'Athair na Tuaithe' - The John Canon Hayes Archive

The archives of the University of Galway Library are home to the archives of Muintir na Tíre (‘People of the Country’). Founded as a rural renewal movement in 1937. Its extensive archive contains an abundance of material relating to social and economic conditions in rural Ireland, Irish rural civil society, the involvement of the Catholic clergy in local community organising, and rural civil society/state relationships over a period spanning more than 80 years. Included within the Muintir na Tíre collection are nine boxes containing the personal archives of its founder, John Martin Canon Hayes (1887-1957).

December 1954 issue of The Landmark, the official magazine of Muintir na Tíre, featuring John Canon Hayes on the cover. (P134/6/2) 

Canon Hayes was born 11 November 1887 in a Land League hut in Murroe, County Limerick; his family having been evicted from the estate of Lord Cloncurry in 1872 for non-payment of rent. In the 22 years his family resided in the hut, seven of Canon Hayes’ nine siblings died. From these impoverished rural circumstances, a desire to improve living conditions in rural Ireland would be instilled in the young future clergyman; the Hayes family would finally return to the estate in 1894 after Canon Hayes’ father testified before the evicted tenants’ commission in Dublin. Hayes would attend Crescent College in Limerick before entering the priesthood. After two years of ecclesiastical college in Thurles, he obtained a spot at the famed Irish College in Paris in 1907 and was ordained in 1913.

Certificate, written in Latin, issued by the Archdiocese of Paris stating that Canon Hayes, then a cleric studying at the Irish College in Paris, is permitted to conduct masses and sacraments on behalf of the Diocese of Kilmore, 10 July 1911. (P134/12/1/4/2/1)

It was not long after Father Hayes’ ordainment (even after his designation as canon in April 1954, he remained ‘Father Hayes’ to his loyal acquaintances) that he was posted to Liverpool, where he served for nine years. By this time, he had already acquired a reputation for his oratory skills, support of the temperance movement, and opposition to sectarianism. Upon his return to Ireland in 1924, Hayes immersed himself in the duals causes of rural Irish development and temperance (he was a steadfast member and organiser for the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart). Appointed to County Tipperary in 1927, he would spend the rest of his life based in the county’s parishes, from where he would conceive of the movement that became Muintir na Tíre.

Page from a lecture on Muintir na Tíre, c. 1938, mentioning the recent founding of a Muintir na Tíre guild in Clonmel, 3 guilds in Cork, and the hope of founding a Munster Provincial Council by the end of the year. (P134/12/1/2/10/8)

In his parochial duties, Canon Hayes was already raising funds for church/community projects and dabbling in rural industrial development schemes. Inspired by the rural cooperatives he saw in continental Europe and by the Catholic Action movement, he sought to organise something similar in Ireland. Muintir na Tíre was initially formed out of a 1931 meeting in Dublin as a standalone society before reconstituting itself in 1937 as an association of parish-based community guilds. By the time of his death, over 400 guilds existed across Ireland working on various local development schemes.

Notes written by Canon Hayes for a radio broadcast he delivered on Muintir na Tíre and vocationalism, c. 1937-1945. (P134/12/1/2/10/65)

Canon Hayes maintained a relentless schedule, constantly on the road across Ireland speaking to Muintir na Tíre guilds, temperance associations, Catholic sodalities, and agricultural, vocational, and business groups, and was a frequent orator on Radio Éireann. His position as leader of Muintir na Tíre and never-ending promoting of rural Irish life, in which he sought to condemn capitalism and communism in equal measure as two sides of a materialist coin while attempting to keep rural Irish from fleeing for the cities or overseas, led to him being courted by leaders of every political stripe. The correspondence in the Canon Hayes archive displays the balance he was forced to keep between keeping the ears of the Ireland’s most powerful political figures and attending to both his rural activist and parochial duties. Letters from Éamon de Valera, James Dillon, and Douglas Hyde are intermixed with pleas from parishioners asking for employment references, financial assistance, aid from being evicted, and simple prayers.

