The Vatican, the bishops, and Irish politics, 1919-39

Abstract

A detailed study of the political relations between church and state in modern Ireland, this work is also an analysis of domestic politics within the context of Anglo-Vatican relations. Dealing exclusively with high ecclesiastical politics, it assesses the relative political strength of both the British and the Irish at the Vatican and challenges 'the myth of English dominance over the Papacy'. Dermot Keogh traces the 'quiet diplomacy' of bishops, politicians and the Vatican from the turbulent years of 1919-21, through the civil war period and the rule of William T. Cosgrove and Cumann na nGaedheal, to the re-emergence of Eamon de Valera and Fianna Fail as exponents of Catholic nationalism in the 1930s. The book draws extensively on unpublished documents and, for the first time, explores with the aid of primary sources the exchanges between bishops, politicians and the Vatican over a twenty-year period. It is an important contribution to the history of modern Ireland, Irish-Vatican and Anglo-Vatican relations, whose findings will lead to a radical revision of interpretations of Irish church-state relations.