Category Archives: Irish War of Independence

Remembering CUA library donor John K. Mullen of Galway

John Kernan Mullen of Ballinasloe, County Galway, helped to fund the Catholic University of America (CUA) library that bears his name. The cornerstone was laid April 25, 1925, on the Washington, D.C., campus.

Mullen emigrated to America in 1847, when he was nine. “He began working in a flour mill in Oriskany Falls, N.Y.,” according to a CUA profile. “At 20, Mullen went West, leasing a flour mill in Denver, Colo., and soon after buying several more mills. By 1911 he had built the first grain elevator in the state, established the Colorado Milling and Elevator Company, and operated 91 elevators, warehouses and mills in Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Oregon.”

He became a millionaire.

In 1924, Mullen pledged $500,000 to CUA to build a library, which opened as the John K. Mullen of Denver Memorial Library in September 1928. Since then the library has been open to the public. My work has benefited from access to the Mullen Library and CUA’s Special Collections, which are held in a different building. See the library’s online centenary exhibition.

There is no doubt of Mullen’s business success and generous philanthropy, especially to the Catholic church. He might have been motivated by having escaped the Great Famine.

His political views about Ireland’s struggle for independence are more of a mystery. He surely knew that Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, CUA’s rector from 1909 to 1928, had been an ardent Irish nationalist and national vice president of the Friends of Irish Freedom during the country’s revolutionary years. Exiled Fenian John Devoy attended the 1925 cornerstone ceremony. Coverage of the event in his Gaelic American newspaper mentioned only Mullen’s financial gift.^[1]”Cardinal Lays Cornerstone Of Library, Gaelic American, May 2, 1925.

Mullen died in August 1929 in Denver. US Catholic newspapers and secular press obituaries also were silent as to Mullen’s views about his homeland. The digital Irish Newspaper Archive contains no coverage of his death or funding the library.

Bust of John K. Mullen on the main stairway landing between the library’s lobby and second floor.

This plaque is located inside the library’s front door.

References[+]

References
↑1	”Cardinal Lays Cornerstone Of Library, Gaelic American, May 2, 1925.

Following US correspondents in Ireland, Part 3

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My April 4-14 trip to Ireland allowed me to explore several places visited by American journalists in their late 19th or early 20th century travels to the country. Below are a few more of my travel photos of these places, plus some of the correspondents’ original reporting and my work about them. This is the last post of this series. MH

My travel to County Donegal allowed me not only to follow the 1888 journey of American correspondent William Henry Hurlbert (See Part 1), but also three other US journalists who trekked to Dungloe during Ireland’s revolutionary period. Ruth Russell of the Chicago Daily News, 1919; Savel Zimand of Survey Graphic magazine, 1921; and Redfern Mason of the San Francisco Examiner, 1922, came to interview Patrick Gallagher, leader of the successful Templecrone Co-operative Agricultural Society Ltd. See “When three American journalists visited ‘Paddy the Cope’ in Dungloe, 1919-1922,” published earlier this year in The Irish Story.

Dunleavy, Holan, McGarvey, and Sharkey.

“The Cope” today remains a thriving enterprise, with 12 retail businesses in four locations: Dungloe, Annagry, Kincasslagh, and Falcarragh. I was welcomed to Dungloe by Patrick J. Dunleavy, chairman of the Cope’s board of directors, who gave me a detailed driving tour of the Rosses region. Mark Sharkey, CEO; and Emma McGarvey, business support manager, hosted us for a lovey lunch at the Caisleain Oir Hotel, Annagry. Our wonderful meal came from award-winning chef Cathal Armstrong, who also owns Restaurant Eve in greater Washington, D.C. The warm hospitality of all these people matched the fine April weather. It was a highlight of my trip. Thank you.

***

“I arrived at Dungloe on a cold and rainy morning. And as the station is about three miles from the center of the village, I sent my luggage up by donkey cart and set out walking. Wild beauty was all around me. In ten minutes the rain stopped. The sky cleared and the wind freshened over the blue and golden hills.” — Savel Zimand, from “The Romance of Templecrone”, Survey Graphic, November 26, 1921.

The Letterkenny and Burtonport railway extension opened in 1903 and closed in the 1940s. The Dungloe station has been converted into a private residence, seen at right from a small bridge over the former railroad right-of-way, at left, now used as a hike and bike trail.

“… If [Gallagher] had not been a co-operationist for Ireland he might have been a capitalist in America. He took me up the main street, making plain the signs of growing industry: the bacon cured in Dungloe, the egg-weighing, the rentable farm machinery. After viewing the orchard and beehives behind the cooperative store, I remarked on the size of the plant and its suitability for the purpose. — Ruth Russell, “Building The Commonwealth”, The Freeman, May 26, 1920. Magazine story based on 1919 reporting for the Chicago Daily News.

Early 20th century view, looking down Main Street in Dungloe.

Looking up Main Street, Dungloe, April 2025.

“[Gallagher] rises. ‘Come down to the harbor with me. I want to show you something.’ We stroll to the waterfront. From the rocks juts a pier on which men are working. ‘We have to thank America for that,’ says Gallagher.” — Redfern Mason, Rebel Ireland. Self-published booklet based on his 1922 reporting for the San Francisco Examiner.

These two storage buildings were erected as part of the cooperative in the early 20th century. They are located on the Dungloe waterfront, seen on the right at low tide. The pier related to this enterprise was erected in 1923 with funding from the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. The pier was destroyed by several storms in the 1990s. It has since been replaced, seen below at left.

Following US correspondents in Ireland, Part 2

Zoom presentation on Michael J. O’Brien

Four great stories about American journalists in Ireland

Below are four recent stories about American journalists in Ireland. The six correspondents highlighted in these pieces visited the country between 1919 and 1925. Their work drew attention on both sides of the Atlantic. My research in this subject area continues. Suggestions and comments are welcome. MH

Richard Lee Strout: A Young American Reporter In Revolutionary Ireland After spending a year interning at London newspapers, Strout stopped in Ireland on his way back to America. He arrived in Dublin a day before Bloody Sunday, 1920. Published in American Journalism, the peer-reviewed quarterly of the American Journalism Historians Association.

When three American journalists visited ‘Paddy the Cope’ in Dungloe, 1919-1922: Correspondents from the Chicago Tribune, Survey Graphic magazine (New York), and the San Francisco Examiner traveled to the northwest corner of County Donegal to write about Patrick Gallagher, a cooperative leader. Published in The Irish Story (Dublin).

When the Irish ‘exposed’ a New York Herald reporter In June 1919 the Irish American press praised Truman H. Talley for publicizing a report that criticized the British administration of Ireland. A few months later, the same papers called him a British propagandist.

Could Maine potatoes have relieved Irish hunger in 1925? Milton Bronner of the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicated a three-part series of stories and photos about privation and poverty in the rural west of Ireland.

Visit my American Reporting of Irish Independence page.

On a lonely road in Connemara, south of Westport, 2019.

When the Irish ‘exposed’ a New York Herald reporter

In June 1919 the Irish American press praised New York Herald correspondent Truman H. Talley for publicizing a report that criticized the British administration of Ireland. Three months later, as the Herald published Talley’s own investigation of Ireland, the same papers called him a British propagandist. Irish nationalists on both sides of the Atlantic cited what they described as evidence of Talley’s bias. The episode demonstrated how these partisans kept a close watch on correspondents who visited Ireland and monitored their coverage in the foreign press.

Truman Talley’s 1918 passport photo.

Talley joined the ranks of American journalists in Europe at the end of the First World War. The 6-foot-tall, Rock Port, Missouri native had worked at the Herald since 1915. Now 27, Talley soon began to file cable dispatches from London and Paris.^[1]National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 621; Volume #: Roll 0621 – … Continue reading He did not travel to Dublin in January 1919 to witness the opening of the separatist Dáil Éireann; the Herald used Associated Press coverage. Talley also remained in London in May when the American Commission on Irish Independence visited Ireland. His cables to New York were based on the British press, which Talley described as “deeply stirred” by the pro-independence speeches of the three Irish American visitors.^[2]“Walsh Mission To Ireland Evokes London Protest”, New York Herald, May 5, 1919.

In June, when the American Commission’s Frank P. Walsh and Edward Dunne released their report on British coercion in Ireland,^[3]Michael J. Ryan, the Commission’s third member, did not sign the report. Talley became the first journalist to “spread before the American people the full report on Irish conditions.”^[4]“England Must Act,” from Harvey’s Weekly, June 21, 1919, republished in the Gaelic American, July 5, 1919. He laid out all seventeen of the report’s charges and quoted passages at length. Talley’s story began on the front page and filled an inside page of the Herald’s Sunday edition, its two hundred thousand copy circulation double the usual weekday distribution.^[5]N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual & Directory (Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer & Son’s, 1919) New York City papers, 648-684.

Syndication increased the story’s readership across the country. The Irish World and American Industrial Liberator, and Gaelic American, both of New York, and the Irish Press of Philadelphia, republished Talley’s story.^[6]“World Stunned By Atrocities In Ireland”, Irish World; “Horrors Of English Prisons In Ireland”, Gaelic American; and “Savage British Atrocities Shown In Walsh-Dunne Report” , Irish … Continue reading Dr. Patrick McCartan, Sinn Féin’s envoy to America and editor of the Irish Press, recalled Talley’s “vivid picture of the British press eyeing the report malignantly.”^[7]Patrick McCartan, With De Valera In America. [New York: Brentano, 1932], 118. Gaelic American editor John Devoy praised the Herald for its “feat of alert and enterprising journalism.”^[8]“English Atrocities in Ireland,” Gaelic American, June 21, 1919.

Some pro-British readers criticized the Herald for publicizing the Walsh-Dunne report. In an editorial reply, the daily said it published Talley’s account “because it is news of the first importance” with serious implication for Anglo-American relations. The editorial emphasized the paper was not passing judgement on the merits of the allegations and “in view of the conflict of the evidence at hand … (was) having its own investigation made.”^[9]“The Case of Ireland”, New York Herald, June 26, 1919.

With that, Talley finally headed across the Irish Sea.

Talley in Ireland

“I went to Ireland as an impartial American seeking the truth,” the correspondent told the Herald’s readers when his “Truth About Ireland” series debuted on Sept. 7, 1919.^[10]“Full And Free Inquiry Shows Cruelty To Irish Political Prisoners False”, New York Herald, Sept. 7, 1919. He had spent about four weeks in the country during July and August and “retraced the path followed by the Irish American delegation.” Talley portrayed the Walsh-Dunne report as false or exaggerated, especially regarding the treatment of political prisoners, and challenged Sinn Féin’s legitimacy to establish an Irish republic. His book-length series appeared almost daily, more than three dozen installments that stretched into November.

