Pope John Paul II put pressure on IRA members to end their initial hunger strike in 1980 at the H Blocks prison in Northern Ireland new documents have revealed.
The pope urged local clergy to put strong pressure on the IRA hunger strikers to accept food because their fast to the death violated Christian principles.
The information is contained in new documents released by the British National Archives and reported by The Irish Times.
The text of the pope’s message was given to the British government, likely encouraging them to stand fast against the prisoner’s demands. to be treated as political prisoners.
Ten prisoners eventually died on a later hunger strike led by Bobby Sands.
The papal messages related to the first hunger strike which was called off at the last moment with several men seriously ill.
British officials believed the message “had obviously been somewhat unwelcome” to the Irish bishops, “to judge from the lack of any announcement from Archbishop O’Fiaich (then Archbishop of Armagh and dealing directly with the issues) or any others, or the release of the text”.
Archbishop Tomas O Fiaich was a staunch defender of the hunger strikers and was likely upset with the Vatican instructions.
But the British believed the pope’s message helped then writing that the message was “clear enough: the Irish hierarchy should not address themselves merely to the British authorities (as they have up to now) but also to the prisoners themselves (which they have hitherto failed to do)”.
The pope said: “The Bishops are urged not only to insist with the British Authorities but also to do everything possible in order to persuade prisoners to adopt a more human attitude, and I repeat, one more in keeping with Christian principles.”
Former Sinn Féin director of publicity Danny Morrison, a key figure back then in the hunger strikes told the Irish Times the report was to be expected.
“This comes as no surprise: Bishop Cahal Daly, a well-known anti-republican prelate, was chief adviser to the Vatican on the North, and his fingerprints are all over this perverse advice.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.sirpeter | Jan 03, 2011, 08:51 AM EST
Yeah,I want my money back 10% of Catholic yearly income for 200 years payed to the Anglican Church with interest.They keep the apology,just give us the money..yeah and the land..I want some land too..Yeah and some proddy woddy owns the fishing rights to Kenmare river..i don't think his family set foot in kenmare for 200 years.
kurtjohnson | Jan 03, 2011, 12:02 AM EST
@londonirishtom britain only "abolished" slavery when it was no longer a primary component of its economic output. The US civil war had little to do with slavery. Moreover, if the anglican church were truly Christian it would somehow recompense the Irish people for the stolen tithes and land (at least return some of the land?). The Anglican Church hasn't even apologized. Instead, you have greedy degenerate vicars who have never resided in Ireland challenging the title of Irish citizens to their own land. That's the british terror state for you - all about greed, murder, and theft.
kurtjohnson | Jan 02, 2011, 11:56 PM EST
@barneyjo Trans-national mass consumerism is a sickness emanating primarily from the anglo-sphere and is responsible for the industrial estate Ireland disaster (it was pushed on the Irish people through the anglo rooted Dublin based mass media). However, this is only a resultant component of anglo materialism - it's produced a debased view of human nature leading to supremacism and our current souless nihilism (which the western regimes soften with mass consumerism). It is also responsible for the doctrine of pragmatism which has ruined western education (just look at the astronomically increasing expenditures in relation to outcomes).
Irishphotograph | Jan 02, 2011, 03:54 PM EST
Im a Descendant of John Devoy (IRB)..One of the greatest of all Fenians..I am an Irish Republican but most importantly a Christian, a believer in God.
Irishphotograph | Jan 02, 2011, 03:53 PM EST
Being an Irish Roman Catholic for a lot of people is an Identity to be proud of..given centuries of British rule for it to be destroyed...but Roman Catholicism is not the essence of what makes up a proud Irish person. This church has become for Irish People a church of traditions devoid of the Spirit of God..Accept God's Rule over Rome rule & Ireland will be blessed for it..
