The social structure of the Irish republican army, 1916-1923

Historical Journal

Volumn 42, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 207-231

  Hart, Peter ^a  

^a QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 0007345027     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X98008176     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. I would like to acknowledge the support of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, in carrying out this research. I am also grateful to David Fitzpatrick and Robin Whitaker for their comments.
2. W. B. Yeats, 'Easter 1916'.
3. Edith Somerville to Col. John Somerville, 24 Nov. 1917;
4. Somerville to Ethel Smyth, 22 Apr. 1922 (Queen's University Special Collections, Somerville and Ross papers, lots 877 and 878).
5. Erskine Childers, 'The Irish revolution', p. 8 (Trinity College Dublin, Library, Childers papers, MS 7808/29).
6. Although this was largely confined to Dublin and effectively defunct after 1916.
7. See Peter Hart, 'The geography of revolution in Ireland, 1917-1923', Past & Present, 155 (1997). pp. 142-3.
8. For a variety of psychological perspectives, see Walter Reich, ed., Origins of terrorism (Cambridge, 1990).
9. Dorothy Macardle, The Irish republic (London, 1937), p. 241;
10. Army strength tables, Oct. and Nov. 1921 (University College Dublin, Archives (UCD), Richard Mulcahy papers, P17a/18).
11. For the situation in 1921, see North Cork Brigade company rolls, Feb.-June 1921 (National Library of Ireland (NLI), Florence O'Donoghue papers, MS 31, 223).
12. For 1922, see North Cork Brigade report, 29 Feb. 1922 (UCD, Ernie O'Malley papers, P17a/87);
13. Carlow Brigade reports (UCD, O'Malley papers, P17a/73, 74).
14. See 1st Southern Div. strength report, c. Oct. 1922 (UCD, O'Malley papers, P173/89);
15. O/C 1st Southern Div. to Deputy C/S., 2 Mar. 1923 (UCD, O'Malley papers P17a/90).
16. David Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish life 1913-1921: provincial experience of war and revolution (Dublin, 1977), p. 219;
17. Sligo Brigade returns, June 1921 (UCD, Mulcahy papers, P7/A/22);
18. 'Figures for Companies Working', 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade (NLI, MS 901).
19. Official report: debate on the treaty between Great Britain and Ireland (Dublin, 1922), p. 329.
20. Many of these sources by themselves provide only partial information: addresses and ages only, in the case of General Prisons Board (GPB) files (National Archives), for example. For the derivation of particular samples, see the notes to tables.
21. Exact employment figures are unavailable, but there is a large body of more impressionistic evidence to support this statement, including many newspaper and other reports that name volunteers' employers.
22. Fathers' occupations were derived from the manuscript returns for the 1911 census in the National Archives (NA). Tom Garvin found a similar pattern in his study of the 'IRB/Sinn Fein/IRA elite' between 1913 and 1922: 'The anatomy of a nationalist revolution: Ireland, 1858-1928', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 28 (1986), p. 485.
23. Out of a survey sample of 561 farmers'sons: Michael Hout, Following in father's footsteps: social mobility in Ireland (Cambridge, 1989), p. 127.
24. GHQ inspector's report on Roscommon and Leitrim, 17 Oct. 1921 (Irish Military Archives (MA), A/o747).
25. Florence O'Donoghue, Tomas MacCurtain: soldier and patriot (Tralee, 1955), p. 59.
26. Daniel Corkery, foreword to Tomas MacCurtain, p. 11.
27. W. Alison Phillips, The revolution in Ireland (London, 1923), pp. 176-7.
28. Sir James O'Connor, A history of Ireland, 1798-1924, 11 (London, 1925), p. 296.
29. C. H. Bretherton, The real Ireland (London, 1925), p. 80. This book was withdrawn soon after publication because of threatened lawsuits.
30. For further social and frankly racial analysis, see Bretherton, 'Irish backgrounds', Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1922, pp. 692-3.
31. Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish Life, pp. 202-4, 220-4.
32. Joost Augusteijn, From public defiance to guerrilla warfare: the experiences of ordinary volunteers in the Irish war of independence, 1916-1921 (Dublin, 1996), p. 353.
33. Joost Augusteijn reaches a broadly similar conclusion for volunteers as of July 1921: From public defiance to guerrilla warfare, pp. 360-2.
