Farewell the Hibernian. We shall not see its like again. Actually we probably will.

In a way this comes a month too late, but it is only right that the CLR salutes the Hibernian as it vanishes from our shelves. The final issue, with a compellingly stark front page message of
“British Crush the Hibernian” provided the end point of a remarkable journey. How remarkable? Well, for an insight consider this – taken from the back cover – which charted the peculiar obsessions of that magazine over the past 29 issues.

Provocative? Why surely. Inside the final editorial gave as good a summation of its guiding principles as those covers. Perhaps better since a couple of hundred words allowed it to expand upon its concerns.

In it we are told that:

Since the outset the Hibernian has sought to instil [oddly enough the British spelling] a deep sense of Patriotism in the Irish people, both at home and abroad.

We make no apologies for this. It is our belief that when a people know who theya re and where they have come from then tehy will build a society that is confident in itself and a Nation that will be truly independent in outlook and utterly unwilling to be bullied by anyone.

To this end our message has been of the red meat variety and no-one can accuse us of being anything other than clear an unambiguous.

Indeed. Red meat. But how bloody, so to speak?

We have revelled in the Biblical exhortation to be ‘determined and confident’ and have totally rejected the mealy-mouthed, lukewarm approach to important issues so beloved by many in the political and media establishment in today’s Ireland.

Red. Very.

For more than two years we have high-lighted the history of the Irish Nation, recognising its importance for this generation and secure in the knowledge that no Irishman or woman who is aware of our history could be anything other than Patriotic.

An interesting idea. History tells us – that for some at least – this isn’t entirely infallible.

That we have been counter-cultural goes without saying. Modern popular culture saps and enervates the human spirit, which is alredy swamped by a tsunami of materialistic hedonism resulting in broken communities, families and individuals.

An interesting and not inappropriate use of the term counter-cultural (although what would Abbie Hoffman have made of it all?). But, to some degree when we read a list of their concerns we see it’s more accurate than might initially be thought.

The tyranny of Political Correctness prevents people from speaking out against the evils of feminism, the promotion of homosexuality, abortion, contraception and divorce lest they be attacked by the liberal/masonic media, et al.

And while you’re thinking about that, think about this…

At The Hibernian we have shown only contempt for political correctness and have never shied away from the promotion of Catholic Order in society. Time and again we have slammed the modern culture which demands that men should behave like sissies while women strive to act like men. If there is to be stability in society then fathers must return to their proper role as head of the family; leaders, providers and protectors of the women and children. Likewise, married women need to be in the home bearing and rearing children and not wasting their lives in the corporate work place.

Sissies – eh? “Women striving to be men”… “heads of the family”… “married women need to be in the home bearing and rearing children…”. Here’s the thing. How many broadly speaking conservative Catholics, let alone Catholics in general ascribe to these views? Sure, you’d probably have little enough dispute about abortion, and there would be a general lamenting of social changes, but how many would believe it possible to roll it back, or when push came to shove actually want to? This Kinder, Küche, Kirche approach would seem to me (and I know some pretty religious people as it happens) to be of very limited appeal. Which might explain, as much as Gerry McGeough’s continuing woes with the British, why the magazine has ceased publishing.

Such a return to Catholic Order would have an immediate effect in both the spiritual and temporal realms and a drastic decrease in the likes of teenage drug abuse and suicide levels would soon become evident.

Hmmm… Perhaps. The Hibernian was always a little coy about which social models actually put into practice it sought to emulate, but a couple of names spring too mind. That they weren’t universally popular with their own peoples is probably neither here nor there… at least not to the Hibernian.

Bearing all this in mind we have consistently and ardently advocated a return to traditional Catholicism in society, with the Latin Mass and Family Rosary at the centre of any revival. In addition we have highlighted the roles our great national heroes of the past have played in defending the right of an independent irish Catholic Nation to exist and thrive. We pay tribute to such men as General Eoghan Rua Ó Neill and the Confederates who founded the first Irish Catholic State at Kilkenny in 1642. Dedicated to the Holy Trinity it remains the first and only allegiance of all true Irishmen and women.

I find this historical linkage fascinating. There is accompanying the article a photograph of Padraig Pearse, and yet no mention of him in the text. Instead the continuity is with the generally little known Confederation. Now, we can argue the toss about the Confederation but it was a little bit more complex than a simple ‘first Irish Catholic state’, not least because it still looked to the English monarch to underpin it, and within months went into alliance with royalist forces in Ireland. Nor were they an unvariegated group in themselves with more and less radical fractures between competing groups. In fact as time went on it became a bit of a mess swinging between support and antagonism to the royalists while all the while the parliamentarians gained strength. So intriguingly the usual linkages to 1916, or indeed 1798, which would broadly underpin Republicanism – even of the more obviously Catholic variety – are ignored. And of course one might also argue that that very conflict with the nascent and distorted Republicanism of the parliamentarians is also of some significance in terms of the Hibernians world view.

Anyhow, it concludes with the following.

For now the Hibernian must fade into the background, but it is our fervent hope that we have kindled a spark of Catholic Nationalism and sense of Irish pride among all true Gaels. Éirinn go Brách agus Beannacht Dé libh.