barneyjo | Jan 02, 2011, 09:06 AM EST
@kurtjohnson - "it's true that degenerate anglo materalist/mass consumerist doctrines continue to poison the country" if by that you mean that there is a branch of Tesco in practically every large Irish town, thats commerce, which is of course a two way street if you recognise that there are many branches of Dunnes Stores in towns and cities across England, Scotland, and Wales. A further example, before its demise, the Waterford Crystal Group had taken over the English Wedgewood Pottery. Whilst I can accept the concept of "Political Capitalism" and its links to the evolution of consummerism, I think it is best to view both as separate constructs, if for no other reason than basic objectivity.
londonirishtom | Jan 02, 2011, 06:29 AM EST
@kurtjohnson – don’t suppose this is the place to remember that Britain abolished slavery some thirty years before the ‘freedom loving’ USA, and without the need for a civil war?
kurtjohnson | Jan 02, 2011, 12:17 AM EST
One wonders if the "Christian" Anglican Church will ever repay the Irish people the stolen "tithes" that it extorted from them. Of course, the degenerate sickos also owned, tortured, branded and sold slaves.
kurtjohnson | Jan 02, 2011, 12:14 AM EST
The Church hasn't been pro-Irish since the Papal Nuncio brought assistance from Rome in the 1640s. Additionally, Bill the Orange was in favor of allowing the Irish to keep their property making the loyalist supremacist worship of him somewhat curious. Re the Towntroll and barneyjo posts, it's true that degenerate anglo materalist/mass consumerist doctrines continue to poison the country primarily through the former pale (where the anglo toxin was allowed to keep a foothold in the mass media). Too bad that Ireland could not rid itself fully of the pale cancer the way France did in Brittany.
barneyjo | Jan 01, 2011, 06:04 PM EST
@sirpeter(& others) Good God - surely this cannot be; a modicum of consensus breaking out!!! It must be the end of the world!!
CitizenWhy | Dec 31, 2010, 09:35 PM EST
Not the first time the vatican sided with Britain against Ireland. When the British defended the Monarch-Pope against the Republican mobs of Rome, the deal was that the Pope would tell the Irish bishops to tell the Irish that God wanted them to bow to British authority. The Pope did so. Most, but not all, of the Irish bishops obeyed the pope.
sirpeter | Dec 31, 2010, 05:49 PM EST
barneyjo..If a poster here disagrees with a certain point i make..I don't mind.If it is a good point all the better.If i am wrong better still. I'm then a little wiser then before. But so is everybody else who cares to read that post. Look if a guy posts a load of crap that i know to be untrue and is derogatory,I'm going to challenge him with the information in my head.If he wishes he can challenge me back, it will go from there.Either way the information or topic has two sides of the story.For all to read. If they want to get personal and call me an idiot,that's grand too.I'm quite good at been foul mouthed myself,maybe you didn't notice..ha ha.I know you have different views to me,and the post below seems good,I will do further research to what you said..You seem a reasonable guy and you consider yourself an Irishman through and through.There is enough posters on this site who haven't a good word to say about anything Irish.So go easy with the negativity.This site is about all things Irish,not having a dump on the Irish (And to honest i don't mean you)There are others though who need my attention.lol Happy New Year..Hope it's a good one ;)
barneyjo | Dec 31, 2010, 04:37 PM EST
@sirpeter - a few points; 1)implict in your comments/ posts is that the view that I and others hold is less well informed than your own. I dont consider this to be the case; indeed, I could equally level the same charge against your own views. 2)I would contend that your view of the role of the Catholic Church in the immediate Post-Famine years, completely negates the "raison d'etre" of Cardinal Paul Cullen and the Irish Hierarchy from 1850 onwards and their efforts to make the Church a dominant force in the Ireland of that period. To that end, Cullen, together with a large section of the Catholic hierarchy was prepared to "shake hands with the devil" in his quest to turn what was generally viewed as a "rag-tag" church into the considerable force it became within his lifetime and beyond.And it is only in the present time that we have witnessed the demise of that entity. 3) Whilst I applaud your wish and intent to "defend" (your words) Irish Culture and traditions, I feel obliged to qualify that view by saying that you take to much responsibility on your own shoulders without the sanction of others like myself who consider themselves Irishmen through and through
sirpeter | Dec 31, 2010, 10:50 AM EST
BTW..At least you try to put up an argument,unlike Towngate who now speaks indirectly to me,because he can't handle facts.Course the abuse i give him might be something to do with that..ha ha ha.I'm not sure what your motives are...But you must admit your post on Dec 30, 2010, 05:58 PM EST to Downunderyan was not the truth,the whole truth and nothing but the truth.To omit important fact's is tantamount to lies. This is my crusade on IrishCentral to let people know the full facts when a poster either has misinformation or is been biased..I put in a counter-argument and if they are interested,they can look up the facts for themselves..as you say.
