Denis Fahey - Maria Duce

Maria Duce

Fahey had been closely involved with Edward Cahill's An Ríoghacht study group, although following Cahill's death in 1941 this organisation became more mainstream and less concerned with conspiracy theories. As a result, Fahey began to organise his own group, Maria Duce, the following year to continue this work. With a membership drawn from various facets of society and with a programme largely the same as Fahey's, Maria Duce came to prominence in 1949 by launching a campaign to amend Article 44 of the Constitution of Ireland. This article had recognised the "special position" of the Catholic Church in Ireland although it also recognized various Protestant creeds, as well as Judaism. Ireland became the first country to recognise the rights of minority faiths such as Judaism as equal with the majority faith in its constitution. Fahey argued that this was insufficient and that the Constitution should recognize the Catholic Church as being divinely ordained and separate from 'man-made' religions. Fahey called into question the loyalty of Irish Jews to the Irish State. The campaign succeeded in securing a resolution of support from Westmeath county council in 1950, but no further progress towards the goal of a constitutional amendment was made.