The Formation, Existence, and Deconstruction of the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland by Alex Cahill

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Formation, Existence, and Deconstruction of the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland by Alex Cahill Karin Maresh The Formation, Existence, and Deconstruction of the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland. By Alex Cahill. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2017. Pp. 187. £58.99, cloth. Alex Cahill’s description of the initial moment she came upon her topic for this doctoral dissertation turned book is the type of thing that all researchers hope to experience. While conducting research on the Catholic Stage Guild of England (established in 1911), a chance encounter with a 1948 news clipping’s mention of a Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland led her to a new and previously unpublished avenue of scholarship. Already interested in the links between religion and theatre, especially her own Catholic faith and its historical relationship with theatre, Cahill sets out to examine, in The Formation, Existence, and Deconstruction of the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland, how the Irish Catholic Church influenced and shaped “the Irish entertainment industry in the twentieth century” (1) through the Catholic Stage Guild, “the Church’s vital organ in the Irish entertainment industry” (1). The story of the Guild’s approximate twenty-five-year existence (from 1945 to the late 1960s) is told primarily through four chapters [End Page 257] that detail the organization’s rise to moderate international acclaim, the internal disputes over the Guild’s mission and objectives, and its disappearance as Ireland and the world adapted to the changes brought by the 1960s and, especially, Vatican II. Rather than nodding to the 1911 creation of the English Stage Guild as the inspiration and namesake for the Irish Stage Guild, Cahill, in her introductory chapters, focuses on the medieval connotation of the term as the probable link, since a few 1940s Irish publications discussed medieval guilds, identifying them as organizations that, like the Irish Stage Guild, served both a professional and spiritual function for its members. Further, she contextualizes the Guild’s founding within the Irish political groups of the 1930s–1940s, such as Craobh na hAisérghe (Branch of the Resurrection) and Ailtirí na hAisérghe (Architects of the Resurrection), that sought to unite Ireland—all thirty-two counties—in its Catholic identity and Celtic language and culture, though the aforementioned groups espoused fascist ideology. Conversely, the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland from its start on May 26, 1945, focused on “charity and outreach” (24) and “‘pledged to [preserve] the spiritual and temporal welfare of its members’” (24). Members of the Guild, which exceeded one-thousand people by 1948 (39), received a badge to be worn daily, a membership card, and a booklet that included information about the Guild and its leadership, as well as the Guild’s daily prayer and a litany of the saints. Members were to also have assistance accessing priests and spaces for prayer when touring a show. Scholars of Irish theatre will recognize the names of many Guild members, including the organization’s first president, Abbey actor and later board member Gabriel Fallon, Abbey actors Eileen Crowe and Cyril Cusack, and the Theatre Royal’s Noel Purcell; even Hollywood stars Margaret O’Brien and Maureen O’Hara joined the Guild, demonstrating the Guild’s reach and the attraction it held for the faithful among the Irish and Irish immigrant entertainment community. The timeline Cahill lays out establishes that Fallon took it upon himself to reach out to the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, for his approval and patronage of the nascent organization while the Guild was still but an idea. McQuaid, whose authority and influence on Irish society at that time rivaled the Taoiseach’s, subsequently made financial donations to the Guild and took on the duty of appointing the first of several different chaplains. Cahill details, from archival records, the Guild’s intent to aid its members in attending to their Catholic duties, most notably weekly mass, despite their performance and rehearsal schedules, and to establish a benevolent fund to confidentially assist members and even non-Catholics who sought help from the organization. The “spiritual benefits reaped during” 1945–1947 (31) through the Guild’s own monthly mass, its annual retreat attended [End Page 258] by hundreds...