Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)¹
(20/56)

It is always interesting to know the reactions of our people when they travel abroad, and to see how these reactions affect their attitude towards Ireland. In recent weeks, as you know, I have met a large number of Irish priests and nuns visiting Rome for the purpose of their Orders, in most cases to elect a new Superior General. All of them, without exception, spoke in terms of the highest praise of the Taoiseach and the Government, and of the manner in which difficulties were being surmounted and real progress achieved. Indeed, if the religious Orders are a good indication of the mind of the Church in Ireland, the Government has its complete confidence.

Speaking of the difficulties facing the Government, they were unanimous in thinking that something ought to be done to prevent the Jews buying property and starting or acquiring businesses in Ireland. There was a general conviction that the Jewish influence is in the last analysis anti-Christian and anti-national, and consequently detrimental to the revival of an Irish cultural and religious civilization. Some of them say that Jewish materialism encourages communism (not an unusual view here). They were also generally perturbed by the influx of British subjects who are purchasing Irish property.

These comments were made with the full recognition that there was a real problem which had to be solved somehow, and not in any way through lack of loyalty or sympathy. I am sure the Taoiseach would wish me to pass on these views of Irish men and women holding the highest positions in their respective Orders. Although my natural reaction to sympathetic critics is to ask them to formulate a precise plan, I could not but be struck by the fact that, in their view, our only serious problem was the Jewish infiltration. It is one of the problems in all other Western European countries, where it is very much graver than in Ireland, but all these countries have infinitely graver tasks before them.