Madam, - I don't know what history book Brian Eggins was quoting from in his well-intentioned but flawed request for Catholic Church leaders to "rescind the blood sacrifice of the 1916 Rebellion" (March 25th). The Catholic Church cannot rescind it, because it never supported it in the first place.
Despite the popular conception of republicanism as a Catholic dominated ideology, nothing could be further from the truth. Patrick Pearse's revolutionary theology was a private matter, and certainly not supported by the Catholic Hierarchy. Indeed, since the foundation of Maynooth the Church in Ireland has supported whatever establishment was in power at a given time - be it British or Free State.
It may not be widely recognised, but the first challenge to the power of the Church in 20th-century Ireland was by the IRA in Cork. When Bishop Coholan issued his edict excommunicating them in 1920, they noted with irony his silence on matters such as the murder of Canon Magnier by the Black and Tans.
For Catholic members of the IRA the edict was no light matter, but summing it up for the political pronouncement it was, they simply ignored it. It should be noted, however, that they were not rejecting their Catholic faith or the institution itself, only its right to intervene on behalf of the British State.
Calling on the Catholic Church to rescind events it never supported shows how far matters of religion have clouded popular conception of what were and are actually political and social questions. - Yours, etc.,
NICK FOLLEY, Carrigaline, Co Cork.