The Henson Journals

[11]

Friday, August 12th, 1927. Stephenstown, Dundalk.

Our host and hostess motored us to Rostrevor, where we lunched. Our road lay along the shore of Carlingford Lough, & commanded very beautiful prospects, which, however we saw under the disadvantage of heavy rain on the outward journey. Returning we had better weather. I was interested by the fumbling inconveniences of the frontier precautions. There would appear to be a considerable smuggling activity over the lough.

There came to dine, the Revd W. Campbell, who is the protestant Rector of a church in Dundalk. He spoke of the tyranny which the Roman Catholicks exercise on the people, and gave some striking illustrations from his own experience. The police and postal authorities are believed to act in collusion with the priests, and the belief is justified by sinister facts. Mine host was careful to post letters in Dundalk, because he alleged that he had but too good reason for thinking that the local official opened letters. It would appear that Irish morality is declining as the despotism of the priests tends to break down before the influx of revolutionary influences from America. There is no inbred moral principle which can survive the failure of external discipline.

[12]

One of the most unpleasing features of Irish life is the profound and all pervading distrust, which prevails in society. The differences of race, religion, & politics cut very deeply. No man trusts his neighbour. The domestics are felt to be probably spies, & caution is observed & enjoined. Under the parade of jovial kindliness there is always a deep suspicion: and the shadow of an unconfessed fear rests on the intercourse of neighbours. Crime, the worst crime, jostles common life, & thrusts itself into the general experience. There is no part of Ireland free from this degrading feature. The Roman priesthood, having condoned and even urged assassination against the English, now finds itself powerless to restrain the Irish from assassinating one another. All accounts agree in asserting the marked decline of sacerdotal influence. Many have ceased attendance at mass, & the confessional. The admonitions of the priests no longer carry their former authority. Republicanism in politics is with difficulty reconciled with orthodoxy in Religion: and, of course, the effect of American experience is steadily hostile to the Hierarchy: and it is very widely felt, for few Irish families are without American connexions.