh papers, Special List A9, Ms. 27,728 (1).

38 Copy in DDA, box ‘Walsh biographical’.

39 Walsh–Monsig. Michael O’Riordan, 16 June 1918, in O’Riordan papers, Irish College Rome, no. 19 (May 1917–Aug 1918), letter no. 41.

40 Morrissey, op. cit., p. 304.

41 The representative deputation was composed of: Eamon de Valera, John Dillon, Tim Healy, William O’Brien of Labour and the ITGWU, and the lord mayor, Laurence O’Neill.

42 Irish Catholic Directory, 1919, giving record for 1918, 18 April, pp. 534–5.

43 Macardle, Dorothy, The Irish Republic (London, Corgi ed., 1968), p. 243.Google Scholar

44 Curran Memoirs (1), pp. 464ff. NLI archives.

45 See T. P. Coogan, De Valera (London, 1995), p. 129, and Bromage, Mary, De Valera and the march of a nation (London, 1956), p. 75.Google Scholar

46 The delegates were: Frank P. Walsh, a prominent New York lawyer, Michael J. Ryan, a former corporation counsel of Philadelphia, and Edward F. Dunne, of Chicago, a former governor of Illinois.

47 O’Connell–Walsh, 8 Dec. 1919, DDA, 391. I. f. 386/4.

48 Telegram to Bp. McHugh, of Derry, 21 Jan., DDA, 392. II. f. 380/1.

49 Curran memoirs (3), p. 590. NLI, Ms. 27,712 (3) 1920–21.

50 Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (London, 1950 ed.), p. 233.

51 Freeman’s Journal, 13 April 1920.

52 Cit. Miller, Church, State and Nation in Ireland, pp. 455–6.

53 Chavasse, M., Terence MacSwiney (Dublin, 1961), p. 187.Google Scholar

54 Wheeler-Bennet, J. W., John Anderson, Viscount Waverly (London, 1962) pp. 390–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar, cit. O’Broin, L., W. E. Wylie and the Irish Revolution, 1916–21 (Dublin, 1989), p. 107.Google Scholar

55 Officer (name indistinct)–Walsh, 23 Nov.; DDA, 392. II. f. 380/1 in Walsh papers in a box marked ‘Politics’.

56 On this whole episode see Curran Memoirs (3), Ms. 27,712 (3), pp. 708–11, NLI.

57 Curran memoirs (4). Ms 27,712 (4), pp. 753–5.

58 ‘Death of Revd. W. J. Walsh—Order of Events’, Wed. 13 April, DDA, 393 f. 380/8; in ‘Funeral Arrangements’, DDA, 393. f. 380/8(2).

59 Fr. Ed. J. Burne, vicar capitular–Thomas Farren, 14 April 1921. NLI, Ms. 7341, Letters to Thomas Farren, ITGWU and secretary of Dublin Workers’ Council.

60 Morrissey, op. cit., p. 349.

61 M. Ronan, Most Rev. W. J. Walsh, D.D., p. 15.

62 Shane Leslie, ‘Archbishop Walsh’ in The Shaping of Modern Ireland, ed. C. Cruise O’Brien (London, 1960), p. 106.

63 Ronan, op. cit., p. 15.

64 S. Leslie, Art. cit. in loc. cit., p. 103.

65 De Valera–Bp. Byrne (?), April 1921, cit. in newspaper cutting in Walsh papers, DDA. Name of paper not given, possibly Freeman’s Journal.

66 Freeman’s Journal, 21 April 1921.