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The Story of One of De Valera's Men

The testimony of an ardent Sinn Feiner and conversion of one of De
Valera`s men.

Published by Martyrs Memorial Productions
356 -376 Ravenhill Road,
Belfast,
BT68GL
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
Printed by
JC Print Ltd,
Belfast

There are not many people in the world who care to sit down and write
out the history of their past life, especially when there are no heroic
deeds to boast of; and I should not think of placing this pamphlet
before the public were it not for one thing - to glorify Him who has
saved me and cleansed me in His precious blood, by adding another
testimony to the exceeding greatness of His power in delivering a poor
misguided Roman Catholic, who at one time trusted in the righteousness
of saints and his own good works to bring him to heaven, but who now,
through the mercy and grace of God, is standing on redemption ground, no
longer trusting in men or churches or his own good works, but in the
finished work of Christ on Calvary. It is my earnest prayer that, as I
tell of His dealings with my soul, if any should read this simple effort
who have never yet looked to Jesus Christ for pardon and forgiveness,
His Holy Spirit may guide them into all truth arid lead them to put
their trust in Him, Who alone can save and keep.

At a very early age I was introduced to Protes­tantism. My father died
when I was very young, leaving my mother with two children. He was one
of those men who believed in the old proverb "Money was made round to go
round," and he made it go round as quickly as he possibly could, with
the result that, when he died, he left my mother very little to carry on
with. She sold up what remained of his business, which only brought
sufficient money to keep things going for a few months, at the end of
which time she had to return to her old business. Rut now she was
confronted with a difficulty: she had to be at busi­ness all day, and
consequently had to leave us at home by ourselves; she was always afraid
that we should come to some harm, until one day a neigh­bour suggested
that she should send us to school with her children. This happened to be
a Protestant school and we attended it for some years. My sister, being
three years my senior, naturally learned more of the Protestant teaching
than I did; she had a great love for the Scriptures, being able to say
several of the Psalms off by heart, and about fifty of the "One Hundred
Texts" by the time we left school.

About this time a friend of ours, who was blessed with a lot of this
world's goods, came to my mother and said that she, having no children
of her own, would like to adopt my sister. My mother was glad of this,
because this friend would be able to give her a better education: so my
sister went to live at her house, and was sent to a Covent School, where
she was soon prepared for her first Confession. When the great day
arrived she went in to the priest and repeated what she had been taught
to say; "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned" - and then she stood
speechless; after a moment or two of silence the priest looked up and
said, "Well, little girl, haven't you any sins to confess?" "No, sir,"
she replied. "Well, you must be a very good little girl," said the
priest. "Oh, no," said my sister, "but I confessed them all to the Lord
Jesus Christ this morning and He forgave them all, and I have no more
until to-night." "How do you know that?" said the priest. "Because it
says in 1st John 1, verse 9, 'If we confess our sins, He (God) is
faith­ful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness" "Where did you learn that?" said the priest. "I learned
it in the Irish Church Mission school that I went to." "Oh, well," said
the priest, "you must be a good girl and forget all your previous
teaching and be a good Catholic, as you would have been if your father
had lived," which showed that the priest had been told all about him.
She replied, "I could never be a Roman Catholic." "And why could you not
be a Roman Catholic?" "Well, I could never believe that God is in that
little box at the top of the chapel, for God says in His Word, Acts 7,
verse 48, "Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temple made with
hands." Perhaps I should say here, for the benefit of those who do not
know, that the Church of Rome teaches that after Consecration the bread
and wine are changed into the body of our Lord Jesus Christ: the
Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches "Not only the true body of
Christ and whatever appertains to the true mode of existence of a body,
as the bones and nerves, but also that entire Christ is contained in
this Sacrament." My sister also said that she could never believe in
Purgatory, for God says in His Word, lst John 1, verse 7, "The blood of
Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Now if ALL sin is
cleansed in His blood, there is none left for the fires of Purgatory:
and besides all this, she could never give up her Bible, for she loved
it too much. To this the priest replied, "That is the very thing you
must give up, for I see that it is a Protestant Bible." I must say a
word here in reference, to Rome's treatment of the Bible in Protestant
countries, she says she loves the Bible and forbids it to none; this is
the position she takes up in England to try and deceive the people, but
the truth is that she hates the Bible, it is still on the list of
prohibited books. Dr. Cahill says, "The Protestant Bible is a forgery
and slanderer of Christ."

