The illusion of power

IT WAS after 10pm on April 11, 1951 when Taoiseach John A Costello made the shock announcement that Health Minister Noel Browne had resigned and President Seán T O’Kelly had accepted the resignation on the recommendation of the Taoiseach.

It was a terse statement, but the country woke next day to what would be the biggest Church-state crisis of the century.

Browne had leaked the correspondence between the inter-party government and the Catholic hierarchy to the Irish Times. Its editor, Bertie Smyllie, had given an assurance that he would defy any effort by the Government to suppress publication of the material.