Knights of Saint Columbanus
The Order of the Knights of Saint Columbanus is an Irish national Catholic fraternal organisation. Founded by Canon James K. O'Neill in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1915, it was named in honour of the Irish saint Columbanus. Initially established as a mutual benefit society for working class Catholics, it has developed into a fraternal benefit society dedicated to providing charitable services to all areas of the Irish community.
There are 68 councils across all 32 counties on the island of Ireland. Membership in the order is open to all practising Catholic men and their families aged 18 and over. There is a youth division of the order open to younger men ages 16 and up called the Associate Knights of St Columbanus. The Order is a founding member of the International Alliance of Catholic Knights.
Widely described as a secret society, the organisation rejects this assertion. The Knights of St. Columbanus has also had influence in government, business and trade unions. It has been described in Church, State and Social Science in Ireland as "the Irish organisation most durably associated with combating Catholic economic subordination," as it sought, after formation, to break through the hegemony of a Protestant minority in public institutions and commerce. It is headquartered at a Georgian clubhouse in Ely Place, Dublin.
History
Formation
, of Ballycastle, County Antrim, founded the Order of the Knights of St Columbanus in 1915 "to cherish fraternal charity and to develop practical Catholicity among its members, to promote and foster the cause of the Catholic faith and Catholic education".O'Neill was influenced heavily by social teachings of the Church, in particular the Papal encyclical Rerum Novarum. This key encyclical, issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, addressed the exploitation of industrial workers and encouraged membership in labour unions, while rejecting the extreme solutions offered by both socialism and laissez faire capitalism. O'Neill witnessed such injustices first-hand in his role as parish priest of Sacred Heart Parish in industrialized, turn of the century Belfast. By 1920, following the Partition of Ireland, events such as the shipyard expulsions in East Belfast, where Catholic workers were forcibly removed from the yards, began a two-year spate of attacks, predominantly affecting Catholic civilians in the city. Estimates suggest that between 1920 and 1922, over 500 people lost their lives with 1,100 people injured and 650 homes and businesses destroyed. Catholics hanged in effigy from buildings were also seen during this time. These events are widely known as the 'Belfast Pogroms'. Additionally, all local government representatives were from Protestant, unionist backgrounds at this time, therefore the needs of the Catholic nationalist population could not be addressed. In the face of these situations, an organisation which sought to serve the Catholic population in Belfast was direly needed.
Working with Bishop John Tohill, O'Neill arranged regular meetings at which the social teachings of Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius X were discussed. This marked the beginning of the order as it is known today, by educating its members in social principles which can be applied to practical, real-life situations.
The order was placed under the patronage of St Columbanus for his missionary zeal in bringing the Good News to all, in addition to infamously standing up for what's right in the face of adversity, an issue faced by many of the early Knights.
The motto ‘Instaurare omnia in Christo’ meaning ‘To restore all things in Christ’ comes from Pope Pius X. As a keen follower of the pontiff, O’Neill adopted the same motto to which Pius X dedicated his pontificate in his first encyclical E Supremi. In it, the dire need for Catholic action on the topics of education, respect for property, maintaining order, and justice in the social classes was expressed.
The Order was first announced in The Irish Catholic on 10 April 1915. An order with similar views and motives to the Knights of St Columbanus, known as the Columban Knights, was merged with the KSC. Over a year later, four new primary councils had been established in Belfast with more following in Armagh, Cork, Derry, Dublin, Lurgan, Newry and Portadown. It is thought that these councils spread throughout the country through travelling businessmen associated with the Order.
To accomplish their goals, they maintained strict secrecy around their membership. Individuals identified one another through confidential passwords and distinctive handshakes. While the necessity for such secrecy faded in the South after 1921, it persisted in the North. The unified organisation morphed into a form of Catholic equivalent to Freemasonry. The ceremonial robes worn by its officers during meetings represented the order's authority and secretive nature.
Canon O'Neill died on 18 March 1922 and is buried at St Patrick's Church, Ballyvoy, County Antrim. The Order celebrates an annual Mass at the church in his honour. It is attended by Knights from all counties on the island of Ireland.
In the mid-20th century, the organisation was involved in a movement of campaigns against moneylending. The emergence of hire purchase in Ireland was predominantly linked to equipping newly-formed households, and a 1946 report by the Knights of Columbanus highlighted that the absence of thrift among the youth, inadequate wages, and the lack of family allowances within the prevailing wage structure had compelled young couples beginning married life to acquire goods through the hire purchase system. The organisation expressed fears over the absence of legal safeguards for buyers, noting the financial strain this placed on impoverished Catholic families. However, it has also been noted that rhetoric in such campaigns carried an anti-Semitic undertone, as many moneylenders, predominantly legal, were Jewish.