A small sample of Canon Hayes’ lecture notes, which take up four entire archival boxes. Canon Hayes wrote notes for his lectures on every type of paper imaginable, from flowing prose on foolscap to point-form topic notes scrawled on the backs of envelopes. (P134/12/1/2/10/)

Document and mementos pertaining to Canon Hayes’ 1934 trip to Argentina, where he ministered to the Irish diaspora in August, September, and October 1934 at the invitation of the Pallottines and attended the 32nd International Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aires. At centre, a list of the missions and retreats given by Canon Hayes includes a retreat at San Patricio Church, infamous for being the site where five members of the Pallottine order were massacred in 1976 during the Argentine ‘Dirty War’. (P134/12/1/3/1)

Father Hayes addressing a crowd from the back of a coal lorry, May 1948. (P134/15/027)

Leaflet containing the order of services for a retreat given by Father Hayes and Father J.J. Bergin at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church, Liverpool, 14-21 September 1947. Having served the Mount Carmel parish between 1915 and 1924 at the beginning of his priesthood, Canon Hayes retained many connections among the Catholic community and Irish diaspora in the region through the rest of his life. The 1950s would also see Canon Hayes travel to the United States, where his many connections resulted in the establishment of Muintir na Tíre support organisations in Boston, New Jersey, New York, and Los Angeles.(P134/12/1/4/3/8)

Canon Hayes’ name lives on in the neighbourhood of Canon Hayes Park and in the Canon Hayes Sports and Recreation Centre, both in Tipperary Town, and in Canon Hayes court, Fethard.

Muintir na Tíre's Community Development Officer - A Common Thread

As mentioned in an earlier post I spoke about getting to be the first to explore an archive. Another perk is getting to see common threads, trends in the work an organisation/person, the issues that come up over and over again and how the organisation/person worked.

In Muintir na Tíre one of the common threads throughout its 80 years in existence is the use of Community Development Officers/Community Alert Development Officers. The role has been used to spread the word and work of Muintir na Tíre in the community. The Development Officers formed guilds, community councils and community alert group with the local community. They provided advice and guidance to these and ensured they were informed of any decisions from headquarters.  

In the archive we can see the role of Organisers in the 1950s is to spread the work and word of Muintir na Tíre in communities and to from guilds. There were approximately six organisers employed by Muintir na Tíre during this time. Each week the Organiser had to submit a report to Headquarters with regard to the weeks work and note if a new guild was formed. Below is a repot from O. Reilly who covered Tipperary, Kilkenny, Kerry, Kildare and Meath. These reports give a great insight into the communities that Muintir na Tíre engaged with and the issues that were facing guilds. 

In the 1970s Community Development Officers were employed in the E.E.C. Pilot Project. Funding for the pilot project came from the European Social Fund. The project was focused on training community development workers in rural community work which led to employment opportunities through local enterprise. The project also focused on developing community councils, identifying community needs, organising local resources, linking of local resources to those available at higher levels and seeking to accommodate the local projects within the plans and programmes devised at statutory, regional and national levels of administration/organisation [Tierney p.158]. The Community Development officers advised on the creation of community councils and the identification of the needs and objectives of rural-urban societies. They operated in defined locations and worked closely with community council and provided them with training and a professional approach. A copy of Conditions of Employment for Community development officers can be seen below. They also provided weekly reports which are also in the archive.

In the 1980s there were two types of employee’s in Muintir na Tíre. One of these was the Community Development officer who continued to focus on community development, supporting community councils and creating new councils. Kevin Hickey was employed by both Headquarters and Cork County Federation and his role and achievements in Cork is described below.

The 1980s also saw the creation of Community Alert in rural Ireland in 1985. To help promote Community Alert, Muintir na Tíre employed and continues to employ Community Alert Development Officers who help establish community alert groups in local communities across Ireland. They work closely with An Garda Síochána. The Community Alert Development Officers also completed weekly work reports. Below is an example of a report from the 1990s from Pat Doyle. 

These reports provide a great insight into the development of community alert and the issues facing communities in rural Ireland.

The role of a community development officer to promote the work and word of Muintir na Tíre has been an effective tool for 80 years. This role is one of many common threads in the archive. 

The Muintir na Tíre Interest Group

When the James Hardiman Library was discussing the acquisition of the Muintir na Tíre archive with Tom Fitzgerald, Dr Tony Varley from the School of Political Science and Sociology and the University Librarian, John Cox contacted academics from within and outside NUIG to see what the academic interest, if any, was in the archive.

Numerous letters of support were received regarding the value of the archive and how important the archive was for social, historical, geographical and sociological research purposes. This support came from historians, sociologists, geographers and economists. Such powerful advocacy was very influential in ensuring that the University acquired the archive.