diannerae | Dec 31, 2010, 10:26 AM EST
I think the Pope should have told the British to give them political status or their deaths would be murder and on their hands.
sirpeter | Dec 31, 2010, 10:17 AM EST
NO!! It's not my own view on 99% of what i post,I rarely if ever throw in my own opinion,I don't really have too.It's hard to defend English policy in Ireland,so my job is easy. It's not a question of who is right and who is wrong.I'm not feeding my ego on this site and i hope you are not just feeding your's.I see my posts here as correcting false history and information..If you notice on this site..I'M NOT attacking English heritage ..BUT defending the truth about Irish heritage...It is my heritage that's been attacked all the time by posters here.Maybe if their was an EnglishCentral I could go over there and stir up trouble by saying things like ..England is not English anymore,but run by the non-whites..I.m sure real Englishmen would come out guns blazing if i said that..That's what I'm putting up with here.I don't defend the indefensible either like what our present government has done..You won't find one post where i do..I am shocked at the road they have lead us down..I do have my own opinions on why this happened.All i want to see is fair balanced argument. I asked the Uniionist downinthebasement to give me his points of view...HE WOULD NOT!! because his only reason for been here was to stir up trouble with lies.
barneyjo | Dec 31, 2010, 06:06 AM EST
Ah, so we're not talking about ACTUAL history here, but your own view of it........ which is fine from your perspective I'm sure. Either way, I'm quite content for Downunderyan (and whoever else) to read the AUTHORATATIVE historical resources for themselves and to make their own judgments. From where I stand, I'm no throwing any more of a crooked dice than you are. Unlike some, I would never seek to foist the view that "I'm right, you're wrong - get over it" on anyone else. Facts are facts as you say, so let interested people read, and decide for themselves!!!!
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 11:53 PM EST
Forgot to answer this one!! All Irish Primary and secondary Schools in the Republic to this day are economical with history when it comes to the gun in Irish politics.Sinn Fein was banned from the airwaves up to the 90's.BUT..nothing like the schools in British...Even University level Irish history is so glossed over..it's jaw-dropping (ie The Irish Famine..The potato failed and a million dies..End of story)No mention that Ireland had enough food to feed double the population or that it was been exported..Oh they throw in their favorite one about the massacre of Drogheda,BUT..they always say Cromwell gave them a chance to surrender..kinda take the sting out of the fact ..he killed every man,women and child.Clarify...Catholic Schools taught english and european, but NOT irish history. Was this in America?
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 11:18 PM EST
If you are widely read on the facts of the Battle of the Boyne.Then tell Downunderyan the whole facts leading up to that battle and why the pope supported William.Honesty and true facts lead to less misunderstanding.Or are you afraid to tell the whole truth? @Downunderyan he throws a crooked dice,so crooked it leaned.He tries to confuse you but don't be fooled..BTW..Typo..i ment to say..I have MET many Revisionist's of Irish history...they try but they all have failed to revise any history, because of no solid evidence.Is it still curious?
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 09:49 PM EST
Sorry I should have said....please dont trouble yourself on my account.
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 09:44 PM EST
Hmm, your statement "I have many Revisionist's...they try but they all have failed" is most curious. Sorry to disappoint you but I too am a student of Irish History, and Politics, and as I have already said, a victim of state (British) sponsored politics; but I'm still here as are a good many of my generation who have also fought for a better tomorrow. To paraphrase a well known Irish songwriter, unlike you (and others) I am not content to allow anyone to "Carve Tomorrow from a Tombstone" for myself or for my family. Nor am I going to "sacrafice my children to feed the worn out dreams of Yesterday" Oh and please dont trouble yourself by posting facts about the Battle of the Boyne' its something I have read widely on, but thank you for the offer nonetheless!!
