1908
January
Israel Zangwill in the US completed his play ‘The Melting Pot’ which added a new phrase to the language. E.M.Forster published ‘A Room with a View’, Arnold Bennet published ‘Old Wives Tales’ Kenneth Grahame wrote ‘Wind in the Willows’
Official attitudes towards public health can be judged by the fact in 1907, of the 167 national schools in Dublin, 62% had no toilet facilities.
Richard Mulcahy arrived in Dublin as part of a Post Office transfer.
9
Count Von Zeppelin announces that he is building an airship capable of carrying 100 people.
12
The price of transatlantic tickets falls sharply as White Star and Cunard battle for supremacy.
17
Sinn Fein made it’s first political mark by winning 15 seats in the Dublin muncipal elections. Two of the original Parnellite dissidents, William O’Brien and Tim Healy rejoined the Irish Parliamentary Party.
20: The Dublin Municipal Art Gallery, the first gallery of modern art in Britain and Ireland, opens to the public.
29
The Municpal Gallery of Modern Art opened. Invitations were printed in English and Irish and the founder, Sir Hugh Lane remained outside during the entire ceremony in case the floors should collapse with the numbers of people inside.
30
Mohandas Ghandi is freed from prison by General Smuts.
January - DL is campaigning in North Leitrim on behalf of C.J.Dolan.
"While still an involuntary gentleman of leisure, I took a hand in the North Leitrim election campagain in favour of Charlie Dolan, the SF Candidate. It was a losing fight but a memorable one. on one occasion, Alderman Tom Kelly and myself were assigned to a meeting in Kinlough and had an exciting day. Not alone was th majority of the local people opposed to us but we had to contend with one of the Belfast gangs imported by Joe Devlin. Armed with long sticks they menaced throughout the meeting. their loud voiced interference was so great that the speakers could scacely hear themselves; people who wished to hear us certainly could not. As we continued to speak, eggs began to fly; the wall of the hotel in front of which our wagonette was drawn up was as 'decorated' as we were. On the return journey to Manorhamilton headquarters, our reception was unpleasant - to say the least."
Diarmuid Lynch . ‘The I.R.B. & the 1916 Rising’. Mercier Press 1957. P19
Future President of Ireland, Sean T O'Kelly recalled the North Leitrim By-Election:
"When about the year 1908, it became clear that the Liberals did not intend to put Home Rule into operation in Ireland, there was serious dissatisfaction expressed even in the ranks of the Parliamentary Party itself. I think it was early in 1908 that three members of the party resigned.... Charles Dolan decided to fight his seat again as a Sinn Fein candidate. Sinn Féin was delighted with the opportunity this contest gave to preach its gospel. I do not think anybody in the organisation expected that Charles Dolan could win the constituency for Sinn Féin, although my recollection is that (Charles Dolan himself) was most optomistic. The opportunity this contest gave to preach the gospel was used to the fullest extent with great enthusiasm by Sinn Féin in all parts of Ireland. A number of supporters came from England and Scotland, and at least one from America - Diarmuid Lynch, to take part in the contest'
"It was at a meeting in Manorhamilton during the course of this contest, in which I took a very active part, that I first met the late Mr Justice Gavan Duffy, President of the High Court ... I remember speaking during the contest at a public meeting in Manorhamilton with. Seóirse Gavan. Duffy, Miss Anna Parnell, and Diarmuid Lynch of New York who had, a short while previously, come back from the U.S. on a visit, and so deeply immersed in Irish-Ireland affairs and Republican politics that he eventually decided to remain in Ireland and not return, as he had intended, to New York. I remember being successful in helping Diarmuid Lynch to come to a decision to remain in Ireland by securing for him a position as a member of the staff of McKenzie & Co. Agricultural Implements Suppliers. Diarmuid Lynch had been in the same business while he lived in America. I was able to do this through friendship with a colleague in the Dublin Corporation, Sir Andrew Beattig, who was, I think,' Chairman of McKenzie & Co. I think the same man was Director of the firm Miller & Beattig, Grafton Street, Dublin. Of course, Alderman Beatty was no political friend or sympathiser of mine, but having known him for a couple of years in the Corporation, and being associated with him on different Committees, I was able to induce him to find a place on the staff of McKenzie for my friend Diarmuid Lynch.