To continue the engagement with the academic supporters who were very enthused about the archive an interest group was established within the university. While the academics wait patiently and with excitement for me to finish appraising, arranging and cataloguing the archive we have invited the academics who are on campus in NUIG and colleagues from Teagasc in Athenry to attend four meetings throughout the period of the project.

We have had two very successful meetings with the academics to date. The first meeting provided the academics with an introduction to the archive and the archival process. We informed them of the various records that are in the collection such as the National Conference material, AGM minutes, financial records, publications, annual returns provided by guilds/community councils and publications.

The second meeting provided a further update on the progress of the arrangement and cataloguing of the collection. I’m still at the arrangement phase as there are approximately 8,217 items in the collection but I am over half way there. They were also informed of some of the other finds in the collection including minutes of meetings of the National Council and National Executive, correspondence with other bodies involved in rural Ireland including IFA, ICA, ICMSA and of course government departments.

One of the main purposes of the interest group and engaging with the academics is to get them thinking about the use of the archive for teaching and research purposes. By informing them of the content of the archive they can start planning the use of the archive for undergraduate and post graduate teaching and research purposes. They might not focus all their research on Muintir na Tíre but they may wish to use some of the archive. They can inform students of the wealth of material in the archive and the possibilities of how this can enhance their research.

By engaging with academics it provides solace to this archivist and indeed the library that the archive will be used and that there is excitement about the archive being made available so that they can start using it. Expectations on when the archive will be available for use does have to be tempered but knowing that your hard work is appreciated and causing excitement does provide me with enthusiasm and enjoyment while continuing the archival process. 

Muintir na Tíre Limited

Before Muintir na Tíre was founded in 1937 by Canon John Hayes, he established a co-operative society, Muintir na Tíre Limited, in 1931. Muintir na Tíre was an agricultural producers co-operative society for farmers and their labourers.

I have discovered some records relating to Muintir na Tíre Limited during the appraisal and arranging of the Muintir na Tíre archive. This includes the minute books from 1931 – 1937 and some published material.

The minute books of Muintir na Tíre Limited note how Muintir na Tíre Limited was set up, the rules that should be followed, the prices of shares and the title of the organisation. They note the various meetings of the organisation during the years it was active and those who were involved in the organisation. 

The first entry in the first minute book is a circular announcing a meeting on March 4^th 1931 “to further consider the matter of setting up an organisation which will embrace every section of Irish Agriculture and avoid political affiliation” announced the intention of setting up an organisation which would act as a parent organisation for all those involved in agriculture. It was decided at this meeting to set up such an organisation, and this became known as Muintir na Tíre Limited.

It was agreed that the association would be registered as a limited liability organisation under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act. Muintir na Tíre Limited was registered with the Register of Friendly Societies on 24^th November 1931. To be registered with the Register of Friendly Societies Muintir na Tíre Limited had to produce rules. 

Muintir na Tíre Limited believed in rural self-help. The ideological basis for Muintir na Tíre Limited was the encyclical Rerum Novarum. In this the Pope was calling for greater harmony between the social classes. In Ireland this was seen as the relationship between farmer and labourer. This vision was set out by Reverend Hayes in an address to a meeting of delegates at Commercial Buildings Dublin, 7^th May 1931 and published in the below booklet.

Muintir na Tíre Limited agreed the formation of branches in 1934. Rules and regulations governing the formation of branches were established.

The most successful activity of Muintir na Tíre Limited was the development of Rural Weekends. These weekends were a shortened version of Semaine Sociales held in rural France. Rural weekends developed into the Rural Weeks run by Muintir na Tíre.

Muintir na Tíre Limited was a precursor to Muintir na Tíre and many of the ideas of Canon Hayes were developed and tried out in the co-operative society. However, the co-operative was found to be too limiting and by 1937 it ceased being registered with the Registrar of Friendly Societies. Muintir na Tíre was ready to be established to promote rural communities.

While you have to wait until these records are available for research purposes you can have a read of Class, Community and Conflict: the case of Muintir na Tíre Limited by Eoin Devereux published in Tipperary Historical Journal 1995 and Father John Hayes: Founder of Muintir naTíre, People of the Land by Stephen Rynne to find out more about Muintir na Tíre Limited. Hopefully, there will be more records relating to Muintir na Tíre Limited to be discovered.