Talk:Miguel Irigaray Gorría

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Miguel Irigaray Gorria (1850-1903) was a Spanish Carlist politician from Navarre. His career climaxed during 3 terms in Congreso de los Diputados, the lower chamber of the Cortes; in 1896-1898 (from Tudela), 1901-1903 (from Aoiz) and 1903 (again from Aoiz); his bids of 1886, 1891, 1893 and 1898 were unsuccessful. During his service he was recognized principally as an ardent opponent of governmental secularization policy, who in numerous parliamentarian addresses spoke in favor of the Church - especially religious orders – and who demanded that the constitutionally guaranteed religious liberty be abolished.

Family and youth
The family of Irigaray is of Basque origin; in the early modern era one branch settled in southern Navarre, in the area along the Ebro known as Ribera Alta. The first Irigaray was baptized in the town of Peralta in 1620; six generations followed until the great-grandfather of Miguel, Juan Irigaray Cerdán (born 1740) and then his grandfather Sebastián Irigaray Alemán (born 1770) were recorded in the local parish documents; their status and social position is not clear. The father of Miguel, Anselmo Irigaray Iturbide (1804-1885), was also born in Peralta. In the press or in historiography he was referred to as “propietario” or “ganadero". As the owner of some 9,5 hectares near the village of Azagra he counted in-between modest landholders and well-off farmers in the county. He specialized in breeding of sheep; in the late 1850s his flock was about 900 animals. Between the mid-1850s and the mid-1860s he served in the local ayuntamiento, and in 1866-1867 he was the alcalde of Peralta.

Anselmo married a local girl 24 years his junior, Eusebia Gorria Irigaray, descendant to a Gorria family which has been long inter-marrying with the Irigarays. The couple lived on the family estate in Peralta and had 8 children, 6 boys and 2 girls, born between 1849 and 1866. Miguel was their second oldest child and the second oldest son. In 1862 and at the age of 12 he entered Seminario Conciliar de Pamplona as a start of his religious career. He was an excellent student who gathered meritissimus marks as sort of routine; however, at unspecified time though probably in the late 1860s he resigned the ecclesiastic path, reportedly because of his poor health. At the outbreak of the Third Carlist War he joined the legitimist ranks and served in Carlist administrative structures in Navarre; he is referred to as secretario of “Junta ó Diputación carlista”, “Junta de Guerra” or “Junta Gubernativa de Navarra”.

After the Carlist defeat Irigaray opted for a career in law. Following the period of self-learning in 1877 he obtained the baccalaureate with an unspecified, probably Navarrese institution; he than moved to Madrid, passed most exams at Universidad Central and graduated in civil and canonical law in 1878, issued the appropriate ministerial certificate in 1879. In 1883 or 1884 Irigaray married María Marco Buelta, descendant to a well-known Marco family from Valle de Roncal. Her father, Francisco León Marco Mayo, was a recognized notary in the mountainous town of Uztarróz. Close to nothing is known about the marriage, except that it lasted at least until 1892. The couple settled in Peralta, but either in the late 1880s or in the early 1890s they moved to Madrid. It is neither known whether the couple had any children; contrary to the custom of the era Irigaray’s obituary notes did not refer either to his wife or to any descendants. Irigaray’s brother Eusebio in the early 20th century served as the mayor of Peralta.

In Carlist structures
Exact years of Irigaray’s service in the Carlist administration in the 1870s are not clear. In the early 1880s the movement was stalled in stagnation with no formal structures operational in Navarre; nothing is known of Irigaray's activities in regional Traditionalist ranks of the time. In 1888 he retained loyalty to the claimant Carlos VII as he did not join the rebel Nocedalistas; instead, he engaged in the party Navarrese propaganda. Upon his move to Madrid in 1890 Irigaray immediately emerged as one of key personalities of the local círculo; the same year he became secretary general of its Junta Directiva, presided by the nationwide party leader, Marqués de Cerralbo.

In the early and mid-1890s Irigaray remained quite active in the Madrid Carlist organisation. He was noted as protagonist during public events, e.g. the 1893 funeral service to the late Doña Margarita or acting as member of comision organizadora of Mártires de la Tradición in 1896. Though there were 3 vice-presidents, it was Irigaray who with Cerralbo co-presided some close-door Traditionalist sessions in Madrid and was privileged to take to the floor right after the Jefé Delegado. He emerged as expert particularly competent in maritime and economic issues, delivering lectures on commercial and business questions to his fellow party members; the bottom line was that Liberal rules were responsible for economic decline and were systematically driving the country towards disaster.

