Conclusion: the Church, the State and the Endurance of Fenianism

Abstract

The struggle between the Church and the Fenians, as this unfolded in the 1860s and 1870s, was concerned with who would condition the form and content of Irish political life in that period. The Church, led by Cardinal Cullen, was anxious to promote Catholicism at every level of Irish society, convinced as he was of the fundamentally anti- Catholic nature of the operations of the British Protestant state in Ireland.¹ For their part, the Fenians rejected the Church’ analysis that Ireland’ ills were as the result of Protestant government. The Fenians emphasized that it was the English government of Ireland;per se which lay at the root of the problems facing the country. So far as the Fenians were concerned, the Church could not dictate the terms and conditions of Irish political life. The role of priest was restricted to his sacred function, and if he chose to speak on political matters his views were to be given no more consideration than those of any other man.