Introduction. Archbishop Walsh’s opposition to the scheme to send striker’s children to England caused great controversy in Dublin. Although Mrs Montefiore and other labour leaders argued that the children would be sent only to families that had been approved, many people were influenced by Walsh’s opinion, and condemned the scheme. Large crowds of protesters, encouraged by Catholic priests, assembled at train stations and ports to prevent the children from being sent to ‘the homes of Atheists and Socialists’. There were scuffles between those who were accompanying the children, and those who tried to stop them, and the police intervened to calm the crowd. Most of the children were prevented from leaving the city. In the following passage, Wright describes the development of the controversy, which he interprets as one of the evil outcomes of Larkin and labour politics. Wright described how Montefiore was confronted by angry crowds when preparing children for the trip to England The priests demanded that she hand over her charges to their protection to be returned to their families. They followed Montefiore and the children to the port, all the time accusing Montefiore and her friends of kidnapping, and urging the children, successfully, to leave her company. Larkin condemned the priests, accused them of caring more about their own interests, and that of Dublin’s employers, than of the poor and hungry children. He denied that the faith of Catholic children would be at risk in England. Nevertheless, people were more influenced by clerical opinion than that of Larkin or the other labour leaders. There were clashes throughout the week when more attempts were made to send children away. Thousands of people marched through the city, singing religious songs, and shouting praise for the Pope, the Archbishop, and the priests, to celebrate their success in stopping the scheme. Labour supporters, in return, heckled the marchers, and cheered for Larkin. Those who opposed the scheme believed, like the Archbishop and many Dublin priests, that it would harm Catholic children’s faith because it had been organised by socialists and Protestants.

 

Source. Arnold Wright, Disturbed Dublin: the story of the great strike of 1913–14 with a description of the industries of the Irish capital (London 1914) 221–25.

 

The deportation scheme met with organised resistance from a large body of people who were genuinely and, on the whole, not unnaturally alarmed at this strange new development of Larkinism. On October 22, the day after the appearance of Archbishop’s Walsh’s letter, arrangements were in progress for the despatch of a contingent of about fifty children to follow in the wake of parties that had already been sent forward on two previous days. The youngsters were being washed, preparatory to the voyage, at the Corporation Baths, under the supervision of Mrs Montefiore and the other ladies associated with her, when a body of priests appeared on the scene prepared to contest with the strangers for the possession of their charges.

Mrs Montefiore declined to be moved from her purpose by the representations made to her by the clerics, but she could not prevent them from taking out of her custody a considerable number of the children. Undaunted by this rebuff, the intrepid lady sent off the remnant of the band—nineteen in number—to Kingstown for embarkation on the outgoing mail steamer. The priests, following in the track of the little voyagers, captured ten of the party before the landing stage was reached, and ultimately induced the remaining nine, after they had gone on board, to come ashore. ...

The ecclesiastical victory stung Mr Larkin to the quick. The same evening, speaking from his forum at Liberty Hall, he made a bellicose speech assailing the priests in strong terms. He denounced the clergymen who had been actively concerned in preventing the deportation of Mrs Montefiore’s charges as ‘a disgrace to their cloth’. He said:

‘Some of the priests ... were afraid of these children going to England for a short stay; they were fearful lest their faith would be interfered with; but the religion which could not stand a fortnight’s holiday in England had not very much bottom or very much support behind it. Of course he knew that many of these clergy had shares in the Tramway Company, but while soul-destroying agencies were at work in Dublin for many years there was no protest made against them ...Those clergymen and the employers ... had lighted a fire which it would take more than an hour to extinguish’.

These insulting words, applied to a class held in the highest respect by the great mass of the people of Dublin, had the effect of stimulating the opposition to the deportation scheme to an extraordinary extent.

It was no longer a question of priests against Liberty Hall, but of a concerted movement of the whole of the Catholic forces in Dublin against what they regarded as an insidious Socialist attack on the faith. On Thursday, October 23, as the hour approached for the departure of the cross–Channel steamers, immense crowds gathered about the quays at North Wall with the declared intention of preventing the embarkation of any more children. A large number of priests were conspicuous in the throng and took an active part in directing what was in reality a picketing of ships. ...

Eventually, after the last boat had cast off from the wharf and there was no further possibility of deporting children that night, the great crowd, now numbering many thousands, formed in processional order and marched along the quays bareheaded, singing ‘Faith of our Fathers’, ‘Hail, glorious St. Patrick’, and other sacred melodies. Thus they proceeded until they reached College Green, where a halt was called and the assembled multitude were addressed by Father Farrell of Donnybrook, a priest who had taken a conspicuous part in the evening’s operations. He said:

‘Remember ... that this great demonstration was unorganised and unprepared. It shows the love you have for the Catholic children of this city. It is a magnificent protest against the proselytising of our children in the Socialistic homes of England’.

The crowd cheered these sentiments with enthusiasm, and then dispersed to their homes with cries of ‘Away with the Socialists’, and ‘Down with Larkin’.

By general consent it was one of the most remarkable and significant uprisings of Catholics that Dublin had witnessed for many a long day. Apart from the weight of the popular protest, a heavy blow had been dealt at the deportation movement by the institution of criminal proceedings, associated with charges of abduction against Mrs Montefiore and Mrs Rand, an American lady who had been prominently identified with the scheme for the removal of the children. Nevertheless, the Larkinites declined to abandon their project without a further struggle.

On Friday, October 24, an attempt was made under the direction of Mr Larkin’s sister, Miss Delia Larkin, to despatch a party of juveniles to Belfast by rail. They were to have travelled by the six o’clock train in the evening from Amiens Street Station, and their tickets had actually been taken for the journey, when a number of priests, with an escort of youths, appeared upon the scene with the evident determination of preventing the execution of the plan. Miss Larkin stood her ground for a time, but the persistency of the clerics, reinforced by the action of a hostile crowd who blocked the approach to the train, compelled her eventually to retrace her steps to Liberty Hall with her charges.

Flushed with their fresh victory over the forces of Larkinism, the priests and the other demonstrators marched down to the quays to picket the evening boats. There was, however, no further attempt made to get the children out of the country. After the departure of the last boat there was a repetition of the demonstration of the previous evening. A huge procession, numbering in its ranks thousands of earnest sons of the Church, marched off towards O’Connell Bridge, singing appropriate hymns.

As the processionists passed Liberty Hall a crowd of strikers vigorously hooted the procession and cheered for Larkin. The compliment was returned with interest by the demonstrators, who varied their cheering for the Pope, the Archbishop, and the Priests, with cries of ‘Down with Socialism’, ‘Larkin must go’, and ‘Kidnapper Larkin’.

At one point it appeared as if the two opposing crowds would come to blows. But the large force of police present kept the rival forces apart and the evening closed without any untoward incident. This demonstration of Friday, October 23, virtually closed the history of the deportation project. There were echoes of it afterwards in the law courts and in the press, but Dublin was spared any repetition of the humiliating scenes which had marked the development of this the most tactless of all the manoeuvres of Larkinism.

Tomás O’Riordan