Irigaray did not enter the nationwide Carlist executive, Junta Nacional, and there is neither any information on his membership in the regional party Castillian command. However, as member of the Madrid party leadership and as a person on good terms with Cerralbo he had the opportunity to take part in gathering of the nationwide Carlist command layer. It is known that he took part in decision-making process for the organisation nationwide, e.g. discussing the question of abstaining from general elections in 1899. Within some Carlist initiatives he also stood as the representative of Navarrese organisation in the capital. On exceptional basis he was seen beyond the capital and Navarre, e.g. in Manresa. In the late 1890s Irigaray grew to vice-president of the Madrid círculo (presided by Conde de Casasola), effectively the second in command for the party organisation in the capital.

It is not clear what was Irigaray’s position as to the conflict between the insurgent and conciliatory factions within the party, increasingly visible in the late 1890s. He remained at excellent terms with Cerralbo and his statements in public suggest full alignement with the official strategy; he declared that colonial trouble was the result of Liberal mismanagement, that the Carlists for the time being were not gearing up to violent action, that they would do nothing which might endanger Spanish national interest, and that they had full trust in Carlos VII. When in wake of the emergent internal crisis Cerralbo resigned Irigaray was also on very good terms with his successor, Matías Barrio y Mier.

Propagandist and publisher
Already during his early teens in 1865 Irigaray was signing various Traditionalism-flavored open letters; as an older teenager he was active in Juventud Católica in Peralta, delivering addresses and lectures on various topics. Once back from his academic spell in Madrid, in the late 1870s and the early 1880s he engaged in Basque cultural initiatives, and this is despite near-extinction of Basque language in the Navarrese Ribera. He entered Asociación Euskara and tried to animate El Arga, a cuatro-weekly of fuerista-vasquista profile; he has contributed to the periodical, which proved rather short lived; it focused on promotion of Basque culture and apart from avocating local fueros, it steered clear of advancing any political agenda. Nothing is known of further Irigaray’s engagement in Basque questions, though the family felt Basque and his siblings cultivated Basque cultural threads. In the late 1880s Irigaray was rather active as a lobbyist on part of Navarrese wine growers, e.g. during a Madrid conference on economic crisis.

The year of 1888 produced breakup in Carlist structures; supporters of Ramón Nocedal left to form their own organization and they soon became known as the Integrists. Irigaray was not listed as a protagonist of the strife. However, the key Carlist Navarrese daily El Tradicionalista, issued in Pamplona, sided with the breakaways. Deprived of their own press platform, the loyalists decided to launch their own periodical; it was named La Lealtad Navarra. Irigaray was among these who contributed to its emergence; he was later also one of the contributors to La Lealtad, directed by Alfonso Fernández Casado. In the late 1890s La Lealtad transformed into what would become an iconic Carlist daily El Pensamiento Navarro, but there is nothing known of Irigaray’s engagement in its operations.

Since his re-location to Madrid in 1890 Irigaray’s relations with the Navarrese press were getting loose. He kept co-operating with the Pamplonese bi-weekly La Avalancha, yet it is not clear whether he contributed own pieces under pen-names or whether he assisted in some other way; it was later vaguely noted that he engaged in “trabajos periodísticos”. At the time he was rather related to the flagship Carlist daily in Spain, the Madrid-based El Correo Español. The newspaper used to publish his front-page articles, quoted him in editorials and otherwise referred to him as to an authority. He also represented El Correo Español in court, when the newspaper was sued by the governmental administration. In the late 1890s Irigaray was among collaborators of Biblioteca Populár Carlista, a series of booklets launched by a newly established Barcelona publishing house. Last but not least, some of his lectures in the Madrid círculo or his parliamentary addresses were issued as separate pamphlets.

Lawyer
Having received his juridical ministerial certificate in 1879 Irigaray entered the Navarrese bar organisation. Close to nothing is known about his practice in the region, except that in the late 1880s he might have been a legal representative of some Navarrese institutions before the Madrid court and that the press at times referred to him as “distinguido abogado”. He moved his law firm to the capital in 1889 or in 1890. The motive quoted by historians was “razones profesionales”. It is known that in 1890 Irigaray was the legal representative of Diputación de Navarra in Madrid, but it is not clear whether it was this particular assignment which triggered his translation to the capital; he later represented before the Madrid tribunals also the cities of Tudela and Tafalla.

