News clipping of a Gaelic League conference at 'The Dun', Queen Street. Amongst those attending was Diarmuid Lynch (noted as ex. pres[ident] Gaelic League New York.) Number 3 Fr Matthew Street was once the main nucleus of Cork's revolutionary movement. On what was then known as Queen Street, No.3 was called 'An Grianan' and 'An Dun' and was the headquarters of Cork's Cumann na mBan, Gaelic League, and Na Fianna. The building hosted concerts and lectures, and among those who graced its doors were James Connolly and Countess Markievicz.
January 1910
By 1910, Clan na Gael had some pressing problems – a mixture of membership, money and policy, all of which were interrelated. Being oath-bound and secretive, the Clan could not make any open appeals for finance from the United Irish League or the Anicent Order of Hibernians and so was limited to locally organised fund raising. This was to hamper the organisation right up to 1916. Added to this was the lack of a cohesive and viable programme of action with which to compete with the growing Home Rule movement. The policy of revolutionary activity and Irish Nationalism seemed in dramatic decline in comparison to the growing success of Parliamentary soloutions to the Irish problem.
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.
By 1910 the ITGWU was claiming 3,000 members and was admitted to the Irish Trade Union Congress. It quickly established a name for itself as an aggressive defender of its members and as a union that refused to make shoddy deals over the workers' heads.
1: Lloyd George reading the Budget says it will ‘drive hunger forever from the hearths of the poor’. The first wireless broadcast of opera was made from the Metropolitan Opera House New York with tenor Enrico Caruso.
8: For the first time in a British election, the German military threat became an election issue.
Eamon De Valera and Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin were married on January 8 1910.
14: John T Ryan writing to John Devoy, shows the anxious hope that the British Liberal Government may be defeated:‘If the results show the Conservative gains to such an extent as to forecaste the deafeat of the Liberals, the policy of the Parliamentary Party will have proved to be runious and will give an excellent opportuntity for…pointing out the folly of this program and further calling attention to the fact that under no circumstances was there a chance for Ireland’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
Despite some of these hopes that the Irish Parliamentary Party would be seperated from the Liberals,
it was not to be.
Arthur Griffith as President of Sinn Fein writing in the United Irishman ‘The 103 Irishmen are faced with 567 foreigners [ in the House of Commons ]…ten years hence, the majority of Irishmen will marvel they once believed that the proper battleground for Ireland was one chosen and filled by Ireland’s enemies..’
15: Parliament dissolved shortly after Lloyd George called the peers ‘Broken bottles stuck on a park wall to keep off poachers’. Taxes on beer, spirits, tobacco and cars lifted as no budget had been passed
The New York Times viewed the protests of Ulster’s Unionists as ‘a pretty discreditable piece of party trickery’
18: Halley’s Comet becomes visible to Astronomers.
22:
As the Irish Parliamentary Party grew in power and prestige, the comparative decline in Irish revolutionary nationalists at home and in America was equally marked.
John T Keating, one of the three members of Clan na Gael Revolutionary Directory, wrote to John Devoy of his concern at the organisations decline ‘Nearly ten years of struggle and we are reaching what seems to be the end…another period of mere negative policy seems to be before us and will kill us if too much prolonged. Worst of all I can see no alternative within our reach’‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
26:Prime Minister Asquith rescued by police as he was mobbed by suffragettes.
An anti-Home Rule demonstration in Liverpool was attended by over 50,000.
The Unionist Association of Ireland dispatched 324 General Election workers to Britain for the January election, but distibuted over 6 million leaflets in Britain warning of the dangers of Home Rule.
Arthur Griffith’s daily ‘Sinn Fein’ returned to weekly publication due to poor sales and lack of investment.
McCartan writing to McGarrity in Philadelphia commented on the situation with Sinn Fein:
‘I should not be surprised if the movement also collapses either now or in the near future. The men who make movements a success here will not in the future have confidence in Griffith on acocunt of his intrigues with O’Brien, and the moderates – the decent men of them – will dread him on account of his unscrupulous and malignant attacks on every man who differs with him.’
McCartan continued, commenting that Griffith ‘has antagonised every element that counts for much in a movement of any kind and whether his recognised ability will tend to make people overlook his other faults is a question that only time can answer.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P26.
