Moderate nationalism and the Irish revolution, 1916-1923

Historical Journal

Volumn 42, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 729-749

  Bew, Paul ^a  

^a QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 10844260962     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X99008523     Document Type: Article

References (158)

1. Observer, 18 Mar. 1927, 'The Redmonds' Ireland'.
2. Robert Hogan, Dictionary of Irish literature (revised and expanded edition), 1 (Westport, CT, 1996), pp. 509-10.
3. Observer, 24 Apr. 1926.
4. Paul Bew, John Redmond (Dublin, 1996), p. 30.
5. Paul Bew, Ideology and the Irish question (Oxford, 1994), pp. 43-150.
6. For more nuance see also the supporting argument in Patrick Maume, 'Aspects of nationalist political culture, 1900-1918' (Ph. D., Queen's University, Belfast, 1993), ch. 7.
7. Stephen Gwynn, The Irish crisis (London, 1921), p. 38.
8. S. Gwynn, John Redmond's last years (London, 1919), p. 189;
9. see Dunbar Plunket Barton, Timothy Healy: memories and anecdotes (Dublin and London, 1916), pp. 13-14.
10. John Redmond, introduction by Michael MacDonagh, The Irish at the front (London, 1916), pp. 13-14.
11. Irish Times, 18 Mar. 1916.
12. For a broader RIG analysis of the St Patrick's Day parades, see PRO CO 904, pt 2, p. 2.
13. Gwynn, The Irish Crisis, p. 46.
14. For a similar interpretation see Professor A. C. Hepburn, ed., Ireland, 1905-25; documents and analysis, 11 (Newtownards, 1998), pp. 144-6.
15. Observer, 26 Apr. 1926.
16. Stephen Gwynn's own book The case for home rule (with an introduction by John E. Redmond) (Dublin, 1911), pp. 109-15, is a good example of the type of nationalist thinking which dismissed Ulster unionist opposition to home rule.
17. Weekly Freeman, 13 Dec. 1919;
18. for Harrison see The Irish Statesman, 13 Dec. 1919.
19. The Witness, 19 June 1914;
20. A. Rentoul, Stray thoughts and memories (London, 1921), p. 237.
21. Bew, Ideology, p. 114.
22. Tim Healy, Letters and leaders of my day, II (London, 1928), p. 538.
23. Bew, Ideology, p. 138.
24. Weekly Freeman, 28 Sept. 1917.
25. Eamon Phoenix, Northern nationalism: nationalist politics, partition and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1994), pp. 23-7.
26. Weekly Freeman, 28 Sept. 1917.
27. Roscommon Messenger, 5 Aug. 1921, 'The Peace Movement'. The editorial continues with a phrase which has a precise resonance in the language of the Downing Street Declaration of 1993: 'It was with the false cry of partition that the ferocity of the attack on the Irish Party grew. Partition in real earnest and full operation must now be faced. It is evident from his pronouncements that Mr de Valera is quite prepared to accept it in principle, provided that it comes from an Irish not a British authority.'
28. T. P. Coogan, Michael Collins (London, 1991), p. 52.
29. Weekly Freeman, 28 Sept. 1917.
30. Paul Bew, Conflict and conciliation in Ireland (Oxford, 1987), p. 218.
31. Carl W. Ackerman, 'Ireland from a Scotland Yard notebook', Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 1922, p. 437.
32. Weekly Freeman, 26 Mar. 1921. The best treatment is J. Bowman, De Valera and the Ulster question (Oxford, 1982);
33. for another prominent Sinn Fein heretic for the partition issue, see P. Maume, 'Nationalism and partition: the political thought of Arthur Clery', Irish Historical Studies, 21, no. 122 (1998), pp. 222-40.
34. Weekly Freeman, 19 June 1916.
35. Fermanagh Herald, 8 Sept. 1917.
36. Coogan, Collins, p. 67.
37. Coogan's account is unsubstantiated elsewhere. Joe Good, Enchanted dreams: the journal of a revolutionary (Dingle, 1996), p. 109
38. simply says that Joe McGrath of Sinn Fein demanded a 'recount' and 'to our amazement McGuinness was declared elected for Sinn Fein by a majority of 37 or thereabouts'. In her essay, 'Michael Collins: the Granard connection', Margot Gearty does, however, record: '"Vote'early, vote often" was the catchphrase of this election and I believe Kitty [Kiernan] and Maud encouraged others to do just that. An old gentleman here in Granard tells me he remembers them coming to borrow his sick father's voting card so they could do some personation in favour of McGuiness.' Gabriel Doherty and Dermot Keogh, eds., Michael Collins and the making of the Irish state (Cork, 1998), p. 41.
