deviations from the church's original message. The overseers seized upon a failed attempt at performing a faith healing as a pretext to excommunicate him. Cooney's loyal supporters joined him, including some of the early workers, and they stayed faithful to what they perceived to be the original tenets. The term "Cooneyite" today chiefly refers to the group which separated (or were excommunicated) along with Cooney and who continue as an independent group. Prior to the schism, onlookers had labeled the entire movement as "Cooneyites" due to Edward Cooney's prominence in the early growth of the church. There are areas where this older usage continues. Consolidation These schisms were not widely publicized, and few were aware that they had occurred. Most supporters of Irvine, and later Cooney, were either coaxed into abandoning those loyalties or put out of the fellowship. Among these were the early workers May Carroll, Irvine Weir (one of the first workers in North America, who was excommunicated for continued contact with Cooney and for his objection to registration of the church under names) and Tom Elliot (who had conducted baptisms of the first workers and was nicknamed "Tom the Baptist"). The emergence of the Two by Twos caused severe splits within local Protestant churches in Ireland at a time of increasing demands for Irish independence, largely driven by the Catholic majority community. Because of animosity, the Two by Twos did not form a united front with other Protestant communities. Although the church was noted for extreme anti-Catholic views, it played a very minor role during the struggle for Irish independence. One exception was the involvement of the Pearson family in the still-controversial Coolacrease incident. In the mid-1920s, a magazine article entitled "The Cooneyites or Go-Preachers" disturbed the leadership, who made efforts to have it withdrawn, particularly when material from the article was added to the widely distributed reference Heresies Exposed. During this period, the church modified its evangelical outreach. The public preaching of its early days was replaced with low-key "gospel meetings", which were attended only by members and invitees. The church began to assert that it had a 1st-century origin. It asserted that it had no organization or name and disclaimed any unique doctrines. The church shunned publicity, making the church very difficult for outsiders to follow. The North American church saw a struggle for influence between overseers George Walker in the east and Jack Carroll.