For those involved with the Republican movement, times were difficult . Police harrasement was commonplace. Hobson was earning £1 a week writing a history of a private school, McCullough was traveling through the country tuning pianos ‘and the police call when he leaves a family or private house and make all sorts of enquiries about him in order to frightent he people out of employign him again’ McCartan wrote to McGarrity. McGarrity now offered Hobson the use of his farm in Carrickmore but Hobson readily admitted he knew little about general farming and that others believed he would have been blacklisted by the local clergy if he took the offer up. In a letter to McGarrity, he commented that the Sinn Fein Executive gave no leadership. While there was some talk of Hobson and McDermott going into a business partnership, the plans foundered as they lacked the necessary capital of £100.
The IRB Supreme Council in 1910 comprised of:
Ulster Dennis McCullough
Connaught John MacBride
Leinster Fred Allan
Munster M.F.Crowe
England –S P.S.O’Hegarty
England – N S. Barrett (Manchester)
SC Garrity
Co-opted: Thomas Clarke & Miceal Cowley.
Interview with Miceal Cowley by Diarmuid Lynch November 1, 1936. Lynch Family Archives 36-00028
General Election
from The Irish Times January 26th 1910
ANOTHER UNIONIST WAVE.
NET GAINS OF NINE SEATS.
FOURTH VICTORY IN ULSTER.
INDEPENDENT NATIONALIST PARTY.
The declaration of Monday's pollings gave another high-water mark to the flowing tide of Unionism. There were contests in 29 seats, and in ten cases the Unionists attack on Liberals was successful.
The turnover represented by the Unionist victories will be better understood by the following table, which shows how the contested seats stood at the dissolution, and how they now stand:
At the dissolution . . . 8 (U.), 17 (L), 1 (Lab), 3 (N).
New Parliament . . . . 18 (U), 8 (L), 1 (Lab), 2 (N).
One of the gains is from the Nationalists in Mid-Tyrone, where Mr. Brunskill scored the fourth gain for the Unionists in Ulster. In two divisions of Cork the Independent Nationalists defeated the United Irish League candidates, and their return brings the strength of the Independent party up to a figure which justifies its separate tabulation in the analysis of the election.
Tuesday's polling results began rather badly for the Unionists. The figures in eight contests were announced, and of these the Liberals gained two seats - both in Lanarkshire - but against this slight set-back we have to record a handsome Unionist gain in East Renfrewshire. The Unionist gains now number 113, and the Liberal and Labour gains from Unionists 16. The net Unionists gain of 97, counts 194 votes on a division, and reduces the Liberal majority of 336 at the dissolution to 142, including all the Nationalists. The position of the parties now is:
Unionists . . . . . . . . . 238
Liberals . . . . . . . . . . 212
Labour . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Nationalists . . . . . . . . 63
Independent Nationalists . . . 7
Total Elected - - - - - - - 557
To be Elected - - - - - - - 113
28:In Ireland, the Irish Parliamentary Party lost some ground, but returned 70 MPs. The new House of Commons political balance was precarious, 275 Liberals, 273 Conservatives and 40 new members from the Labour Party. Redmond and the Irish Party now holding the balance of power, agreed a deal with Asquith that in return for the Irish Party support on the House of Lords veto powers issue, the Liberal government would introduce a Home Rule Bill at the earliest opportunity. However, the 11 Independent Nationalists ( O’Brien-Healy Group ) thereatened the balance of power. As a group, they were more concerned with land and economic reform than Home Rule. Home Rule Leaders in America such as Michael J Ryan, Alexander O’Sullivan and Patrick Egan sent optomistic congratulations to John Redmond, but the American Ambassador to Britain saw otherwise. ‘Certainly this gives him [ Asquith ] no new mandate and no increased power with which to reform the House of Lords or enact HomeRule’ combined with the reality that Unionists in Ulster were prepared ‘to arm themselves and declare that they intend to meet any demand to set up a Dublin Parliament over them, by organised armed force’‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p16
February 1910
1: Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen murdered his wife with hyoscine and buried her in their basement, telling friends she had left him.
9: The first Australian warship ‘The Parramatta” was launched in Glasgow.
Austria-Hungary came to a cautious agreement with Russia to maintain the status-quo in the Balkans, since neither of them wanted another crisis – but neither of them had reckoned on the Balkan nations themselves.