To me this seems a uniquely 1950s viewpoint, but one which diverges from many of the ‘myths’ of that period found in the general nationalist discourse on the island. 1916 had a centrality then, and after. Republicanism, however broadly defined underpinned the political structures and was defined as the end goal of independence. And however feebly this was applied in practice that Republic was not just synonymous with an Irish Catholic Nationalism. And the viewpoint we read here, I suspect, is due to the profoundly ultra-orthodox Catholicism underlying it. In effect many of the usual touchstones are simply unusable by The Hibernian since they have already been appropriated by other political forces, some similar, some not. And as importantly have been perceived to be failures.

And worth considering another piece which latches straight into an eschatological view entitled “The Last Pope” which beside a photograph of the current Pontiff ponders the prophecies of Saint Malachy and whether the idea that ‘so far 109 out of 112 Popes prophesied by St. Malachy are now more or less known to us” might lead us to the conclusion that Benedict might be the 112th, or 111th, or indeed 110th – more or less. You will all – no doubt – be heartened to hear that…“to all true Catholics… don’t worry about the last Pope predicted by Saint Malachy but as the times that are now in it, it is more important to remain true to the faith and make good use of the one weapon available to us all, the Rosary. For in the end, after all the struggles, trials and tribulations are done, all will be well”. Which sort of begs the question why we are treated to two pages of this? The reason is the crucial distinction between being eclectic and undiscriminating – oh, and of course a small pinch of sensationalism while we’re at it.

Beyond that the sheer oddity of the enterprise is underlined by some other pieces. Take the articles such as “Economics and Salvation” or “Evolution: Fact or Belief?” by Tommy Price.

We’re told by the latter that ‘the reason for the whole space program in the U.S.A. is to seek life in outer space’. Really?

And then that… ‘the scientific establishment backed by tax payers money cannot produce any scientific evidence, not one scientific fact, for life in outer space.All their other theories from The Big Bang Theory to Darwinism to punctuated equilibria under the umbrella of Evolution are devoid of scientific back up. All of the planets that we have knowledge of, cannot support life’.

Well okay. Or actually, no, not okay. I’m not as certain as he that the Big Bang ‘Theory’ necessarily is essential to Evolution, or that the latter is without scientific foundation. But he continues in a way which does not inspire confidence… ‘In Cheshire England, we have Todrell Bank Observatory trying to pick up radio signals from the outer limits of space. They have never picked any signals up to date. So the position is that there is no scientific evidence to support their imaginings.’ Todrell Bank… I…see.

Anyhow, he goes on to lash at Teilhard de Chardin ‘author of this great erroneous folly [attempting to place Evolution within Catholic Theology – side note, I’m rather fond of de Chardin, or at least used to be many years ago]’, argues that Piltdown Man invalidates evolution (it was a hoax you see, so therefore evolution must be a hoax – natch). Marx is lashed because he ‘dedicated his book ‘Das Kapital’ to Charles Darwin. He was able to draw on Darwinism to incorporate these ideas into communist ideology’. We get treated to Soviet Russia’s ‘errors’. There are, should you be curious, and I’ll bet you are: 1. Atheistic Materialism. 2. The compulsory teaching of evolution in her schools. 3. Legalised abortion and industrialised farming, etc… er industrialised farming? Oh yeah. Apparently ‘all these errors are being pushed throughout the west today in spite of the fall of the Iron Curtain and so-called collapse of Communism’. So-called? Sure, ‘when you see evolution being taught in Catholic schools it is preparing the children to be part of a One World Communist Dictatorship’.

And the we are treated to a remarkably shallow run through of some of the usual concerns of those antagonistic to evolution, not least some hoary old musing on the Laws of Thermodynamics, although to be fair Price gives his own unique spin – or perhaps more accurately, idiosyncratic use of language – on them… ‘the Theory of Evolution. The Big Bang Theory, etc. No scientist has ever proved using the scientific method, either by experiment or observation any scientific facts of natural generation. This theory contradicts both the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics’.

The obvious question, who is Tommy Price and why does he feel qualified to give anything other than a superficial opinion on this area is not answered – although some of the eclecticism of the piece is evident when we read that this was compiled from Prof. Granes tape ‘The Myth of Evolution Exploded’. Now that’s scientific method you can trust!

It’s this dancing around with the most reactionary or benighted viewpoint that truly sums up the Hibernian’s worldview. The Catholic church might well have come to terms with evolutionary science many many decades ago, but the Hibernian saw it as its role to critique this from a further right position, one ironically that would put it shoulder to shoulder with the more illiberal forms of Protestantism that were another of its bugbears. And to me, having some exposure to the latter, this is in its own way a strangely familiar piece of work. I had a relative, thankfully based in the UK, who used to regularly hand write long and involved tracts to my grandmother (herself a Protestant) which quoted with undue generosity of verbiage long tracts from the Bible carefully underlined in biro. I suggested responding with quotations from Marx, just for the craic as it were, but my Gran being a kind and gentle soul declined.

It’s easy to be critical – very, very easy – and I’m never entirely cheered to see a publication of whatever stripe fail. The last month or so has seen Village – an entirely different sort of periodical go too. As a platform for a uniquely right wing Catholic nationalist viewpoint the Hibernian has certainly been an education. And oddly enough I like to have my Catholic Nationalists where I can see them – and while they’re busy producing it, well – ‘idle hands…etc’. Anyway, having had this example of Gerry McGeough’s tenacity I would be far from surprised to seeing it reappear in some form or fashion in the future.