Editing Maria Duce (section)

==History==
Like its founder, Maria Duce was avowedly anti-communist. Through their front organisation, 'Catholic Cinema and Theatre Patrons Association' (CCTPA), they picketed a visit by film star [[Danny Kaye]] and campaigned against visits by actor [[Gregory Peck]] and writer/director [[Orson Welles]], all of whom they accused of being [[Communism|communists]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gannon |first=Sean |year=2010 |title='Schools of Corruption:' The Contexts for Seán South's Antisemitism |url=https://www.limerickcity.ie/media/olj%2044%20082%20Schools%20of%20Corruption.pdf |access-date= |work=The Old Limerick Journal |page=17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mathews |first=Arthur |date=2024-03-06 |title=Arthur Mathews reviews 'Red Stars over Hollywood' pamphlet from 1949 regarding perceived Communist propaganda in movies |url=https://www.rte.ie/gaeilge/2024/0302/1435571-red-stars-over-hollywood-review-by-arthur-mathews/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=[[RTÉ]] |language=ga}}</ref> Also, like its founder, the group espoused [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] views.<ref>{{cite book |last=Athans |first=Mary Christine |title=The Coughlin-Fahey Connection: Father Charles E. Coughlin, Father Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp., and Religious Anti-Semitism in the United States, 1938–1954 |publisher=Peter Lang |year=1991 |isbn=9780820415345 |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=McCausland |first=Nelson |date=2017-01-05 |title=Why no public outcry at Gerry Adams paying homage to the notorious fascist thug Sean South? |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/why-no-public-outcry-at-gerry-adams-paying-homage-to-the-notorious-fascist-thug-sean-south/35342545.html |access-date= |work=[[Belfast Telegraph]] |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |quote=The founder of Maria Duce taught that communism was an international conspiracy organised by Jews and Freemasons, and in March 1950 the secretary of Maria Duce called for Ireland, as "a Catholic state", to "suppress non-Catholic sects as inimical to the common good". He added that "such intolerance is the privilege of truth".}}</ref>

The group's principal aim was to embed Catholic doctrine in the legal structure of the Irish state, including recognition of the [[Catholic Church]] as the [[established church]] of Ireland, as it had been in Spain until 1931.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Delaney |first=Enda |year=2001 |title=Political Catholicism in Post-War Ireland: The Revd Denis Fahey and Maria Duce, 1945–54 |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/11956587/Political_Catholicism_in_post_war_Ireland.pdf |journal=[[The Journal of Ecclesiastical History]] |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=497, 510, 511 |doi=10.1017/S0022046901004213 |quote=}}</ref> This latter step had been contemplated during the drafting of [[Éamon de Valera]]'s 1937 [[Constitution of Ireland]], but it was ultimately rejected in recognition of the obstacle posed by Ireland's relatively large Protestant minority and due to aspirations for Irish unity and the detrimental effects such a clause would have on the [[Unionism in Ireland|unionist]] population in [[Northern Ireland]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mohr |first=Thomas |date=2021-11-08 |title=Religious Minorities under the Constitution of the Irish Free State, 1922–1937 |journal=[[American Journal of Legal History]] |publisher=University College Dublin |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=271–272 |doi=10.1093/ajlh/njab002 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It did emphasise the "special position" of the church, with no specific legal entitlements.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meehan |first=Niall |year=2019 |title=Article 44 Reconsidered |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26566005 |journal=[[History Ireland]] |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=45–46 |jstor=26566005}}</ref>

Though Maria Duce's membership probably did not much exceed one hundred,<ref name=":0" /> its monthly journal ''Fiat'' enjoyed a fairly wide circulation in the late 1940s and early 1950s.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} The movement was not encouraged by the Irish bishops, who viewed its extremism with suspicion and desired not to become associated with Fr. Fahey's writings and statements. It was ordered to change its name by the Church authorities in 1955, a year after Fahey's death, by the [[Archbishop of Dublin (Roman Catholic)|Archbishop of Dublin]], [[John Charles McQuaid]] (a former pupil of Fahey's and a fellow member of the [[Holy Ghost Fathers]]), in order to make it clear that it did not have official Church approval.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Dermot Keogh: The Vatican, the Bishops and Irish Politics 1919-39, p. 278</ref> As Fírinne [Irish for "truth"] it remained in existence until the early 1970s, publishing ''FIAT'' and organising pilgrimages to Fr. Fahey's grave in the belief that he would one day be canonised as a saint.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

John Ryan, the long time editor of ''[[The Irish Catholic]]'' Newspaper, was secretary of Maria Duce for a time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=d’Alton |first=Ian |year=2010 |title=A Protestant Paper for a Protestant People: The Irish Times and the Southern Irish Minority |url=https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=icr |journal=Irish Communication Review |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=68–69 |doi=10.21427/D7TT5T |quote=It spoke to the ''Times's'' ethic of state unbiased towards any one religious viewpoint as evidenced by the vigorous debate, also early in 1950, on what became known as 'The Liberal Ethic', in which it and its correspondents took on such well-known champions of Roman Catholic hegemony as J.P. Ryan, secretary of Maria Duce, and Westmeath County Council (O'Brien, 2008: 133–6).}}</ref> The IRA member [[Sean South]] (killed in the 1950s border campaign) founded a local branch of Maria Duce in Limerick.<ref name="D.J. Hickey 2003, Pg.452">''A New Dictionary of Irish History from 1800'', D.J. Hickey & J.E. Doherty, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 2003, {{ISBN|0-7171-2520-3}} Pg.452</ref>