14: Churchill becomes Home Secretary
21: Sir Edward Carson replaces Walter Long as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Irish American lobby groups were continuining to seek support from both Democrats and Republicans – with Patrick Egan advising Redmond that when former President Theodore Roosevelt would be passing through Britain in the early summer, that Dublin’s Lord Mayor should extend an official invitation. ‘such an invitation would be universally appreciated as a compliment to America and greatly help our cause – which even already is becoming fashionable’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p17
The O’Rahilly investigated the possibility of developing a turf industry in Ireland and approached the German firm of Buchau Wolf for a quotation on a briquette making plant. The company advised that an initial outlay of £20,000 would not be cost-effective, particularly as houshold coal was selling for around £1.50 a ton.
March 1910
10: China: The Imperial Government abolished slavery.
12: Timothy Harrington, Home Rule politician dies aged 59.
17: President William Howard Taft attended the St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the Irish Fellowship Club, a society of ‘highly succesful and respectable Chicago Irish Americans…his presence…represented official recognition and marked the degree of respectability that Irish Americans had achieved….for the first time since the 1880’s, Irish Americans merited the attention of national political figures.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p17
21: London: The British Government introduces a bill to abolish the Lords power of veto.
Disagreements and disunity within the Irish Political scene was both exagerated and magnified amongst Irish Americans, with factions diluting the effort and response. To counter this, Michael J Ryan, one of the pro-Home Rule Irish American leaders proposed to ‘amalgamate all Irish societies in the United States into a ‘federation’ which would smother small splinter groups under the weight of the majority’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p15
31: William O’Brien founds All For Ireland League in the Cork City Hall.
April 1910
Tom and Kathleen Clark rented a shop with accomodation overhead at 77 Amiens Street, leaving their first shop at # 55.
5: France: Kissing banned on French railways.
15: US: population up 21% on 1889 to 92 million.
21: Samuel Langhorne Clemens – alias Mark Twain dies aged 74.
27: The re-introduced ‘People’s Budget’ passed by the House of Commons.
30: The ‘peoples Budget’ was passed by the Lords without division.
May 1910
6: King Edward VII died aged 69 and his son, George took over as George V. At his funeral, all the crowned heads of Europe gathered for what was to be the last gathering of it’s kind.
Seven Sinn Fein members of Dublin Corporation voted against sending a message of condolence to George V. Public opinion was that a young and inexperienced monarch should not be subjected to the trauma of a full scale constitutional conflict, and so both Liberal and Conservative leaders began a private consultation to break the deadlock over the House of Lords.
7: The Abbey Theatre Dublin refuses to close in mourning for the King and as a result, it’s benefactor Ms Anne Horniman withdraws all financial support.
20: A celestial visitor made it’s 76 year return cycle. Halley’s Comet was visible over the Irish skies passing at it’s closest to earth at 13 million miles.
28: Russian Government orders Jews to leave Kiev.
In London, the 19 year old Michael Collins moved from the Post Office to a stockbroking firm, Horne and Co. in Moorgate Street where he was to remain for four years.
The biennial Clan na Gael convention took place. The I.R.B sent Fr. Eugene Sheehy, the bane of the Irish Hierarchy ( jailed during the Land League, suspended by his Bishop and only reinstated after a long fight. ) and received persmission from the Clan Executive to ‘speak for the Home organisation and also solicit subscriptions for the Wolf Tone Monument Association.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P36
June 1910
1: Captain Robert Scott and his ship the ‘Terra Nova’ left London bound for New Zealand and the Antartic in an effort to conquer the South Pole. The craft heavily laden with supplies, including 1,120 lbs of tobacco and 30,000 cigars. After their departure, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen announced he would also be mounting an expedition to be the first to reach the Pole.
Former President Roosevelt, returning to the US via England after a much publicised hunting trip in Africa, lunched at Westminster with Redmond, T.P.O’Connor and several Irish MPs.
22: Count Von Zeppelin’s new airship ‘Deutschland’ is the first to fly with fare paying passengers. 6 days later it crashed and was wrecked in the Teutoburg forrest.
23: The Senate of the new National University made Irish a compulsory matriculation subject from 1913.
Diarmuid Lynch returned to Cork and transferred from the Dublin Bartholomew Teeling Circle to the Cork City Circle, where
‘His sterling worth and organisational ability were at once recognised’ by the circle’s centre; Sean O’Hegarty.
