Fr. McManus’ Partitioned Parish and Partitioned Country

Posted By: April 07, 2020

 

 

                                                                                                                                 

The British government’s 1920 Government of Ireland Act (the “Partition Act”) not only divided Fr. McManus’ country. It also divided his historic parish of Kinawley—an area that has had an ecclesial presence since the Sixth Century. Part of the parish is now in the artificially created Northern Ireland, in County Fermanagh. The other part is in Swanlinbar, County Cavan, in what later became the Irish Republic. The red line in the graphic is England’s damn Border.

 

Fr. McManus was born three miles from the actual small village of Kinawley, in County Fermanagh, in the townland of Clonliff— part of the parish on the shores of Lough Erne and the banks of the River Cladagh.

 

So, England’s partition of Ireland was never just academic or theoretical to Fr. McManus. It was and is, instead, a deep scar and a deep wound on the face of Ireland—with all the subsequent injustice, discrimination, and suffering of The Troubles. (Even though much progress has been made since the Good Friday Agreement, which Fr. McManus strongly supports).

 

One of the current initiatives of the Irish National Caucus is the Internet Petition, explained below. This Petition gives the worldwide Irish an opportunity to show their opposition to the Partition of Ireland, and their desire for solidarity, unity, reconciliation, equality, justice, and peace on the whole island of Ireland.