Dr Comiskey apologises for Wexford boycott of Protestant firms in 1957

The Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, has expressed "deep sorrow" and has asked for forgiveness for the 1957 Catholic boycott of Church of Ireland businesses in Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford.

In a homily at the National '98 Commemoration ecumenical service in Wexford yesterday, he said: "On such a very public and historic occasion as this . . . I am acutely conscious of one very painful episode in our history, an incident which occurred 41 years ago this very month and which is referred to in our history books as `the Fethard-on-Sea Boycott'.

"Today, if at all possible. I wish to bring healing and closure to this sad period in our history by expressing my deep sorrow and my promise to do whatever I can to make amends. In the presence of Bishop John Neil [Church of Ireland bishop of the diocese] and his predecessor, Bishop Noel Willoughby, I ask forgiveness and healing from God, from all within the Church of Ireland community, and from all who have suffered in any way then or since."

Bishop Neill later described Bishop Comiskey's remarks as "a generous and explicit apology". He thanked him for it and "very humbly" accepted it in the spirit of Christian love in which it had been offered.

The Fethard-on-Sea boycott took place because of bitter divisions between Irish Christians for which members of the Church of Ireland bear their share of responsibility, he said. At ecumenical services this year he had taken the opportunity to express his own sorrow and to apologise "for the way that we, now or in the past, have hurt Christians of other traditions".

Earlier in his homily Dr Comiskey spoke of the need for repentance if the people of this island "are to have any success in moving into a new way of living and of being community". What was also required, he said, was "an acknowledgement of our sins against others and our asking pardon for them, and a forgiveness of others for their sins against us."

In Ferns they had much to be grateful for in the ecumenical field, Dr Comiskey said, but because of the respect and love he felt for the other Christian families and their leaders in the diocese "I have never felt so sharply the pain of separation and division between us as I do here in Ferns at this particular time in my life and ministry."

An excerpt from J.H. White's Church and State in Modern Ireland 1923 - 1970, attached to the printed copy of Dr Comiskey's homily, gives details of the Fethard-on-Sea boycott. In 1949 a Catholic man in the area married a Protestant woman who, under the terms of the Catholic Church's Ne Temere mixed marriages decree, had given an undertaking that the children would all be brought up Catholics.

She changed her mind and in April 1957 ran off to Belfast with her two children. She contacted her husband to say she would only agree to a reunion if he would agree the children should be brought up Protestant. A stand-off ensued and Catholics in Fethard decided to boycott local Protestant businesses as they believed the woman had been aided in her defiance by her co-religionists in Fethard, something that was strongly denied by those people.

Two Protestant shops lost their Catholic customers. A Protestant music teacher lost 11 of her 12 pupils, and a Catholic teacher in a local Protestant school resigned. Local priests supported the boycotts, and the then bishop of Ferns, Dr Staunton, refused a Church of Ireland appeal to express disapproval.

Preaching in Wexford at the time, and in the presence of the then Catholic primate Cardinal D`Alton as well as six other Catholic bishops, the Bishop of Galway, Dr Michael Browne, described the boycott as "a peaceful and moderate protest".

On July 4th that year, just days after Dr Browne's comments, the boycott was condemned in the Dail by the then Taoiseach, Mr de Valera. Dr Browne then issued a further statement repeating and upholding what he had said in Wexford. "It is not against charity or justice to refuse special favours, such as one's money or custom, to those whom one regards as responsible for, or approving of, a grave offence," he said. The boycott eventually fizzled out.

Bishop Comiskey's apology was warmly welcomed by Mr Cloney, last night. Speaking on RTE news, he said: "I was delighted. It is a difficult thing to apologise. Now, it's a source of regret that it has taken 41 years. Nevertheless to see it come about, I am glad to have lived to see this day, and I would like to compliment Bishop Neill for his part in accepting the apology so graciously.

"I would like to publicly thank Bishop Comiskey for undoing what other members of the Hierarchy did in 1957."