Pope Leo XII, in an Encyclical of May .'!"', 1814, called it "poisonous
pastures."

At Mayo Assizes (1852) John S Bridgrnan, a monk of the Order of St
Francis, was indicted for, and found guilty of, burning a Protestant
Bible, and of saying it was not the Word of God, but the Word of the
Devil and the Devil's book. Rev G J Browne, an R.C. priest, said, "Can
it be the will of God that this book (the Bible), the indiscriminate
reading of which has caused such misfortunes to the earth - can it be, I
say, His Divine Will, that it should be sent forth without note or
comment, and placed in the hands of the untutored peasantry of this
country?" (Discussion at Carrick-on-Shannon, page 7.) Quite recently,
Father Hugh Pope's description of the open Bible as one of the curses of
England led to a public debate in Brighton.

When my sister came away from the priest she came home to mother and
said she would rather be at home: so she did not go to that school any
more. Not only did my sister hold on to the Protestant faith, but at a
Mission held in Dublin, she gave herself to the Lord Jesus Christ and
has trusted Him ever since.

After my sister's conversion she was always praying that I might be
converted and I believe it is in answer to her prayers that I stand
where I am to-day.

One of the principal difficulties I had to face was this: in Ireland it
is almost impossible to separate religion from politics. The Romaniist
system is far more a political system than a religious one. All my
people on both my mother's side and my father's were mixed up in the
troubles of Ireland. Some of them were cursedl and excommunicated at the
time of the Fenian movement. In 1914 when the late Mr John Reddmond
promised a large number of Irishmen for the British Army, there was a
split in the ranks of the Irish Volunteers: some of them remained on Mr
Redmond's side and were known as National Volunteers, but the lairger
number of them formed a separate body and they were known as the Sinn
Fein Volunteers. They refused to have anything to do with Blritain. I
joined the Sinn Fein party and happened to be in the 3rd Battalion, over
which Mr De Valera was commander. But when I thought how the Roman
Church treated the men who fought for freedom in the past, and that it
is the boast of Rome that she never changes, I thought that I, too,
would fall under the censure of the church. To my amaze­ment, however, I
found it to be quite the reverse, in fact we could hardly move for the
priests, who were present at most of our meetings and generally were the
principal speackers. I refer chiefly to the large meetings held in the
Mansion House in Dublin in 1915-1916. Priests were active in every way
throughout the campaign. And, as Fr. O'Fllanagan said in Dublin at a
meeting recently, they turned "the Churches into political
meeting-places by ranting, stupid, ill-informed political speeches from
the altar."

I learned nearly all my political opinions from priests, and after some
time it dawned on me as strange that the Church, which cursed and
excommunicated many of my own family and friends, was now blessing and
helping me in eveiy way they could. I have lived to see the same
"unchangeable" Church turn from the men whom they blessed in 1915-16 and
refuse them the Sacraments and even burial in consecrated ground. Many
more in Ireland have turned away from the Church of Rome because of
this. I did not leave the Church of Rome on political grounds only, but
when I found out her conduct in this respect, it led me to inquire into
her doctrinal position and, through the grace and mercy of God. I
stepped out of error and bondage into the light of the Gospel as it is
in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is how it happened. My sister was going away to Scotland, but she
was very concerned bout me, as she went to a friend, Mr Murray, one of
the I.C.M. workers, and asked him to try and do something with me. He
came to see me, but I must say he came at a very critical time, for I
was absolutely against everything that savoured of England or her
religion. The great trouble in Ireland is that Irishmen are taught to
look on England not only as an enemy to the political freedom of their
country, but also as an enemy of their faith, in fact they look upon the
name Protestant and England as synonymous terms.