Irigaray’s law firm was doing well; in 1892 he moved to new premises and was applauded as a distinguished lawyer even in the progressist press; some of his addresses in court were considered “among the best in recent times”. Apart from representing the Navarrese institutions Irigary was acitve in Madrid also in numerous civil and criminal cases, e.g. defending in court the religious, charged by the authorities. His professional career was clearly marked with his own political preferences. Apart from defending the religious, e.g. in 1893, he also represented El Correo Español in court when the newspaper was sued by the administration; however, the result of his service is unknown. Irigaray was also noted for applying the Navarrese traditional legislation to civil cases heard in the Madrid court.

In 1894 Spain was rocked by a scandal caused by a Carlist priest from Valencia, José Corbató Chillida; in his brochure he claimed that the regent Maria Christina was leading the Spanish freemasonry. Corbató was brought to court for offending the royal. When organizing legal assistance Carlist structures were choosing between Vázquez de Mella and Irigaray as Corbató’s lawyers, but they eventually settled for the latter. Irigaray asked for acquittal, but proceedings were gradually turning against him. He then resolved to a number of tricks, e.g. he asked an auxiliary attorney, also a Carlist, to fake illness in order to save time, or started calling numerous witnesses trying to demonstrate that their accounts were mutually conflicting. Following an unusually long and widely reported trial, in December 1895 Corbató was sentenced to 11 years and 4 months in prison.

Parliamentarian
During the 1886 elections Irigaray stood as a Carlist candidate in his native Tafalla district, but it is not clear whether he lost or withdrew. During the 1891 campaign he renewed his bid, also from Tafalla, but lost to a conservative counter-candidate. In the 1893 general elections Irigaray tried again in the same district against the same rival and lost again, though this time by a small margin. During the 1896 elections he opted for the neighboring district of Tudela, challenging the incumbent liberal candidate; though Irigaray gathered merely 37% of all votes cast he emerged victorious. However, in the chamber he was a rather inactive deputy, perhaps the result of his renewed health problems. He limited his endeavors to co-signing letters or manifestos issued in name of the 10-member Carlist minority.

In the 1898 campaign Irigaray again opted for Tudela, but lost. A contemporary historian speculates that the defeat might have resulted from neutral stand adopted by the Integrists, who refused to support the Carlist candidate. Irigaray declared he would now focus on his law career and on his health. Despite initial temptation he did not take part in the the 1899 campaign; the claimant ordered abstention. During the 1901 elections he accepted the proposal of an umbrella organization Unión de Católicos, who asked him to be its representative in another Navarrese district of Aoiz; also the Integrists agreed to support him. Thanks to back-stage haggling with the Liberals he was elected unopposed.

Unlike during his first term, this time Irigaray made himself heard. As the Liberals launched what is described as the first “campaña anticlerical del siglo XX”, the Carlists mounted a counter-offensive; in 1901 Irigaray with 4 other deputies filed a motion to derogate paragraph 11 of the constitution, which guaranteed religious liberty. A series of plenary debates ensued; Irigaray was among those most active, and he clashed with Blasco Ibañez. Traditionalist press hailed his addresses as mastery of logic and rhetoric. Canalejas charged him with clericalism, Matías Barrio counter-charged ridiculing Canalejas. Irigaray at one point declared that one could not be a Catholic and a liberal. The progressist papers seized the opportunity and started to mock him. In 1902 Irigaray partially withdrew into privacy, again because of his pulmonary problems; he settled in Málaga, as its winter climate was recommended by doctors. Prior to the 1903 elections the Aoiz section of Unión de Católicos preferred his candidature to this of Arturo Campión and again offered him their support. Like 2 years earlier there was no counter-candidate standing and Irigaray got his mandate easily prolonged; this time the Carlist minority in the chamber counted 7 deputies. However, his health was getting worse by day. He was barely seen in the Cortes; he took the oath in mid-June, but in the fall he had to leave for Málaga, where he passed away in early December. The obituary speech in the Cortes was delivered by Enrique Gil Robles.

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