The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian

by Pat Walsh

  At our last meeting I took a stand against the appointment of a Trinity Protestant and non-Irish speaking candidate to the position of county librarian in Catholic Gaeltacht Mayo, and despite Minister Mulcahy’s threat to mint a new brand of Seán na Sagart, despite the threat of abolition by a whilom tool of England, Mulcahy’s professional council breaker, I stand unflinchingly where then I stood, and were I to stand in that attitude alone today, I should still cry out, ‘Come one, come all, this rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I.’16 The kindly Celtic people of Mayo are solidly against this appointment.

  I challenge any Protestant professional man or trader residing in Mayo to say Mayo is bigoted. And yet while we kindly people acknowledge the right of those differing from us in religion to live among us and on us, we enshrine the principle that education is based on and lives around religion, and we are determined that our library as an education centre, serving a county of 99 per cent Catholics, shall never be placed in the charge of a Protestant.

  Are we bigots? Rise up you kindly Celtic hillsides, by whose rocks our priests and people were butchered. Are we bigots? Flow on, you noble rivers of Ireland, your ripples testifying to a treachery that choked your courses with the lifeless bodies of Celtic women and children. Are we bigots? Whisper you waves that lap up our coasts, an echo of the agonising caoin [cry] that rent the air as the slave-ships and coffin-ships, loaded with their human freight, departed from kindly Celtic shores.

  Take up that echo, you kindly Celtic wind and waft it to this council chamber. We are listening. We are not bigots; neither are we knaves. The story of this kindly Celtic people’s suffering for their religion is written in letters of blood across the pages of our country’s history. Through centuries of persecution and relentless torture, our ancestors have handed down to us the glorious heritage of the True Faith.

  That treasure we zealously guard, and we are determined, come what may, and never, never again, will we allow a bigoted minority to creep into our strongholds and drench our land with kindly Celtic blood. They have razed our proudest castles, spoiled the temples of the Lord, burned to dust the sacred relics, put the people to the sword, desecrated all things holy as they soon may do again, if their power today we smite not, if today we be not men.17

  ‘Poison gas to the kindly Celtic people’

  I am opposed to the appointment of a product of Trinity to the position of librarian in this county. Trinity culture is not the culture of the Gael; rather is it poison gas to the kindly Celtic people. We know the history of Trinity; we are aware of what it stands for today. It is the bigoted anti-Irish outpost of England in Ireland. It is a spurious outgrowth, having no roots in Irish soil. In the past it fed like a parasite on the flesh and blood of our kindly Celtic people, and if we mean to preserve our distinctly Gaelic culture we must check the progress of the pest.

  Miss Dunbar Harrison with her Trinity culture is not a fit person to place in charge of a county library as a centre of culture for Mayo. I am opposed to the appointment of Miss Dunbar Harrison to the position of county librarian in Gaeltacht Mayo on the grounds of her incompetency in the native language. Irish is the official language of the state as laid down in the Constitution. Trinity ignores the Constitution by refusing to place the official language as a compulsory subject in its curriculum.

  Miss Dunbar Harrison gives Irish no place, and she now comes forward for a position in the gift of the Constitution she and her university defied. At the command of the bigoted and Freemason Press, Catholic rights are ignored. The unanimous voice of Mayo’s representatives is flouted, and the minister is prepared to violate Article 8 of the Constitution. I should not be surprised to learn that the Distinguished Service Medal has already been struck with the minister’s head on one side and the head of Seán na Sagart on the other.

  ‘Catholic rights and Gaelic culture: for or against?’

  To us a sacred trust is given. We are the connecting link between past generations of our great Catholic dead and the generations yet unborn. We are the spear-head of the far-flung empire of Erin’s exiled sons and daughters. The honour, the great privilege, is ours and God helping us, we shall prove worthy of it. The issue is clearly knit – Catholic rights and Gaelic culture: for or against?’