I have a very vivid recollect ion of the North Leitrim contest because at almost every meeting we held was met with the bitterest opposition. The' Parliamentary Party was strongly supported in that constituency, as the final result of the election showed later on. I think I could say that, there was hardly a meeting, even in areas where we had considerable support at which we did not have to fight our way and defend ourselves with sticks and with our fists before we would be allowed to address the public. I have a distinct recollection of one meeting in Manorhamilton where, as she left her hotel to cross to the brake which was almost in front of the hotel, to address the meeting, Miss Anna Parnell was drenched by buckets of water thrown upon her from neighbouring houses as she stepped out to cross to the brake. Similarly at this meeting and at other meetings we were showered with eggs, as well as, of course, stones. We were fairly well supplied with funds by our friends, and we conducted a vigorous, and from our point of view, a very successful contest, but of course, as some of us at any rate believed, the result was a foregone conclusion. "
His Excellency, Seán T. O'Kelly, Árus an Uachtaráin, Phoenix Park, Bureau of Military History Statement 1765.
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1765%20PART%201.pdf#page=37
February 1908
1: Portugal: King Carlos I along with his son and heir to the throne were assasinated in Lisbon. Suceeded by his younger son, Manuel II. However the freespending and extravagant lifestyle continued – revolution was in the air.
Diarmuid settled in Dublin as a Feedstuffs ManagerDiarmuid settled in Dublin as a Feedstuffs Manager with Thomas McKenzie & Sons, Dublin in charge of feeding stuffs, artifical manuers and the fittings department.
‘..I was requested by P.T.Daly to ‘meet a few friends’ who desired to have a chat about the Irish situation in New York...( the few friends ) to the best of my recollection comprised John O’Hanlon, Fred Allan* and Daly himself. In fater years I realised that my inquisitors on that occasions had been promininent members of the then Supreme Council of the I.R.B.... Sean T. O’Kelly** ‘approached’ me about the I.R.B [in Spring 1908]. and in due course I became a member of the Bartholomew Teeling Circle..’
Diarmuid Lynch . ‘The I.R.B. & the 1916 Rising’. Mercier Press 1957. P21
* Fred Allan ( ? - 1937 ) Secretary to the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. from 1895 to 1910 when he resigned after becoming increasingly alientated from the younger generation of Republicans within the I.R.B.
** Sean T. O’Kelly ( 1883-1966 ) Member of the governing body of the Gaelic League and later General Secretary. Founder member of Sinn Fein. Staff Captain along with Diarmuid Lynch in the G.P.O. 1916. Became Ceann Comhairle of the First Dail and member of the Irish delegation at the Paris Peace Talks in 1919. Anti-Treaty, he became the Sinn Fein envoy to the US ( 1924-26 ) and a founder member of Fianna Fail. Minister for Local Government & Public Health ( 1932-39 ), Tainaiste ( 1937-45 ), Minister for Finance ( 1939-45 ) and President of Eire and the Republic of Ireland ( 1945-1959 ) when he was suceeded by De Valera.
Around the same time, Richard Mulcahy was inducted into the IRB at the National Forrester’s Hall, 41 Parnell Square and joined the Teeling Circle, but as part of his reminiscences for an RTE television program of February 2, 1966 recalled activities within the circle and the IRB as being relatively straightforward before re-organisation under Denis McCullough, Bulmer Hobson and Tom Clarke: ‘..during subsequent monthly meetings which raerly lasted more than twenty minutes, members simply paid heir dues and suggested other potential members…there were no matters for discussion, there was no necessity for anything like an agenda, the chairman migh have some remarks to make about matters of passing interest…the members had no routine duties nor responsibilities of any kind not any drilling. On one occasion an elderly memberof our circle came one night with a rifle under his topcoat and explained to us the parts of the rifle and gave us their names…’
Maryann G. Valius ‘Portrait of a Revolutionary –General Richard Mulchahy’ Irish Academic Press. Dublin 1992. p6
10: Hugh Lane receives the Freedom of the City of Dublin.
21
Sinn Fein stands in a by-election with C.J.Dolan for the first time but loses to the Irish Party in North Leitrim.
His brother, James Dolan, afterwards Parliamentary Secretary to Liam T. Cosgrave in the first Free State Government, won the North Leitrim seat for Sinn fin in the 1918 election.
28
Reference for Diarmuid Lynch from A.B.Farquhar & Co. Manufacturers of Agricultural Implements & Machinery, Cotton Exchange Building, New York.
“ To whom it may concern
This is to certify that Mr.. Diarmuid Lynch has been in our employ for over twelve years, and we found him at all times an industrious, honest and energetic young man. For a few years he acted as our bookkeeper, and for the greater part of the time he has been assistant manager. We can recommend him highly to any one who may wish to avail of his services.