But Irish partisans were also at work—publicly and privately—to undermine Talley’s reporting from Ireland.

The Irish Independent of Aug. 1, 1919,—a month before Talley’s series debuted—reported the correspondent was “pursuing an ‘independent’ investigation in a government motor car, attended by military and police guardians.”^[11]”U.S. Pressman On Ireland”, Irish Independent, Aug. 1, 1919. Placing “independent” in quotes is telling; it conveyed skepticism of Talley’s description of his work. US newspapers were doing the same thing at the same time with “President” and “Irish Republic” as Éamon de Valera made his tour of America.^[12]See my post, “How Dev’s tour shifted U.S. press coverage of Ireland”, July 19, 2019.

Arthur Griffith

The Independent reported that Talley declared he would hardly have known there was any unrest in Ireland if not for the carbine-totting constable seated at his side in the car. “There is no military occupation or distinction,” Talley said. “The soldiers constitute a reserve force which may never be called upon unless the Sinn Féin adherents attempt to effect a coup d’etat.”

Talley interviewed Sinn Féin’s Arthur Griffith in Dublin. Ireland’s acting leader told the visiting journalist that the country was “becoming the Mecca of American newspapermen.”^[13]“ ‘Acting President’ of Ireland on ‘The Cause’”, New York Herald, Nov. 23, 1919. Quotation is Talley’s paraphrase of Griffith’s remarks, not a direct quote. Talley quoted Griffith … Continue reading Privately, Griffith wrote to de Valera in America to alert him of the conversation with Talley and a separate encounter with John Steele of the Chicago Tribune:^[14]Steele was a Belfast native who began his newspaper career in the United States, including the New York Herald. He returned to Europe earlier in 1919 as the Chicago Tribune’s London bureau chief. … Continue reading

“I told Talley if he wanted to see the country fairly, he should go around independently. He said he would. He left Dublin and absolutely put himself in their hands and toured the country in government motors accompanied by English government officers. I don’t know what stuff he is writing, but whatever it is you may take it as Dublin Castle’s voice.”^[15]Griffith to de Valera, Aug. 18, 1919. Similar language in Griffith to de Valera, Aug. 29, 1919. Éamon de Valera papers, University College Dublin, P150/727. Thanks to historian Daniel Carey of … Continue reading

Talley was not the first, and would not be the last, journalist to accept transportation from either side of the war between Irish separatists and British authorities. Fourteen London-based newspaper correspondents boarded a British naval destroyer that steamed to Dublin during the April 1916 Rising.^[16]See my post, “When a boatload of reporters steamed to the Easter Rising”, Sept. 15, 2023. Several American correspondents in Ireland described being blindfolded by rebel foot soldiers and driven surreptitiously to rendezvous with leaders such de Valera and Michael Collins. Other reporters hired drivers of private motor cars or jaunting cars, navigated the Irish railways system, or simply walked to where they were going.

It is unclear whether Griffith learned about Talley from the Independent’s story, or if the well-connected Irish leader, himself a journalist, first tipped the paper about the American correspondent. By late August, the Gaelic American in New York also reported Talley’s touring in British military motor cars. Devoy’s paper cited the Independent as its source.

“Mr. Talley has been dined and wined by England’s satraps in Ireland and in return for this hospitality he has whitewashed martial law and militarism in Ireland,” the Gaelic American reported. “He is certainly trying to make himself worthy of his hire.”^[17]“On His Majesty’s Service”, Gaelic American, Aug. 30, 1919.

John Devoy

In addition the chauffeur services, Devoy criticized Talley’s July 20 Herald story about a post-war “peace parade” in Dublin. The correspondent described the large turnout and cheering for the parading troops as “striking evidence of loyalty” to the London government. “…all Dublin was surprised and the Sinn Féin chagrined that such a demonstration and loyal outpouring would mark the event, especially since there were present all the elements to make trouble if the Sinn Féin wanted trouble. … (The) demonstration and spectacle bore eloquent witness that Ireland’s heart still is with the Empire.”^[18]”Dublin Displays Her Loyalty At A Big Peace Parade”, New York Herald, July 20, 1919.

Attacks continue

As Talley’s “Truth About Ireland” series unspooled in the Herald, Devoy continued to attack it in the Gaelic American. An editorial headlined “The ‘Herald’s’ English Propaganda” circled back to Talley’s June coverage of the Walsh-Dunne report:

Talley is a trained newspaper man and if not under orders to lie and misrepresent would probably tell the truth. Some time ago he cabled to the Herald the substance of the report of Frank P. Walsh and Edward F. Dunne on British atrocities in Ireland and the paper published it full. It was a good stroke of journalism, because the English papers had suppressed it, the censor had forbidden its publication in Ireland, and therefore, up to the Herald’s publication, the American people had no knowledge of it. People began to look to the Herald for ‘scoops’ about Ireland and to regard Talley as an enterprising American journalist who could be depended upon to give them.^[19]“The ‘Herald’s’ English Propaganda”, Gaelic American, Sept. 13, 1919.

Such trust was misplaced, Devoy continued. The editorial repeated the same two sentences about Talley being “dined and wined by England’s satraps in Ireland” and the correspondent making himself “worthy of his hire” from the front page story a few weeks earlier. Devoy also said the Herald tried to buy advertising in his paper to promote Talley’s upcoming series, but he refused this because of the Independent’s story about Talley’s rides with the British authorities.

Opening installment of Talley’s “Truth About Ireland” series, including editor’s note, Sept. 7, 1919.

The Gaelic American’s broadside against Talley and the Herald continued for several weeks as Devoy refuted the reporting nearly point by point. The weekly highlighted correspondence from Griffith, who “exposed the hollowness of the pretensions” of Talley’s claim of being an “impartial investigator.” In addition to repeating the car story, Griffith alleged that during his meeting with Talley, the correspondent “frankly admitted to us that his paper was inimical and that he was ‘prejudiced against Sinn Féin.’ ”^[20]See “New York Herald’s War On the Irish Cause”, Gaelic American, Sept. 20, 1919; “Talley Continues His Attacks on Ireland”, Gaelic American, Sept. 27, 1919; and “Talley Exposed by Arthur … Continue reading

The attacks by Devoy and Griffith are also notable for relitigating the Herald’s coverage of Charles Stewart Parnell’s 1880 visit to America, and the testimony of Herald correspondent Chester Ives during the “Parnellism and Crime” inquiry of 1889. Devoy was a reporter at the Herald in 1880, nine years after his exile to America for Fenian activities in Ireland. He worked among the press who covered Parnell’s visit and simultaneously maneuvered behind the scenes to assist the nationalist MP. Devoy accused the late Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr. of working to undermine Parnell’s fundraising for the Land League in Ireland. The Herald, in its presentation of Talley’s series, recalled Bennett’s $100,000 relief fund for Ireland as proof the paper was not biased against the country.^[21]”Herald’s Irish Relief Work Not Forgotten”, New York Herald, Sept. 21, 1919. I’ll explore this aspect in a future post.

More reaction

Talley’s series also drew the attention of Daniel T. O’Connell, director of the Irish National Bureau in Washington, D.C, the publicity arm of the Friends of Irish Freedom. In a letter to Walsh of the American Commission, he described Talley’s series as “a bold piece of British propaganda.” Walsh replied that he was “keeping track” of Talley’s series and, if he deemed it wise, would “make a concise reply after the appearance of his final article.”^[22]From O’Connell to Walsh, Sept. 11, 1919; Walsh to O’Connell, Sept. 15, 1919, in Frank P. Walsh papers, MssCol 3211, New York Public Library.

Frank P. Walsh

O’Connell had no such restraint. The weekly News Letter he published warned readers that “Tally seeks to convince the American public the articles are without bias or prejudice. It is safe to assert, however, that a jury of any twelve well-trained newspaper correspondents, would, after reading the first five articles, convict Talley of gross prejudice toward Ireland.”^[23]No headline, Irish National Bureau’s News Letter, Sept. 19, 1919.

The same jury, presumably, would also find the News Letter guilty of being an Irish propaganda organ.

Talley’s series had another problem. It trailed by the British government’s official denial of the Walsh-Dunne report. Walsh urged American newspapers and magazines to give “equal publicity” to his editorial replies to the British response.^[24]To Chicago Examiner, Aug. 2, 1919; Harvey’s Weekly, Aug. 4, 1919, Walsh papers, NYPL. It does not appear that Walsh responded to Talley’s series, based on a review of the Herald through Dec. 31, 1919.

Other readers did respond to the series; more than 30 letters to the editor of the Herald, which in three issues filled up most of a page.^[25]New York Herald, Sept. 21, Sept. 28, and Oct. 16, 1919. The opinions ranged from support to opposition of Talley’s work, or why the Herald was even bothering with the story. A sampling:

“To hell with England and you, also your opinion about Ireland …”
“I have twenty-three years been a reader of the Herald and always will be on account of Mr. Talley’s ‘truth and nothing but the truth.'”
“Surely we have enough domestic matters in our great country to occupy the attention of our politicians instead of their time being taken up by the discontent of a foreign corner of the earth, such as Ireland.”

The Herald circulated Talley’s series to newspapers across the US and Canada. Some of these papers edited the reporting into a single feature. The News Letter worried that “Talley’s articles will influence readers to blame the newspapers publishing his articles. Many will find it difficult to distinguish between the author and the medium of expressing his prejudiced views.”^[26]News Letter, Sept. 19, 1919.

This is an important point. O’Connell wanted readers to disregard Talley’s anti-Irish reporting, but he did not want them to lose confidence in the papers that published it. Just as Griffith noted the rise of American correspondents to Ireland, O’Connell recognized many of these journalists would write stories that were helpful to Ireland in these same papers.

Devoy was less concerned. He predicted Talley’s series “will make no impression on the American public because their partisanship is not even disguised.”^[27]“New York Herald’s War On the Irish Cause”, Gaelic American, Sept. 20, 1919.