A younger membership base within the I.R.B was growing and exerting its influence. P.T. Daly, the elderly, conservative Secretary of the organisation was expelled for allegedly misusing American funds. The Pro-Redmondite Irish-American group “ United Irish League of America” was now responsible for collecting the majority of funds for political work in Ireland. The I.R.B’s annual fund raising from America were limited to some £300 per year.
The I.R.B method of recruiting had been notorious in the 1860’s, porous and transparent. It now became virtually impossible to infiltrate. Prospective members were subjected to a thorough scrutiny so as to make equally impossible for infiltration or for information to leak out.
Official belief was that the I.R.B had sunk into indolence and apathy.
“ ..the general belief was that the I.R.B. was long dead and gone...even our good friends in other organisations were under the same impression..”
Diarmuid Lynch to Geraldine Dillon ( Joseph Plunkett’s sister ) 1946. Diarmuid Lynch papers, National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(8)
The ‘All For Ireland League’was founded by William O’Brien after he broke with the United Irish League following its rejection of his call for a conference on the Irish Question. The Motto was ‘Conference, Conciliation, Consent’ believing that only through a conference of all interested parties could a solution be found. This was not acceptable to the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond or the majority of his party. It became the strongest party in Cork city and county. The League opposed partition with saying ‘All for Ireland, Ireland for all’.
Tom Clarke succeded in raising funds to start a sepreratist newspaper and a committee was formed including Sean MacDiarmada, Dr. McCartan, Bulmer Hobson, Ernest Blyth, Denish McCullough and Tom Clark. ‘A monthly paper was decided upon. The policy laid down for it was that it was to be sepratist and the priciples of Wolfe Tone were to be its guiding ones…it was to be called Irish Freedom. Sean MacDiarmada was appointed manager and McCartan acted as editor for a time; they had a small office in Findlater Place. The first issue came out in October, 1910….usually there was a meeting once a month, when selections were made from the many contributors, all free. Later they took an office at 12 D’Olier Street and Bulmer Hobson took over the editorship…from the start of Irish Freedom, the work towards the Rising began, and those connected with it had a fair idea of their ultimate aim. Most of the work was voluntary; men turned into the office after their day’s work was done to give a helping hand, particularly on publishing day, and to do the dispatch work. Sean O’Casey was one of the voluntary workers in the early days…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P41
* Time blurs dates in some recollections. The first issue of Irish Freedom was the 15th November 1910, priced at one penny. The original office address was 7 Synnot Place and annual subscriptions ‘post free for 1s 6d ‘. A handbill reproduced in ‘Devoy’s PostBag Volume 2 p.352/353 announcing the first issue calls for ‘the assistance of all Irishmen who believe that the teachings and sacrifices of those who strove to win the complete independence of Ireland should nto be forgotten, is earnestly invited’
The first issue’s lead article put the paper in the tradition of Tone, Emmet and Mitchell ..’Like them we stand for an Irish Republic’ It’s first editorial set the pace for the next 12 years ‘The big and succesful tyrannies will not last for ever – they are already crumbling – and the task before you is to plant the standard of Irish Freedom on the ruins of English rule in Ireland.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P26.
Nationalistic feeling at the time was limited. Kathleen Clarke described it as ‘apathy was the order of the day nationally at that time…the majority of the older people were hopeless; they were wedded to the Irish Parliamentary Party, and lived on the hope of all that the party was going to do for Ireland. If one talked to them about fighting for freedom, they would point to the failures of the various risings, and how hopeless it was to try and fight the British Empire…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P41/42
St Enda’s school moved to the Hermitage in Rathfarnham and became a boarding school
26 July: James Connolly returns to Ireland as an organiser of Jim Larkin’s Irish Transport and General Workers Union
( ITGWU ) and for the Socialist Party of Ireland. He wrote a Marxist interpretation of the Irish past in “Labour in Irish History”. Although a committed Catholic, he was mobbed in Cork on the grounds that the party represented atheism.
A new monthy paper with clear sepratist policies “Irish Freedom” was founded by Thomas Clarke and Denis McCullough. Dr Patrick McCartan became editor and his first editorial read "The big and successful tyrannies will not last forever. They are already crumbling, and the task before you is to plant the standard of 'Irish Freedom' on the ruins of English rule in Ireland.”
