A Troublesome Cleric

This is an interesting and valuable account of the close and life-long relationship between Archbishop Daniel Mannix of Melbourne and Eamon de Valera.

Mannix was born on March 4, 1864 at Charleville, Co. Cork, not far from Bruree, where de Valera was raised. Educated at St Colman’s College and Maynooth, were he was ordained in 1890; Mannix was appointed to the chair of theology in Maynooth in 1895 and became its president in 1903.

His term as president coincided with the Gaelic Revival, integral to which was the promotion of the Irish language and the demand that it be compulsory for matriculation in the National University of Ireland. This brought him into conflict with proponents of the Gaelic Revival and the Irish bishops. The result was his removal from Maynooth in 1912, facilitated by his appointment as coadjutor bishop to Archbishop Thomas Carr of Melbourne. Mannix succeeded Carr in 1917. Almost immediately he became a leading figure among those who successfully opposed the conscription of Australians for service overseas in World War I. A champion of the underdog, he spoke out against the discrimination to which Irish Catholic immigrants were subjected by an Anglophile Protestant political elite. He constantly jousted with journalists in the Argus, a daily which frequently exhibited scurrilous anti-Catholic sentiments. Within a short time by virtue of his oratorical skills and charismatic personality he effectively became leader of the Irish diaspora in Australia.

Mannix was deeply influenced by the 1916 Rising and its aftermath. He criticised the British government and the crown forces as they attempted to suppress the struggle for independence. Mannix met de Valera at the head house of the Irish Columban Missionaries in Omaha in June 1920. It was a meeting of minds.

De Valera at that time was travelling across the US, fund-raising for Sinn Féin. Thereafter separately and sometimes together the two continued to promote the struggle for independence at well-attended rallies in cities in the US.

When later in the year Mannix attempted to visit Ireland the British government had him arrested on the high seas and landed in England. Mannix was unfazed by the incident and made good use of it to further enhance his celebrity. While in England, to the chagrin of the authorities, he presided at the obsequies of Lord Major Terence Mac Swiney and led his funeral procession through the streets of London.

De Valera rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 and after a significant majority of the Irish people voted to accept it in the general election in June 1922 continued to oppose it. There followed the Civil War which claimed some 4,000 lives. Mannix vociferously supported de Valera’s rejection of the Treaty. He received two Anti-Treaty, fund-raising delegations to Australia in 1923 and became a vehicle for Anti-Treaty propaganda.

Thus when he returned to Ireland in 1925 he was snubbed by the Irish Free State government, its supporters and the Irish bishops, all of whom were determined to move beyond the bitter memories of the Civil War. Even at that stage de Valera attempted to persuade Mannix to moderate his language when addressing public meetings.

Both Mannix and de Valera lived into their nineties and remained close friends to the end. Before he died Mannix destroyed all his personal correspondence; de Valera set about managing how posterity would judge him! They were also very different in personality. Mannix was witty and lively, de Valera somewhat lugubrious.

Mannix retained his lively wit to the end. In his nineties he was annually interviewed on radio by a leading Australian journalist during which he would comment on the state of the world, Australia and the Catholic Church at home and abroad. At the conclusion of one such broadcast the interviewer asked Mannix: “Do you think we will be here again next year?” To which Mannix replied without a moment’s hesitation: “I think so. You look very healthy to me!”