‘From Civil Rights to Armalites’

Abstract

This chapter traces the Church’s involvement with peaceful civil rights protests in Northern Ireland from 1968 until the end of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire in the summer of 1972. During this period the Irish Catholic Church hierarchy condemned violence but demonstrated understanding of civil rights concerns through pastoral letters, media interviews, community visits, and homilies. Irish priests and women religious began to mediate the conflict ‘on the ground’ but found quickly that a small minority who refused to back down from violence began questioning their authority. The English Catholic Church remained silent on the growing conflict, preferring the soft power approach of private dinners with British government officials rather than public statements condemning violence. Bloody Sunday, the killing of British Army soldier William Best, and the Derry Peace Women movement marked a change in Church power relations, as priests and bishops began to openly condemn the IRA.