Afterward

Talley’s series and the Walsh-Dunne report soon enough were left in the wake of ongoing developments in the Irish war of independence. Nearly a year after his series debuted, Talley wrote:

Events of the utmost significance are crowding upon one other so rapidly in Ireland at the present time that it is frequently difficult to assess any or all of them at their true relative value or to discern their precise cause and effect beyond, of course, the daily generalization that the situation is still more serious and nearer a calamitous climax. Every day the first pages of the newspapers contribute further complexities to this age-old and bitterest of modern political dramas. News, as such, coming from Ireland for weeks and months past has been anything but dull and desultory; it has bristled with violence and bulged with rumblings of impending bloodshed on a widespread scale.^[28]“Sinn Féin’s Provocative Martyrdom”, New York Times, Aug. 29, 1920.

Irish separatists and the British government each kept a close eye on visiting correspondents and monitor foreign press coverage of Ireland. In January 1920 Dublin Castle authorities seized American newspapers shipped to the Irish capital because they contained coverage of the Irish bond drive in the United States, which was led by de Valera and Walsh. The British Embassy in Washington, D.C. regularly assessed the Irish news coverage and editorials in American papers. Officials there described the New York Herald as “friendly to us.”^[29]Document 32, #11767, “The American Press”, from the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 1921, p. 130 in Kenneth Bourne and D. Cameron Watt, general editors, British Documents on Foreign … Continue reading Irish-American organs such as the Gaelic American and News Letter continued to question the self-declared impartiality of American correspondents in Ireland. They criticized what they found objectionable, praised what supported the Irish cause.

Griffith died suddenly in August 1922, during the Irish Civil War. Devoy lived until 1928. Talley served as European manager of the New York Herald News Service and a special writer for the New York Times and national magazines such as World’s Work and McClure’s. In 1922 he joined Fox Movietone News, where he revolutionized newsreel production and distribution, “a new type of pictorial journalism designed to do away with the monotony and lack of personality of the old.”^[30]”Truman Talley Dies; Movietone Executive”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 19, 1941. Talley died in 1941–22 years after Irish partisans exposed his ride through Ireland with the British military.

References[+]

References
↑1	National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 621; Volume #: Roll 0621 – Certificates: 43500-43749, 05 Nov 1918-06 Nov 1918; Ancestry.com. U.S.
↑2	“Walsh Mission To Ireland Evokes London Protest”, New York Herald, May 5, 1919.
↑3	Michael J. Ryan, the Commission’s third member, did not sign the report.
↑4	“England Must Act,” from Harvey’s Weekly, June 21, 1919, republished in the Gaelic American, July 5, 1919.
↑5	N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual & Directory (Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer & Son’s, 1919) New York City papers, 648-684.
↑6	“World Stunned By Atrocities In Ireland”, Irish World; “Horrors Of English Prisons In Ireland”, Gaelic American; and “Savage British Atrocities Shown In Walsh-Dunne Report” , Irish Press, all on June 21, 1919.
↑7	Patrick McCartan, With De Valera In America. [New York: Brentano, 1932], 118.
↑8	“English Atrocities in Ireland,” Gaelic American, June 21, 1919.
↑9	“The Case of Ireland”, New York Herald, June 26, 1919.
↑10	“Full And Free Inquiry Shows Cruelty To Irish Political Prisoners False”, New York Herald, Sept. 7, 1919.
↑11	”U.S. Pressman On Ireland”, Irish Independent, Aug. 1, 1919.
↑12	See my post, “How Dev’s tour shifted U.S. press coverage of Ireland”, July 19, 2019.
↑13	“ ‘Acting President’ of Ireland on ‘The Cause’”, New York Herald, Nov. 23, 1919. Quotation is Talley’s paraphrase of Griffith’s remarks, not a direct quote. Talley quoted Griffith elsewhere in this story.
↑14	Steele was a Belfast native who began his newspaper career in the United States, including the New York Herald. He returned to Europe earlier in 1919 as the Chicago Tribune’s London bureau chief. Griffith dismissed him as an “Ulster Protestant.” See Note 15. Steele later claimed credit for helping with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. See my post, ” ‘The Republic of Ireland is dead; long live … ‘ “, Jan. 7, 2022. Steele reported on Ireland into the 1930s.
↑15	Griffith to de Valera, Aug. 18, 1919. Similar language in Griffith to de Valera, Aug. 29, 1919. Éamon de Valera papers, University College Dublin, P150/727. Thanks to historian Daniel Carey of Dublin for help deciphering Griffith’s penmanship.
↑16	See my post, “When a boatload of reporters steamed to the Easter Rising”, Sept. 15, 2023.
↑17	“On His Majesty’s Service”, Gaelic American, Aug. 30, 1919.
↑18	”Dublin Displays Her Loyalty At A Big Peace Parade”, New York Herald, July 20, 1919.
↑19	“The ‘Herald’s’ English Propaganda”, Gaelic American, Sept. 13, 1919.
↑20	See “New York Herald’s War On the Irish Cause”, Gaelic American, Sept. 20, 1919; “Talley Continues His Attacks on Ireland”, Gaelic American, Sept. 27, 1919; and “Talley Exposed by Arthur Griffith”, Gaelic American, Oct. 11, 1919; and others.
↑21	”Herald’s Irish Relief Work Not Forgotten”, New York Herald, Sept. 21, 1919. I’ll explore this aspect in a future post.
↑22	From O’Connell to Walsh, Sept. 11, 1919; Walsh to O’Connell, Sept. 15, 1919, in Frank P. Walsh papers, MssCol 3211, New York Public Library.
↑23	No headline, Irish National Bureau’s News Letter, Sept. 19, 1919.
↑24	To Chicago Examiner, Aug. 2, 1919; Harvey’s Weekly, Aug. 4, 1919, Walsh papers, NYPL.
↑25	New York Herald, Sept. 21, Sept. 28, and Oct. 16, 1919.
↑26	News Letter, Sept. 19, 1919.
↑27	“New York Herald’s War On the Irish Cause”, Gaelic American, Sept. 20, 1919.
↑28	“Sinn Féin’s Provocative Martyrdom”, New York Times, Aug. 29, 1920.
↑29	Document 32, #11767, “The American Press”, from the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 1921, p. 130 in Kenneth Bourne and D. Cameron Watt, general editors, British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports And Papers From The Foreign Office Confidential Print. Part II, Series C, Vol. 1. [University Publications of America, Inc., 1986.]
↑30	”Truman Talley Dies; Movietone Executive”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 19, 1941.

When three American journalists visited Donegal, 1919-1922

At least three American journalists trekked to the Dungloe village in remote northwest County Donegal during Ireland’s dangerous revolutionary period. They came to interview Patrick Gallagher, who had organized a successful cooperative agricultural society. It was a hopeful news story in the middle of Ireland’s war of independence and civil war.

My story about these three journalists–Ruth Russell of the Chicago Daily News; Savel Zimand of Survey Graphic magazine; and Redfern Mason of the San Francisco Examiner–has just been published at The Irish Story website.

Image from November 1921 issue of Survey Graphic.

Photo essay: Honoring Ireland’s Great War dead in Belgium

At Tyne Cot Cemetery near Passendale, Belgium, this Irish soldier’s name and regiment, religious and political identity, are only “Known Unto God” (script at bottom of headstone).

The sacrifice of Irish soldiers during the First World War, 1914-1918, was complicated by the unfolding separatist revolution at home. Over 200,000 Irishmen from the Catholic nationalist and Protestant unionist communities fought in the war. Upwards of 40,000 lost their lives, while tens of thousands more sustained physical and psychological injuries. Participation in the Great War was remembered in Northern Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom after the 1920 partition, but ignored in the Irish Free State, later the independent Republic of Ireland.

The Island of Ireland Peace Park in Messines, Belgium, near Ypres, is not only a memorial to Irish soldiers of both communities, but also an attempt to bolster wider reconciliation among the Irish people. It might be the most important lieu de mémoire of Irish history outside of Ireland. Some might argue that designation belongs to the many An Gorta Mor (Great Famine) memorials outside of Ireland, which represent the mid-19th century diaspora. Comments on this point of debate are welcome.

Paddy Harte and Glenn Barr, nationalist and unionist politicians from the Republic and the North, respectively, conceived of the peace park project. At the November 11, 1998, dedication, (seven months after the Good Friday Agreement) former Irish President Mary McAleese apologized on behalf of the Republic for the south’s “national amnesia” about the war. She was joined by Queen Elizabeth II and King Albert of Belgium as Irish and British military bands and pipers played a lament. Two years ago, at its 25th anniversary, the park joined nearly 150 other locations in Belgium and France as a USESCO World Heritage site commemorating the Western Front.

A 110-foot-tall Irish round tower is the park’s most distinctive feature. It is made from the stones of a former British Army barracks in Tipperary, a work-house in Westmeath, and each of the island’s other 30 counties. Specially placed windows illuminate the tower’s interior at 11 a.m. every November 11, signifying the armistice that ended the war in 1918.

All the photos in this post are from my October 2024 visit to multiple war sites in the Flanders region. Many thanks to Quasimodo Tours.

Peace Park dedication plaque and Flanders fields in the distance.

Round tower at Island of Ireland Peace Park.

Map at the Hooge Crater Museum shows Irish regiments and insignia.

Unknown soldier of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Tyne Cot Cemetery.

Unknown soldier of the Royal Irish Rifles at Tyne Cot.

Ireland’s ‘Bloody Sundays’ and The Pittsburgh Catholic, Part 2

This two-part post explores how the weekly Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper reported—or ignored—two of the most violent episodes in twentieth century Irish history. Both events—in November 1920 in Dublin, and in January 1972 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland—came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Pittsburgh, and the Catholic, had strong ties to Ireland through immigration. These two posts are revised from a paper I wrote for the American Journalism Historians Association. I presented a 10-minute overview of the research at AJHA’s annual conference, Oct. 3-5, 2024, in Pittsburgh. READ PART 1. MH

Bloody Sunday, 1972

The Northern Ireland “Troubles,” 1969-1998, began as a civil rights struggle by the province’s Catholic minority, long denied fair access to housing, jobs, and other services by the majority Protestant-led government and business sectors. Many of the discriminatory practices were abolished before the end of the conflict, which renewed Irish republican calls for reunification with the south. Most of the violence occurred within Northern Ireland, but some episodes spilled into the Republic of Ireland and England. More than 3,500 people—civilians, police, sectarian paramilitaries, and the British Army—were killed over the three decades. The 1998 peace deal, brokered with U.S. help, established a new nationalist-unionist power-sharing government in the province and cross-border institutions; renamed and reorganized the police force to integrate more Catholics; and initiated the withdrawal of British troops as paramilitary groups simultaneously decommissioned their weapons.

