The Other View

A WORKING CLASS HERO

MARY T. McVEIGH recounts the story of Armagh man Paddy Agnew's election campaign in 1945.

One of the dirtiest election campaigns fought during the years of the old Stormont regime was not between a Unionist and Nationalist or between candidates who held opposing religious views. Instead the contest for the South Armagh seat in the 1945 General Election was between two men who were both practising Catholics with nationalist aspirations, but who differed significantly on class issues. It was never an equal contest because, although Paddy Agnew was the sitting Labour M.P. with an impressive work record within the constituency, he did not stand a chance against his opponent, Anti-Partitionist, Malachi Conlon, who had the combined forces, both lay and clerical, of the Catholic establishment whose propaganda machine was the pulpit and a local newspaper, the Frontier Sentinel.

Paddy Agnew, might only have been in parliament for seven years but it is probably true to say that he was a professional politician for most of his life. His involvement in Armagh began with the Armagh Employed and Unemployed Association set up in 1932 in an attempt to alleviate the high level of poverty and distress in the area.

He was the driving force and key spokesperson for the organisation and one might say that he cut his political teeth in lobbying public representatives, leading deputations and writing to the newspapers on its behalf. He continued to maintain this high profile with the Labour Party which he was instrumental in establishing in the city in 1933.

Perhaps his most notable achievement was defeating both Nationalists and Unionists and in doing so he gained support from workers across the sectarian divide. In 1939 he won the town seat on Armagh County Council from a formidable Nationalist opponent, Senator Thomas McLaughlin, and in 1946 he managed to retain it against strong Unionist opposition.

When Armagh city was given back its council in 1946 after 12 years rule by a commissioner, Paddy Agnew gained a seat which he managed to hold until 1958 when Labour was ousted by a new Independent Nationalist Party. He got into the Northern Ireland House of Commons in 1938 without a fight and although the Frontier Sentinel may have claimed that he did not represent South Armagh opinion and he was a usurper there is plenty of evidence to suggest that he gave good service both at constituency and parliamentary level.

He was responsible, as organiser, for the expansion of the Armagh Federation of Labour, formed in 1937, which resulted in a Labour presence, even if it was only for a few years, in most of the villages and small towns in Mid and South Armagh. He was a supporter of trade unionism and was recognised as being responsible for organising hospital staff in what was then known as the Armagh Lunatic Asylum, now St. Luke's Hospital.

Paddy Agnew embarked on his political career as an unemployed person, organising others in similar straits. He had no job when he went to Stormont and it is unlikely that he ever had full-time employment ever after. He was additionally disadvantaged by poor health for most of his life so it probably fair to say that he was a person who had to rely considerably on limited resources for survival.

His socialism was pragmatic rather than theoretical. He believed that social reform would ease the lot of the working class and over the years the concerns he consistently aired were housing, unemployment, the need for local employment, poverty relief, care of the elderly and the health and education of children. Much of his time was taken up with holding surgeries where he gave advice, information and acted as advocate.

Essentially he and other Labour politicians of his kind were prepared to work within the Northern Ireland state system whatever misgivings they might have had about it. Their primary aims were to seek relief for the pressing social needs which they saw all around them and also to bring workers together. The unification of the country.

His opponent, Malachi Conlon, described as a journalist, farmer and playwright, had his political career cut short by his untimely death at thirty-eight. He first took his seat at Stormont in 1945, held onto it at the 1949 election but died in March of the following year. His funeral was testament to the high standing he had in Catholic and Nationalist circles. Members of the Dail and Stormont and forty priests including the Primate and other bishops were among the cortege.

A founder member of the Anti-Partition League which was set up in South Armagh in November 1945, his aspirations were of an Ireland akin to the DeValera model: free, Gaelic and Catholic. In many of his public utterances he referred to the nation's proud past, the independence of the Celtic race and Gaelic culture. He wrote poetry and a play entitled Dureavy No More ,which the Frontier Sentinel described as the thrilling deeds of a noted outlaw Seamus Mac Murphy and the associations of the Gaelic poet, Peadar O Doirnin.

He constantly warned against the moral decadence of Britain and one of his election promises to South Armagh voters was that he was prepared to act as their spokesperson in parliament if anything affecting their religion or country deemed it necessary.  Indeed it could be said that Malachi Conlon would seem to have been more concerned about the moral rather than the physical welfare of those whose electoral support he sought.

The red scare  was the form of attack he chose against Paddy Agnew. Obviously he could not publicly oppose the Labour man's policies which sought to improve the lives of working people so instead his tactic was to link Labour with Communism and Godlessness. Throughout the 1945 campaign he maintained a virulent onslaught against Communism. In an emotionally charged manifesto he not only castigated Communism but displayed a definite anti-Semitic tone:

"We Irishmen of this generation are asked again to raise aloft this flaming cross and with the might and strength of a United Nation to hold it higher than the clouds that Europe and the World may see that all is not lost But ever to the East is the sneering bulk of Communist Russia where the Jews have marshalled mighty force to carry on their age-old struggle – the destruction of Christianity".

According to the manifesto which was prominently displayed in the local press, Britain's association with the Soviet Union during the war brought the threat of Communism nearer:
There can be no doubt that the Labour Party is a hot-bed of Communistic activity and that in the years ahead of us the latent energy which has been nourished during the war by contact with Russia will spring into mad fanatic life.

It claimed also that the Stormont Government intended to take over control of Catholic schools, which would be greeted with glee by the Communist infested Labour Party. Conlon called on the electorate to choose between a man who is pledged to defend your country against Communism and who is pledged to fight with every weapon for the Unity of this land, or by a man who is pledged to answer a whip in Moscow and who gives allegiance to a party which is satisfied that the Border will remain...There are two flags in the sand – the Hammer and Sickle of the Communist Jew – and the flag of our own land. Which flag do you support?

There can be little doubt that the intention of this rhetoric was to inflame passions and it would seem that it did. Labour party activists have recalled it as one of the dirtiest campaigns ever fought and, in his post election speech following the count, Paddy Agnew referred to the scurrilous attack on him in the Conlon manifesto.

He went on to claim that his party workers had been intimidated. He said that Conlon had asserted that the result would have a bearing on Ireland's status and independence but the methods used to gain that result were not in keeping with the ideals of independence or democracy. The manifesto had mentioned the Fiery Cross but the party's tactics were neither Christian nor in keeping with the faith they both professed.

Paddy Agnew lost the election by 6,720 votes to 4,143 but nevertheless continued consistently to promote the cause of Labour until his death. Ironically, Malachi Conlon, the man who was totally opposed to state intervention in health or welfare had a public housing estate named after him in South Armagh but, to date, no public acknowledgement has been paid to the man who fought all his days to improve the lot of his own class.

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