Thomas Clarke opens a tobacco shop in Parnell St. As a prominent revolutionary, he was heavily monitored, “..with as many as seven political detectives on duty outside his little tobacconist shop... his shop was much patronised by British soldiers, not because of any ecumenical welcome they got therein but because both they and the prostitutes with which the city abounded were confined to one side of the street.”
T.P.Coogan - “Ireland since the Rising” Pall Mall Press. 1966. p12.
A ‘Cause Celebre’ the McCann case, which served to remind Ulster Protestants of the possible extent of Catholic power. In this situation, a Belfast Catholic, McCann, deserted his Protestant wife, taking custody of their children. This followed an enforcement of the Papal ‘Ne Temere’ decree of 1908 which declared null and void all mixed religion marriages.
‘This case, skillfully exploited by unionist propagandists, proved to the Protestant in the street how the Papal viper could wriggle it’s way into the nuptial bed. The Protestant Bishop of Down, Dr D’Arcy insisted that Ne Temere ‘ is at this moment a burning question. Under Home Rule it would create a conflagration.’ There were in fact rather few potential opportunities of this sort in Ulster, where little mixed marriage occurred. Those who waxed most indigantly at the insolence of Roman claims also refrained most carefully from producing figures to buttress their fears’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P11
Roger Casement retired as Consul General at Rio de-Janeiro and returns to Britain. In his first communication with John Devoy, he paid for two subscriptions of the Gaelic American for himself and his sister in Ireland. In July, he left England to investigate conditions in the rubber reserves of the Putumayo region of the upper Amazon basin. He stayed there from September 22 to November 16, 1910.
Devoy recalled his occasional ‘small, but always very interesting items of news for him for publication, with brief suggestions as to their bearings on the Irish question….as his address was a British Consulate, I concluded he must be the young scion of an Irish Loyalist family newly converted to Nationalism…’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P408
Casement’s report on the abuses inflicted upon the natives in the Putumayo region was as sharply critical as his indictment of the conditions in the Congo. However, British Foreign circles were impressed with Casement’s report.
In the US, Daniel Cohalan was named with three men as suitable candidates to represent New York in the US Senate.
July 1910
1
‘Only the Irish working class remain as the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland’
James Connolly writing in Labour in Irish History.
US: Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker founded a small tool company in Baltimore.
14: London: Police hunt for Dr. Crippen after a woman’s body found in the cellar of his home.
31: Dr. Crippen became the first crominal to be arrested following information passed by radio. Aboard the SS Montrose with his 28 year old lover, Ethel Le Neve, he aroused the Captains suspicion by ‘holding hands’ with his male companion. The captain, reading reports of the missing Doctor, radioed a report to Britain. Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard took a faster boat, catching up with the Montrose and arrested both.
August 1910
8: Harry Ferguson make the first flight of ‘significant distance’ 3 miles at Dundrum Bay, Newcastle Co Down to win a £100 prize.
10: The House of Lords finally approved the Parliament Bill without amendment and on the 18th it became law. The way was now clear for the long awaited Home Rule legislation that Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party had promised.
The passage of the Parliament Bill caused some concern in Ulster with fears that Home Rule could now be pushed through Parliament. The intention to oppose Home Rule by armed resistance in Ireland took shape in December 1910 when a warning call was sent by the Grand Secretary and Committee of the Grand Lodge in Dublin. At the same time, the Standing Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council asked Viscount Templetown to revive the Unionist Clubs in Ulster which had been formed in 1893 to oppose Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill.
13: Florence Nightingale, the founder of nursing, died aged 90.
14: First eight miles of the Panama Canal opened.
His Grace, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. William J. Walsh wrote, on August 19 1910, to the Lord Mayor of the city complaining about plans to show a film of the 'brutalising' world heavyweight title fight between Johnson and Jeffries during Horse Show Week. "Things being as they are, the cinematograph display will be attended by a crowded audience. That, unfortunately, we cannot help. But we can at all events register a protest about it", he wrote. The show went ahead.
September 1910
8: Rome: Pope Pius X condemned modernism and warned the clergy not to be distracted by newspapers.
11: The 12th Zionist Congress in Germany raised 100,000 marks to purchase land for a Jewish colony in Israel.
He never made it to land but the flight is recognised as the first successful aeroplane flight across the Irish Sea. Robert Loraine flew from Holyhead to Howth on September 11 1910 - his engine cut out six times during the crossing and he landed in the sea a few hundred metres short of the Irish coast.
