The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian (13 page)

Chapter 10

1.
Evening Herald
, 5 January 1931, p.8.

2.
The
Anglo-Celt
, 10 January 1931, p.1.

3.
Local authorities at the time were funded by rates. In the estimates for the forthcoming year a certain proportion would be put aside for each item of expenditure.

4.
The
Anglo-Celt
, 10 January 1931, p.1.

5.
Sligo Champion
, 10 January 1931, p.3.

6.
The Anglo-Celt
, 10 January 1931, p.5.

7.
The Connaught Telegraph
, 10 January 1931, p. 7.
The Sorrows of Satan
is a novel by Marie Corelli.

8.
Sligo Champion
, 10 January 1931, p.3.

9.
The Anglo-Celt
, 10 January 1931, p.5.

10.
Ibid., 10 January 1931, p.5.

11.
Evening Herald
, 5 January 1931, p.8.

12.
Irish Independent
, 6 January 1931, p.9.

13.
Sligo Champion
, 10 January 1931, p.3.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Ibid.

16.
The Connaught Telegraph
, 10 January 1931, p.7.

17.
Leitrim Observer
, 24 January 1931, p.1.

18.
Irish Independent
, 23 January 1931, p.7.

19.
The Anglo-Celt
, 31 January 1931, p.10.

20
Irish Independent
, 26 January 1931, p.10.

21.
The Anglo-Celt
, 2 November 1929, p.10.

22.
Leitrim Observer
, 31 January 1931, p.1.

23.
Ibid.

As is evident from the Leitrim incident, many councillors opposed the introduction of a public library service as it would have to be funded from rates and would be a drain on scarce resources. Many members of the clergy distrusted libraries on the more general grounds that they were a conduit to the outside world, with the possibility of being an evil influence. The clergy saw it as their duty to serve on library committees to exercise some control over these new establishments. The Lenten letter of Archbishop Gilmartin of Tuam from 1931 is a good example of the typical attitude of the Catholic hierarchy towards the outside world:

The modern world is teeming with all kinds of printed matter, books, more especially novels, reviews, magazines, papers – a few of them good, some of them indifferent, some of them positively immoral, many of them anti-Christian, and many of them illustrated with indecent pictures.

Now we all know that the mind is formed by what it feeds upon. Hence you are invited to support the Catholic Truth Society which supplies wholesome and interesting reading matter and publishes catalogues of books that, speaking generally, it is safe to read.

You are also exhorted to support and read our Irish papers, especially our splendid Catholic weeklies and to keep out of your homes that section of the foreign press, particularly the Sunday foreign press, which specialises in parading the crimes, the scandals, the filth and the irreligion of the world.

The world of books and newspapers was believed to be a wild and dangerous place that needed to be supervised and controlled.

The controversy over the appointment of librarians was linked in the minds of many councillors and clergy to the touchy subject of how medical officers should be appointed in the local authorities. Medical appointments were seen as especially sensitive on political and religious grounds. Contraception and abortion were illegal in Ireland yet the Anglican church's Lambeth Conference had debated such issues as birth control and given approval to the use of contraceptives in certain cases. The Catholic church wanted, if not control, at least a strong say into how such posts were filled.

As the
Catholic Bulletin
put it, ‘More is needed than a librarian described as being Catholic. Not every Catholic, so called, can be admitted to such public duties towards a Catholic people. There are not a few persons styled Catholic, in this Carnegie library movement, who cannot but be regarded as very doubtfully fitted for such duties.

‘They had eulogies and appreciations of such unworthy writers as Joyce, Moore, O'Flaherty, O'Casey, not to mention those obscene English pen-men, D.H. Lawrence and his associates, always ready for the subsidised weekly journal of Messers H. Plunkett, G.W. Russell and Lennox Robinson. Only a thoroughly educated Catholic man or woman, loyal and energetic in the cause of Catholic action, can be deemed fit for the highly responsible and influential post of county librarian.'
1

In the early days of the New Year, resistance to the county librarian spread throughout Mayo. The
Western People
reported that the Ballina library sub-committee had dissolved itself in protest to Miss Dunbar Harrison's employment. The chairman, Rev. Denis O'Connor, stated, ‘It was not a sectarian issue because first of all the Catholic church was not a sect. It was not sectarianism but a stand on Catholic principles.'
2

