February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Fr. Mc Manus has stated: “England not only divided my country, but my parish as well, for Heaven’s sake, you don’t have to be a political genius to figure out why I have such an abhorrence for the injustice and absurdity of partition”.
Fr. McManus joined the London Province of the Redemptorist Order and was ordained in 1968. When the Troubles erupted, McManus, in his own words, felt he could not be silent lest he be complicit with British government injustices.
He began to publicly speak out. The British government put pressure on the English Hierarchy and The Redemptorists to silence him. When he refused to be silent, he was shipped off to America on October 2, 1972.
From 1972 to 1978 he carried out parish work in Baltimore and Boston.
On February 6, 1974, Fr. McManus founded the Irish National Caucus. In 1977 he played a key role in the formation of the Ad Hoc Congressional Committee for Irish Affairs, chaired the press conference on Capitol Hill that launched the committee, and outlined the reasons why Congressman Mario Biaggi was selected the chairman. Biaggi and other representatives participated in that ground breaking press conference.
In 1978, Fr. McManus was given church permission to enter a “Special Ministry of Justice and Peace.” On December 10, 1978, he opened the office of the Irish National Caucus, the first ever on Capitol Hill to lobby for justice in Ireland.
In November, 1984, Fr. McManus announced the launching of the MacBride Principles, named after his good friend, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Sean MacBride.