‘You Collared a Maiden Young Ireland in this House’: The Patriotism of Dom Francis Sweetman and His School – Mount St Benedict, Gorey, Co. Wexford

Abstract

‘What you in England call “politics” we call “patriotism”’ Dom John ‘Francis’ Sweetman (1872–1953) replied in 1919 to the Abbot of Downside’s reminder that he had previously been instructed ‘not to take public part in politics’. Although Sweetman complied with Cuthbert Butler’s order to resign from the executive of the North Wexford Sinn Fein, his ongoing ‘patriotism’ continued to cause problems for the Irish monk and his English monastery. In 1925, following a succession of complaints to Rome by the Bishop of Ferns which included the charge Sweetman had ‘organised and encouraged military activities against the Free State Government’, Downside closed his school. This paper provides an account of how the 1916 Easter Rising affected Sweetman and his school, describes how Sweetman’s political activities affected Downside’s plan to establish an English Benedictine monastery in Ireland and, examines his involvement in the Irish War of Independence and Civil War.