On Sunday, January 30, 1972, British troops opened fire on an estimated 15,000 people, predominantly Catholics, protesting internment-without-trial in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. (Irish nationalists call the city “Derry.”) The Northern Ireland government had earlier outlawed such mass marches. In an echo of Croke Park in 1920, military officials claimed there was sniper fire from the crowd. Thirteen civilians were killed that day, a fourteenth victim died later.

Thomas O’Neil became editor of the Pittsburgh Catholic in November 1970, 14 months before Bloody Sunday. While his surname certainly suggests Irish heritage, both he and his parents were natives of Pennsylvania. This author did not pursue deeper genealogy. A graduate of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, a Catholic institution, O’Neil rose through the ranks of local newspapers, from reporter to religion news and feature editor at the daily Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.^[1]Birthplaces from National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Arnold, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania; Roll: 399; … Continue reading

By 1972, the Catholic’s circulation had reached 62,150, nearly quadruple the 1920 figure.^[2]Ayer Directory of Publications, 1972. [Philadelphia: Ayer Press, 1972], 992. Six other religious papers were published in Pittsburgh, mostly monthlies, each with circulations of less the 2,000. The reference to Bishop Michael O’Conner under the front-page name plate was now replaced with, “America’s Oldest Catholic Newspaper in Continuous Publication.” There was no editorial page endorsement by the diocesan leader, Bishop Vincent M. Leonard, a Pittsburgh native born to late nineteenth century Irish immigrants.^[3]Year: 1920; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 3, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1519; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 357. He shepherded 921,000 adherents among a population of 2.3 million—40 percent—in a now smaller six-county territory.^[4]Official Catholic Directory. [New York, N.Y.: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1972]. 662. In 1951, four counties of the Pittsburgh diocese were removed to form the new Diocese of Greensburg, Pa.

The Catholic began publishing a five-part series of reports about Northern Ireland in its second issue of 1972, three weeks before Bloody Sunday.^[5]“Ulster violence: how it all came about”, January 14, 1972; “Day and night difference between Dublin, Belfast”, January 21, 1970; “How Northern Ireland Protestants view the situation”, … Continue reading The series was written by Gerard E. Sherry, managing editor of the Central California Register, the Catholic diocesan paper in Fresno. According to an editor’s note, he had spent most of December 1971 on both sides of the Irish border. What the note didn’t say is that Sherry also was a former British Army major who had emigrated from England in 1949 and become a naturalized U.S. citizen. He had edited four Catholic diocesan newspapers since the mid-1950s, winning nearly four dozen first prizes for editorials, layout, and general excellence.^[6]“New Catholic Monitor Editor Revamps Paper”, The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, August 20, 1972. Sherry’s articles were distributed through NC News, a later iteration of the NCWC News Service launched in 1920.

The fourth installment of Sherry’s series appeared inside the February 4, 1972, issue of the Catholic, which featured three front-page stories about Bloody Sunday. There would be no repeat of the paper’s 1920 silence. This time the day-after NC News Service dispatch to its U.S. Catholic newspaper clients contained a 700-word story about the event.^[7]“Cardinal Calls For Impartial Inquiry Of Londonderry Slayings” NC New Service, January 31, 1972. This was clearly the foundation of the Catholic’s 40-paragraph lead story, which did not name a news source. The piece quoted a mix of people touched by the event, including Catholic hierarchy, nationalist and unionist politicians, and a British Army major general, who said there was “absolutely no doubt” that his troops were fired upon first. The story noted the march was illegal and it used the official place name of Londonderry.^[8]“‘Impartial Inquiry’ Sought In Londonderry Slaying”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 4, 1972.

The Catholic’s first sidebar from the Religion News Service (RNS) noted that the official Vatican Radio expressed “profound grief” about the event. But the story added that Pope Paul VI would need to “tread very gingerly” about any public statements, lest he “rupture relations with Britain and possibly fire up the Catholics in both the North and the South (of Ireland) to new and even more costly bloodshed.”^[9]“Strong Papal Statement Expected”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 4, 1972. RNS was founded in 1934 by journalist Louis Minsky (1909-1957) as an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.^[10]From “About RNS”.

The second sidebar was written by William McClinton, the Catholic’s associate editor. It featured an interview with Pittsburgh resident Joseph Clark, who was “just back from Ireland.” Clark was identified as head of the Committee for Peace and Justice for Ireland, founded four months earlier at one of the city’s Catholic churches. He also had been interviewed by the Post-Gazette.^[11]“Peace Plan For Ireland”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 22, 1971. “U.S. Concern Over Irish Woes Urged”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 1, 1971. McClinton reported Clark as saying that money raised in America, including Pittsburgh, was being funneled to Ireland to pay for guns that perpetuated violence, which otherwise would recede. Clark was not quoted directly in the 12-paragraph story.^[12]“American Funds Are Buying Irish Guns”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 4, 1972.

Stories and photo about Northern Ireland at top of the jump page, February 11, 1972, issue of the Pittsburgh Catholic. Note Gerard E. Sherry’s byline at top left.

Secular coverage

Many changes occurred in the U.S. media landscape between the two Bloody Sundays. Commercial radio—led by KDKA in Pittsburgh—was just coming on the air in 1920. By 1972, radio newscasts were regularly heard inside homes, businesses, and automobiles. The black-and-white newsreels once viewed by theater audiences were replaced by the color images of network television, which broadcast Northern Ireland violence directly into private homes. And Pittsburgh lost five daily newspapers.

The Press, still owned by Scripps Howard, was Pittsburgh’s only daily surviving from 1920 and still the city’s largest paper. The Post-Gazette was created from the late 1920s merger of other titles. In 1961, the Press and Post-Gazette entered a joint operating agreement. The Post-Gazette published Monday through Saturday mornings; the Press published Monday through Saturday afternoons, and on Sunday mornings.

Bloody Sunday topped the front pages of both papers on January 31, 1972. The Post-Gazette used Associated Press coverage and the Press relied on United Press International.^[13]“13 Slain at Rally in Ulster”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 1972. “Irish Catholics Riot, Strike After British Troops Kill 13”, Pittsburgh Press, January 31, 1972. The Press also used Scripps Howard reporting over the coming days. Like the Catholic, the Press bolstered its coverage of developments with a four-part background series, “Ireland in Torment,” which began the week after Bloody Sunday.^[14]“Irish Cheer For British Turns To Curse”, February 6, 1972; “Catholics’ Drive For Civil Rights Detours Into Guerilla Warfare”, February 7. 1972; “Orangemen Vow To Fight If Independence … Continue reading The first three installments were written by UPI’s Donal O’Higgins, a Republic of Ireland native who had been with the wire service since 1946 and reported the earliest clashes of the Troubles.^[15]“Donal O’Higgins, for 37 years a correspondent and editor…” Online obituary from UPI. Joseph W. Grigg, UPI’s chief European correspondent, wrote the concluding story.

The series focused on contemporary events leading to Bloody Sunday but also acknowledged key episodes in the long history of animosity between Catholics and Protestants, nationalists and unionists, in Ireland, including the early twentieth century revolutionary period. “Ever since a separate Northern Ireland state was set up in 1920 by an act of the British Parliament, (Catholics) have felt themselves to be arbitrarily cut off from their coreligionists in the south; to be second class citizens in a state where the Protestant majority wielded virtually exclusive power.”^[16]“Catholics’ Drive …”, Pittsburgh Press, February 7, 1972. The series did not mention the November 1920 Bloody Sunday. Grigg made the contemporary situation instantly relatable to U.S. readers: “Northern Ireland has become Britain’s Vietnam.”^[17]“Internment Without Trial …”, Pittsburgh Press, February 9, 1972.

Catholics and the IRA were framed by modifiers such as “militants” and “terrorists,” respectively, throughout the coverage. Such adjectives were rarely applied to the British Army or Protestant paramilitaries. For example: “The death toll was the worst in more than three years of communal strife pitting Roman Catholic militants against Protestants and the British soldiers sent to restore order in Ulster.”^[18]“13 Slain…”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 1972 Bernadette Devlin was introduced in the fourth paragraph of a UPI story as a “Catholic militant” but not identified as a member of the British Parliament until the thirteenth paragraph.^[19]“Tense Ulster Fears New Riots”, Pittsburgh Press, February 1, 1972. In the NC News Service/Catholic story, Devlin is identified as an MP on first reference, and never as a militant. O’Higgins described the Ulster Volunteer Force, which participated in illegal and violent actions, like the IRA, as a “well-equipped Protestant fighting force.”^[20]“Orangemen Vow…”, Pittsburgh Press, February 8, 1972.

On the other hand, the secular coverage of 1972 was generally less deferential to the British military and government than in 1920. It quoted Irish Catholic nationalists, such as Devlin, in addition to church officials. And it included American sources, such as U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers.

Unlike the first Bloody Sunday, the Press in 1972 quickly weighed in with an editorial about the bloodshed. “Another Irish Tragedy” suggested three possible solutions: give Catholics “full civil and economic rights”; draw new border lines with Catholic areas incorporated into the Republic of Ireland; or end partition entirely, reunite the island, and encourage Protestants “who could not bear living in a Catholic-dominated Ireland” to emigrate to Britain, America, or elsewhere.^[21]“Another Irish Tragedy”, Pittsburgh Press, February 1, 1972.

On the same page, an editorial cartoon headlined “Murderer!” showed an IRA gunman and British soldier with weapons pointed at each other as they stood over several dead bodies. In the background, a sign atop a hotel was labeled with the double-entendre, “The Ulster Arms.” The 1972 reports included more news photographs than in 1920, when access to images was still very limited. Efforts to encourage Washington to help end Irish violence also quickly became part of the ongoing coverage.

Pittsburgh Press, Feb. 1, 1972.

Catholic’s next issue

The Catholic continued its Bloody Sunday coverage the following week. A front-page piece by RNS described the New York City press conference of Father Edward Daly^[22] RNS used the Irish forename Eamon, but Edward was more common. He became a bishop in 1974., the Catholic priest who “became famous overnight after a BBC television camera pictured him standing over a dying youth waving a blood-stained handkerchief at British troops.” Fifty-two years later, the video and photos of Daly (1933-2016) remain an iconic image of Bloody Sunday. He called the attack by British troops “complete and unprovoked murder.”^[23]“‘Unprovoked murder,’ priest charges”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.

