By Caroline Smith
Throughout the history of the Catholic Church in Australia there have been several figures whose leadership and opinions – both theological and political – have made them stand out nationally and on the world stage.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the flashpoints of World War One and the Easter Rising in Dublin brought two such individuals into the spotlight – pastoral leaders on opposite sides of the continent whose views on geopolitics influenced not only the Catholic community, but also how it was seen by wider society.
Archbishop Daniel Mannix in Melbourne and Archbishop Patrick Clune in Perth, were divided not only by the distance between their archdioceses, but by their conflicting positions on Conscription – which the Australian government put to referenda in 1916 and 1917 – and Irish independence.
Although they came from fairly similar backgrounds – both born the sons of tenant farmers in rural Ireland in 1864 – the two men held very different views about their home country and the political loyalties of their new one. Clune was largely a defender of the British Empire and Ireland’s place within it, and as such promoted the Australian war effort. By contrast, Mannix became known as an outspoken critic of British activity in Ireland, and went head-to-head with Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes over the issue of Conscription.
The two Archbishops have been the subject of biographies in the last few years, with the release of Brenda Niall’s Mannix in 2015, and Rev Dr Christopher Dowd’s Faith, Ireland and Empire – profiling Clune – in 2014, and these authors offer different explanations for why each moved in such different directions politically.
According to Dr Dowd, Clune’s stance on these issues was in many ways shaped by the demographics and political status of Western Australia, and Perth specifically, at that time. As Archbishop of Perth from 1913 to 1935 (Bishop from 1911) it was desirable for him to affirm the prevailing local social and cultural values by embracing a more pro-British perspective on the war and on Ireland.
“Western Australia was slightly more British than the rest of Australia, which was heavily British anyway, and the British population of Western Australia had a higher proportion of recently-arrived migrants from Britain with a strong personal attachment to the motherland,” Dr Dowd said.
“So, Western Australia was a strongly British-type society expressed in loyalty to the crown, the Empire and the homeland.
“Hence, Clune’s concern to keep the Catholic community aligned with the prevailing social attitudes in Western Australia.”
Given widespread support for the war among WA citizens– whose recruitment rates were higher than in other states – Archbishop Clune was encouraged to embrace the government’s attempt to introduce Conscription. As the only member of Australia’s Catholic clergy to have witnessed the war firsthand (during his time as chaplain-general in late 1916), it is likely that the sacrifice and suffering he witnessed on the Western Front bolstered Clune’s position as well.
When it came to the Irish question, Clune generally accepted the view that the country would benefit from Home Rule, but remaining within the British Empire. According to Dr Dowd, this was partly influenced by growing prosperity and political reform during the late Victorian period of his youth.
“The era of Clune’s childhood and early adulthood, was a period of considerable social and economic progress, under the direction of bureaucratic reformist policies adopted in London and Dublin,” he said.
“Home Rule increasingly loomed on the horizon although progress was painfully slow with no measure adopted before the outbreak of the First World War.
“But, until the crisis of Easter 1916, the vast majority of Irishmen, both inside and outside Ireland, would have seen some measure of Home Rule, with Ireland still under the British crown and within the Empire, as the default position constitutionally.”
These influences – plus his desire to accept the status quo in Perth, where the British Empire enjoyed much support – ensured that Archbishop Clune would eschew the independence-supporting views held by Mannix.
Indeed, the Perth Archbishop’s balanced speeches about Ireland’s need for autonomy, albeit within the Empire, earned him such respect that when he visited the country in 1920 British Prime Minister Lloyd George asked him to act as intermediary with members of the Irish independence movement.
By contrast, Mannix – on the same trip – was prevented from setting foot on Irish soil. However, the two men remained on cordial terms despite their differing views, with Clune asking Mannix for advice on this appointment.
“The relationship was quite friendly on a face-to-face basis,” Dr Dowd said.
“As soon as Lloyd George appointed him as an intermediary between the British Government and Irish nationalist forces in December 1920 to get peace talks going, Clune visited Mannix to take his advice.
“Mannix helped Clune by supplying him with contacts and recommendations although, personally, he was not optimistic about the chances of success.”
However, Mannix was publicly critical of Clune and dismissive of his peace efforts and his naïve attitude towards the British government.
Although both men grew up in a fairly similar setting, several experiences in Daniel Mannix’s youth were likely to have shaped his sympathy for the struggle for Irish independence from Britain, according to Brenda Niall.
“A number of factors would have contributed – no single event would account for Mannix’s sympathy for the cause,” she said.
These would have included the obvious inequality between tenant farmers like his father, and the landed gentry in the nearby ‘Big House’, as well as bubbling protest from the Boycott and Land League movements, close to where Mannix grew up.
Mannix did not leave Ireland until he was in his forties, remaining at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth as a Theology teacher until his appointment to the Melbourne Archdiocese in 1912. This meant that he was able to see the struggles leading to the Easter Rising up close, and he felt their impact keenly.
“The feelings of an exile were significant,” Dr Niall said.
“If he had stayed at Maynooth, he might never have felt the extremes of anger and grief brought about the executions of the Easter Rising.”
In the aftermath of the Rising, Clune remained generally pro-Empire, but the violence he witnessed in Ireland prompted him to condemn British military repression there, and to move from a position favouring Home Rule to one supporting the Irish Free State.
On his return however, he was faced with strong local criticism for this, as well as the anti-Catholic sentiment that was growing throughout Australia, and it was this in part which helped him moderate his feelings, according to Dr Dowd.
“Clune and the Catholic community were also hurt by the anti-Catholic tone of the pro-conscription party (even though Clune himself was also pro-conscription and the Catholic community had responded very generously to the war effort), the attempt of the Perth City Council to ban the 1919 St Patrick’s Day parade and the outburst of vicious anti-Catholic sectarianism in Western Australia in the early 1920s (mainly imported from interstate, let it be said),” he said.
From pages 26 to 28 from Issue 5: ‘Christmas 2016 – Looking forward to the Birth of Christ & Reflecting back on the Year 2016?’ of The Record Magazine