My Limerick born and raised Irish husband, and his older brother who has lived there all his life, say they never heard of any ex-communication for all the IRA Catholics in their areas through the years, so obviously it was just all talk Is Mise.

My husband says of course the Archbishops had to be seen to condemn the IRA, but many of the clergy were in it all up to their necks too, including several in their own parish!
So maybe you need to revisit your Irish history lessons?

I meant to add Is Mise, that the first time I went to Ireland, in the late '80's, I was dragged along to church every Sunday, and was shocked to see some young guys collecting money 'for the cause' at the church gates.

Apparently it happened regularly, with the full knowledge of the priests.
Hypocrites as always...

Suse,

I see that you missed my "....Individual churchmen have supported the 'Movement' and I've met a few priests who were active Volunteers but they were going against the orders of their Bishops."

These were priests who were 'on active service' against the British forces.
I was living in Ireland in the 1970s and never saw any overt collecting for the IRA outside of Connemarra, the only collection that I did hear of east of the Corrib occurred in Ath Cinn in '79 when the local bank was robbed.
A friend of the family was the bank messenger's wife and used to take him a hot lunch every working day.
The Bank closed for lunch and she would go in through the back door.
On this particular day a young man was lounging in the doorway.
" Ye can't go in, missus." he says, so she told him who she was and her errand.
"Sorry" he says "yer still can't go in"
She insisted.
"Will ye piss off" he says, letting her see his pistol,"we're robbin' the bank".

Ah well Is Mise, there are obviously many, many churches in Ireland, and I was told that people collected money for the IRA outside churches and other public gatherings in 1987 on a regular basis.
I remember being horrified, and glaring at the collector guys as I walked past.
My brother-in-law was annoyed at me for doing that!

In any case, that country has come a long way since then and I am glad the 'troubles' are pretty much over at present. All the same, I still don't want to visit Northern Ireland any time soon.