The reason why he left our employ is that he made up his mind to return to Ireland and go into some business venture there.
Signed A.B.Farquhar.”
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
March 1908
4
New York: Board of Education bans the whip as a means of corporal punishment in schools.
The first Co-Operative bacon factory opened in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.
The Helga was built in the Liffey Dockyard as a fishery protection vessel and launched in March 1908. 156 feet long & 323 tons, she was operated by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction as a police patrol boat until March 1915 when she was taken over by the Admiralty as an ‘armed steam yacht’. Her future fame came through the bombardment of Liberty Hall and Jacobs during the Rising. Later renamed the Muirchu, she became the first fishery protection vessel and joined the naval service during the Emergency. She sank during passage from Dublin to the Saltee Islands on 8th May 1947.
New York: Clann na Gael convention presided over by Judge Cohalan.
Diarmuid Lynch Friends of Irish Freedom manuscript notes. Lynch Family Archives – Folder 8 – 00005 – replies from James Reidy.
31
The University Bill was introduced in the House of Commons to establish two new Catholic universities in Dublin and Belfast and constituent colleges in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
Oil was discovered in Persia ( Iran ) on the Persian Gulf.
April 1908
3: PM Cambell-Bannerman resigns.
5
Herbert Henry Asquith appointed Prime Minister following resignation of Campbell-Bannerman on health grounds. His appointments include David Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill in his first cabinet position as President of the Board of Trade.
8:
Washington: Roosevelt issues an injunction allowing blacks to use the same rail carriages as whites in the South.
17: Gustave Wolff, partner in Harland & Wolff dies in Belfast.
Germany – Fritz Haber developed a methold for forming ammonia out of nitrogen in the athmosphere. From ammonia, fertilisers and explosives could easily be made and meant that Germany need never fear a wartime shortage of ammunition. Without the Haber process, Germany imported nitrates from Chile and the British navy would have prevented their delivery.
22
London: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal Prime Minister 1905-08, dies.
May 1908
4: According to the Land Registry, one acre & five perches was transferred from the Granig lands folio [ 58231 & 58232 ] to folio 7039. No further details are available.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 7 – 1938-1950
7
London: Asquith announces the introduction of an Old Age Pension of 5/ per week at age 70. Those prevented from claiming are the insane, paupers, prisoners and those that have not worked according to their ability.
Sean MacDiarmada (1884-1916) organised the Sinn Fein campaign for C.J.Dolan in the North Leitrim By-Election which proved to be unsuccesful. Later appointed Organiser for the I.R.B. Kathleen Clark described him as ‘a wonderful organiser, full of charm and magnetism and very handsome. He never spared himselef, he was here and there, in Dublin, out of it, all over the country. He was a very lovable character…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P41
Roger Casement writing to Bulmer Hobson from South America, predicted the future of the British Empire ‘The end will come, Bulmer, in your lifetime, Ireland will be wrangling about the priceof haircuts over strawberries and cream on the terrace, when the last Englishman is setting sail from India with a politely bowing Indian people waving him a last and long farewell…are we doomed to be the only race on earth which can be held in bondage by a bogy?…if Sinn Fein can spread it may save us…the majority don’t want salvation’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p134
July 1908
5: Macedonia-Ottoman Empire: As the Ottoman Empire continued to shrink, inside the empire, ‘Young Turk’ demands for reform and constitutional Government grew louder. While most of the disaffected worked from exile in Paris, Geneva and Cairo, a number of army units in Macedonia rebelled. Supporting the Young Turks & army revolts were the many minorities within the empire – Albanians, Macedonians and Armenians hoping that reform would lead to decentraliasation and independence.
6
Papal decree says that the UK, the United States of America, Canada and Holland are no longer missionary lands.
10: Sir Anthony MacDonnell resigns as Under Secretary.
14: Sir James Brown Dougherty appointed Under-Secretary.
15
Olympic games open in London.
In Arbour Hill, Dublin, the first pasteurised milk depot in Ireland was opened by it’s founder, the US philantropist, Nathan Strauss
24: Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II, unable to repress the growing revolt spreading from Macedonia, restored the Constitution of 1876 and allowed the election of a legislature which produced the majority of the Young Turks with their first meeting of the legislature set for December 17th. The success of the new constitutional regime was immediately undermined, however, by a series of disasters for the new regime: Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria annexed East Rumelia, and terrorism in Macedonia and eastern Anatolia resumed with renewed fury.