Daly’s observations were corroborated by the American journalist Gail Sheehy (1936-2020), then a correspondent for New York Magazine, four years before she became famous with her book, Passages. Sheehy had family ties to Northern Ireland and had gone there to report on the role of women in the Catholic civil rights movement.^[24]See Sheehy, Gail, Daring: My Passages. [New York: William Marrow/Harper Collins, 2014]. She told the press conference she witnessed four marchers being killed but did not see any civilian shooters.

A second RNS story inside the Catholic reported that Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York City had called for civil rights reform in Northern Ireland and launched an emergency relief fund for the region.^[25]“Card. Cooke launches Irish emergency fund”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972. An op-ed by Monsignor Charles Owen Rice of the Pittsburgh diocese, vice-president of Clark’s Peace and Justice for Ireland committee, suggested the Irish diaspora in American had been “uninvolved” in the Northern Ireland crisis until Bloody Sunday.^[26]“Irish Are Aroused”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972. “Now it is changed, changed almost as utterly as it was fifty years ago,” he wrote, a paraphrase of the William Butler Yeats poem about the earlier revolutionary period.^[27]“All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.” From “Easter, 1916”.

Rice suggested that the “Derry massacre” (he did not use the full Londonderry name throughout his column) “invites comparison with our Kent State” University, a reference to the May 4, 1970, shooting death of four student protestors by the Ohio National Guard. “In a way Kent State was worse because it was fratricidal. American killing American, but on the other hand, the Kent State killers were unseasoned National Guardsmen not disciplined regular soldiers, whereas, the British paratroopers are the most professional and reliable that England has.” The British Army’s tactics, Rice concluded “make new friends and recruits for the IRA and push peace further and further back.”

The final installment of Sherry’s series reported on the Compton Report, a November 1971 government enquiry that detailed British military brutality against Northern Ireland citizens and prisoners. The story was packaged with a photo from a post-Bloody Sunday protest in Newry, Northern Ireland. “Thousands of Roman Catholics march silently through the street here,” the caption said. Another NC News brief reported that Pope Paul had indeed made a statement about Northern Ireland, delivered from the balcony of the papal apartment to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square. “We desire that any form of violence be avoided by the parties concerned …” he said in Italian, then added, in English, “from any side.”^[28]“Internment in Ulster…”, “March Through Newry”, and “Avoid violence from any side, Pope advises”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.

As if to underscore Catholic Pittsburgh’s historical ties to Ireland, this issue of the Catholic also contained a nearly full-page (five of six columns) advertisement promoting the sale of the “First Annual St. Patrick’s Day Medal,” which commemorated the 432 A.D. arrival of Ireland’s patron saint. The medals, “made of pure Irish silver,” were produced in America by the Franklin Mint and sold for $15 each. This appears to have been strictly a commercial venture, as no church or charitable causes are mentioned. Irish leader Jack Lynch endorsed the enterprise as “a worthy memento of the homeland which they can always cherish.”^[29]“Orders For The First Annual St. Patrick’s Day Medal Must Be Postmarked By February 17, 1972.” Advertisement in Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.

An iconic image of Dr. Edward Daly, bent over at right, on Bloody Sunday in January 1972.

Conclusions

The Pittsburgh Catholic’s support of Irish nationalism and the Catholic clergy and other coreligionists is hardly surprising, given the paper’s history and readership. Despite the strong affinity, however, the paper’s main editorial mission was not to provide news about Ireland, either in 1920 or in 1972. But the Catholic’s mission to cover the Catholic faith left wide discretion about what did or did not appear on its pages.

The first Bloody Sunday was not cast as a sectarian attack by either the Catholic or secular press. Even Cardinal Logue did not suggest a religious dynamic to the violence of that day. The lack of a clear Catholic element could be why the Pittsburgh Catholic and the NCWC avoided the story, even as other Catholic press reported it. Errors in sectarian and secular press accounts demonstrated the challenges of verifying overseas news, especially an event as chaotic as Bloody Sunday. As an NCWC story published in the Catholic a few weeks later put it, reporting Irish news was “somewhat risky for any journalist” … since “more often than not by the time the words are read in America a new and appalling blunder had been committed …”^[30]“Irish Bishops’ Suggestion Finds Favor In England”, Catholic News Service Newsfeed, The N.C.W.C. News Sheet, December 13, 1920. Same headline, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 16, 1920.

But the weeks-long absence of Bloody Sunday news in the Catholic remains troubling for a journalism enterprise that claimed to be “in service to the cause of truth and morality.” Whether editor Smith or Bishop Canevin made the decision, either from caution or another reason, the Catholic’s initial avoidance of the Dublin bloodshed came undone once it reported the cardinal’s letter. By then the paper had missed the opportunity to make its own editorial statement about the event, as it had done many times previously regarding Ireland.^[31]The Catholic editorialized about British violence against the Irish in July 1914, April 1916, and September 1920. See my “‘Luminous In Its Presentation’: The Pittsburgh Catholic and … Continue reading It could have criticized the assassinations, as the cardinal did. Or it could have argued that the IRA’s killing of military personnel, compared to the military’s attacks on civilians, was justified by centuries of religious and political persecution. Either way, the Catholic then could have focused attention on the stadium slaughter.

The second Bloody Sunday was more clearly sectarian. And it was easier for the Catholic to report since the military action was not prompted by an initial Irish attack. In 2010, a U.K. government inquiry of the event—the second since 1972—ruled the British Army not only had fired the first shot, but also had fired on fleeing, unarmed civilians. British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a public apology, said the civilian deaths were “unjustified and unjustifiable.”^[32]See the Saville Inquiry, issued June 15, 2010. Cameron’s statement made the same day.

The Catholic’s coverage in 1972 was more aligned with the standards of contemporary journalism. It holds up on inspection more than 50 years later. The news stories did not shy from quoting sources that conflicted with the paper’s prevailing pro-Irish Catholic views. Through the Pittsburgh peace activist, it alerted readers that their money might contribute to nationalist violence in Northern Ireland. Yet the coverage leaves no reason for the Catholic’s readers to doubt the paper’s support for its Irish coreligionists.

Sensitivity to nineteenth century anti-Catholic and nativist forces in the United States are prominent in the Catholic’s pages from the time of the first Bloody Sunday. These threats would flare again during the 1920s. That bigotry had receded, but not vanished, by the second Bloody Sunday, as often symbolized by the election of John F. Kennedy as the first Catholic elected U.S. president. But some cohort of the faithful were almost always being oppressed or in danger somewhere in the world, including Ireland, and thus relevant to the Catholic’s readers.

The Catholic avoided sectarian finger pointing during both Bloody Sundays. Protestants were not the enemy as much as the British Army and government. As Sherry explained in the first installment of his 1972 series: “While on the surface the problem appears to be a Catholic-Protestant conflict, its roots are not religious but political and economic. The Catholic minority is not fighting for religious liberty, but for equal political representation, equal opportunity in employment and housing, and an end to military harassment.”^[33]“Ulster violence …”, Pittsburgh Catholic, January 14, 1972.

The research discussed in this project could be expanded to include how the Pittsburgh Catholic and other sectarian newspapers, both Catholic and Protestant, covered the entirety of either or both twentieth-century conflicts in Ireland. Exploring how that coverage compared with the secular press provides important context. How media outlets with stated religious or nationalist identities cover violent conflicts remains relevant today, as seen with the Israel-Hamas War. The original paper was submitted to AJHA in late May 2024, not long after Israeli officials ordered the Arab network Al Jazeera to leave the Jewish state.

A final note: the Pittsburgh Catholic weekly ceased publication in March 2020—one hundred and seventy-six years after its first issue—due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed online-only operations later that year. As of 2024, the Catholic existed as a bimonthly print and digital magazine under the auspices of the Pittsburgh diocese.

References[+]

References
↑1	Birthplaces from National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Arnold, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania; Roll: 399; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 65-17; career from “O’Neil Named Editor Of Pittsburgh Catholic”, Pittsburgh Catholic, October 23, 1970.
↑2	Ayer Directory of Publications, 1972. [Philadelphia: Ayer Press, 1972], 992. Six other religious papers were published in Pittsburgh, mostly monthlies, each with circulations of less the 2,000.
↑3	Year: 1920; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 3, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1519; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 357.
↑4	Official Catholic Directory. [New York, N.Y.: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1972]. 662. In 1951, four counties of the Pittsburgh diocese were removed to form the new Diocese of Greensburg, Pa.
↑5	“Ulster violence: how it all came about”, January 14, 1972; “Day and night difference between Dublin, Belfast”, January 21, 1970; “How Northern Ireland Protestants view the situation”, January 28, 1972; “Militant wing of IRA pledges a united republic”, February 4, 1972; “Internment in Ulster—charges and countercharges”, February 11, 1972.
↑6	“New Catholic Monitor Editor Revamps Paper”, The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, August 20, 1972.
↑7	“Cardinal Calls For Impartial Inquiry Of Londonderry Slayings” NC New Service, January 31, 1972.
↑8	“‘Impartial Inquiry’ Sought In Londonderry Slaying”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 4, 1972.
↑9	“Strong Papal Statement Expected”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 4, 1972.
↑10	From “About RNS”.
↑11	“Peace Plan For Ireland”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 22, 1971. “U.S. Concern Over Irish Woes Urged”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 1, 1971.
↑12	“American Funds Are Buying Irish Guns”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 4, 1972.
↑13	“13 Slain at Rally in Ulster”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 1972. “Irish Catholics Riot, Strike After British Troops Kill 13”, Pittsburgh Press, January 31, 1972.
↑14	“Irish Cheer For British Turns To Curse”, February 6, 1972; “Catholics’ Drive For Civil Rights Detours Into Guerilla Warfare”, February 7. 1972; “Orangemen Vow To Fight If Independence Threatened”, February 8, 1972; and “Internment Without Trial Shatters British Commitment To Keep Ulster”, February 9, 1972.
↑15	“Donal O’Higgins, for 37 years a correspondent and editor…” Online obituary from UPI.
↑16	“Catholics’ Drive …”, Pittsburgh Press, February 7, 1972.
↑17	“Internment Without Trial …”, Pittsburgh Press, February 9, 1972.
↑18	“13 Slain…”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 1972
↑19	“Tense Ulster Fears New Riots”, Pittsburgh Press, February 1, 1972.
↑20	“Orangemen Vow…”, Pittsburgh Press, February 8, 1972.
↑21	“Another Irish Tragedy”, Pittsburgh Press, February 1, 1972.
↑22	RNS used the Irish forename Eamon, but Edward was more common. He became a bishop in 1974.
↑23	“‘Unprovoked murder,’ priest charges”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.
↑24	See Sheehy, Gail, Daring: My Passages. [New York: William Marrow/Harper Collins, 2014].
↑25	“Card. Cooke launches Irish emergency fund”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.
↑26	“Irish Are Aroused”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.
↑27	“All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.” From “Easter, 1916”.
↑28	“Internment in Ulster…”, “March Through Newry”, and “Avoid violence from any side, Pope advises”, Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.
↑29	“Orders For The First Annual St. Patrick’s Day Medal Must Be Postmarked By February 17, 1972.” Advertisement in Pittsburgh Catholic, February 11, 1972.
↑30	“Irish Bishops’ Suggestion Finds Favor In England”, Catholic News Service Newsfeed, The N.C.W.C. News Sheet, December 13, 1920. Same headline, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 16, 1920.
↑31	The Catholic editorialized about British violence against the Irish in July 1914, April 1916, and September 1920. See my “‘Luminous In Its Presentation’: The Pittsburgh Catholic and Revolutionary Ireland, 1912-1923” in Gathered Fragments, Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Vol. XXXII, Fall 2022, 4-19.
↑32	See the Saville Inquiry, issued June 15, 2010. Cameron’s statement made the same day.
↑33	“Ulster violence …”, Pittsburgh Catholic, January 14, 1972.