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 09:12 PM EST
[contd] and to help you on your way I offer the following quotation. "The (Catholic)Church itself was one of the great Anglicizing influences. It curtailled wakes, stamped out cross-road dancing, bowderized the folksongs. Catholic Schools taught english and european, but NOT irish history.... (American Catholic, by Charles R Morris - chapter Two, page 46) I expect you will be tempted to quot the lyrics of "Boolavogue" back at me, but of course, thats another conspiracy of the Irish Catholic Church worthy of its own debate, is it not?
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 09:03 PM EST
barneyjo...I'm no Revisionist..British atrocities abound in Irish history..no need to try and change anything..I have many Revisionist's...they try but they all have failed,it's hard to change the truth.But i will post some facts about your William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne post..You're a bit economical with the real truth there too.
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 08:42 PM EST
@sirpeter - I'll leave the Revisionism to you then!!!!!
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 07:38 PM EST
@Downunderyan..let me deal with him..I'll sort barneyjo out on the facts of that post too.
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 07:34 PM EST
@barneyjo..You didn't have a case,you just stated the obvious,like they have no right to protest.Predictable YES.Laughable NO!!..I will also (reluctantly)answer your final point.In the mid 19th Century in Ireland.Still under British rule.The Catholic Church was still reeling from the effects of the penal laws.The established Church was The Protestant Church of Ireland.A tenth (a tithe) of all Catholic yearly income went to the Protestant Church.They didn't encourage the Catholic Church to get the the flock to toe the line.They coerced and bribed SOME!! of the Catholic Hierarchy but not all and certainly not many priests in the parishes.Your point is weak from the stand point that the Catholic Church was not in a strong position to take ANY FIRM STAND on any matter in Ireland at that time in history.Your post only serves to feed those with little knowledge of the widespread coercion and bribery that has been the main weapon of English policy in Ireland and God knows even up to this day. So you can hmmmm off.
londonirishtom | Dec 30, 2010, 07:00 PM EST
In my lifetime most Bits have been very reasonable and accommodating to anything and anybody Irish. The sooner we get the chip off our shoulder, the sooner we can appreciate how much each country can give to each other. Look to the future and not the past, and let’s get mature on this issue, please.
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 05:58 PM EST
@Downunderyan - in view of your comments, this would seem to make the Irish people all the more stupid for their prolonged unqestioning blind obedience to the Pope and to Rome, wouldn't it. Add to that the fact the the Pope was on the side of William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne.
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 05:29 PM EST
@sirpeter (reluctantly) - one final point; with regard to your comment earlier; ie "The Catholic Church is under constant attack" in the context of your last "unique" observations on entanglement vs interlinkage, I was suddenly reminded of the dark period of capitulation by the Irish Hierarchy in the mid 19th Century to the demands of the British Government to "encourage" the flock to toe the line. Didnt they receive St Patricks College in Maynooth as part payment for their capitulation in this process, hmmm???
Downunderyan | Dec 30, 2010, 05:27 PM EST
JP 2 was not impartial. He happily supported Lech Walenska and Solidarity in their struggle against communist tyrany but was not so sympathetic to the Irish struggle against British tyrany. I suppose it's only to be expected as it was a Pope (Englishman Nicholas Breakespeare aka Pope Hadrian 4) who authorised the Norman-English invasion of Ireland in his Papal Bull "Laudabiliter" issued in 1166 but not put into action by Henry 2 until 1169. Rome hasn't always been a friend of Ireland and Ireland's steadfast allegiance to Rome hasn't always been reciprocated.
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 05:22 PM EST
I rest my case!!!!!!!