  Let there be no mealy mouthings about its sickening attributes in the twenty-six counties, where tolerance is synonymous with slavishness. North of the Boyne tolerance has a very different meaning. The minister thought he could insult the county with impunity, but we all stand honoured in that knowledge and we are ready to meet him and hand over the council to him, backed as he is by the powers of Freemasonry, which would not plead purely against the council. That council might soon be finished, but in relinquishing our positions we would tear Freemasonry from its roots, and how then would their little, prostituted government expect to survive? Personally I would welcome its political suicide as it dashed itself upon the rocks. [Loud applause]

  Councillor Moclair opposed the selection of Miss Dunbar Harrison, describing the Local Appointments Commission procedure as flawed, like a game of ‘Spoil Five’. The successful candidates who had Irish should have been chosen for service in Mayo. He claimed that Mayo had faced tyranny before and was now facing a tyranny of bureaucracy and despotism imposed on the County Council by the Minister for Local Government.

  ‘The librarian,’ Councillor Moclair said, ‘may be designated the literary confessor of hundreds of young men and women who directly or indirectly must depend on her for guidance in reference to the type of books to be placed at their disposal. There may be some who may choose to lay down like beaten cowards and lick the hand that insults and rains blows on them. I refuse to be one of those and come what may I will fight against such tyranny to the bitter end.’

  Councillor Peter Sweeney, a national-school teacher from Achill, did not agree with the library committee’s stance with regard to Miss Dunbar Harrison’s lack of Irish. He argued that if the passing of an examination in Irish was made an absolute qualification, very few appointments would be made in Mayo. Having said that, he was still going to oppose the employment of Miss Dunbar Harrison because the community needed to have confidence in their librarian.

  ‘You have everyday dumped on our shores,’ he said, ‘shoals of communistic literature, sordid, vile literature.’18

  The library committee would not be able to read everything so they would have to depend on the librarian and trust her decisions on what books she selected.

  Councillor John McGeehin of Geesala said that had he not already made up his mind, the letter read by Councillor Bernard Joyce would have convinced him to oppose Miss Dunbar Harrison’s appointment.

  P.J. Ruttledge, a TD and vice-president of Fianna Fáil, ‘tall, scholarly looking and unemotional’,19 declared that he and his colleague had been accused of intolerance by a certain paper.

  ‘I am not here to parade toleration,’ he said, ‘but we do not stand for any religious bigotry.’20 He opposed the methods of the Local Appointments Commission.

  ‘A certain body of this council knows and I am very sorry the chairman has seen fit to stay away today, but there is a certain body of members here who knew a week ago that the [council] chairman [Michael Davis] was going to stay away. I am delighted Mr Chairman [Pat Higgins] that you have faced up to your responsibility but I always expected you would.’

  The gallery cheered.

  Thomas Campbell, Swinford, spoke initially in Irish, before switching to English. According to the Roscommon Herald, the solicitor ‘addressed his remarks to the chairman as if he were endeavouring to bring a judge round to his view on a law point.’21

  ‘When Miss Dunbar initially crosses the Shannon,’ Mr Campbell said, ‘as she probably will when we are wiped out as a council she will not shed the scales of Anglicisation. She has been nurtured in the school of anti-nationalism. She is admittedly ignorant of the national language, sent here by the minister that acted as chairman on the Gaeltacht Commission. So m
uch for his consistency.’22

  He then mentioned that a Swinford local, Bridge MacNulty, had applied for the position only to be told that ‘she was not acceptable as she had no official experience of indexing and cataloguing in libraries, and all that sort of thing that could be learned by an office boy in two months.’

  The gallery responded with jeers.

  ‘This pretence that Miss Dunbar must make good when she comes down here, that she will reverse engines as it were, wipe out the past anti-nationalism and dedicate herself to the study of the Irish language, with great respect to Miss Dunbar, that cannot be more than a pretence. It would be absolutely impossible even with the best will in the world.’23

  Seán Munnelly, Erris, ‘one of the farmers’ representatives, spoke briefly in pure Connaught Irish,’24 opposing the acceptance of the recommendation of the Local Appointments Commission. Seán Ruane from Kiltimagh, yet another national-school teacher (he was also at the time president of the Connaught Council of the GAA), rose to his feet and explained that he had changed his position since the first meeting, as he had not known then that Irish was not a compulsory requirement for the job.