Ireland’s ‘Bloody Sundays’ and The Pittsburgh Catholic, Part 1

This two-part post explores how the weekly Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper reported—or ignored—two of the most violent episodes in twentieth century Irish history. Both events—in November 1920 in Dublin, and in January 1972 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland—came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”^[1]Several violent episodes in history have been described as “Bloody Sunday,” including the March 7, 1965, attack by police authorities on predominantly Black civil rights marchers in Selma, … Continue reading Pittsburgh, and the Catholic, had strong ties to Ireland through immigration. These two posts are revised from a paper I wrote for the American Journalism Historians Association. I presented a short overview of the research at AJHA’s annual conference, Oct. 3-5, 2024, in Pittsburgh. MH

Introduction

Pittsburgh has deep Irish roots.^[2]Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh, ranked seventh in the nation for “counties with highest population of Irish ancestry,” per 2022 American Community Survey, U.S. Census … Continue reading Irish Presbyterians, primarily from the province of Ulster, today’s Northern Ireland, began to arrive in the western Pennsylvania outpost during the eighteenth century. The Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century drove large numbers of Irish Catholics to what was becoming a growing industrial city.^[3]See O’Neil, Gerard F., Pittsburgh Irish: Erin on the Three Rivers. [Charleston, S.C: The History Press, 2015]. In 1914, a ground-breaking sociological study of Pittsburgh observed, “here the old Irish cleavage has been repeated in the two strong religious elements in the community life.”^[4]Woods, Robert A., “Pittsburgh: An Interpretation Of Its Growth” in The Pittsburgh Survey, Findings in Six Volumes, edited by Paul Underwood Kellogg. [New York: Survey Associates Inc., 1914] 9. These sectarian differences were simultaneously aggravated by the transatlantic debate over whether Ireland should maintain its 1800 political union with the United Kingdom, as favored by most Irish Protestants, or pursue the nationalist desires of many Irish Catholics.

Pittsburgh was the sixth largest Irish hub in the United States in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Irish ranked fifth largest among the city’s immigrant groups, while their American-born children were second among those with at least one foreign-born parent.^[5]1920 U.S. Census. Table 13: “Country of Birth of the Foreign-Born White, For Cities of 100,000 or More”, 50. Table 65, “Number and Per Cent of Native White Population of Foreign or Mixed … Continue reading As Pittsburgh’s Irish immigrant population decreased over the next half century, the cohort of their offspring grew and developed a new Irish American identify.

Michael O’Connor, a native of Cork, Ireland, became the first bishop of the new Catholic diocese of western Pennsylvania in 1843. Within a year he established the Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper. An unsigned editorial in the first issue stated the paper’s mission to serve the Catholic faith, “to expound and defend its doctrines, to impart information regarding its history and development, and in general to give every information in our power regarding its condition in our own and in other countries.” (My emphasis.) The editorial—published on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day—also declared: “As it will be gratifying to a great body of our readers, we will endeavor to give copious extracts from journals and private communications regarding the affairs in Ireland.”^[6]“The Pittsburgh Catholic”, Pittsburgh Catholic, March 16, 1844.

The U.S. Catholic press that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century was preceded and influenced by Irish journals. In addition to informing immigrant readers about their new country, these journals detailed Irish agitation against British political rule and the suppression of Catholics. “Although these papers were not distinctly Catholic in purpose, their sympathetic tone toward those of the ancient faith merits a place for them in any description of Catholic journalism,” wrote Rev. Paul J. Foik, a Catholic priest, historian, and director of the Notre Dame University library from 1912 to 1924.^[7]Foik, Paul J., “Pioneer Efforts in Catholic Journalism in the United States (1809-1840)” in The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, October 1915, 258–70.

By the early twentieth century, the Irish and Catholic press in the U.S., “particularly the latter,” exerted significant influence on its readership, historian Thomas Rowland has noted. “In an age without radio and television, Catholic newspapers joined the popular press in serving as windows on the world for the Irish community, presenting a glimpse of things beyond the borders of one’s own parish. Consequently, these papers expressed attitudes and opinions that went virtually uncontested by any other source readily available to the Irish American community.”^[8]Rowland, Thomas Joseph, Patriotism is a Catholic Virtue: Irish-American Catholics and the Church in the Era of the Great War, 1900-1918. [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, … Continue reading

This post explores how the Pittsburgh Catholic reported 1920 and 1972 “Bloody Sunday” events in Ireland. The earlier episode remains an “emotive subject,” historian David Leeson wrote in 2003, “because it brings to mind another Bloody Sunday fifty-two years later.”^[9]Leeson, David, “Death in the Afternoon: The Croke Park Massacre, 21 November 1920,” Canadian Journal of History, April 2003. 43-67. It is appropriate to consider how the Catholic covered these two events due to the paper’s ties to Ireland, and because Ireland and Catholicism were so intertwined in the twentieth century. Having the religion’s sabbath day twice stained by the same adjective makes the pairing even more poignant.

My research focused on November 25, and December 2, 1920, issues of the Catholic, when the paper was published on Thursdays, and February 4 and 11, 1972, when it appeared on Fridays. The Catholic’s archive was viewed through Duquesne University’s Gumberg Library Digital Collection. Coverage of the two events in Pittsburgh’s daily papers and the wider Catholic press was also reviewed through the Newspapers.com and Catholic News Archive websites. Manual page reviews and key word searches were used to assess news sources, editorial opinions, and efforts to connect the events in Ireland to local readers. The surrounding page content was also reviewed for context.

Details of the 1920 Bloody Sunday follow below the graphic. The 1972 event is covered in the second post.

Graphic compiled by Mark Holan, 2024

Bloody Sunday, 1920

Irish resentment of English rule dated back seven centuries. King Henry VIII’s sixteenth century break from the Roman Catholic Church and declaration as the king of Ireland is a significant episode in the troubled history between the neighboring islands. Another was the 1690 defeat of deposed Catholic King James II by the Protestant King William III near Ireland’s River Boyne; an event still celebrated every July by Irish Protestants. The 1800 political union with Great Britain sparked several failed risings in Ireland through the nineteenth century. “Political violence is an ineradicable theme of modern Irish history,” historian Marc Mulholland has observed.^[10]Mulholland, Mark, “Political Violence” in The Princeton History of Modern Ireland, Richard Bourke and Ian McBride, eds. [Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2016] 382.

By the eve of the First World War, Irish nationalists renewed their periodic effort to secure domestic autonomy within the union, called home rule. It was largely, but not exclusively, supported by the Catholic majority in Ireland’s three southern provinces. As pro-union Protestants in Ulster opposed the change, moderate Irish nationalism yielded to the physical force republicanism of the separatist Sinn Féin^[11]“We Ourselves.” The Irish fada used on “Féin” except where quoted from newspapers that did not use it. party. Ireland’s ancient sectarian division, industrial-age labor unrest, and protests over military service on the continent underscored the ensuing political violence. The Irish war of independence, 1919-1921, resulted in the preliminary foundation of today’s 26-county Republic of Ireland and partition of the six-county Northern Ireland, which remains part of the U.K.

The first Bloody Sunday was a pivotal event of the Irish war. In the early morning hours of November 21, 1920, Irish rebels assassinated 14 British intelligence officers in Dublin as they slept or dressed in their houses or hotel rooms. A fifteenth man died later, and three others survived their gunshot wounds. The operation was designed to disrupt the network of spies and informers the military had established to thwart the guerilla tactics of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Later that afternoon, members of the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary opened fire at a Gaelic football match at Dublin’s Croke Park, killing 13 spectators and one player. From four dozen to eight dozen other people were injured.^[12]Dorney, John, “Bloody Sunday 1920 Revisited”, The Irish Story, November 21, 2020. Michael Foley, The Bloodied Field: Croke Park. Sunday 21 November 1920. [Dublin, The O’Brien Press, 2014]

News of the bloodshed reached the front pages of Pittsburgh newspapers the next day. The morning Post declared:

November 22, 1920

Seven general-interest dailies were published in the city at the time. The locally-owned Pittsburgh Press claimed the largest circulation at 116,000 weekdays, slightly less on Sundays.^[13]N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual & Directory, 1920 (in two volumes), [Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer & Son’s, 1920], 864. The evening paper published a United Press story that described the Sinn Féin “murder raids” as followed by a “counter-attack of police” at Croke Park. The stadium deaths were blamed on “panic … precipitated when Sinn Fein pickets (soldiers) opened fire on police.”^[14]“Martial Law Rules Dublin After ‘Red’ Sunday; Troops Alert”, Pittsburgh Press, November 22, 1920.

In the following days, the Press also used Irish coverage from the Hearst-operated International News Service (INS). Correspondent Earle C. Reeves, a 30-year-old Indiana native who became INS’s London bureau manager during the First World War,^[15]“Earle C. Reeves, Writer, Dies”, The Indianapolis Star, January 25, 1962, and other newspaper obituaries. described the IRA as “Irish terrorists.”^[16]“Precautions More Drastic Than Any Taken In War Time”, Pittsburgh Press, November 28, 1920. “British Cabinet Plans To Protect Officials”, Pittsburgh Press, November 29, 1920. Uses “Irish … Continue reading More often papers used the term “murder gang,” usually attributed to Chief Secretary for Ireland Sir Hamar Greenwood and other British government and military officials. A few months later, after the combatants declared a truce and opened negotiations to end the war, the Press editorialized that “murder gang” was no longer viable as a “propaganda denunciation of the Irish Republican Army.”^[17]“One Trap Lloyd George Fell Into”, Pittsburgh Press, July 27, 1921.