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 04:58 PM EST
@barneyjo..Speak for the West Brits on this Island.Real Irishmen never felt intertwined with both Islands.We feel more tangled up then intertwined.They are our enemy, and if you knew the unwillingness and the obstacles that the British government put in front of the Northern peace process,you would know it too.On Mrs Mountbatten she should go to Sligo,the locals can point out the many spots where pieces of Lord Mountbatten was washed up. In his biography of Mountbatten, Philip Ziegler said...His vanity, though child-like, was monstrous, his ambition unbridled. The truth, in his hands, was swiftly converted from what it was, to what it should have been. He sought to rewrite history with cavalier indifference to the facts to magnify his own achievements.I spit on the Royals and their long line of corrupt ancestry,who supported atrocity after atrocity in Ireland.They forced by starvation my countrymen out of their homeland and the more i think about..It's Dublin and the West Brits are doing it again now.You are right barneyjo. Englishness never really left "The Pale" Yeah Outsiders!! In Bull McCabe's own words...Outsiders? Are these the same outsiders who took the corn from our mouths when the potatoes went rotten in the ditches?Are these the same outsiders that took the meat from our tables when the juices of grass ran from our mouths? Are these the same outsiders that drove our ancestors to the four corners of the earth?" GONE, because I drove them out, me & my kind, GONE....but not forgotten Barneyjo and you too Towngate.
Towngate | Dec 30, 2010, 03:22 PM EST
BARNEYJO IS RIGHT! ... and more right than he thinks as 'Englishness' pervades the entire land in the form of a its unchanged municipal infrastructure - and language. But rest assured, "The Men of The Pale!" ( gloried in the last verse of the National Anthem), will continue to do what is best for Ireland and in waving the Union Flag. They will wave hardest the bit with St Patrick's Cross of Ireland interwoven into it and which has never been removed. The pejorative term 'Jackeen' meaning a 'British supporter' comes from the incorrect description of the British flag as the Union Jack. That is the flag flown only from the Jackstaff at the stern of a seagoing vessel. All Aboard! Toodle-pip!
barneyjo | Dec 30, 2010, 10:54 AM EST
@sirpeter - No, not really. The English or rather the "sense" of Englishness never really left "The Pale" in the first place.The truth is that the lives and fabric of both islands are so intertwined and always have been. When "Mrs Mountbatten" makes her visit, I expect that the city centre will be thronged with Dublin Citizens waving both the Tri-Colour and the Union Jack with equal gusto. What protest happens will be instigated by the Physical Force wing of "Reaching the future thru the past" (dot com!!) with their hollow cries of "Ders de Eenglish - d'ere bad an eevil peeple" Its so predictable I would laugh, if it were not so pitiful to see human spirits so weighed down by "engineered" sense of outrage and history foisted upon them by a small number of equally pitiful minds who really do know better,but who havent the guts to admit that to themselves, or to others!!!
sirpeter | Dec 30, 2010, 09:16 AM EST
More Catholic Church bashing..The media really know when to dredge up "new documents" It seems the Irish people are under attack from all directions.The Catholic Church is under constant attack.Our government has sold us out to Europe.Our President will be having cups of tea with the Queen in Áras an Uachtaráin.We are been invaded by stealth.
GeorgeDillon | Dec 30, 2010, 09:15 AM EST
As a teenager I visited Ireland for the first time in April 1981, arriving a week or so before Bobby Sands died. I stayed a couple of months, leaving a couple of days after the battle of Ballsbridge in Dublin. By that time it was clear that the hunger strike was a failure and support and solidarity were actually diminishing. It was a really terrible time. As far as I could tell support for the Strike was very strong among the poorer Catholic areas of the North, but in most parts of the South the majority never had much sympathy. Plus, the Sinn Fein leadership both North and South were worthless. In the South their only "strategy" was to put pressure on the Fianna Fail party, an utterly futile waste of time. I remember a Sinn Fein official, relatively well-known at the time, saying "Every death strengthens us". I thought at the time that was garbage, and I am certain of it now. The only death that mattered was Sands'. Once he died the thing should have been called off. The other nine lives were all wasted. I honor the memory of the ten who died, but looking at Ireland today I think they were crazy. They would all be relatively young men still if they had not given up their lives so that Gerry Adams and his henchmen could purchase property and become millionaires.