A correspondent for the
Irish Independent
described the scene in the Ballina library room where some of the voluntary helpers ‘were busily engaged in packing the books into boxes for the purpose of dispatch to Castlebar.'
3
The
Connacht Tribune
predicted the demise of the libraries in Mayo. ‘Though opinion on the matter may be divided,' it wrote, ‘there is one outcome apparent even at this early stage, and that is that Mayo county library will become a dead letter.'
4

The
Mayo News
printed an article from the
Irish World
, a New York paper. ‘Every anti-Irish institution in Britain and this country,' it wrote, ‘is beginning to concentrate on what has come to be known as the Dunbar case.' The
Irish World
went on to accuse Richard Mulcahy of giving ammunition to the anti-Irish the world over:

His action will be represented as a case where the local public body had to be abolished in order to get a Protestant appointed … the Junta will give colour to the lie that only the greatest force will secure an appointment in the ‘Free' State for a Protestant. The facts are almost absurdly the other way … In the Free State area where the Catholics form 93 per cent of the population and Protestants 7 per cent, the Protestants have 15 per cent of the total state positions.

… the Junta, in their preparations to suppress Mayo County Council, are giving face to a shameful lie – that Protestants are not getting a fair show in the Free State … The Junta will not protest against things like that which are daily occurring in the six counties. They must act so as to give the impression that Irish public bodies have to be suppressed before they will give fair play to a minority which in blunt truth is not only fairly treated at this moment but is almost absurdly pampered.
5

Irish-American newspapers were, unsurprisingly, critical of the suppression of Mayo County Council. The
Roscommon Herald
quoted an unnamed ‘Chicago Catholic organ' as accusing the government of ‘dancing to the tune of
The Irish Times
and the “occult influence” of the imperialist minority in the Free State.'
6

The
Catholic Times
in England held similar views. ‘Nobody believes, of course,' it wrote, ‘that the matter can end here, that the Mayo County Council has vainly sacrificed itself. The situation will arise again in an aggravated form in Kerry, or Donegal or Tipperary … [The situation] has impressed upon dependable Catholics the great need of Catholic action … as public men they have a greater duty to their religion, than the recital of the “Angelus”, cap in hand, on the public street of some country town. Catholic action has to do for them and the coming generation what, in the field of politics their nationalist masters did for them and their country. It has to give expression to the Catholic mind of the people.'
7

What the Catholic mind of the people demanded and Catholic action entailed in this case, was the boycotting of the library service. As the month of January wore on and the political debate continued at home and abroad, this boycott spread across the county. ‘Meanwhile the books are coming back to the library by the hundred,' wrote the
Mayo News
, ‘but whether they will ever again go out is not so certain. Train, bus and lorry bring the familiar boxes, and the approaches to the library door are constantly filled, but no books are allowed out at the moment, and in any case there are no applications for them.'
8
It was clear that the Catholic clergy were the main movers, if not the instigators, of the boycott.

The
Western People
reported that ‘an emphatic request to have all the Carnegie library books dispatched to Castlebar within this week was made at all the masses in Charlestown on Sunday last.' Fr Denis Gildea cited the fourth commandment as the basis for the opposition. Governments exist for the furtherance of the good of the community. Subjects have rights as well as duties. The common good, the welfare of the people of County Mayo, demands that if a duly qualified Catholic librarian is available, such a one should be put in charge in preference to a Protestant. The imposition of a Protestant lady showed an overweening contempt for the welfare of the community and must be resisted. And that resistance would take the form of returning, at once, all books circulating in Charlestown parish to Miss Letitia Dunbar Harrison.
9

Meanwhile, the Pioneer Hall Committee of Castlebar's lending library refused to accept any more books from the central library and requested to have the books removed. The
Irish Independent
reported that ‘Ballinrobe library committee has closed and returned all the books to Castlebar as a protest against the appointment of the new librarian. The library had an average of fifty readers.'
10

By the end of January the government's hopes that the crisis in Mayo would abate once the rebellion of the council was faced down, had proved false. Under the heading ‘Books Coming Home', the
Western People
reported, ‘South and west Mayo are now following the lead given by the library committee in Ballina in sending back all Carnegie library books to Castlebar as a protest against the appointment of Miss Dunbar. In fact by the end of this week all books from west Mayo will be returned, with the intimation, written occasionally in Irish, that the centres are abolished and will not again be erected until the Mayo librarian suits the people of Mayo.

