ABSTRACT
The debate between John Wheatley and Father Puissant contributed to a heightened consciousness and discussion of Socialism in the West of Scotland and increased the visibility of the Catholic Socialist Society in the Clyde Valley. Condemning the Observer’s position, the Forward accused the Catholic newspaper editor of “a capitalist trick”—dividing the workers by trying “to drive Catholics out” of the Unions. A Catholic Socialist from nearby Wishaw, James Harkin, who had been among the most frequent and articulate contributors to the debate in the Observer, presided at the first propaganda meeting at Motherwell. The local Catholic Socialist, James Harkin, again convened the meeting, and Wheatley and Regan spoke. The publication and sale of Socialist literature was another means by which the Catholic Socialist Society undertook to “diffuse a knowledge of Socialism.” The relevance of the topics discussed by Catholic Socialist speakers indicates that Wheatley and the Society addressed their attention to issues troubling their Catholic and Irish audiences.