August 1908
12
US: Henry Ford’s first new Model T Car was produced in Detroit. His aim is to produce a car cheap enough for anyone on a good salary to buy, made from the best materials and employing the latest manufacturing techniques. The cars will be available in three colours and retail for $900.
The Freedom of the City of Dublin was given to ‘Boss’ Croker, the Irish American Tamany Hall leader.
Tom Clarke ill with typhoid fever leaving Kathleen to run the tobaconist and newsagents in Ameins Street.
19: Austrian Government decides to annex Bosnia and Hercegovina
29:
Devoy and his sister, Kate boarded a train in New York for Atlantic City and a late summer getaway with a few friends and other Clan officials. Shortly after checking into the St. Charles Hotel, she fell ill, detiorating rapidly.
September 1908
1:
Kate Devoy, sister of John Devoy died aged 63. Her body was borne from the funeral mass in Atlantic City to St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx, accompanied by more than a dozen Clan officials. Shortly afterwards, John Devoy gave up the apartment he had shared with his sister on East 99th Street and moved in with his assistant on the Gaelic American, James Reidy. There he stayed until 1914 when he took private rooms on 42nd Street.
8: P.H.Pearse founded St. Enda’s College ( Scoil Eanna ) at Cullenswood House, Rathmines, Dublin. The purpose and scope being “..the providing of an elementary and secondary education of a high type for Irish speaking boys, and for boys not Irish speaking, whom it is desired to educate on bi-lingual lines”
17
US: First death as a result of an aircraft crash when Lieutenant Thomas E Selfridge, 26, of the US Signal Corps died in a crash. Orville Wright, the pilot, was seriously injured.
The Sinn Fein League and the National Coucnil merged to form Sinn Fein and its constitution proclaimed that the object of the new organisation was the ‘re-establishment of the indpendence of Ireland’. However with the Irish political emphasis stongly in London with the Irish Parliamentary Party, the organisation became a declining threat to the Redmond party up to 1916.
Tom Clarke and John Daly spent a month in Crosshaven, Co. Cork where he recuperated.
30: 44 cattle drivers imprisoned in Co. Clare.
October 1908
5
Both Bosnia and Hertzogovina remained provinces of the Ottoman Empire for some 400 years until 1908, although unsuccessful uprisings against the Turks occurred frequently during the 19th century. The population of the area included Roman Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs, and Muslims (Slavs who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule) by the late 19th century. Unrest among the various ethnic groups coupled with the increasing deterioration of the Ottoman Empire led to a general decline of the area. During the Congress of Berlin in 1878, the double monarchy of Austria-Hungary negotiated with other European rulers for administration rights over the area, and by 1908 with troops stationed in the area and Ottoman army revolts in Macedonia, Vienna decided to make it official and annex the territory. The Ottoman Empire protested of course but could do little. Serbia and Montenegro, ethnically similar were also outraged as both viewed the territory as part of their sphere of influence. Austrian-Hungarian rule did little to quell the ethnic tensions in the region, and instead it became a centre of nationalist agitation for political independence and cultural autonomy. Europe began to take sides in the disputes: Austria-Hungary and Germany opposed the growing Serbian nationalism, while Russia and Great Britain, in part, supported it. Secret societies sprung up throughout Serb territory, dedicated to bringing terror and anrachy to Austria-Hungary in whatever way possible. The countdown to the first world war had begun.
As Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia & Hertzogovina, another part of the Ottoman empire, neighbouring Bulgaria took a chance and declared it's indpendence also on the 5th October and King Ferdinand took the title Tsar, having first made sure he had the approval from Moscow.
6:
Haldane's Daily Telegraph publishes interview with Kaiser
10
France, Italy and Russia put pressure on the Balkan states to settle the growing crisis.
28:
Daily Telegraph interview of Wilhelm II published creates backlash in Germany
November 1908
3
Roosevelt’s handpicked Republican candidate, William Howard Taft, won the presidency for 27th President of the US defeating the democrat, William Jennings Bryan. ( [ 1860-1925 ] This was Bryan’s third attempt at the Presidency. Many viewed him as an ambitious demagoue while his supporters viewed him a champion of liberal causes. He was later to become Secretary of State under Wilson and an avowed pacifist, later resigning over the Lusitania sinking. He was later to feature largely in the 1925 Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial.
