“I am denounced by Father Russell in the church as a deformed little rascal from the North of Ireland” proclaimed Owen Kiernan, Leeds-based principal organiser of the United Irish League, in a passionate speech to a packed meeting held at the Batley Branch of the Irish National League (better know today as Batley Nash).1 In that Sunday 12 July 1903 afternoon meeting, chaired by the Batley club’s president Michael Rowan, and attended by officials and members from across the Batley, Birstall, Heckmondwike, Morley and Batley Carr branches, cries of “Shame” rang out.
Mr Kiernan asserted Fr. Russell had denounced the Dan O’Connell Birstall branch as a sort of hell-house, claiming those who came within its walls breathed in an atmosphere amounting to de-Christianisation and de-Catholicisation. He said Fr. Russell had accused the Batley’s John Dillon Branch of bringing the devil to the town.
The Irish-born priest was also condemned as being anti-Irish, and against the Home Rule nationalist political aims of the Irish League Clubs. This was a big deal to them, rooted as their origins were with the issue of Irish land ownership which had driven their families from Ireland, combined with the current political struggle for Irish self-government and national autonomy
Fr. Russell was even accused of being anti-Protestant. An incident at the Whit Monday Birstall Gala was cited where it was said the priest had prohibited Protestants from going on to the field to mix with Catholics. Mr Kiernan further accused Fr. Russell of stating the Clubs should not allow Protestant members. The Club believed this to be repugnant “For where would Catholics be if it were not for their Protestant townsmen?”, with many having employers, best friends or good neighbours of that faith.2
Another incident from May 1903 was dredged up. When returning from a Saturday night sick-call, Fr. Russell had entered the Batley Irish National League Club. This had recently relocated to a warehouse/clubhouse on Churchfield Street (a street also known locally as Calico Lane), a building it was to use for the next 27 years. It was 11pm, and Fr. Russell turned out around nine young women he found there, holding what he called a drinking competition. He claimed not only members were present, but others from neighbouring parishes, and these so-called socials were a frequent occurrence. In the following days the incident was exaggerated wildly by gossips, with the priest – famed for his height and big-knobbed umbrella – even supposedly giving an exhibition of pugilism to forcibly turn out others too. This incident was still fresh in minds, and alluded to in the July meeting, with the speaker stating it was better for women to be in the Club than frequenting the local public houses.
Veiled threats were made that whilst the altar was being used for slander and misrepresentation, club members should stop any financial support of the church, including paying the St Mary’s collectors who called round. The implication being withholding money was one way to get rid of the troublesome curate. This approach did cause some disquiet amongst a few members, resulting in some pull-back, with the tune changed to it being the church itself which had decided not to call for any future subscriptions from club members.
The meeting concluded with a motion – proposed and seconded by Batley members James Brannan, and J. T. (Paudy) Munns – being passed. It had only two dissenters, one of whom (somewhat ironically under the circumstances) was said to be the worse for drink.
In summary the motion stated that the Batley and Birstall Irishmen would no longer remain silent about the slanderous attacks they had been subjected to from the altar at St Mary’s; that they would “repudiate with contempt and scorn the insults to our religious loyalty and devotion so repeatedly hurled at them by Father Peter Russell”;3 and his threats and slanders would not cause them to deviate from their sacred duty of faith and fatherland.
So what exactly had Fr. Russell done to incur the wrath of the Batley and Birstall Clubs in the few months since his October 1902 arrival in Batley? A native of County Tyrone, he came to Batley as a relatively newly ordained priest to serve as curate to Father John Joseph Lea. A staunch teetotaller, once at his new parish he began a crusade against the demon drink, preaching from the pulpit time and time again about the curse. He invested time in personally visiting parishioners in pubs and their homes, securing promises from them to lay off drink for short periods, until they eventually signed a pledge to abstain for good.
