The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian (21 page)

In conclusion
The Irish Times
wrote that ‘the Dáil's acceptance of Mr Davis' amendment would have been an invitation to administrative chaos; for every public body that Mr Mulcahy has been forced to suppress or correct would have hastened to challenge him in parliament.'
14

The Times
of London was by now taking an interest. ‘Although the republican party [Fianna Fáil],' it wrote, ‘have occasionally paid lip-service to the principles of religious toleration, they, nonetheless, took up the cudgels for the Mayo County Council, and attacked not only the “horrid arbitrariness” of the minister but also the appointment of a Protestant to a post in a Roman Catholic country.' The paper went on to claim that if Mr de Valera should win the next election that, ‘Protestants may be promised equality of opportunity, but are likely to be effectively debarred from public service in the Irish Free State.'
15

The
Catholic Bulletin
, predictably enough, was not impressed. ‘The stage management,' it wrote, ‘of the three days that preceded the Mayo library and County Council debate held by Mr Mulcahy as dictator and general on Wednesday, 17 June, would be no credit even to a minor travelling circus. Mr Davis, chairman of the Cosgrave Party Machine, had been remarkably quiet all through the past six months … that the Davis motion was a palpable frame-up, to afford a would-be dictator an opportunity of whitewashing himself is but too obvious.'
16

The following day a meeting of the Cumann na nGaedheal parliamentary party discussed the matter but, following a statement by Michael Davis and a short debate, decided not to take action against him and he remained in his position as chairman of the party. This would lead one to believe that his own party leaders did not take his public act of rebellion too seriously. They condoned his action. In fact they may even have colluded in it.

Eamon de Valera's complaints to the Ceann Comhairle had some justification. He suspected that Michael Davis had put down his amendment and the government had manipulated the order of business so as to get his debate on to the floor of the Dáil in advance of Deputy Ruttledge's motion on the dissolution of Mayo Council, thereby drawing the sting out of that debate. This may only have been a bit of debating-room sharp practice but it was some form of small victory for the government.

Notes

1.
Dáil Debates, 17 June 1931.

2.
Ibid.

3.
Ibid.

4.
Ibid.

5.
Ibid.

6.
Ibid.

7.
Ibid.

8.
Ibid.

9.
Ibid.

10.
Ibid.

11.
Ibid.

12.
Ibid.

13.
The Irish Times
, 18 June 1931, p.8.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Quoted in
The Irish Times
, 22 June 1931, p.7.

16.
Catholic Bulletin
, vol. xxi, no. 7, July 1931, p.310.

The Cumann na nGaedheal government was hopeful, and not for the first time, that the political storm clouds hanging over Mayo had at long last passed. But they were to be disappointed yet again. There were some faint stirrings over Richard Mulcahy's staunch defence of his actions, but they came mainly from members of his own party. Seán Ruane was a county councillor in Mayo and had spoken at the special meeting of the council in favour of the appointment of Letitia Dunbar Harrison. He was also President of the Connacht Council of the GAA. He wrote to Richard Mulcahy expressing support for the minister's performance in the Dáil debate. He received the following reply from Richard Mulcahy:

Many thanks for your note of the 20th [June 1931]. I will send you a copy of the official debates as soon as they are issued. The whole debate was terribly disgraceful on the side of the Mayo men. On nothing in connection with the matter had they the facts – whether as regards age or Irish or Local Appointments Commission or the relations between the library committee and the County Council. And as far as policy goes, the implications of their speeches insofar as you can get anything coherent from them on the question of policy appear more disgraceful ever still.

When a week or so has passed and you can size up what the effect of the proceedings have had in Mayo generally I would be glad to have a short note telling me what you think the position in Mayo has been and whether it has eased the position (1) for Davis and (2) for us generally.
1

There is at least an acknowledgement of Michael Davis' difficulties in his home constituency and the merest hint of sympathy for his position. This contrasted greatly with the minister's dismissive public stance of his party colleague, and would lend a certain weight to Fianna Fáil's much-trumpeted accusation that the Davis amendment that led to the Dáil debate was little more than a political charade, especially if one takes into account that the party took no punitive action against Michael Davis for his mutinous exploits.