17: London: a prominent doctor announced that if insanity continues at the current rate, the sane will be outnumbered by 1950.
John Redmond and Devlin travelled to the US to fundraise for the anticipated general election. While T.P.O’Connor had made a similar tour the year before to poor results*, both of the Home Rulers were well received and returned home a month later with some $100,000 for the election fund.
* TP in fact had raised substantial funds with the United Irish League contributing some £10,000. Allegations however surfaced in February 1910 that the visit by O’Connor had in fact been a blind and that most of the funds raised were in fact given by the British Liberal party and that the visit was to induce Irish America to consider an Anglo-American entente so as to strenghten the Liberals.
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.390 Letter from John McBride to John Devoy.
October 1910
1: Jim Larkin released after serving three months in prison for his labour activities.
4: Portugal: Revoloution deposed the Monarchy after 275 years of the House of Braganza. The Republic of Portugal began with the presidency of Joaquim Braga.
7: Portugal: The Provisional Government orders the expulsion of all monks and nuns within 24 hours.
10: Woodrow Wilson, while campaigning for the seat of Govenor of New Jersey, said that Britain would be wise to create a federation that would permit the expression of the national aspirations of the Irish, Welsh and Scots. ‘This voice that has been crying in Ireland…this voice for Home Rule, is a voice which is now supported by the opinion of the world’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p18
17: Portugal: Next to go were the Royal Family as they were banished and all nobility abolished.
20: UK: The larges ship afloat to date, The Olympic launched. She was to be the sister ship of the Olympic.
22: London: Dr Crippen found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
23: Thomas Desmond (1838-1910) Originally from Cobh, Co. Cork. Assisted J.J.Breslin with the Catalpa Rescue of the Fenian Meilitary Prisoners from Fremantle Gaol, Western Australia in 1876. Following the rescue, he moved to San Francisco where he lived until his death. Elected City Sheriff for 1880-81, later became Secretary of the Knights of the Red Branch. Died 23 October 1910. His wake was held in the Knights of the Red Branch Hall in San Francisco. The Gaelic American commenting ‘In his death Ireland loses a devoted and faithful son, and the Clann na Gael one of it’s truest and stunchest members’
Only one member of the Rescue Team and prisoners survived, James Wilson.
30: Switzerland: Jean-Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross died aged 82.
November 1910
First issue of Irish Freedom published. Co-founded and managed by Sean MacDiarmada, published by Thomas J Clarke and editors included Bulmer Hobson and Patrick McCartan.
9: Portugal. The Portugeuse Republic was now recognised by most countries.
16: Sir Edward Carson warned that Ulster would fight any proposals for Irish Home Rule..”By that means, we can maintain our civil and religious liberty’.
18: London: 119 arrested following a Suffragette attack on the House of Commons.
20: Russia: Writer Count Leo Tolstoy dies aged 82.
23: London: Dr Crippen executed for the murder of his wife in February. His girlfriend, Ethel Le Neve survived until 1967, changing her name and hiding her past from he new family. The first inkling they had of ‘Mummy’ and ‘Nan’s connection with Dr Crippen came in 1985 with the 75th anniversary of the trial.
26: London: Balfour warns that behind the single chamber of the House of Commons ‘lurks socialism and Home Rule’
The Liberals in an attempt to gain a majority, dissolved Parliament on November 28th and another general election held. The Liberals only gained 2 seats leaving the Irish Parliamentary Party holding the balance of power.
30: The House of Lords again rejects the Liberal’s Budget, forcing a general election.
December 1910
7: The second general election of the year has resulted in dead heat of 272 seats each to the Liberals and the Tories. Independent Nationalists were reduced from their 11 seats in January down to 8. The Irish Party retained the balance of power.
Sidney Olcott makes the Lad from Old Ireland on location in Killarney, believed to be the first American film made on location outside of the US.
Whitelaw Reid, the US Ambassador to Britian saw the Independent Nationalists as a continuing threat to Irish unity ‘because they are certain to vote with the Unionists on any Irish measure.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p16
The ‘Irish Nation’ ceased publication when it’s plant and offices were seized for debt.
