Irish Images of Religious Conflict in Mexico in the 1920s

lt;!-- * Font Definitions * @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} * Style Definitions * p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent: quot; quot;; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family: quot;Times New Roman quot;; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Times; mso-hansi-font-family:Times; mso-bidi-font-family: quot;Times New Roman quot;; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- gt; This study seeks to examine Irish interpretations of conflict between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government in the 1920s.  It examines accounts in contemporary press coverage, political discussions and religious journals, frequently comparing the difficulties of Mexican Catholics with Irish Catholics difficulties, past and present. While focussing on the dominant Irish Catholic reaction of outrage at the apparently insensate persecution of Mexican Catholics, alternative interpretations are also considered. Radical Irish Republicans, still smarting from their condemnation by the Catholic Church during the Irish Civil War, were sceptical of the dominant Catholic interpretation of events. In Belfast, the Protestant unionist press, traditionally critical of the influence of the Catholic Church on Irish Nationalists, had little sympathy for the Catholic Church in Mexico. Although Irish interpretations reflected traditional and local concerns, they also drew on North American debates, and, through the writings of Irish war correspondent Francis McCullagh, contributed to a broader Anglophone discourse on Mexico.