39. PRO CO 904/24/1. This is the most recently released file on the government's decisionmaking process.
40. R. Kee, The green flag: ourselves alone, m (London, 1989), p. 53.
41. Irish Times, 30 Dec. 1918.
42. Mayo News, 4 Jan. 1919.
43. Serjeant A. M. Sullivan, Old Ireland (London, 1927), p. 237.
44. Irish Times, 30 Dec. 1918.
45. Weekly Freeman's Journal, 4 Jan. 1919.
46. Roscommon Herald, 19 May 1923.
47. Irish Times, 30 Dec. 1918.
48. Killarney Echo, 29 Mar. 1919.
49. Weekly Freeman, 4 Jan. 1919.
50. Cork County Eagle, 4 Jan. 1919.
51. Weekly Freeman, 4 Jan. 1919;
52. Dennis Carroll, They have fooled you again: Michael O'Flanagan, 1876-1942: priest, republican, social critic (Dublin, 1923), pp. 98-9.
53. Arthur Mitchell, Revolutionary government in Ireland: Dail Eireann, 1919-1922 (Dublin, 1925), p. 8.
54. Greta Jones, 'Catholicism, nationalism and science', The Irish Review, 20 (1997), p. 55. This article is a detailed discussion of the-impact of the Irish revolution on Irish science.
55. Lawrence W. McBride, The greening of Dublin Castle: the transformation of bureaucratic and judicial personnel in Ireland, 1892-1922 (Washington, DC, 1991), pp. 259-60.
56. Quoted in Freeman's Journal, 18 Jan. 1919.
57. Ibid..
58. For a more evasive analysis see Kevin Haddick Flynn, 'Soloheadbeg: what really happened, History Ireland, (1997), pp. 43-7.
59. More realistically see Breen's own account in Carlton Younger, Ireland's civil war (London, 1986), p. 86: 'The gelignite was only coincidental. We were surprised there were only two of them - we hoped we could taken on ten. '
60. Sullivan, Old Ireland, p. 25.
61. For the Sullivan/Healy connection see Frank Callanan, T. M. Healy (Cork, 1996), p. 477.
62. See also Roy Foster, The story of Ireland (Oxford, 1995), pp. 7-12, 30.
63. Cork County Eagle and Munster Advertiser, 1 Feb. 1919.
64. The Tipperary Star, 1 Feb. 1919.
65. Killarney Echo, 8 Feb. 1919. But as Roy Foster's Story of Ireland points out, this was a controversial claim. Sullivan's father, upon greater acquaintance in later life with the English, regretted his earlier extreme Anglophobic language.
66. Sullivan, Old Ireland, pp. 279-81;
67. Weekly Freeman, 17 Jan. 1920, 'Attempt on life of eminent Irish KC: Serjeant Sullivan: Escape'.
68. Mitchell, Revolutionary government, p. 734;
69. Joost Augusteijn, From public defiance to guerilla warfare: the experience of ordinary volunteers in the Irish war of independence (Dublin, 1966), p. 88.
70. Weekly Freeman, 24 Mar. 1919.
71. Ibid., 29 Mar. 1919.
72. C. Kostick, Revolution in Ireland: popular militancy, 1917-1923 (London, 1996), p. 50.
73. Hayden Talbot, Michael Collins' own story: told to Hayden Talbot (London, 1922), p. 76.
74. Sir Ormonde Winter, Winter's tale (London, 1955), p. 290.
75. PRO CO 904/23/948.
76. Padraig O'Suilleabhain, Irish Independent, 24 Aug. 1922;
77. A. T. Q. Stewart, ed., Michael Collins: the secret file (Belfast, 1997), pp. 102-7, confirms the point.
78. Coogan, Michael Collins;
79. James Mackay, Michael Collins: a life (Edinburgh and London, 1996);
80. and Fergus Costello, Michael Collins: in his own words (Dublin, 1997).
81. Ronan Fanning, 'Michael Collins: an overview', in Doherty and Keogh, eds., Michael Collins, pp. 202-10.
82. Peter Hart, 'The geography of revolution in Ireland, 1917-23', Past and Present, 233 (1997), p. 187.
83. But see Brian P. Murphy's attempted qualification in The Month, for Sept./Oct. 1998, pp. 381-4, a critique of Hart's work, 'The IRA and its enemies: a review article'.