  ‘It is not a religious issue,’ he said. ‘You have the opinions of certain distinguished ecclesiastics and I have my distinguished clergy-

  men.’

  ‘Name the clergymen,’ countered Councillor Mullarkey.

  ‘Name! Name!’ came the chorus from the gallery.

  ‘I will give them to you later.’

  ‘Dean Conington of Swinford,’ said Councillor Mellett.

  ‘Yes, Dean Conington of Swinford, a man who had as distinguished a college course as any clergyman in Ireland.’

  ‘And,’ interjected Councillor Campbell, ‘who received his national inspiration in a police barrack – in an RIC barrack.’

  Cries of ‘Oh’ and much booing and howling issued from the gallery.

  The chairman intervened. ‘I don’t think it is at all fair to this council to quote the private opinions of any individual.’

  ‘We have been told that north of the Boyne is the place to look for bigotry. I am not one that condones the rampant bigotry there. It is wrong but we are not going to do the right thing by imitating it in the Free State. In the Free State the Catholic church is on a sound foundation and one more Protestant in Mayo is not going to upset the position and now as a result of this meeting the council will be dissolved. What great victory has been achieved?’

  ‘That the people win,’ replied Councillor Campbell.

  ‘What great victory has been gained?’ repeated Councillor Ruane. ‘Quite a number of our boys from year to year have to go to England to work for Protestants. Some of our girls have to go to Scotland or America to work for Protestants and you are not making the position of these boys and girls any easier by taking the position several people have taken here today. By committing hari-kari we are putting the people of Mayo in a precarious position. I hold there is no religious principle involved.’

  Dr Hardy, Fianna Fáil, Foxford, argued that no amount of excuses from the Cumann na nGaedheal councillors could explain away why they had changed their stance since the original meeting. ‘The people of Mayo,’ Dr Hardy said, ‘when they have taken up a position, they stand by it honestly and honourably. Unfortunately, in the past certain people delivered bags of coal and flour to starving people to change their minds and make them do a thing which in their saner moments they would not do.’

  ‘Your bludgeoning days’

  Councillor Eamonn Moane, ‘a farmers’ representative, lean, wiry and athletic’,25 believed that the discussion had been unduly prolonged. He proceeded to criticise the statements of Councillor Ruane, who rose to respond.

  ‘Sit down sir, I did not interrupt you. Sit down, sir! How dare you! Sit down!’ shouted Councillor Moane.

  ‘I will if I like,’ replied the defiant Councillor Ruane.

  ‘Sit down!’

  ‘I will if the chairman orders me. Your bludgeoning days are over, Mr Moane.’26

  ‘Bigger men than you have tried that, Mr Ruane.’

  ‘I am only a small man.’

  ‘This discussion has been carried on harmoniously up to this,’ the chairman ruled. ‘Let Mr Moane proceed.’

  ‘In deference to your wish,’ Councillor Ruane replied, ‘I will sit down.’

  ‘I apologise,’ said Councillor Moane, ‘to the chairman and the decent members of the council.’

  ‘I spoke subject to correction,’ insisted Councillor Ruane.

  ‘I am correcting you now, sir!’ said Councillor Moane.

  ‘Do it respectfully!’

  ‘I am correcting you now, and I defy contradiction from you.’

  ‘Proceed, Mr Moane,’ said the chairman.

  ‘It might be as well if we reviewed the position,’ said Councillor Moane. ‘Unfortunately our people were stampeded a few years ago from the national position, otherwise the position we are in now would not have arisen. I say, and I do it without boasting, that I am one of those that have gone through a little at least and have done my part, and it has been successful if only for the issue that has at the present time, which affords the people an opportunity of striking at imperialism in this county a blow it never will recover from.’27

  Councillor Moane sat down to applause from the gallery.

  Councillor Mullarkey, Fianna Fáil, Ballindine, complained, ‘If the chairman had taken my proposition to limit the speeches to three minutes, the meeting would be over long ago.’

  ‘It was well worth our time hearing the speeches,’ the chairman replied to widespread laughter.