In a private letter, Brother S.B. MacSwiney, Christian Brothers, Brow-of-the-Hill, Derry, congratulated Richard Mulcahy on ‘the magnificent reply he made to attacks
re
the Mayo librarian in the Dáil last week.'
2
Generally, members of the clergy who had a previous allegiance with Cumann na nGaedheal had less of a problem with the appointment of Miss Dunbar Harrison. Canon McHugh of Claremorris was perhaps the most prominent; though he was aware he was out of step with public opinion in his county.

As the Dáil debate receded into memory there was no change in the circumstances that held sway in Mayo. Miss Dunbar Harrison's library service was still being boycotted. The various sub-committees of the County Council were still in limbo. An effective stalemate endured. As the
Connacht Sentinel
put it, ‘Boycotting, which originated in Mayo during the Land War, and was successfully used in dealing with landlords and others, has now been employed with equal success in killing the government's Vocational Education Committee in that county. For the nine months ended on 1 September not one of the twenty domestic science, Irish, lace, commercial or manual instructors has been paid, simply because members of the Vocational Education Committee will not meet as a protest against the decision of the government in appointing a Protestant librarian for the county … no pay sheets have been signed, because the act provides that five members are needed for a quorum.'
3

Boycott was an emotive term in Mayo. As the
Sentinel
pointed out, boycotting had a long and proud history in the county, the word in fact deriving from the ostracism of Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott and his workers at Lough Mask House near Ballinrobe during the Land War. However, there is perhaps a difference between boycotting being used as a method of passive resistance by an oppressed community with little other means of protesting and a strong majority using it as a tool of oppression.

The cabinet in its initial communications with Archbishop Gilmartin of Tuam, had endeavoured to get him to sponsor a compromise by which he would persuade some of the priests of his diocese to sit on Commissioner Bartley's Vocational Education Committee, thereby allowing sanction for the payment of these teachers to be passed. While initially the archbishop had seemed willing to go along with such a deal, he later backed away from it, one suspects due to the intransigence of his priests who were unwilling to make any concession. It was perhaps a sign of how confident the priests of the county were in the strength of their position. They were in no mood to back down.

The newly established Fianna Fáil daily paper,
The Irish Press
, reported that ‘since the compulsory installation of Miss Letitia Dunbar Harrison as county librarian the elaborate vocational education scheme evolved for Mayo has remained in the stocks and all the teachers appointed have not received a penny salary from the beginning of the year … As a protest against what has been regarded as a flouting of the will of the people, eleven members of the VEC ignore the monthly notices summoning them to their meeting, and in the absence of a quorum of five no progress can be made. The two attending members are Mr P.J. Bartley, the Commissioner administering the affairs of the County Council, and the Very Reverend Canon M.J. McHugh, of Claremorris, who never fails to make an appearance. Money to which the committee is entitled is piling up in the bank month by month and plans for the erection of schools in Ballina, Castlebar and Westport are awaiting approval.'

A member of the committee is quoted anonymously as saying, ‘We are staying away from the meetings on principle, and not, as has been suggested, to blockade the adoption of the scheme. We will not administer the scheme until the will of the people to appoint whom they wish is recognised … We know it is hard luck on the teachers to be compelled to go without their salaries, but there you are.'
4

As 1931 drew to a close the situation seemed as bleak as ever for these teachers. And yet the
Irish Independent
sensed some movement. Under the optimistic headline ‘Mayo's Seventeen Unpaid Teachers – Hope for Salaries After Eleven Months', it reported, ‘Having waited patiently for almost eleven months the seventeen teachers employed under the Vocational Education Scheme in Mayo hope to be soon paid their salaries again.'
5
The three commercial teachers, one manual instructor, three domestic teachers, four crochet teachers and six whole-time Irish teachers had received no payment due to the committee that authorised their salaries refusing to meet. The
Irish Independent
lamented the plight of these individuals. ‘The teachers had to get money from the banks,' wrote the newspaper, ‘but whether they would get with their salaries what they had to pay in interest is not yet known.'

