Catholic Responses to Violence in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Abstract This chapter illustrates tensions between Irish Catholic bishops, individual priests, and women religious in their reactions to the Northern Ireland Troubles. The institutional Irish Catholic Church acted as an unofficial mouthpiece for the Catholic community, with the international media regularly questioning Irish bishops on their perceived inability to stop republican violence. While Irish bishops publicly condemned republican paramilitary violence, it was individual priests and women religious ‘on the ground’ who privately acted as intermediaries between the British government and republican paramilitaries to bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict. The Irish Catholic Church regularly faced pressure throughout the conflict, yet this pressure intensified during key events such as the introduction of internment without trial, the 1980–81 hunger strikes, republican funerals and the issue of excommunication, and the peace process. These specific moments during the conflict illustrate the differing opinions and actions of individual church members to institutional pressures.