Some Ethical Questions of Peace and War: With Special Reference to Ireland: With Special Reference to Ireland Brochura - 1999

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Some Ethical Questions of Peace and War was first published in 1919 shortly after the December 1918 General Election when Irish voters handed an electoral mandate to the Sinn Fein party. Walter McDonald was horrified that much of the Catholic Church, as Tom Garvin writes in the Introduction, 'could be accused of following popular passion rather than trying to moderate and enlighten popular opinion, arguably the true function of a Catholic priest'. McDonald's view was that the British state had been regarded as legitimate by the Church and most people on the island for a long time. He was a loyal member of the Church but believed that its hostility to freedom of thought, free speech and intellectual enquiry would endanger its future. He also argues against those nationalists who had supported the prospect of a German victory in the First World War, which in his view would have brought about the ruin of Britain and Ireland. McDonald knew that his views were controversial but he was also aware when he wrote the book that he had a short time to live. This neglected but fascinating book provides an unusual insight into the thinking of the time.