Political Funerals

Eugene has sent a number of letters to the papers over the years concerning Spain. here is one which says a lot of the attitude of the Catholic Church in the 1930's towards those who fought for the Republic. This is reprinted from the Irish Times, 11th September 1992.

Political Funerals

Sir,

With regard to the publication of the Inter-Church booklet, Burying Our Dead: Political Funerals in Northern Ireland may I make the following comment.
Speaking to your reporter one of the authors, Rev. Brian Lennon, S.J., said that in Catholic funerals the prayers were said for the dead person and for forgiveness of that person. It is further stated that in Catholic theology a funeral is the time to plead for mercy and to pray for the dead person, and therefore the celebration of Mass in no way suggests approval of the actions of the deceased.
In December 1936 Tony Fox, of Inchicore, Dublin, was killed fighting in the battle of Cordoba, fighting in defence of the Spanish Republic. A request that a Mass should be said for the repose of his soul was refused by the local clergy. This was a cause of great distress to his family.
If he had died fighting for Hitler's friend, Franco, there would have been no problem about the Mass. The decision, therefore, was a political one which had no regard for the immortal soul of the deceased.
Could it be that it was considered at the time that supporters of the Spanish Republic couldn't possibly have immortal souls?

Yours etc,

Eugene Downing, Co. Wicklow.

Note:
Added Sept. 15th;Geraldine McCormack, a relative of Tony Fox, was in touch with me on 15th August. She wrote:

"Tony's body was never found and hence why the local clergy refused a funeral service. It was just one of those things at the time. No funeral if there is no body. They did get a funeral mass said elsewhere in a church in the City of Dublin where the clergy had no problem doing so"

About this report. The initial reason for not holding a service was the lack of a body. This did not prevent the catholic church from holding services for the dead members of the Bandera. I'll provide dates for at least one of these services later. Ciaran Crossey

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Other documents by/about Eugene.

There are 2 obituaries available about him:
One by Manus O'Riordan, the other appeared on the Indymedia site.

In addition to this letter by Eugene there are a few other pieces
written by him now available online.

In September 2000 Eugene was interviewed by Ciaran Crossey and
John Quinn about the SCW. Here is Eugene's 5 page version of the notes
from that discussion.

A [funny] article about Eugene's street politics in the mid 1930's - Street Journalism.

A letter to the Irish Times about Mattie Ryan, Pandit Nehru and a shooting
exhibition.

The Plaque on the Wall, a report of a visit back to the hospital in Spain.

Letters from Josefina [about his time in hospital and letters between him and Josefina, one of the nurses.]

A letter to Saothar, the journal of the Irish Labour History Society, about McGregor, the International
Lenin School and the SCW

A very funny piece about the moment When I was in Charge.

The IB and the Ebro

The Siege of Connolly House. An interesting piece about a siege of the place the CP offices.

Would anyone who knows of further articles by Eugene please get in touch.

Ciaran Crossey

Belfast, 6th August 2003. cpcrossey@hotmail.com

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