The Catholic Church & the Irish Civil War

Catholic Historical Society of Ireland Annual Conference

23 September 2023

St Patrick’s Campus, DCU

Seamus Heaney Theatre, G114

09.15 – Registration

9.45 – Welcome (Prof. Daire Keogh, President, Dublin City University)

Session 1

10.00 – 12.00

Dr Daithí Ó Corráin (Dublin City University)

‘Praying for deliverance from disunion, anarchy and ruin: The Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Irish Civil War’

Mr Michael Loughman (Dublin City University)

‘The Ryans of Tomcoole and the Irish Civil War: A Catholic family at war’

Dr Brian Kirby (Irish Capuchin Archives)

‘Rebels’ priests: The Capuchin friars and the Civil War’

12.00 – 12.45: Lunch

Session 2

12.45 – 14.15

Prof. Oliver P. Rafferty, S.J. (Boston College)

‘Archbishop Edward Byrne of Dublin and the Civil War’

Dr Leeann Lane (Dublin City University)

‘‘I am Your Grace, a devoted child of our Holy Church’: The Civil War hunger strikes of Mary MacSwiney’

14.15 – 14.45: Coffee Break

Session 3

14.45 – 16.15

Dr Brian Heffernan (KU Leuven)

‘Redefining the political role of Catholicism after the Great War: The Irish Civil War in the European Catholic press’

Dr Síobhra Aiken (Queen’s University Belfast)

‘‘Spiritual wounds’: Trauma and faith in early Civil War testimonies’

16.15 – 17.15

Roundtable: The Catholic Church and the Irish Civil War.

Contributors: Dr Mary Harris (University of Galway), Prof. Margaret O’Callaghan (Queen’s University Belfast) and Prof. Oliver P. Rafferty, S.J. (Boston College)

Closing Remarks (Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh)