Journalism, Catholicism and Anti-Communism in an era of revolution - Francis McCullagh War Correspondent, 1874-1956

John Horgan

Issue 390, vol.98, Summer 2009

After a period in seminary, the call of journalism took him in turn to Bradford, Scotland, Ceylon, Siam – and Japan. His next move was to Port Arthur where he joined a Russian general’s entourage on the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war. (His capacity for languages stood to him in his postings). He filed reports for the New York Herald on the conflict, and these became the cornerstone of his reputation – with appearances to follow in newspapers such as The Wall St. Journal , and a stint as London correspondent of The New York Evening Post. The next arenas covered were the 1909 Turkish civil war, the 1910 Portuguese revolution, wars in the Balkans and in Morocco, the Italian invasion of Tripoli. In 1911 the World Peace Foundation published a pamphlet of his detailing the role played by the armaments industry in the fomenting of war.

On the outbreak of World War I he was despatched to the Eastern Front, to report from the Russian side. And in 1918 he became propaganda officer with the British Military Mission to Siberia (sent to assist White Russia against the Bolsheviks). Articles continued to appear in American and British newspapers recounting his experiences in Bolshevik Russia. McCullagh’s strong anti-Communist ideology dates from his time in Moscow where he witnessed show-trials of Catholic prelates. Aside from The Irish Independent, the only home publication to which he contributed was Studies – with articles appearing in 1930 on Trotsky (whom he interviewed), and on the contrast between Lenin and Peter the Great.

In the mid 1920s, the American priest-editor of Commonweal sent him to cover the Civil War in Mexico between the left-wing Government and the Catholic insurrectionists. But McCullagh discovered that there was little appetite for a struggle against the Left, if the brand of Communism in question was to be encountered in the Western Hemisphere. His disenchantment led him to author a book castigating U.S. foreign policy. Hostile reviews next spurred articles excoriating the power of the press barons – as being always ready to disavow the exposure of some abuse if the newspaper-owner was colluding with or in favour of it (or the advertisers, or the paper’s political party, or the State Department).

McCullagh’s last assignment was the Spanish Civil War, where his sympathies lay with Franco.

John Horgan is Ireland’s Press Ombudsman