84. Western News, 24 Jan. 1920.
85. Winter, Winter's tale, p. 301; PRO CO 904/156/24.
86. Peter Hart, 'The Protestant experience of revolution in southern Ireland', in R. English and G. Walker, eds., Unionism in modern Ireland: new perspectives on politics and culture (Dublin, 1996), ch. 5.
87. Plain English, 10 Sept. 1921, p. 729.
88. Ibid., 27 Aug. 1921.
89. Roscommon Herald, 30 Apr. 1921.
90. Plain English, 27 Aug. 1921, p. 687.
91. Western News, 18 June 1921.
92. Ibid..
93. P. O'Farrell, Who's who in the Irish war of independence and civil war, 1916-1923 (Dublin, 1997), p. xvii.
94. Weekly Freeman, 5 Oct. 1920.
95. Healy, Letters and leaders, II, p. 629;
96. F. Daly to Kitty Kiernan, 24 Dec. 1920, In great haste: the letters of Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan, ed. Leon O'Broin, revised and extended by Cian OhEigeartaigh (Dublin, 1996), p. 12.
97. Roscommon Herald, 11 Sept. 1920.
98. Weekly Freeman, 26 Mar. 1921;
99. Enniscorthy Guardian, 26 Mar. 1921;
100. R. B. McDowell, Crisis and decline (Dublin, 1997), p. 96. In a private communication, Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien has told me that he thinks O'Dempsey may well have been the best man at his parents' wedding.
101. C. J. C. Street, Ireland in 1921 (London, 1922), pp. 113-14. Street explicitly sees de Valera as fearing a' resurrection of the old parliamentary party'. In fact, it is more likely that he feared a split in the Sinn Fein support base backed by the old Irish party's residual base of popular support.
102. Ackerman, 'Ireland from a Scotland Yard notebook', p. 633.
103. Roscommon Herald, 6 Aug. 1921, 'Ireland's parliament, described by a recognised historian'. For a more general account see Mary Kotsonouris, Retreat from revolution: the dail courts, 1920-24 (Dublin, 1994).
104. Blackwood's Magazine, 210, 21 Nov. 1921, p. 623.
105. The Nation, 1 May 1920.
106. Times, 7 July 1920.
107. Fergus Campbell, 'Land and politics in the west of Ireland, 1898-1909' (Ph. D. Bristol, 1997), p. 198. But note Duffy's last hurrah; he was elected to the Dail in 1927 when Dan Breen, the hero of the revolution, was rejected by the electorate; a fact maliciously noted by Stephen Gwynn. The Observer, 19 June 1927.
108. Young Ireland, 14 Aug. 1920.
109. The Irish Statesman, 1 May 1920.
110. Taylor, interestingly, was believed to be Catholic by this source. Weekly Freeman, 10 Apr. 1920;
111. G. C. Duggan's letter in Irish Times, 5 May 1958.
112. C. Townshend, British military campaign in Ireland (Oxford, 1979), p. 176.
113. H. Headlam, Irish reminiscences (Dublin, 1949), p. 216.
114. Young Ireland, 17 July 1920, shows a sharp awareness on the part of Sinn Fein of the significance of this development.
115. Eunan O'Halpin, The decline of the union: British government in Ireland, 1898-1920 (Dublin and New York, 1987), p. 217.
116. S. Lawlor, Britain and Ireland, 1914-1923 (Dublin and New York, 1983), p. 74.
117. C. Townshend, Political violence in Ireland: government and opposition since 1848 (Oxford, 1983), p. 348.
118. Townshend's work has a clear influence on Nicholas Mansergh, The unresolved question (New Haven and London, 1991), pp. 145-57.
119. Carl Ackerman, 'Janus-headed Ireland', Atlantic Monthly, June 1922, p. 812.
120. Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, companion vol. IV (1917-22), p. 1149: Hal Fisher diary, 23 July 1920.
121. Weekly Freeman, 20 Aug. 1919.
122. Nenagh Guardian, 12 May 1919.
123. For Gaynor's memoir, see 'The Sinn Fein ard fheis of 1917: a North Tipperary priest's account', Tipperary Historical Journal, 10 (1997), p. 60.
124. Ackerman, 'Ireland from a Scotland Yard notebook', p. 441.
125. For more detail see Paul Bew's 'Collins and Adams, L. G. and Blair', The Spectator, 31 May 1997. pp. 18-20.
126. Ackerman, 'Janus-headed Ireland', p. 803. Ackerman is probably oversimplifying matters here. In fact, in early 1920 de Valera did not have full confidence in Boland's optimistic assessment of American opinion and by May 1921 de Valera had effectively given up hope of American recognition of the Dail.