The
Irish Press
reported that Commissioner Bartley had issued an order directing Miss Dunbar Harrison not to give any information to the paper as to the progress or otherwise of the library service of which she had charge. Asked if there was any truth in the rumour that plans were being made for her transfer to Dublin, Miss Dunbar Harrison replied, ‘There is no truth whatever in that suggestion which I have heard several times. You can say that I have no intention of leaving Castlebar. I like it very much; the people are very kind and go out of their way to show that they have no animosity to me personally.'
6

The
Irish Independent
asked the question, ‘Will the government do anything about the library crux?' As for the current situation it reported that ‘except for the limited support in Castlebar, where persons can get books direct from the library in the county courthouse, the scheme is virtually dead, because the dozens of library committees throughout the county had declined to function.' The
Irish Independent
recognised the complexity of the library stand-off. ‘This is a much more difficult problem,' it wrote, ‘which, as far as can be seen, the appointment of a whole army of commissioners could not solve, because it is impossible to make the people avail of the library scheme against their wishes.'
7

Notes

1.
UCD Archives, Mulcahy Collection, P7b.

2.
Ibid.

3.
Connacht Sentinel
, 15 September 1931, p.4.

4.
Irish Press
, 30 September 1931, p.1.

5.
Irish Independent
, 14 November 1931, p.5.

6.
Irish Press
, 30 September 1931, p.1.

7.
Irish Independent
, 14 November 1931, p.5.

By the start of 1932, with the dispute about to drag on into its second year, there was little sign of a resolution. An impasse had been reached. Miss Dunbar Harrison continued to go about her work in Castlebar while the vast majority of her library centres throughout the county went unused.

P.J. Bartley was still carrying out his duties as Commissioner, but he too was hampered by a lack of co-operation. Many of the council's sub-committees were boycotted, causing severe problems in the education and social welfare sections. The prospect of a general election in the New Year was the one possible change in the political landscape. The Cumann na nGaedheal Party were wary of fighting an election in Mayo with virtually all of their TDs and local representatives opposing their policy on the librarian issue. The cabinet decided to get themselves off the hook by offering Miss Dunbar Harrison an equivalent position in the civil service. This was little more than a flimsy fig-leaf to protect their political vanity. They tried to spin this as a promotion for her, though few people saw it as anything other than a humiliating climb-down on their part.

This solution had been mooted for some time and had long been rumoured in Mayo. It had in fact been suggested to Sir Joseph Glynn in his meetings with members of the Catholic hierarchy as early as spring 1931. The government at the time did not come out and quash this as a possibility.

As with every other aspect of this saga, the government's handling of their climb-down was less than assured. On 2 January
The Irish Times
stated that there was a ‘possible post elsewhere'. ‘It is reported,' wrote the newspaper, ‘that Miss Dunbar Harrison is about to retire from the post of librarian to the Mayo county library at Castlebar … In the conditions which prevailed since her appointment, the usefulness of the library has been greatly circumscribed … Our Castlebar correspondent telegraphing last night, stated that Miss Dunbar Harrison was greatly distressed at the announcement of her resignation, which she declared to be utterly unfounded. Beyond rumour that she was to be transferred, she had heard nothing officially. The commissioner [P.J. Bartley] had not mentioned it to her, and in the circumstances it was unthinkable that she should resign. She added: “I like the work, and I love the people who have shown me every kindness, and I am not likely to resign because some people think I should go elsewhere.”'
1

The
Irish Press
, had a different slant on the story. Its local correspondent reported a ‘sensational development in library dispute', and that ‘a curious situation had arisen … Miss Dunbar Harrison, the Mayo librarian, was very indignant when I called on her private residence this morning to interview her about her supposed resignation. “It's a fabrication like the silly lies circulated a few weeks ago by an English newspaper; but I don't mind it, and will not discuss it with you,” she vehemently declared … “I have not resigned and have no intention of resigning.”'

The
Press
sought a response from the Minister for Local Government. On being asked for a statement Richard Mulcahy said, ‘I cannot say whether Miss Harrison's resignation has reached the department or not.'
2
Three days later, undeterred by the denials and confusion, the
Press
confidently stated that a job had been found for Miss Dunbar Harrison in the civil service.