9
Dockers and carters in Cork go on strike, an action partly organised by James Larkin. Larkin himself had said during the 1908 Dublin Carters strike, that he would organise a "workers army", to defend the strikers if the employers sent in the army, as they had done in Belfast in 1907
11
Lord Lansdowne stated that the current level of lawlessness in Ireland was acting ‘ as an incitement to the disaffected natives in India’.
The Irish Women’s Franchise League formed by Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Cousins.
China: Both the Empress Dowager and puppet Emperor died. Succeding to the Imperial Throne was the old Emperor’s nephew, the 2 year old P’u-I ( 1906-67) the last Emperor of China.
Xuantong or Hsüan T'ung, regnal name of Pu Yi or P'u-i (1906-1967), the last emperor of China (1908-1911), of the Qing or Qing dynasty. He was the nephew of the previous emperor and was chosen to succeed to the throne while still an infant by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The revolution of 1911-1912, led by Sun Yat-sen, forced his abdication at the age of six and established the Republic of China. From 1912, as Henry Pu Yi, he lived in Beijing in the Forbidden Palace, studying the Chinese classics and Occidental subjects, a virtual prisoner of the republican government despite considerable privileges and the title of Manchu Emperor allowed by the abdication agreement. Pu Yi was briefly restored for 12 days in July 1917 by a monarchist coup. Forced out of the palace by a warlord in 1924, he was given sancturary in the Japanese Concession at Tianjin, and in 1932 the Japanese pressured him to become chief executive of the puppet state of Manchukuo, his ancestors' homeland of Manchuria, of which he was crowned emperor K'ang Te in 1934.
At the end of World War II, in 1945, Pu Yi was captured by a Soviet army unit. Soviet authorities held him until 1950, when he was transferred to a prison in Communist China, where he was interned for nearly ten years. He spent the last eight years of his life as a gardener and librarian in Beijing.
14
Switzerland: Albert Einstien presents his ‘quantum’ theory of light.
Kaiser Wilhelm in an interview with a London newspaper described the German people as hostile to Britain, while he alone stood staunchly as one of Britain’s friends. This in turn raised a domestic furore in Germany, with many apeaking out against the Kaiser’s statement.
23
London: Field Marshall Roberts warns the Lords that Germany is capable of invading the UK
29
Berlin: In response to Earl Robert’s comments, Chancellor Von Bulow states that no one wants to attack the UK.
December 1908
1: Roger Casement appointed British Consul General in Brazil, based in Rio de Janerio.
7
The Gaelic League proposed that Irish should be an essential matirculation subject in the new Catholic universities.
17: Constantinople: The first meeting of the new legislature took place but then the problem of the minorities raised itself. Armenians, Macedonians and Albanians had all supported the Young Turks and army revolts in the hope of decentralisation and eventual independence. However the majority of the Young Turks were ardent nationalists who wanted reforms for themselves and the Empire, not for minorities. Meanwhile, the conservative elements plotted and waited.
21
The Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act passed allowing local authorities to build houses and to establish funds to support home construction.
26
Jack Johnson became the first black to win the Heavyweight Boxing title when he defeated Tommy Burns, in Sydney, Australia.
31: Martin Sheridan from Co.Mayo wins two gold medals in the free discus and Greek discus at the London Olympic games.
The Tubercuolsis Prevention (Ireland) Act establishes TB hospitals throughout Ireland.
Hits of 1908: ‘Shine on harvest moon’ & ‘Oh Oh Antonio’.
“The Wind in the Willows” by Keneth Grahame, the secretary of the Bank of England is published.
Sinn Fein formally declared it’s formation, constitution etc.
They adopted a double policy of political independence and economic prosperity.
Problems developed between Arthur Griffith and other members of the executive:
“ ..he fought with Hyde over the place of the National Language, with W.B.Yeats on the role in which the National Thither would play in Ireland, with James Larkin on the possibility that the Trade Union movement would kill the country’s struggling trade and industry”
Mark Tierney. “Modern Ireland” Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p.89
Dr Patrick McCartan elected a member of the Dublin Corporation for the Rotunda Ward, mainly due to I.R.B. influence. He replaced P.T. Daly who was disqualified on the residence qualification.
Griffith was perceived as being too moderate by the extreme nationalist side of the organisation.
McDermott appointed national I.R.B organiser through the assistance of McCullough on the Supreme Council.
Maud Gonne founded a monthly magazine “ Bean na hEireann” which promoted the “Daughters of Ireland” or “Inghinidhe na hEireann.”
Emigration from Ireland for 1908 was 23,295 showing a decrease of 40.39% or 15,787 persons.