The Island of the Saints and the Homeland of the Martyrs: Monsignor O’Riordan, Father Hagan and the Boundaries of the Irish Nation (1906-1916)

Abstract

The priests Michael O’Riordan and John Hagan led the Pontifical Irish College in Rome in the early decades of the twentieth century. At a crucial time for the birth of the Irish State, they promoted the demands of the Irish Church to the Vatican and participated actively in the debate on the political events of their nation. Thanks to the study of the writings they published in Italy from 1906 to 1916, we can determine what their ideas on the Irish homeland were, and why these ideas changed over the years. Their thoughts were not always the same, but the two Irishmen finally elaborated a more common national vision after the trauma of the Great War and a resounding episode as the 1916 Easter Rising.