The Winter 2004 edition of History Ireland is out and full of interest. Major articles include a review of the History of Travellers (Sinéad ní Shuinéar), ‘Educated Whiteboyism’: the Cork Tithe War 1798-9 (JG patterson) and most interesting – Bigotry in ‘Bama: de Valera’s visit to Birmingham, Alabama April 1920 ( DB Franklin)- If you thought the sectarian politics of Ulster were bad, they pale into insignificance when compared to Alabama!from page 31
” The governor of Alabama, Thomas E. Kilby, was elected by ‘out-anti-catholicising’ his opponents, just as the future controversial governor George Wallace would later win by ‘out-segregating’ his opponents. Kilby promised during the campaign to find legal procedures to force Catholic priests into marriage. His administration enacted a Convent Inspection Law, establishing a state commission to direct sheriffs, upon written petition of 25 citizens, to inspect convents at any hour to determine whether any woman was being held against her will. Behind this legislation was the specious charge that convents were dens of iniquity maintained for the personal satisfaction of unmarried Catholic clergy.”
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