‘Is the protracted Mayo librarian controversy about to be ended by the transfer of Miss Dunbar Harrison to a post in the Department of Industry and Commerce?' asked
The
Irish Press
. ‘The recent announcement in a daily newspaper to the effect that Miss Harrison had resigned was immediately and vigorously denied by Miss Harrison herself to the Castlebar representative of
The Irish Press
. The secretary of Mayo County Council also stated that he had not received Miss Harrison's resignation. It is now reported that Miss Harrison is about to be transferred to the statistics branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce at, so it is stated, a higher remuneration than the £250 per annum which she is now receiving in Mayo.

‘The decision to transfer Miss Harrison was made a month ago, after preliminary local soundings … a difficulty arose as to the post which would have to be given to her, as in the circumstances she could not be asked to resign … There is no intention as yet to restore the County Council but such a step may be hinted at in the election campaign.'
3

On 6 January the
Irish Independent's
banner headline read, ‘New Post for County Mayo Librarian'. The same day
The Irish Press
reported that Miss Dunbar Harrison had left Castlebar for Dublin. The prevailing local opinion was that the government, in order to relieve the crisis created by Miss Dunbar Harrison's appointment following the abolition of the County Council, were arranging to transfer her in order to regain the confidence of the Mayo clergy.

The Irish Press
also recounted that it was rumoured locally that Miss Dunbar Harrison was to be offered the post of librarian in the Dáil. This yarn seems somewhat mischievous as it is very unlikely that the government would have even contemplated such a move. One can only imagine Letitia Dunbar Harrison working in the same building in which she had been the subject of so much debate the previous June and meeting in the corridors so many of the deputies who had been critical of her, her background and her education. Not only that, one could foresee the Fianna Fáil Party making much political capital of her acknowledged inability to speak Irish.

Confusion reigned for a number of days. It is difficult to believe that the Department of Local Government would decide to move Miss Dunbar Harrison without first discussing it with her, but initially she seemed genuinely unhappy with the announcement in the newspapers. It would seem that some pressure had to be applied to get her to comply with their suggestion, if suggestion it was, perhaps threatening to forcibly transfer her if she did not agree to go of her own accord. The initial intention may have been to move her to the Department of Industry and Commerce, but the Department of Defence was where she ended up. But as luck would have it, at the same time as the Government was looking around for a position in the Civil Service in Dublin for Miss Dunbar Harrison, the person responsible for the Department of Defence's Military library Mr R.J. Flood, an inveterate memo writer, had been making numerous submissions to his superior officers. He declared that, owing to the shortage of staff and the enormous number of books purchased, he was unable to keep up with his duties. Urgent representations had been made to the Department of Finance in September 1931 ‘for the provision of badly needed additional staff to cope with essential library work'.

On 8 January
The Irish Press
announced that Miss Dunbar Harrison had returned from Dublin and disclosed that she had accepted a post in the capital. She declined to make a statement but when asked was she satisfied with the change she replied, ‘I am delighted with it.' This was, if not quite the end, the beginning of the end. On 16 January
The Irish Press
, which seemed to have very good sources both at a local level in Mayo and at civil service level in Dublin, reported that the Mayo library committee, at a special meeting convened by Commissioner Bartley, had accepted Miss Dunbar Harrison's resignation. She was to hand over her keys to Mr Egan, the County Secretary, on the Tuesday when her resignation took effect, but on the Sunday, ‘she became the victim of influenza and was unable to be present'. No date had been given for when she was to take up her duties at the Department of Defence, though it was confidently stated that ‘her appointment there will not entail the displacement of any present official of the library.' The
Press
went on to add that ‘apart from some works of reference, the library is purely composed of military works.'
4

Chapter 19

1.
The Irish Times
, 2 January 1932, p.7.

2.
Irish Press
, 2 January 1932, p.1.

3.
Ibid., 5 January 1932, p.1.

4.
Ibid., 16 January 1932, p.4.