Catholic Representatives in Parliament: The North West of England 1918–1945

Abstract

Cardinal Manning argued that the Catholic Church had two services it should render to the world outside it; its first task was to save souls but secondly it should ‘ripen and elevate the social and political life of men . . .’ In 1890, however, he noted that none of the recent great works of charity had been initiated or promoted by Catholics. His successor Vaughan found that his main support in attempting to exercise social influence came, not from the English laity, but from the Irish (Catholic) M.P.s, fifty seven of whom had been returned to Parliament after the extension of the franchise in 1884. There were few English Catholics in Parliament and Bourne, after Vaughan, continued to rely on the Irish M.P.s. With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1921 and the departure of the Irish M.P.s, one authority argues that Catholics were left with very few representatives in the House of Commons and that ‘politically since the withdrawal of the Irish members, the Catholic influence has, on the whole, been negligible.’