  ‘Shoddy English writers’

  Councillor Mullarkey continued, ‘The weakest argument I have heard is Mr Ruane’s, that one more Protestant will not upset the position in Mayo. I am not opposed to the lady because she is a Protestant, but I feel she is not fit to take charge of the library in Gaeltacht Mayo. Would she prefer the works of Canon Sheehan and William O’Brien to shoddy English writers? I believe she would not. I agree with Thomas Davis in giving Protestants a chance. We gave Parnell a chance and were glad to give it. [Cheers]’28

  There followed a procedural wrangle. Councillor Morahan announced that he had an addendum to move to Councillor O’Donnell’s amendment. This proved to be a long and involved supplement. He asked Councillor O’Donnell did he agree to it and his response was that he did not understand it, which answer caused much laughter.29

  ‘Are we to be kept here all day?’ Councillor O’Hara complained.

  ‘You cannot take an addendum to an amendment, it is out of order,’ Councillor Walsh insisted.

  ‘It is nearly time to end this controversy; I am nearly fainting with all the great speeching.’

  ‘Manliness and manhood’

  As the meeting neared its end, some laughter, much disorder and a degree of recrimination ensued.

  ‘I say the clergymen who spoke already will be ashamed of the speeches that were made here today and of some of the men that made them,’ Councillor O’Hara said. ‘They would not go into a fifty-acre field with some of them.’30

  The chairman intervened one last time, ‘I am for over thirty years a member of public boards and I have never heard a finer display of eloquence, of patriotism, of manliness and manhood than I have heard here today [applause]. The discussion has been decorous and is fit to compare, in its ideas and ideals, with any other discussion carried out by any body within the four shores of Ireland.’

  A division of the house was then taken. Councillor O’Hara’s proposition that Miss Dunbar be appointed was put first.

  For: J.P. O’Malley, J.T. Ruane, P. O’Hara, Giles Barrett, J.J. Duffy and J.A. Mellett (6).

  Against: P.J. Ruttledge, T.S. Moclair, R. Walsh, P. Jordan, M.M. Nally, B. Joyce, T. Lavan, J.J. Mullarkey, P.S. Daly, J. Munnelly, J. Kilroy, J. McGeehin, Dr Hardy, T. Campbell, M. Kilroy, J.J. Honan, J.T. Morahan, E. Moane, M.H. O’Donnell, P. Sweeney, and the chairman, P. Higgins (21).

>   The amendment was then put as a resolution, with the same result. The announcement of the outcome was met by a great outburst of cheering and hand-clapping in the gallery. Shortly after the meeting first began the ‘press representatives were passed a slip stating that twenty-one would vote against the appointment of the librarian and five for.’31 The forecast was remarkably accurate, only one out, perhaps indicative of how opinions had hardened in Mayo in the previous weeks. Over the course of the three-hour debate eighteen of the attending councillors had spoken. There was little doubt that the result reflected public opinion in Mayo at the time. Recognising this, the Cumann na nGaedheal councillors who did not wish to oppose their own party took the diplomatic course and stayed away from the meeting. It was decided to telegraph the result to Richard Mulcahy and to the absent chairman of the council, Michael Davis. As the Western People put it, ‘so ended the most momentous meeting of the Mayo County Council ever held.’32

  The gallery was quickly evacuated. ‘Sticking three hours of oratory was dry work and they all deserved a refresher.’33 According to the Roscommon Herald’s correspondent, he was overwhelmed with invitations to join in the celebrations. ‘Laughter and good cheer succeeded drama. Outside in the streets the Wren Boys cut curious capers and one of them played “Erin the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes”. It was symbolical of the temperament of Mayo.’34

  Notes

  1.Western People, 3 January 1931, p.7.

  2.Roscommon Herald, 3 January 1931, p.4.

  3.Ibid.

  4.The Connaught Telegraph, 3 January 1931, p.5.

  5.Roscommon Herald, 3 January 1931, p.4.

  6.Western People, 3 January 1931, p.7.

  7.Ibid.

  8.Roscommon Herald, 3 January 1931, p.4.

  9.Western People, 3 January 1931, p.7.

  10.Ibid.

  11.Roscommon Herald, 3 January 1931, p.4.

  12.Western People, 3 January 1931, p.7.