Extracts from a letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Seán MacBride (Dublin)
(Most Secret)

My dear Minister,
I saw Mgr. Montini this morning by appointment. Such a change! The note of reproach, sometimes friendly, sometimes quite the contrary, which has characterised his attitude towards me since we demurred about the nomination of Mgr. Felici, was replaced by a joyful 'abandon' and he was full of welcome for me. I have ceased to be the bad boy (and, speaking selfishly, I am quite glad) and am once more one of the favourites of the fold. He looks enormously better after his six weeks holiday, and he told me he felt a new man.

We plunged at once into medias res. He expressed the greatest delight that our relations were once more friendly, cordial and affectionate. He said that we could rest assured that the Holy See would do a good deal, during Mgr. Felici's stay in DUBLIN, to help IRELAND to get her rightful place in the ENGLISH speaking world. The Holy See would take upon itself to convince the world of the greatness of our contribution to Christian Civilisation, and would neglect no special occasion for emphasizing that fact. We now, he said, understood each other perfectly, and the HOLY See realized that much could have been done in the past, which was not done, to give IRELAND the place that was pre-eminently her due. He asked me to say anything I liked in my conversation with Mgr. Felici, and to put him on the right track, not only about the North, but about the difficulties he ought to avoid. Mgr. Felici was being given very special instructions to be helpful, and he (Montini) relied on me to be as frank with the Nuncio as I had been with him, at all times. I immediately said that the first thing I should advise him to do was to make a speech (Mgr. Paschal was not allowed to do so) on the evening of his Reception before the Members of the Government and the assembled Bishops, giving them and the whole Irish people a message from the HOLY FATHER and emphasising the role of the IRISH people in the history of the Christian world. It would be most encouraging for the Government and the people, and would be of tremendous help to Mgr. Felici in the whole course of his work in Ireland. I expressed the hope that he would speak in Italian so as to be able to give full value in words to the ideas which he wished to express. It would not make the same impression if he spoke in English, which, as Mgr. Montini knew, was in his case very halting. Most of our Ministers had a good command of Latin and would be able to follow, generally, the gist of the discourse, and of course, most of the Bishops knew Italian. Mgr. Montini suggested that he might say a few words in English. I think it will end by the Nuncio making his speech in Italian with a sentence or so in IRISH.

At this point Mgr. Montini said that he would be a little indiscreet with me and would tell me that 'JOHN' (as he calls him when he is in good form) had been a tower of strength to him in the 'little crisis', and had shown himself a true son of the CHURCH. I replied that, as I had frequently said before, 'John' was unsurpassable as a Churchman and was doing splendid work for the welfare of the people in the ARCHDIOCESE, but, as I had also said before, the Holy SEE must never forget that ARMAGH was the key of the Catholic and national unity of IRELAND. No matter how much the HOLY SEE felt behoven to THE ARCHBISHOP as a Prelate, nothing would be more discouraging for the IRISH people than to have the ancient Primatial See of Saint Patrick passed over when the HOLY Father, in His wisdom, was contemplating making His choice of a Cardinal for IRELAND. ABOVE all, at the present time when the ecclesiastical unity was such an impressive symbol of the national unity of our country, the passing over of ARMAGH would be a disaster for CHURCH and State and would be regarded as a triumph for ENGLAND. The matter was too important to leave it at that, and I went on to remind Mgr. Montini of reports which he must certainly have received from Monsignor Enrici¹ when he returned from his post as UDITORE in Dublin, to the effect that 'JOHN' was making constant difficulties on matters of precedence whenever the NUNCIO had to be present at a ceremony in the Pro-Cathedral. Having been the go-between on several such occasions, I was able to speak with full knowledge and I could assure Monsignor Montini that, if the A.B. became Cardinal, the Nuncio would have endless difficulties, in every sphere of his activities, owing to this deplorable weakness in 'JOHN''s character, already so well known to the HOLY SEE. M.M. expressed very sincerely his gratitude for these remarks which, of course, will remain absolutely secret except in regard to the HOLY FATHER Himself.

However, although I had to use the opportunity to emphasize once more the supreme importance of ARMAGH through the fear that the H.S. might forget ARMAGH in its desire to reward the A.B. of DUBLIN for his recent and other notable services, I think MGR. MONTINI and the H.F. are now at last sufficiently alive to the value, from the CATHOLIC point of view, of a UNITED IRELAND not to allow the major general interest to be submerged in the minor considerations of rewarding an individual PRELATE.

From the beginning I had been allowed to see that the H.S. was fully alive to the traits in 'JOHN''S character which gave so much pain to his friends, and I have always tried to re-establish the balance in his favour. M.M. also knows that I taught John McQuaid when he was a boy at CLONGOWES, and that we have been good friends for some thirty five years. I was therefore talking in an atmosphere where there could be no question of injustice or want of charity and where M.M. knows perfectly well that my sole motive is the common interest of the Church and IRELAND.... so completely one in this case.

And now let us draw up the Balance Sheet. It is no advantage to regard the HOLY SEE as a normal Government in any single category of State activity. It has taken me nearly three years to be convinced of that. Their reactions are puzzling but explainable partly, at least, by the fact that the actors never move wholly in one world. There is a two world background, sometimes one, sometimes the other catching all the light, and the layman is inclined to be bewildered by the rapidity of the changes from light to shade, even in the course of a single conversation. Let us not, therefore, be offended or annoyed by the reply to our Memorandum which, in truth, if it came from a Civil State, would have been rightly considered most insulting. When the HOLY SEE calmly disregards all our most cogent and most important considerations, set forth with the utmost courtesy, and with such obvious regard for the welfare of Catholicism in IRELAND, and answers in a manner which assumes that these considerations had never been formulated, it is simply taking the line it would normally take with, say, the HEAD of a Religious Order whose ideas do not completely coincide with those of the H.S.. The note was answered by the HOLY FATHER Himself. MGR. MONTINI had not yet returned from his holidays, and his first words to me this morning were: 'So the joyful news broke while we were both away'. And I understand it is His normal reaction when the other party is sufficiently Catholic to stand it. We took a wholly Catholic line in our MEM. and He rightly assumed we could 'take it'. So really, I suppose we have no ground for complaint.

On the other hand our resistance has revealed to the H.S. that we feel justly aggrieved at the lack of appreciation for IRELAND in the past ... and it has given rise to a good deal of healthy frankness in our exchange of views. I believe MGR. MONTINI is quite sincere in his promises of amendment. They are so glad to have succeeded in appointing the ITALIAN candidate that they are ready to do anything to please us, and I believe they will be much more reasonable in our regard in future. Of course, they were wrong in not giving us the type of NUNCIO we asked for. Their action will only intensify the growing anti-Italian feeling in the Church all over the world. At the same time I see some ways in which we may get substantial advantage from the Italian appointment. The Italian will not fail to call the attention ... persuasively I hope ... of the Bishops to the fact that we are completely out of step with Catholic Europe in the matter of adult Christian philosophical and apologetics training. [matter omitted]