Within six months of his arrival at St Mary’s, he had obtained an astonishing one thousand temperance pledges. Fewer and fewer cases of drunkenness came before the local magistrates, with some magistrates’ sittings having no cases whatsoever before them.
But Fr. Russell wanted to go even further. He believed the judicial system, fining a man for being drunk and disorderly, was fundamentally flawed. It was the convicted man’s mother, or wife, and family, who suffered in scraping the money together to pay it off. Plus, he maintained, the true drunkard would carry on whatever. Which is why his temperance campaign’s next steps were directed towards a perceived source of the problem – the Batley and Birstall Irish Clubs.
Patrick Freeman, Birstall Irish National League Club secretary, made public a 20 May 1903 communication from both St Mary’s priests, which read:
To the members of the United Irish League, Birstall. —We, the guardians of faith and morals in this parish of St. Mary’s, Batley, deem it necessary that all Catholic Clubs, whether political or non-political, to which the Catholics of this parish may resort, shall conform to the following rules: —(1) That no intoxicating drink shall be sold later than 9 p.m. on week-days, nor shall be kept open after reasonable hours. (2) That no intoxicating drink shall be sold on Sundays; and that the said clubs shall not be opened before 1pm., and shall be closed from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sundays. [These were mass times]. —Hoping your committee will be good enough to affix their signatures, and that you will return the same to us before May 31st instant.
JOHN J. LEA, Rector.
P. RUSSELL, Assistant Priest.4
The Clubs claimed the results of restricted hours would be financially crippling for them. Alongside this, the Birstall Club claimed the average sale of drink per day per member for the past year had only been 2d., and at Batley 2½d. They said this disproved any argument of excessive drinking. The Birstall Club also said they currently opened for 36½ hours a week, whereas a public house was 108 hours.
For his part, Fr. Russell said the Whit-Sunday incident had been misconstrued. He was not anti-Protestant. The dispute arose following the consequences of drink being sold at the event against his wishes. By evening, mixed dancing under the influence of alcohol had broken out. He believed the best way to prevent a scandal was to call a halt to it. The Catholics did stop at his request, but one couple resumed again as soon as his back was turned. He remonstrated with the man, who said as he was not a Catholic he would do as he pleased, even when Fr. Russell pointed out it was a Catholic gala so he should bow to the organiser’s rules. In the end Fr. Russell reluctantly decided to stop the band an hour early, to put an end to the unsuitable dancing.
He asserted he fully supported the political and social aims of the Clubs. His objection was Sunday drinking. He had received complaint after complaint from wives and mothers in the parish about their husbands and sons spending the whole of their Sundays in the Clubs. He also pointed out that the Batley Club had a membership of about 120 and could therefore not claim to represent Catholicism, when there were around 2,200 Catholics in the district.
The internecine strife between St Mary’s Catholic Church and the Batley and Birstall Irish Clubs rumbled on all summer, sniping often conducted publicly in the newspapers. Non-Catholic temperance supporters from the across the area weighed in too, supporting the stance of Fr. Russell.
The breadth of accusations increased. It now included gaming in the Clubs, their moral tone, the class of those frequenting them, the fact that women as well as men were getting drunk in the “shebeen” [illicit drinking club] seven days a week, and the damage they were doing to the reputation of Irishmen by reinforcing the drunken stereotype.
Members were accused of failing to go home for their Sunday dinners, with the club taking precedence over families, leaving wives and mothers inconvenienced in trying to have a good meal ready for the menfolk. It was said the drinking caused endless quarrels between husband and wife, mother and son.
Others, supporting the clubs, claimed there was a class in Ireland known as voteens and shoneens who thought it impossible for a priest to do any wrong, and this class was clearly alive and well in Batley. One wit falsely alleged the Batley priests were themselves so soddened with drink that they could not start a League of the Cross – quite clearly a fabrication given Fr. Russell’s teetotalism.