Between 1966 and 1969, as the supreme knight of the Knights of Columbanus, Vincent Grogan embraced a prominent public role, aiming to demystify the organisation by inviting non-members to attend its annual gatherings and abandoning the ceremonial robes traditionally worn at formal events. His progressive changes met with fierce resistance from traditionalists, creating significant friction within the order. Rather than diffusing the discord, Grogan heightened it by openly criticising Catholic Church authorities for their secrecy and reluctance to engage with the Knights. This confrontational approach reached its peak when he publicly criticised Archbishop John Charles McQuaid on television. In a frank radio interview, he acknowledged that some members exploited the order for personal gain, to advocate for censorship, and to shape government policy in line with Catholic ideals. However, he also argued that such opportunism was not unique to the Knights, but reflected broader tendencies within Irish society. Grogan’s background as a barrister equipped him with strong communication skills, allowing him to handle media scrutiny with composure and charm during challenging interviews.
In a 1967 feature by RTÉ, the Knights are depicted as an organisation that was committed to opposing Communism, while simultaneously striving to achieve a Catholic conception of social justice for impoverished Catholics. Grogan remarked that their attitudes reflected the majority view of the laity in Ireland. Despite instigating change in the organisation, Grogan nonetheless remarked that "we are conservative."
He leveraged the order as a platform to advance his philanthropic goals, championing causes related to social responsibility and the wellbeing of various marginalised groups, including emigrants, the impoverished, the travelling community, former prisoners, orphans, and the unemployed. His recurring message to the Knights, a notable departure from past practices, was clear: “let the Irish people know what you are doing or trying to do.” A vocal advocate for the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he encouraged Catholics to embody Christian principles in everyday life and played a key role in founding the Irish Council of the Laity in 1968.
In Politics
Following Irish independence in 1922, the Knights became more involved in Irish politics. At one stage, they had a significant presence in the Department of Revenue. Indeed, it is thought that former Irish President Seán T. O'Kelly was a member of the Knights of St. Columbanus, much to the displeasure of Éamon de Valera. De Valera publicly distanced himself from the organisation. One occasion, he sought for colleagues to resign their membership. At the 1943 Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, he indirectly criticised the Knights of St. Columbanus, calling it "absurd" to maintain "an organization for the protection of Catholic interests" in a country where 93% of the population were Catholics. The society also historically had links to leading figures in the Irish Labour Party. Long enthusiastic to improve the well-being of Catholics in business and corporate life, from the creation of the Irish Free State, they played a key role in influencing legislation to create a Catholic social order.As part of the Catholic Action movement in the 1930s, a pamphlet published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland titled The Serried Ranks of Catholic Action highlighted the Knights of St. Columbanus as one of the primary organisations, using militaristic terms, that could prevent the supposed domination of anti-Christian ideologies such as paganism and Communist activity.
The organisation was closely associated with the unusually influential Catholic Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. On one occasion, a delegation from the College of Physicians, headed by its president, Dr. Howley, and comprising prominent officers of the Knights of St. Columbanus, visited to bestow upon him 'the Borgia ring,' a valuable amethyst from the fifteenth century, purportedly worn by certain mediaeval Popes. On June 25, 1942, McQuaid informed a gathering of the Knights of St Columbanus that he had frequently encountered criticisms regarding their preoccupation with personal, social, and business progress, likening them to the Catholic equivalent of the Masonic Order. He assured them that he would never acquiesce to what he regarded as such ambiguous charges. Under the direction of Dublin City's Chief Planner, Michael O'Brien, who was a fervent member of the Knights of St. Columbanus, McQuaid implemented an initiative to establish a significant Catholic suburban axis to counteract the central hegemony of Trinity College and the Protestant teaching hospitals. O'Brien facilitated McQuaid's rejection of a Dublin Corporation proposal to construct two-bedroom houses in a new development in Finglas, North Dublin, on the grounds that couples required larger residences to cater for the substantial families they were expected to bear as devout Catholics.
In 1944, McQuaid, as Chairman of the Commission of Youth Unemployment, was livid when Minister for Supplies, Sean Lemass TD, suggested that, in order to handle report submissions from Protestants, that religious and spiritual welfare should be excluded from reports. McQuaid complained directly to Eamon de Valera that, as Archbishop of Dublin, he should be allowed to make reference to Catholic social principles. When de Valera told him that it was a lay body in character, McQuaid tactically arranged for Taxing Master of the Courts, Henry B. O'Hanlon, one of his allies through the Knights of St Columbanus, to visit de Valera and articulate to him that McQuaid had allegedly penned a communication resigning as the Commission's chairman. However, McQuaid had not actually done so, and he remained as chairman of the Commission, incorporating Catholic social teaching into the Commission's work.
Similarly to McQuaid, Bishop Michael Browne of Galway utilised the Knights of St. Columbanus in promoting the ubiquitous anti-communist fervour in Ireland during the 1940s.
In 1950, McQuaid joined a group of Irish trade unionists for a special audience with Pope Pius XII at Castel Gandolfo. While in Rome, he distributed money provided by the Knights of St. Columbanus to support impoverished children. In 1955, McQuaid mobilised influential supporters in the Knights of St. Columbanus to antagonise the FAI when Ireland had agreed to host Yugoslavia in an international soccer match.