Pittsburgh newspaper reports were deferential to the established government, ally in the late First World War. Most of the wire services attributed details to “Irish office authorities,” a reference to the U.K. government administration at Dublin Castle, or “the government version” of events. Some information was sourced to London newspapers.

The Press did not include any comment from Sinn Féin officials, or from the Irish Bulletin, official organ of the provisional Irish Republic. The evening paper made no editorial comment about the event within two weeks. National columnist Authur Brisbane (1864-1936) mentioned the Irish situation several times in his regular “Today” column, which the Press published on its front pages. “A hundred other peoples have settled down comfortably under the yoke,” he wrote three days after Bloody Sunday. “The Irish never settle down, insisting ‘We will be free.’”^[18]Arthur Brisbane, “Today”, Pittsburgh Press, November 24, 1920. In another column, Brisbane noted the “suffering and terror of poor people, guilty of no offense against anybody,” who paid the highest price in Ireland’s “war of reprisals.”^[19]Ibid., Pittsburgh Press, December 1, 1920. Syndicated humorist Arthur “Bugs” Baer (1886-1969) jabbed at the London government and ridiculed the League of Nations: “England killed a couple more folks in Dublin and will be suspended from the league for 15 minutes.”^[20]Mr. B. Baer, “Long Live The League”, Pittsburgh Press, November 24, 1920.

Finally, Pittsburgh was home to the Irish Pennsylvanian, one of nearly a dozen Irish-interest weeklies listed in the 1920 Ayer and Son’s newspaper directory.^[21]Ayer & Sons, 1920, 1247. The 3,000-circulation paper folded in 1921 and no copies appear to survive. The Press was sold to the Scripps Howard chain in 1923.

Catholic’s coverage

Francis Patrick Smith was in his thirtieth year as editor of the Catholic by November 1920. Born to Irish immigrants in Pittsburgh, he was educated at Catholic schools in the city and in Maryland. Smith began his newspaper career in Washington, D.C., worked at a paper in Ohio, then returned home.^[22]See my “‘Luminous In Its Presentation’: The Pittsburgh Catholic and Revolutionary Ireland, 1912-1923” in Gathered Fragments, Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Vol. XXXII, … Continue reading

Bishop Canevin

Bishop John Francis Regis Canevin administered the Pittsburgh diocese. He also was the local son of Irish immigrants and had worked with Smith at the Catholic in the 1890s, before being elevated to lead the see.^[23]Ibid. By 1920, the 10-county dioceses counted 560,000 adherents, nearly a quarter of the jurisdiction’s 2.3 million population.^[24]Official Catholic Directory. [New York, N.Y.: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1920]. 521. Canevin’s “official approbation,” which stated the Catholic was “deserving of approval for its service in the cause of truth and morality,” appeared under the masthead of the 17,000-circulation paper.^[25]Canevin used the term “official approbation” in a July 2, 1921, letter published on the front page of the Catholic, July 14, 1921. He withdrew the endorsement because he resigned as bishop. … Continue reading Such endorsements were as common in the U.S. Catholic press at the time as Irish American editors and bishops.^[26]Rowland, Patriotism. 5.

The name of founding Bishop Michael O’Conner also remained under the front-page nameplate of the Catholic’s November 25, 1920, issue, its first after Bloody Sunday. The paper published two page 1 stories about Ireland above the fold, but neither was about the events in Dublin four days earlier. A National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC) News Service story dated November 18 from Washington, D.C., detailed the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland testimony of Rev. James H. Cotter, of Ironton, Ohio, and Rev. Michael English of Whitehall, Montana. The Commission was a non-U.S. government panel created by Irish activists with the help of Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of The Nation magazine, to keep the Irish cause in the news. Commission members included two U.S. senators and progressive activist Jane Addams. The NCWC story described how the “American Catholic priests” each claimed to be eyewitnesses of “outrages committed in Ireland by British forces” during their visits to the country earlier in the year.^[27]“American Priests Give Testimony on Irish Atrocities”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.

The U.S. Catholic hierarchy established the NCWC News Service in January 1920 from the decade-old Catholic Press Association, which provided advertising assistance and news from Rome, London, and Washington, D.C. Justin McGrath, a Hearst executive, was hired as NCWC’s director. By April, 40 Catholic papers paid $2 per week for the mimeograph News Sheet, while 21 others paid $5 per week for cable service. The NCWC “attempted to be to the Catholic Press what the Associated Press, United Press, and Universal Services were to the secular papers, but it concentrated on news that was strictly Catholic or of particular interest to Catholics.”^[28]Reilly, Sister Mary Lonan, A History of The Catholic Press Association 1911-1968. [Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 1971] 64-65.

The second story on the front the November 25 Catholic was dated the same day as Bloody Sunday in Dublin, but it came from Galway, Ireland. No news source was provided. The story detailed the discovery of the body of Father Michael Griffin in a shallow bog near the town, a bullet wound in his temple. The Catholic priest was reported to have been kidnapped several days earlier by British troops as he prepared to sail to Washington to give testimony before the American Commission.^[29]“Priest British Force Kidnapped, Slain”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.

Six more stories about Ireland were scattered through the issue’s remaining seven pages.^[30]“Irish Priests Are Not Immune From British Outrages”, “Important Discussion In Ireland Of Attacks On Police”, “Commission To Investigate Irish Atrocities”, “Mythical Organization … Continue reading They include a second story about the American Commission hearings, and separate allegations of British offenses against the Irish people in general and Catholic priests in particular. Other stories detailed the desecration of a Catholic church in Dublin and damage to Catholic homes and businesses in Belfast. One of these stories was attributed to the NCWC News Service, but the others had no byline or source. None of them reported on the assassinated military officers or the slaughter at Croke Park. Not directly, anyway.

One story, however, featured an extended quotation from Arthur Griffith, leader of the separatist Sinn Féin party, who addressed Irish attacks on the police. The story was not dated, but the statement appeared to have been made before Bloody Sunday and Griffith’s arrest a few days later. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George “says that the murders, as he calls them, in Ireland, are the work of a band of assassins,” Griffith said. “This is true if he speaks of the arson and the assassination by (his own) uniformed men.”^[31]“Important Discussion…”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.

The 25-page NCWC News Sheet distributed to Catholic newspapers for the week of November 22, 1920, did not include any coverage of Bloody Sunday.^[32]Catholic News Service Newsfeed, The N.C.W.C. News Sheet, November 22, 1920. Papers such as Philadelphia’s Catholic Standard & Times and Cincinnati’s Catholic Telegraph did not contain any reports in their first issues after the Dublin events.^[33]Catholic Telegraph, November 25, 1920. Catholic Standard and Times, November 27, 1920. Other Catholic papers did. The Catholic Columbian of Columbus, Ohio, headlined:

Hell Hounds Let Loose on
a Happy Football Crowd

The front-page story was based on “meager and nicely-colored newspaper reports” but did not specify the sources. It described the soldiers who opened fire at Croke Park as “demons” and the military officers killed earlier in the day as “the scum of English jails.” The roundup-style story included other developments in the Irish war from both sides of the Atlantic, including the disappearance of Father Griffin and the U.S. travels of Eamon de Valera, another Sinn Féin leader. The story assailed “the British-controlled press” and selective pro-British or anti-Irish reporting “intended only for American newspapers.”^[34]Headline and text, Catholic Columbian (Columbus, Ohio), November 26, 1920.

In Brooklyn, New York, the Tablet carried a front-page story “by cable” from Dublin that declared the situation in Ireland “was never as dark as at present.” The story reported “some dozen” of British officers were killed and “over one hundred innocent people” died in the “desperate reprisals.”^[35]“Warfare Reigns In Ireland”, The Tablet (Brooklyn, N.Y.), November 27, 1920. Inaccurate, but not ignored.

Next Catholic

If a tight deadline prevented the Catholic from publishing news about Bloody Sunday in its November 25 issue, the continued absence of reporting about the events in Dublin appears more conspicuous in the following week’s paper. Bishop Canevin’s resignation announcement dominated the December 2 issue. It contained eight news stories dated after November 21, including an NCWC “Special Cable” from Balboa, Panama, about President-elect Warren G. Harding’s Thanksgiving Day visit to a Catholic women’s community house in the Central American isthmus.^[36]“Distinguished Visitor Highly Honored”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920. That week’s 27-page NCWC News Sheet did not include any coverage of Bloody Sunday among dozens of stories.^[37]Catholic News Service Newsfeed, The N.C.W.C. News Sheet, November 29, 1920.

The Catholic gave its readers three locally generated opinion pieces about Ireland:

On page 2 it published the full sermon of Rev. Peter J. Brennan, a diocesan priest, from one of the local memorial masses for Terence MacSwiney, the separatist lord mayor of Cork city. MacSwiney died October 25, 1920, after more than a month-long hunger strike in an English prison. Brennan said: “Let us highly resolve that we shall never rest till the hopes which sustained murdered MacSwiney in his life and death struggle with the English enemy shall be realized in all their fullness. Ireland shall be free and self-determined.”^[38]“Memorial Sermon on Terence MacSwiney”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.
An unsigned editorial on page 4, probably written by editor Smith, made an economic argument: “A free Ireland would mean an immense impetus to American commerce, not only with Ireland, but with Continental Europe. Ireland is closer to us than England and Scotland are. It has more harbors by far, and larger and more serviceable there, if the waiting possibilities were developed, as they would rapidly be in a free Ireland.”^[39]“A Free Ireland”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.
In a back-page column, Rev. Thomas Coakley, another diocesan priest, suggested that “Catholic hating England … Ireland’s implacable persecutor” was helping to fulfill a divine design. “God in His providence has used British imperialism to good advantage. The English language, the Irish race, and the Catholic faith are overrunning the world. This my friends, in the counsels of God, is the enchanting triple destiny of the sons and daughters of Ireland.”^[40]“The Destiny of the Irish Race”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.

