This insightful study explores how religious and moral influences shaped the institutional culture and practices of the Irish army during the first decade of the Irish Free State. Whilst military discipline forms its key focus, Moral formations sheds light on a broader state-building process characterised by the determination of a post-revolutionary elite to restore social and moral order by imposing muscular Catholic values centred on manliness and respectability.
As officer-in-charge of the Military Archives, and author of The Military Archives: a history (2022), Ayiotis brings a particular expertise and perspective to bear. The latter is reflected by his forthright characterisation of the Irish Civil War as an ‘undemocratic and illegal anti-Treaty IRA insurgency’ (1) and of the Irish Defence Forces as the ‘sole and rightful heir’ to Óglaigh na hÉireann (xiv). Yet, there is also frank acknowledgement of the army’s shortcomings, including civil war atrocities committed by the Dublin Guard (whose members formed the first unit to appear in national army uniform); the dubious legal framework it initially operated within; and more recent failings in relation to institutional sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination.
The extent to which the Irish army, like the Garda Síochána, was regarded as a microcosm of the imagined Irish nation is evident. Idealistic boosters, including Minister for Defence (and former I.R.A. chief of staff) Richard Mulcahy, looked to the military to restore national morale and unity. The army’s clerical promoters had their own agenda, shaped more by Catholic teaching than republican values or cultural revivalism, but they were no less attuned to the Defence Forces’ potential as ‘pioneers of a Christian state’ (xxi). The key context underpinning these unrealistic aspirations was the divisive and demoralising impact of the Civil War which eroded the legitimacy and prestige of the Treatyite government and, to a much lesser extent, the Catholic Church. The often-transactional relationship that developed as church and state, responding to similar anxieties, worked together to assert their authority is now well established, but the army provides a revealing institutional case study through which to analyse how this relationship functioned in practical terms.
Seeking to embed Catholic values and authority in the military, clerical figures — notably the indefatigable Jesuit social reformer, Fr Richard Devane — found a receptive audience among politicians and officers. Ayiotis demonstrates convincingly how Catholic influences came to inform the army’s ‘religious, regulatory, medical and legal systems’ (xviii). On a more quotidian but symbolic level, attendance at Mass and semi-ceremonial church parades was expected, even monitored, while missions, sodalities, spiritual drives, daily devotions and the display of religious icons shaped the army’s institutional fabric. Like Soviet commissars, Catholic chaplains supplied a prosaic post-revolutionary regime with a powerful ideology that leant meaning and credibility to tawdry state institutions.
As within wider Irish society, the lines of authority between church and state were not always clear, notwithstanding delicate efforts at demarcation (mainly by deferential politicians). Chaplains, although functioning in some respects as officers, were appointed by the Catholic Church rather than military command. The bishops chose the head chaplain from a shortlist of three nominees, selected by the army authorities from a dozen candidates nominated by the hierarchy. The most striking example of the blurring of spiritual and temporal boundaries centred on the treatment of venereal disease, an issue with significant practical and reputational import. Army medical officers reported directly to the head chaplain, supplying regular statistical reports evidencing the need for action. Pious — or ambitious — army officers even proffered advice to bishops on how to control the ‘dangerous women’, ‘amateurs’ and ‘girls of ill repute’ (82) that both institutions surveilled. Differences stemming from the chaplains’ preference for moral, rather than medical, responses to V.D. led to otherwise rare clashes over policy. The attitudes of both elites, however, reflected a shared misogyny that also contributed to the cruel treatment of soldiers’ ‘unmarried wives’ and child dependents.
Ayiotis suggests, plausibly, that chaplains contributed to the restoration of morale and discipline in an army that had to contend with significant challenges resulting from demobilisation, mutinous sentiment and appalling pay and conditions. Ultimately, it is difficult to gauge to what extent the ‘healthy religious tone’ (151) identified by chaplains was a product of wishful thinking or compulsion rather than the cultivation of genuine religious fervour or effective esprit de corps. Rank-and-file voices are not to the fore in this study which mines a rich seam of institutional and official archives.
The disciplined focus on the military as an institution makes for a coherent study. Greater engagement with recent scholarship on gender, morality and sexuality, and on the material culture of Catholicism, would have sharpened the analytical value of this book as a case study of clerical influence in a formative era but scholars of these topics will find much of interest in this valuable study.
