WT Cosgrave attempted to flatter Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in an effort to save a garden in Rome owned by Irish Franciscans from redevelopment.
Cosgrave, then the president of the executive council, the Free State office that would become taoiseach, wrote to Mussolini in 1931 assuring him of the “highest esteem and respect and my earnest good wishes for ever closer relations between our two countries”.
The Cumann na nGaedheal leader wrote to the fascist leader, who consolidated control over Italy by abolishing freedoms and overhauling institutions from 1922 on, over the fate of St Isidore’s College, which was founded in 1625 by Irish Franciscan friars and celebrated its 400th anniversary this year.
Mussolini’s grandiose plans for Rome envisaged a new road which went directly through the garden of St Isidore’s, known in Italian as the Collegio Sant’Isidoro.
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Cosgrave’s letter in February 1931 described Rome as the “capital city of the Irish, as well as the Italian race”.
Irish minds had been principally shaped by “Italian genius”, he said, and St Isidore’s regarded as a “national monument by the Irish people”. It is located in the centre of the city, near landmarks including the Spanish Steps and the Villa Borghese.
He assured Mussolini of the friars’ “deepest gratitude” if he was to modify his plan in such a way as to “enable the Irish Franciscans to continue their work in the same historic surroundings”.
“The complete deprivation of their garden would render it impossible for them to maintain St Isidore’s as a training centre for the members of their Order,” he wrote.
“I earnestly hope that it will be feasible to leave them sufficient recreation ground for that purpose without material alteration.”
A year later JP Walshe, the minister plenipotentiary to the Holy See, the title given to an ambassador to the Vatican, said he had been shown a revised plan which saved the garden of St Isidore with the exception of a small corner.
There is no evidence in the Irish embassy files from the Vatican that Mussolini ever responded, though Cosgrave’s request had been “favourably considered”.
However, Walshe informed the Department of External Affairs in March 1932 that the authorities in Rome had reverted to the original plan, which was to be proceeded with.
It is not clear from the files what happened to the garden of St Isidore after that, but it remains a thriving monastery. It is the home of the Franciscan research centre, and also houses friars in formation as they study in the city.
Mussolini went on to lead Italy into the second World War before his demise in 1943. Until the outbreak of war, he drew some admiration in Irish political and media circles for his support of the Catholic Church and some of his reforms.
However, in 1926, Dubliner Violet Gibson had attempted to assassinate the Italian leader, grazing his nose with a bullet before her gun jammed.