‘South Mayo centres are gathering up their scattered books as fast as possible, and within a month, it will be a rare bird of a book that has not come home to roost. Of course, long ago it was easy to see that such would be the case; the logical result of the controversy will be that the Mayo library books will remain on their shelves gathering dust.'
11

The
Irish Independent
managed to get a statement from Miss Dunbar Harrison. On 26 February she told the paper ‘that stabilised conditions had not yet been reached, the opposition to her appointment having resulted in the closing down of a large number of branches in rural and town areas and the books having been returned to the central repository.' There had been some falling off in the patrons of the central library and the branch in Castlebar, she said, which was somewhat of an understatement. Yet she remained positive. She also stated that ‘arrangements had been made for her to visit all the districts with a view to re-establishing the discontinued centres and the opening of new ones. The people of all classes were kind and courteous, and she was confident that she would be happy among them. The people were wonderful readers and had set great value on the books.'
12
She insisted that she would fulfil the conditions regarding Irish within the allotted time.

The
Catholic Bulletin
was keeping a close eye on the situation. ‘Miss Dunbar,' it wrote, ‘is also eloquent on her supporters and advisers in the Castlebar area. Beyond the types represented by the purchased degree holders of TCD and the devotees of mixed education as represented by the defunct Queen's Colleges of Sir Robert Peel, who are they?'
13

By June, the
Catholic Bulletin
had assured its readers that of the 130 or so library centres that had been active in Mayo in December 1930, less than five of them were in use by May 1931. They were exceedingly proud of what they saw as an example of Catholic action. It was evident that the Mayo library service was being boycotted. As one historian put it, ‘It was clear that if Mayo did not have a Catholic librarian, it would have no library at all.'
14

Not just as a strategy but even as a word, boycotting had a strong resonance in Mayo. It was here that it had originated during the Land League's campaign in the 1880s. A form of extreme social ostracisation, not everyone was in favour of it as a policy. In his book
Boycott
, Charles Boycott (not a disinterested commentator) describes it as ‘a most unpleasant, much feared and widely used social weapon in Ireland, and, before long, in the world.'
15
What happened with the library service in Mayo in the early months of 1931 may have been on the milder side of the scale compared, for instance, to the Fethard-on-Sea boycott, but it cannot have been a pleasant experience for a young librarian.
16
As Archdeacon Fallon put it, ‘The people of Castlebar have shown no antagonism to Miss Harrison personally. They have shown every mark of courtesy to her as a refined, cultured young lady.' However, he went on to say, ‘The action of the County Council in refusing to appoint her, and the action of the people of Mayo in returning all the books, is proof enough to show that they will not have her services as a librarian.'

To make matters worse for the government the difficulties had begun to spread to other areas of Commissioner Bartley's work in the county. The
Western People
headlined a report, ‘Mayo Vocational Committee – Only One Member Attends'. It wrote, ‘Very Rev. Canon McHugh, PP, VF, Claremorris, was the only member of Mayo Vocational Educational Committee who answered the summons for the monthly meeting on Tuesday, 29 January.'
17
This was the only County Council committee that had not been abolished, though the members of the council selected to represent it had been removed by the commissioner, leaving it to function with a mere handful of clergymen and representatives from the urban councils. However, it seemed that these too had joined in the protest and were refusing to co-operate with Commissioner Bartley's new regime.

The people of Mayo seemed determined to show that they could survive without a library service. And now that the dispute was spreading, a resolution to the crisis seemed as far away as ever. In the face of the stubbornness of the people, the government's strategy was in tatters.

Chapter 11

1.
Catholic Bulletin
, March 1931, vol. xxi, no. 3, p.211.

2.
Western People
, 5 January 1931, p.1.