127. See Documents on Irish foreign policy, 1919-1922, ed. R. Fanning, M. Kennedy, D. Keogh, and E. O'Halpin (Dublin, 1998), p. 120;
128. J. Maher, Harry Boland: a biography (Dublin, 1998), p. 141.
129. PRO CO 904/156/53. This report is the work of' O' - Brigadier Ormond de l'Epée Winter. Dr Eunan O'Halpin observes: 'Winter may be dismissed as a Micawberish figure, but there is other evidence to suggest that, despite personal rivalries and continuing inefficiencies, what might be termed the continuing bureaucratisation of intelligence slowly bore fruit after 1920', see O'Halpin's 'Collins and intelligence, 1919-1923', in Doherty and Keogh, eds., Michael Collins, p. 73.
130. Ackerman, 'Janus-headed Ireland', p. 811.
131. Mark Pottle, ed., Champion redoubtable: the diaries and letters of Violet Bonham-Carter, 1914-1945 (London, 1998), p. 131. Diary entry for 1 Apr. 1921.
132. Winter, Winter's tale, p. 309.
133. Tim Healy to Maurice Healy, Healy, Letters of leaders of my day, 16 June 1921, 11, p. 638.
134. For Collins's unconvincing denial of such meetings and the controversy surrounding it, see Brian P. Murphy, Patrick Pearse and the lost republican ideal (Dublin, 1991), pp. 114-29.
135. CO 904/23, no. 53/6094. Collins to de Valera, 18 June 1921. Epitome of document seizure, 22 June 1921, seized at Eamon de Valera's Blackrock home.
136. Kilkenny People, 30 July 1921, 'Colonel Archer-Shee MP: Anti-Irish bearer of two Kilkenny names'.
137. Reprinted in Roscommon Herald, 6 Aug. 1922.
138. Co. Cork Eagle, 29 Apr. 1922. Stephen Gwynn agreed: 'In June 1921, the military strength of Great Britain in Ireland was increasing and the IRA were running short of rifles and ammunition. Sinn Fein had strong military reasons for getting what it could while it could.' A student's history of Ireland (Dublin and Cork, 1925), p. 305.
139. Sinn Fein, 8 Apr. 1911.
140. Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1922, p. 695.
141. Roscommon Herald, 29 Sept. 1903.
142. Ibid., 19 May 1923.
143. T. C. D. Dillon papers 6753/400. Duffy to Dillon, 24 May 1923.
144. F. S. L. Lyons, John Dillon (London, 1968), p. 477.
145. Ibid., pp. 477-8.
146. Plunkett to Dillon, T. C. D. Dillon papers, 11 Jan. 1925.
147. For a recent analysis of Plunkett's role, very much in the style of D. P. Moran, see Terry Eagleton, 'Ascendancy and hegemony', in Heathcliff and the great hunger: studies in Irish culture (London, 1995), pp. 100-1.
148. Weekly Freeman's Journal, 20 Feb. 1923, 'In philosophic mood: Mr Stephen Gwynn's destruction of history'.
149. See the present author's analysis of the Craig-Collins pact in Irish Times, 31 Mar. 1997: '1922 pact has closer lessons for closer links with the North'. Gwynn was a strong supporter of the pact, which he felt displayed a surprising degree of Ulster unionist moderation.
150. Observer, 29 Apr. 1923. Ibid.
151. Ibid., 23 Oct. 1923. Gwynn is probably reacting in part to the role of Collins's cousin who worked as a spy in Dublin Castle; Irish unionists suspected that Collins murdered Frank Brooke, a cousin of a later Northern Irish Premier and a member of a Dublin Castle advisory committee 'with his own hand'.
152. See John Butler, ed., 'Lord Oranmore's journal', Irish Historical Studies, (1995), p. 589, entry for 27 Aug. 1922.
153. See also Weekly Freeman, 7 Aug. 1920.
154. This is the thesis of Tom Garvin, 1922: the birth of Irish democracy (Dublin, 1996).
155. Garvin to Gwynn, 28 Sept. 1922, National Library of Ireland, Gwynn papers MS 8600 (5).
156. Quoted in E. J. Hobsbawm, On history (London, 1997).
157. Ackerman, 'Janus-headed Ireland', p. 808.
158. Gwynn, A student's history, p. 303.