And it was not only local press who carried the story of the dispute. On 20 July Fr. Russell wrote to the Dublin Leader castigating the Batley and Birstall Clubs for their drinking culture. He said some members of the Clubs had never darkened the church doors since his arrival in the parish, and had failed to do their Easter Duties for years. He also claimed that instead of going to mass on Sunday morning, they went to these Clubs, coming home drunk at about one o’clock at night and, if reproached, they abused, beat and turned out the unfortunate relatives. There were claims that Sunday clothes were taken to the pawn shops on Monday morning to secure food for the week, after money had been spent on Sunday drinking in the Clubs.
Fr. Russell continued to condemn from the pulpit too, often to a packed St Mary’s church, whose numbers swelled because of the popularity of his crusade. And in an even clearer signal of this solidarity, on 26 July 1903 a packed Sunday evening meeting of Batley and Birstall Catholics decided to organise a presentation for their beleaguered priest, to show the local Irish National Clubs exactly where their sympathies lay in their priest’s stance against excessive drinking.
At that meeting James Blanchfield of Birstall, who had been accused of reporting the goings on at Birstall Nash to the parish priests – something he forcefully denied – proposed a resolution that:
We, the faithful Catholics of both Batley and Birstall, do take it upon ourselves to present to Father Russell a testimonial as a token of our respect and admiration for the fearless manner in which he has stood, and is still standing, up to perform the sacred duties of his office.5
To cheers, he also professed admiration for the manner in which Fr. Russell “had given back the lie to the gross slanders which had been thrown at him, both as a priest and an Irishman.”6
The motion was passed and the Testimonial Committee established, with parish priest Fr. Lea elected president. James Blanchfield was appointed Treasurer. Joint secretaries were Thomas Cox (Batley) and Patrick Frain (Birstall). Collectors, who also formed part of the committee, were: James Linsky and James Murphy (Lower Birstall); T. McGuire and Patrick Murtagh (Brownhill); Charles McCarthy and John McGuire (Upper Birstall); Berry and Hunt (Carlinghow); Lynch and Munns (Skelsey Row); Manning and Joe Higgins (Hume Street); Luke Conner and Thomas Horkin (Ward’s Hill and Lower Batley); Miss Brook and Mrs. Donnelley (Cross Bank); Misses Brett and McDonagh (Wood Well); Misses Ellen Munns and Kate Munns (Mount Pleasant); Misses Ann Conner and Ellen Conner (Spring Gardens and New Street); Misses Katie Cairns and Ellen Lynch (Flemings Buildings); and Misses Sarah Wilson and Jennie Barber (Taylor Street). Also on the committee were Mrs Berry, Mrs Lynch, Mrs Horkin, Misses Kate Brady, Mary Ann Dolan, Maria Mulevan, Katie Hunt, Rosie Vogel, and Gertie Vogel, and Messrs. William Guider, Thomas Hunter, John Power, William Hunt, John Smith and George Kelley.
Despite this show of support from parishioners, the row between Church and the Batley and Birstall National Clubs continued unabated. In a sermon at the end of July, Fr. Russell offered to take over one of the Clubs (the choice of which was to be made by the members), with the intention of forming a Young Men’s Club. By paying the rent and rates he would relieve the nominated club of their financial burden. In return he offered members of the League the use of rooms free of charge, for as many political meetings as they wanted…providing the sale of intoxicating drink was discontinued.
Though hailed by some as a good compromise, on 9 August at a meeting at the Birstall Club, the offer was resoundingly rejected. At that meeting Fr. Russell’s Dublin Leader piece published the previous day, with its accusation that members had to resort to the ‘pop shop’ (pawn shop), and beat their wives and children, was akin to pouring petrol to the flames. In turn more accusations were levelled at Fr. Russell, including that he refused to visit a woman on her sickbed because she happened to be the wife of a Club member.
