Sir, – David Jameson (December 19th) seems to be unaware that in 1785, Pius VI confirmed that mixed marriages here were exempt from the general canon law. In the months before Ne Temere was implemented in 1908 all opinion inside and outside Ireland was in agreement that it would not apply here. John Harty was the only one to disagree. Pius X made a personal decision that it would come into force. As often happened in such cases, Harty was promoted a few years later. He became Archbishop of Cashel.
In 1910, the parish priest of the Falls Road was urging all those married since 1908 to rectify their marriages by repeating the ceremony before a Roman Catholic priest. Mrs Alexander McCann refused to do so. Her husband then abandoned her and took their two children, one of whom she was breastfeeding. When this became public knowledge there was an explosion of Protestant fury, the extent of which it is hard to appreciate today.
Before that there was strong support for Home Rule among the Presbyterians but after the McCann case it evaporated almost completely.
In 2010, the Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association (NIMMA) held a ceremony of repentance and reconciliation to mark this event. It took place in Townsend Street Presbyterian Church, where Agnes McCann worshipped. Immediately outside the door was the massive iron gate which was the “peace line”, still closed on weekends at the time.
The event was reported on prime news time by BBC NI the following morning. The station later broadcast a half hour programme presenting the ceremony. Strangely RTÉ refused to repeat it. – Yours, etc,
Revd EOIN de
BHALDRAITHE,
Bolton Abbey,
Moone, Co Kildare.