Ireland has a
unique place in Rotary Global History for it was Dublin that has
the honor of being the first Rotary Club outside of North
America. The Rotary Club of Dublin (RIBI Club #1) was, of
course, founded by one of their sons – William Stuart
Morrow.
Ireland also
is unique in that there still remains as a single district.
District 1160 exists despite the break-up and split from
Britain which saw most of the Emerald Isle gain independence
with the six counties of Ulster (and their Protestant
majority) in the North remaining as part of the United
Kingdom.
Perhaps
remarkably, Rotary in Ireland flourished despite the sparse
distribution of clubs in the early years and despite all the
events that occurred such as partition and the Irish Civil
War.
At the same
time as the partition of Ireland (in 1922), there was a
similar Association plan to split Ireland into two districts
(#15 and #16) of Ireland North and South. As most of Ireland
was now known as the Irish Free State, the Dublin Club were
unhappy with the new title of British Association of Rotary
Clubs (BARC) – “Where was the mention of ‘Ireland’?”, they
asked. The Dublin Club were outvoted 17 –2 but would
eventually succeed with the new nomenclature of Rotary in
Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI). inevitable tensions
between British and Irish Rotary would continue for some
time.
Bill
McConnell, the first Rotarian of Europe and Morrow’s
brother-in-law would be an early leader of British Rotary
(before ever becoming Dublin President). It has been said
that McConnell’s relations with the Belfast Rotary Club in
the north helped in securing that the Treaty for the Irish
Free State passed by relatively peacefully. McConnell made
it clear that he was “International first and British
second”.
Ireland was
slow in extending Rotary with the formation of new clubs. By
1923, only 2 other Rotary Clubs had been formed in Ireland
since the beginnings of Dublin and Belfast 12 years
previous. Southern
Ireland, being a very Catholic country developed at a lesser
rate due to the attitude of
the
Church (The Roman Catholic Church’s attitude to Rotary and
some perceptions are discussed elsewhere).
Indeed,
by 1948 there were only 12 clubs in the district compared to
32 in the Greater London area. If we compare both Ireland
with their Celtic cousin, Scotland we find that though both
countries had a similar population at the time - Scotland
with 5 million inhabitants compared to Ireland with 4.5
million, the Scots had 43 clubs (31 more than the Irish).
The reason for this apparent anomaly seems to be that
Ireland was very much a rural country with less
industrialisation having only 38 towns with populations
exceeding 50,000 inhabitants compared to 69 Scottish towns.
In World War
2, the Rotary Wheel magazine had to specifically make
clear in the publication that references to war service
applied to Rotary in Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Rotary Club of Bangor in Northern Ireland, even at this
sensitive time, still urged that Ireland be left as one
District. Bangor’s Fredrick Price would serve as Chairman of
the District (now known more conventionally as District
Governor) till 1942 and Price’s ‘reward’ was that his house
was totally destroyed by the Luftwaffe!
Paul
Harris would visit the Dublin Club on his first tour of
Britain and Ireland where he would be introduced to the
Irish President William Cosgrove. Cosgrove had been involved
in the 1916 Easter Rising that had seen the Rotary Club’s
headquarters destroyed! Cosgrove had been a wanted man and
it was a typical Rotary irony that the person who introduced
him to the founder was a former officer of the British Army
who had once hunted his President!
After the
outbreak of the troubles in 1969, Rotarians from all over
Ireland and Britain donated funds to worthy causes within
Northern Ireland. For example, holiday trips to Britain were
arranged for children of Northern Ireland from both
religious backgrounds. In 1981, RI President Dr Stan
McCaffrey, a Californian of obvious Irish descent, held a
goodwill meeting with the Presidents of the Irish Clubs.
British and Irish Rotarians would continue to work together
to promote our 4th object of World Peace and
Understanding.
Sources
C R Hewitt,
Towards My Neighbour
Roger Levy, Rotary in Great
Britain and Ireland
David Shelley Nicholl, The
Golden Wheel
And Basil Lewis’s work regarding Freemasonry in Rotary