Following this meeting, the Dewsbury Irish National Club weighed in strongly, deploring the controversy between Fr. Russell and the Nationalists of Batley and Birstall, urging wiser councils to prevail and bring the unfortunate affair speedily to an end.
For his part, Fr. Russell, in a piece which appeared in the 21 August 1903 edition of the Batley Reporter, strenuously denied the accusations of failing to visit a sick woman. He said that was an untruth from beginning to end, and that he visited her almost immediately he was told of her illness. He also said the Birstall meeting was full of other inaccuracies and exaggerations, but did not feel inclined to pursue the matter any further. He felt he had done his best to bring about a diminution in the drinking habits of certain members of the Club.
It seemed things were finally calming down, with a recognition across the board that the hatchet should be buried. In fact, at a meeting at the Batley Irish Club at the end of the month when Birstall club member and a particularly vocal critic of Fr. Russell, Mr Alfred James Flynn, once more raised the topic in apparent contravention of an agreement not to, James Harkin intervened saying “I thought you would let that alone today.”7 Along the same lines, Thomas Harkin told him to “give up talking about the priest”.8 Rowdy interjections on both sides ensued, someone protested at A. J. Flynn’s language and manner of speech, and pandemonium broke out until A. J. Flynn agreed to draw his speech to a close. It appeared even the Club members were now growing tired of the saga.
Towards the end of September, at a meeting at the Dan O’Connell (Birstall Branch), in a conciliatory atmosphere, it was declared the controversy was over.
In early September Fr. Russell’s testimonial collection concluded, with £20 raised from Birstall and £30 from Batley. A motor cycle was one seemingly unusual suggestion for his presentation gift.
On the evening of Wednesday 30 September, up to 700 parishioners gathered in St Mary’s school for a concert and the presentation – even though there was an admission charge. In the end the gifts were far less exotic than a motor cycle, consisting of a purse of gold and an illuminated address in praise of his efforts in the cause of temperance.
The jubilant speech by Birstall-man James Blanchfield, in which he asserted the things said about Fr. Russell had come from men besotted by drink, did temporarily re-open the wounds. But it was a brief flare-up, thankfully well short of the major drama of summer.
Fr. Russell continued as curate at St Mary’s for the next couple of years. Then, at the end of August 1905, in a move which was to make him the youngest parish priest in England, he was appointed as the first parish priest at the newly established parish of Birstall St Patrick’s. It meant A. J. Flynn, one of Fr. Russell’s most public critics during the events of 1903, remained his parishioner. Now a high-profile local public political figure, when in August 1907 a presentation was made to him for his efforts to maintain an under-threat St Patrick’s RC School in Birstall, it was parish priest Fr. Russell who presided over the event.
Fr. Russell remained parish priest at St Patrick’s until 1931. And, although in 1903 he did not get a motor cycle, to mark the occasion of his silver jubilee as a priest in 1926, his parishioners presented him with a £295 Morris-Oxford three-quarter coupe motor car.
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Footnotes:
1. Batley Reporter and Guardian – 17 July 1903.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 21 August 1903.
5. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 31 July 1903.
6. Ibid.
7. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 4 September 1903.
8. Ibid.
Other Sources:
• Batley Irish Democratic League Club Website, https://www.thenash.co.uk/
• Batley News: 29 May 1903; 17, 24 and 31 July 1903; 21 and 28 August 1903; 25 September 1903; 2 October 1903; 16 August 1907; 3 July 1926; and 18 April 1931,
• Batley Reporter and Guardian: 24 October 1902; 1 and 8 May 1903; 10 and 24 July 1903; 7,14 and 28 August 1903; 11 and 25 September 1903; 2 and 9 October 1903; 18 August 1905; and 8 September 1905,
• Derry Journal, 25 August 1905.
• St Mary of the Angels 1853 – 2003, 2003.
• WALSH, Denis. A Hundred Years 1870 – 1970: St Mary of the Angels, Batley, 1970.
Past To Present Genealogy 