McQuaid clandestinely censored music, films, plays, and novels, through the organisation. The economist Dermot J. O'Flynn, a Knights of St. Columbanus senior and Censorship Board nominee, was crucial to this. McQuaid later thanked O'Flynn for his fight against what they regarded as vulgar productions, and left him to speculate about what the Knights might achieve throughout the nation by their pursuit of an orderly and broad resistance. The State's censorship rules did not apply to theatre, but a pre-independence Act of the Westminster Parliament allowed the Gardaí to close an 'indecent' play, and prosecute the producer. Alan Simpson experienced this in 1957 when he staged Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo at the 'Pike,' a tiny theatrical venue. It was believed that McQuaid started the case against Simpson for mentioning a contraceptive in a play. Dr. Noel Browne said McQuaid also directed the Special Branch. A significant impression on Browne and others remained that the Knights of St Columbanus planned the clampdown, with McQuaid's secret assent. McQuaid proudly informed the Papal Nuncio that Ireland was less affected by "modern deviations" than any other country in Europe or North America. This claim might have held some truth, considering the extensive efforts he made to eliminate such influences through lay associations, particularly the Knights of St. Columbanus.
During the 1950s, when Dr. Noel Browne TD, a left-wing Minister for Health of the Clann na Poblachta party, sought to introduce the infamously controversial 'Mother and Child Scheme,' he faced significant opposition from McQuaid. The scheme, if implemented, would remove much control of healthcare provision from the Church in Ireland. Fine Gael's John A. Costello, Taoiseach of the Inter-Party government at that time, later noted that some Labour Party TDs, had been pushed to support it by the Irish Trades Union Congress, however, Labour's parliamentary chairman, William Davin TD, an active member of the Knights, successfully countered this move. Previously, in June 1948, the Minister for Justice, Seán MacEoin TD, who was a member of the Knights of St. Columbanus, assured its 'Supreme Council' that every effort would be made to prevent any escalating conflict between the Church and the State. McQuaid, himself a Knight, interpreted Noel Browne’s proposals in this context, along with his confidantes in the organisation, Dr. Stafford Johnson and Dr. Stephen McKenzie. During the first Inter-Party government, St. Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth, was running an annual deficit in its management accounts. John A. Costello, as Taoiseach, along with other members of cabinet who were also members, awarded the College a special annual grant.
McQuaid was also believed to have been the source of a phenomenon in which Catholic medical doctors, would swell the AGMs of non-Catholic hospitals, and assume control of voluntary boards. When Protestant physicians raised their grievances with McQuaid, he denied involvement. In 1949, one such notorious incident unfolded, characterised as a conflict between the Knights of St Columbanus and the Freemasons, both vying for influential positions for their members. The Knights, being a Catholic lay organisation devoted to serving Christ in all areas of daily life, including the workplace, secured a majority at the Protestant-run Meath Hospital's AGM. They defeated the existing management, and assumed control. Although the displaced board challenged the outcome in the High Court, their efforts failed. The government subsequently intervened, introducing a private bill that established a new system of representation on the management committee, acceptable to both parties.
In 1948, following the emergence of the Cold War and the likely prospect of a Communist victory in the Italian general election that year, Pope Pius warned of the perceived stark choice between Christianity and "Atheistic Communism." In an unprecedented move, McQuaid assisted in an intervention in Italian politics, and took part in an anti-communist fundraising drive. He received a cheque for IR£5,000 from the Knights of St. Columbanus, within 24 hours of requesting support. The Knights would later aid McQuaid in seeking to purge groups with Communist links, particularly the Socialist Youth Movement, as well as students' organisations. McQuaid tasked the Knights with weakening such groups, whose aims, they claimed, were "to destroy the Christian faith."
John Hume, former SDLP and credit union movement leader, suggested the idea of founding Derry Credit Union at a Knights of St. Columbanus branch meeting in May 1960. He was subsequently supported by the society in this initiative.
In the late 1960s, when Taoiseach Jack Lynch TD flouted the concept of developing a pluralistic Ireland, he ducked from lifting a ban on contraception when McQuaid confronted him. The professional middle-classes who comprised part of the Knights' membership were especially dedicated on the behalf of McQuaid's "highly effective homespun intelligence system" to protecting a Catholic outlook within government and politics.
Members also held some key positions on hospital boards in the country in the mid-20th century, alongside the mostly Protestant Freemasons. By the 1970s, the Knights had become involved in the politics of tertiary level education, associated with University College Dublin, while the Freemasons were affiliated with Trinity College Dublin. The Knights had also been critical of the Dalkey School Project when it was first set up in 1979 as a multi-denominational school.
The former government minister, Fine Gael's Oliver J. Flanagan TD, who, by the mid-1980s, was one of the longest serving parliamentarians in the Western world, was a staunch member of the organisation, and regarded as a "thorn in the side of the more liberal elements within the Church and his own party."
The Knights' involvement in these sectors has drawn criticism since the 1950s, mostly in the Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann. As a result, the number of individual members of the Knights who sit on hospital, education and government boards has been far less significant since the 1990s. The Order as a whole, however, maintains public stances on matters of politics and education. One recent example of this was the Order's opposition to the repeal of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which legally permits abortions in the country under a broader range of circumstances. The Order also maintains support for Catholic education in Ireland.