34. See Peter Hart, The IRA and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916-1923 (Oxford, 1998).
35. Interviews with Sean Hynes and George Embrush (UCD, O'Malley papers, P17b/129, 130).
36. Richard Mulcahy interview with Lt Gen. Peadar McMahon (UCD, Mulcahy papers, P7D/43).
37. See also Deputy C/S report on Mid-Limerick Brigade, 7 Nov. 1921 (MA, A/0739).
38. Although the rugby republicans of Limerick do bear a certain resemblance to the Irish Rugby Football Union 'Pals' Company of the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, formed in 1914.
39. See David Fitzpatrick, 'The logic of collective sacrifice: Ireland and the British army, 1914-1918', Historical Journal, 38 (1995), pp. 1029-30.
40. Robert E. Kennedy, The Irish: emigration, marriage, and fertility (Berkeley, 1973), p. 169.
41. IRA prison and internment camp rolls, 1923 (MA, A/1135, 1137, 1138).
42. For further discussion of the social dimensions of the volunteers' youth, see Peter Hart, 'Youth culture and the Cork IRA' in David Fitzpatrick, ed., Revolution? Ireland, 1917-1923 (Dublin, 1990).
43. Several women had carried arms in the 1916 rising, as members of the Irish Citizen Army.
44. See also Sarah Benton, 'Women disarmed: the militarization of politics in Ireland 1913-23', Feminist Review, 50 (1995), pp. 148-72.
45. There were at least half a dozen IRA activists in county Cork alone who had left the Catholic Church. I know of only three Protestant guerrillas - and only a few more inactive members - in the whole of Ireland in this period.
46. Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), GPB, prisoner records, cartons 3-6 (NA).
47. See Peter Hart, 'The Protestant experience of revolution in southern Ireland', in Richard English and Graham Walker, eds., Unionism in modern Ireland: new perspectives on politics and culture (London, 1996).
48. Brendan MacGiolla Choille, ed., Intelligence notes, 1913-16 (Dublin, 1966), pp. 257-70.
49. A complete list of the Corkmen who paraded at Easter can be found in Florence O'Donoghue, 'History of the Irish volunteers' (NLI, O'Donoghue papers, MS 31, 437). For further detail, see Hart, The IRA and its enemies.
50. From a sample of twenty-six women imprisoned for political activity in 1917-19: DORA, GPB, prisoner records, cartons 3-6 (NA).
51. See, for example, the interviews with Sean Breen and Sean Daly (UCD, O'Malley papers, P17b/83, 112).
52. See Peter Hart, 'Michael Collins and the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson', Irish Historical Studies, 28 (1992), pp. 150-70.
53. Almost all of those arrested or otherwise identified as volunteers had addresses and full-time jobs in Britain.
54. See David Fitzpatrick, 'The Irish in Britain', in W. E. Vaughan, ed., A New History of Ireland, vi (Oxford, 1996).
55. Census of Scotland, 1911, PP, 1914, xliv (Cd. 7163), Tables A, 111.
56. R. V. Comerford, 'Patriotism as pastime: the appeal of fenianism in the mid-1860s' Irish Historical Studies, 22 (1981), pp. 239-43.
57. Maura J. B. Murphy, 'The role of organized labour in the political and economic life of Cork city 1820-1899' (Ph. D. thesis, Leicester, 1979).
58. See Martin Staunton, 'The Royal Munster Fusiliers in the Great War, 1914-19' (M. A. thesis, University College Dublin, 1986), pp. 12-20
59. and Fitzpatrick, 'The logic of collective sacrifice', pp. 1017-30.
60. From a sample of 2, 106 men taken from the Army Census, Nov. 1922 (MA, Army Census, L/S/1).
61. Times, 3 May 1916.
62. Times, 18 July 1922.
63. Mrs William O'Brien, In Mallow (London, 1920), pp. 65, 68.
64. See Hart, 'The geography of revolution', pp. 142-76.
65. See Tom Garvin, Nationalist revolutionaries in Ireland, 1858-1928 (Oxford, 1987), pp. 86-90
66. and John Hutchinson, The dynamics of cultural nationalism: the Gaelic revival and the creation of the Irish nation state (London, 1987), pp. 179, 287.
67. Hart, 'The geography of revolution', pp. 162, 168-70.
68. Ibid., pp. 166-8.
69. North Cork Brigade company returns, 1921 (NLI, O'Donoghue papers, MS 31, 223).
70. Brian Griffin, 'The Irish police, 1836-1914' (Ph. D. thesis, Loyola University of Chicago, 1991), p. 855.
71. See note on sources for table 5.
72. For a map and further details of the company, see Peter Hart, 'Class, community and the Irish Republican Army in Cork, 1917-1923', in Patrick O'Flanagan and Cornelius Buttimer, eds., Cork: history and society (Cork, 1993), pp. 975-6.
73. Oliver Coogan, Politics and war in Meath 1913-23 (Dublin, 1983), p. 191.