Brennan was the American-born son of two Irish immigrants.^[41]Year: 1920; Census Place: Dunbar, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1568; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 26. Coakley was the American son of an Irish immigrant father and American mother. As a U.S. Army chaplain in the First World War, he tended the spiritual needs of troops in France and German. Shortly after his return to Pittsburgh, Coakley and seven other army chaplains led a non-denominational rally in Pittsburgh to support self-determination for Ireland.^[42]Year: 1910; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 4, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1300; Page: 13a; Enumeration District: 0321; FHL microfilm: 1375313. “Death Claims Father Coakley”, The … Continue reading

It is unclear why the Catholic ignored Bloody Sunday, especially the civilian massacre at Croke Park. The 14 victims included four males aged 10 to 19, and a woman engaged to be married the following week. Most were Catholics, though initial reports in the secular press did not provide their names, ages, or details such as their religious affiliation.^[43]In Dublin, Catholic funeral masses for the victims were held at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, St. Kevin’s Church on Harrington Street, and Holy Cross Church in Dundrum. See “The Funerals” in … Continue reading Reporting on the stadium shootings would have meant including the assassinations, too, which would have challenged the Catholic’s pro-Irish editorial views. But this was not impossible, as proven by the church itself.

Image from American Commission on Conditions in Ireland Interim Report, 1920

Cardinal Michael Logue, the top Catholic prelate in Ireland, released a “scathing” pastoral letter a week after Bloody Sunday, reported in the daily Pittsburgh Gazette Times via the Associated Press. Logue denounced all the Bloody Sunday violence, saying the separatist assassins “are not real patriots but enemies of their country.” The shooting deaths at Croke Park, however, were “a graver outrage … (as Crown forces) “turn(ed) lethal weapons against defenseless, unarmed, closely packed multitudes.”^[44]“Cardinal Logue Denounces Murders, Arraigns Crown For Croak Park Slayings”, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 29, 1920.

Three more weeks passed before the Catholic reported the cardinal’s letter, on page 3, its first mention of Bloody Sunday.^[45]“Cardinal Logue, Primate of Ireland, Denounces Murders”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 23, 1920. The same December 23 issue, on page 2, also contained an undated and unsourced report that some Canadian newspapers “of supposed standing” had selectively quoted the cardinal’s letter to make it appear he blamed Sinn Féin for all the violence in Ireland. This story included an undated response from Cardinal Logue, who wrote that he was not responsible for “dishonest journalists.”^[46]“Campaign of Lies; Card. Logue Victim”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 23, 1920.

It is possible that editor Smith had withheld the news from Dublin in an abundance of caution. Two months before Bloody Sunday, an editorial in the Catholic acknowledged the paper’s Irish news had been “irregular” and subject to censorship. “In the exercise of a judgment, prudent and safe, it was, at times, thought advisable to be chary in selecting this press matter unless absolutely verified and conformable to the ethics of Catholic Journalism,” the editorial said. “This is a point that some well-intentioned friends do not perceive; they measure in their criticism the Catholic paper by the same standard as they do the secular press.”^[47]“Luminous”, citing “Our Irish Critics” Pittsburgh Catholic, September 23, 1920.

In addition to its deference to the British military and government, secular coverage of Bloody Sunday certainly contained errors, as also seen in the Catholic press. Most significantly, there was never any compelling evidence that Sinn Féin “pickets” or IRA snipers fired at the military and police at Croke Park.^[48]There were multiple probes of the event. See “The Inquiries” in Foley, The Bloodied Field. That was propaganda. Of less consequence, the first-day Press story stated the crowd had gathered to “watch a hockey match.” It was a Gaelic football contest, not even the Irish field sport of hurling, which involves a long, wooden stick with a broad, flat base to strike the ball, like a hockey stick.

Fifty-two years later, the Pittsburgh Catholic would provide quicker and more detailed coverage of the second Bloody Sunday in Ireland. Read Part 2.

References[+]

References
↑1	Several violent episodes in history have been described as “Bloody Sunday,” including the March 7, 1965, attack by police authorities on predominantly Black civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama. Two other episodes of modern Irish history are occasionally labeled with the epithet: August 31, 1913, in Dublin, and July 10, 1921, in Belfast. The November 21, 1920, bloodshed in Dublin was called “Red Sunday” in some early press accounts.
↑2	Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh, ranked seventh in the nation for “counties with highest population of Irish ancestry,” per 2022 American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau.
↑3	See O’Neil, Gerard F., Pittsburgh Irish: Erin on the Three Rivers. [Charleston, S.C: The History Press, 2015].
↑4	Woods, Robert A., “Pittsburgh: An Interpretation Of Its Growth” in The Pittsburgh Survey, Findings in Six Volumes, edited by Paul Underwood Kellogg. [New York: Survey Associates Inc., 1914] 9.
↑5	1920 U.S. Census. Table 13: “Country of Birth of the Foreign-Born White, For Cities of 100,000 or More”, 50. Table 65, “Number and Per Cent of Native White Population of Foreign or Mixed Parentage, By Birthplace of Parents …”, 134, and Table 67, “Five Leading Countries of Origin of Foreign-Born White Population and of Native White of Foreign Stock …”, 137.
↑6	“The Pittsburgh Catholic”, Pittsburgh Catholic, March 16, 1844.
↑7	Foik, Paul J., “Pioneer Efforts in Catholic Journalism in the United States (1809-1840)” in The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, October 1915, 258–70.
↑8	Rowland, Thomas Joseph, Patriotism is a Catholic Virtue: Irish-American Catholics and the Church in the Era of the Great War, 1900-1918. [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023] 95-96.
↑9	Leeson, David, “Death in the Afternoon: The Croke Park Massacre, 21 November 1920,” Canadian Journal of History, April 2003. 43-67.
↑10	Mulholland, Mark, “Political Violence” in The Princeton History of Modern Ireland, Richard Bourke and Ian McBride, eds. [Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2016] 382.
↑11	“We Ourselves.” The Irish fada used on “Féin” except where quoted from newspapers that did not use it.
↑12	Dorney, John, “Bloody Sunday 1920 Revisited”, The Irish Story, November 21, 2020. Michael Foley, The Bloodied Field: Croke Park. Sunday 21 November 1920. [Dublin, The O’Brien Press, 2014]
↑13	N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual & Directory, 1920 (in two volumes), [Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer & Son’s, 1920], 864.
↑14	“Martial Law Rules Dublin After ‘Red’ Sunday; Troops Alert”, Pittsburgh Press, November 22, 1920.
↑15	“Earle C. Reeves, Writer, Dies”, The Indianapolis Star, January 25, 1962, and other newspaper obituaries.
↑16	“Precautions More Drastic Than Any Taken In War Time”, Pittsburgh Press, November 28, 1920. “British Cabinet Plans To Protect Officials”, Pittsburgh Press, November 29, 1920. Uses “Irish terrorists” twice.
↑17	“One Trap Lloyd George Fell Into”, Pittsburgh Press, July 27, 1921.
↑18	Arthur Brisbane, “Today”, Pittsburgh Press, November 24, 1920.
↑19	Ibid., Pittsburgh Press, December 1, 1920.
↑20	Mr. B. Baer, “Long Live The League”, Pittsburgh Press, November 24, 1920.
↑21	Ayer & Sons, 1920, 1247.
↑22	See my “‘Luminous In Its Presentation’: The Pittsburgh Catholic and Revolutionary Ireland, 1912-1923” in Gathered Fragments, Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Vol. XXXII, Fall 2022, 4-19. This article does not discuss Bloody Sunday, 1920.
↑23	Ibid.
↑24	Official Catholic Directory. [New York, N.Y.: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1920]. 521.
↑25	Canevin used the term “official approbation” in a July 2, 1921, letter published on the front page of the Catholic, July 14, 1921. He withdrew the endorsement because he resigned as bishop. Circulation from Ayer & Son’s, 1202. Another English language Catholic weekly, the Observer, and German and Polish language Catholic papers also published in Pittsburgh at this time. Protestant denominations published a dozen papers in the city, with circulations that ranged from about 1,000 to 40,000.
↑26	Rowland, Patriotism. 5.
↑27	“American Priests Give Testimony on Irish Atrocities”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.
↑28	Reilly, Sister Mary Lonan, A History of The Catholic Press Association 1911-1968. [Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 1971] 64-65.
↑29	“Priest British Force Kidnapped, Slain”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.
↑30	“Irish Priests Are Not Immune From British Outrages”, “Important Discussion In Ireland Of Attacks On Police”, “Commission To Investigate Irish Atrocities”, “Mythical Organization Threatening Irish Reprisals In U.S.”, “British ‘Huns’ Destruction”, and “Mysterious Occurrence In Dublin Church”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.
↑31	“Important Discussion…”, Pittsburgh Catholic, November 25, 1920.
↑32	Catholic News Service Newsfeed, The N.C.W.C. News Sheet, November 22, 1920.
↑33	Catholic Telegraph, November 25, 1920. Catholic Standard and Times, November 27, 1920.
↑34	Headline and text, Catholic Columbian (Columbus, Ohio), November 26, 1920.
↑35	“Warfare Reigns In Ireland”, The Tablet (Brooklyn, N.Y.), November 27, 1920.
↑36	“Distinguished Visitor Highly Honored”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.
↑37	Catholic News Service Newsfeed, The N.C.W.C. News Sheet, November 29, 1920.
↑38	“Memorial Sermon on Terence MacSwiney”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.
↑39	“A Free Ireland”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.
↑40	“The Destiny of the Irish Race”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 2, 1920.
↑41	Year: 1920; Census Place: Dunbar, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1568; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 26.
↑42	Year: 1910; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 4, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1300; Page: 13a; Enumeration District: 0321; FHL microfilm: 1375313. “Death Claims Father Coakley”, The Tablet (Brooklyn, N.Y.) March 10, 1951. “Irish Self-Determination Mass Meeting Will Be Held Tonight In Syria Mosque”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 1, 1919.
↑43	In Dublin, Catholic funeral masses for the victims were held at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, St. Kevin’s Church on Harrington Street, and Holy Cross Church in Dundrum. See “The Funerals” in Foley, The Bloodied Field.
↑44	“Cardinal Logue Denounces Murders, Arraigns Crown For Croak Park Slayings”, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 29, 1920.
↑45	“Cardinal Logue, Primate of Ireland, Denounces Murders”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 23, 1920.
↑46	“Campaign of Lies; Card. Logue Victim”, Pittsburgh Catholic, December 23, 1920.
↑47	“Luminous”, citing “Our Irish Critics” Pittsburgh Catholic, September 23, 1920.
↑48	There were multiple probes of the event. See “The Inquiries” in Foley, The Bloodied Field.

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