Edward Cahill SJ was a well-known and influential figure in Ireland during the early decades of the new Irish state. As Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Sociology at the Jesuit House of Studies in Dublin, his research led him to view liberalism as the great enemy of the faith and spiritual values of the majority of the Irish people. He identified with liberalism the exclusion of God from public life and a strong emphasis on secularism, and also the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism. He sought to counter this by teaching a Christian sociology based on the papal social encyclicals.

Cahill gathered around him a lay organisation of men and women drawn from all walks of life, known as An Rioghacht, which became influential in the 1930s. Mr and Mrs de Valera were good friends of Cahill and shared many of his views. His magnum opus, widely read at the time, was entitled The Framework of a Christian State.