When Mr Murray came to see me I would gladly have laid down my life to
obtain Ireland's freedom from England, but he pointed out to me that the
real freedom that I needed was purchased by the precious blood of Christ
our Lord, Who laid down His h'fe to obtain it, and that freedom could be
mine through faith in Him. I attended a class which he held on Sunday
for some time and began to think tilings over seriously, but I did not
want to tell Mr Murray all my doubts, for I was afraid, as he knew more
than I did, he would be too well able for me; so I settled the question
in this way.

There was only one thing I remembered learning in the I.C.M. school, and
that was that the Bible is the Word of God. I said to myself, the best
thing to do is to take the doctrines that are giving me trouble and
bring them to the test of God's Word, and wliichever is in keeping with
His Word I will accept: so I got some books giving the Protestant side
and the Roman Catholic side. After reading what the Protestant had to
say and what the Romanists had to say, I turned to God's Word and I
accepted the side which I believed had the support of God's Word.

My first trouble was, I knew myself to be a sinner and longed for peace
with God, but how could I obtain it? The idea of God that children get
in a Convent is this - God is very holy and very just and He stands with
His Arm outstretched with the Sword of Justice, to bring it down without
mercy on the head of the sinner; but between God and the sinner there
are a number of saints, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, who keep the
sword of justice from coming down on the head of the sinner. So if a
Romanist wants to obtain grace and favour with God he must go to the
saints and ask them to intercede for him, as the late Cardinal Cullen
thrice expressed it in his pastorals. "Nor can it be doubted that the
despairing sinner, who sees even in a crucified God but a prodigy of
justice, has often felt his heart melt into compunction, as he raised
his eyes to her, in whom he saw nothing but mercy, and through whose
intercession be dared to hope for pardon." But what did I find in God's
Word? I found He is just and holy, yes and I found that He is also very
merciful and of great kindness: and, while it is true that I deserved
nothing but justice without mercy, yet God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son to die for me.

"Oh! Why was He there as the bearer of Sin,
If on Jesus my guilt was not laid?
Oh! Why from His side flowed the sin-cleansing blood,
If His dying my debt has not paid?

I found that God is ready and willing to pardon the soul that returns to
Him. In the first chapter of Isaiah I found Him inviting people who had
revelled against Him, people who had no sound­ness fmm the crowns of
their heads to the soles of their feet, nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrifying sores, yet God in love and mercy, in verse 18, says,
"Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool."

In the New Testament I found the same message. God manifested in the
flesh says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.'

Oh! The joy and peace that came from trusting Jesus. I praise God for
His goodness to me, for not only did He show me the errors of Rome and
the truth of Protestantism, but He also showed me my great need of
coming to Jesus. Who alone could give me peace and joy in believing; for
we are not saved because we are RomanCatholic or Protestant, but because
we believe in Jesus; saving faith, in the New Testament, is always
connected with a living person, not a creed or formula or system, and
that Person is Christ Jesus. Who never turns away from a returning
sinner. While I love the Blessed Virgin Mary and honour her, as every
right Protestant does, yet I find in Jesus all I need, and like her I
can say, "My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in
God, my Saviour."

This is the message we have for our fellow country-men. and by God`s
grace we mean to bring it to them - a message of light and liberty to
all who turn to Him in faith. "For He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them."

We believe in exclusive salvation, the message of God is not, "when I
see you are a Roman Catholic or a Protestant," but "when I the Lord
shall see the blood, I will pass over you."

May God bless the Roman Catholics of our country, and may He by His Holy
Spirit bring this message to their hearts for Jesus Christ's sake.

Amen