The annual Irish trade show sale was held in the Rotunda. This year, the O’Rahilly organised for Ireland’s first pilot, Harry Ferguson to bring his aircraft to the Rotunda and the plane was put on view in a separate room. For a small charge, vistorrs were ushered in to view it as well as experiencing the roar of the motor as it was started up. Model aircraft were also on sale, promising to fly for 50 yards for just 1 shilling.
10: Liberals annouce that reform of the House of Lords and home rule for Ireland are now on the Liberal Party’s agenda.
22: Lancashire: 350 men and boys killed in a pit explosion in Hutton Coillery near Bolton.
Hits of the year: “Ah, Sweet mystery of Life” and “Chinatown, my Chinatown”.
By 1910, Clan na Gael had some pressing problems – a mixture of membership, money and policy, all of which were interrelated. Being oath-bound and secretive, the Clan could not make any open appeals for finance from the United Irish League or the Anicent Order of Hibernians and so was limited to locally organised fund raising. This was to hamper the organisation right up to 1916. Added to this was the lack of a cohesive and viable programme of action with which to compete with the growing Home Rule movement. The policy of revolutionary activity and Irish Nationalism seemed in dramatic decline in comparison to the growing success of Parliamentary soloutions to the Irish problem.
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.
By 1910 the ITGWU was claiming 3,000 members and was admitted to the Irish Trade Union Congress. It quickly established a name for itself as an aggressive defender of its members and as a union that refused to make shoddy deals over the workers' heads.
1: Lloyd George reading the Budget says it will ‘drive hunger forever from the hearths of the poor’. The first wireless broadcast of opera was made from the Metropolitan Opera House New York with tenor Enrico Caruso.
8: For the first time in a British election, the German military threat became an election issue.
Eamon De Valera and Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin were married on January 8 1910.
14: John T Ryan writing to John Devoy, shows the anxious hope that the British Liberal Government may be defeated:‘If the results show the Conservative gains to such an extent as to forecaste the deafeat of the Liberals, the policy of the Parliamentary Party will have proved to be runious and will give an excellent opportuntity for…pointing out the folly of this program and further calling attention to the fact that under no circumstances was there a chance for Ireland’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
Despite some of these hopes that the Irish Parliamentary Party would be seperated from the Liberals,
it was not to be.
Arthur Griffith as President of Sinn Fein writing in the United Irishman ‘The 103 Irishmen are faced with 567 foreigners [ in the House of Commons ]…ten years hence, the majority of Irishmen will marvel they once believed that the proper battleground for Ireland was one chosen and filled by Ireland’s enemies..’
15: Parliament dissolved shortly after Lloyd George called the peers ‘Broken bottles stuck on a park wall to keep off poachers’. Taxes on beer, spirits, tobacco and cars lifted as no budget had been passed
The New York Times viewed the protests of Ulster’s Unionists as ‘a pretty discreditable piece of party trickery’
18: Halley’s Comet becomes visible to Astronomers.
22:
As the Irish Parliamentary Party grew in power and prestige, the comparative decline in Irish revolutionary nationalists at home and in America was equally marked.
John T Keating, one of the three members of Clan na Gael Revolutionary Directory, wrote to John Devoy of his concern at the organisations decline ‘Nearly ten years of struggle and we are reaching what seems to be the end…another period of mere negative policy seems to be before us and will kill us if too much prolonged. Worst of all I can see no alternative within our reach’‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
26:Prime Minister Asquith rescued by police as he was mobbed by suffragettes.
An anti-Home Rule demonstration in Liverpool was attended by over 50,000.
The Unionist Association of Ireland dispatched 324 General Election workers to Britain for the January election, but distibuted over 6 million leaflets in Britain warning of the dangers of Home Rule.
Arthur Griffith’s daily ‘Sinn Fein’ returned to weekly publication due to poor sales and lack of investment.
McCartan writing to McGarrity in Philadelphia commented on the situation with Sinn Fein:
‘I should not be surprised if the movement also collapses either now or in the near future. The men who make movements a success here will not in the future have confidence in Griffith on acocunt of his intrigues with O’Brien, and the moderates – the decent men of them – will dread him on account of his unscrupulous and malignant attacks on every man who differs with him.’
McCartan continued, commenting that Griffith ‘has antagonised every element that counts for much in a movement of any kind and whether his recognised ability will tend to make people overlook his other faults is a question that only time can answer.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P26.
For those involved with the Republican movement, times were difficult . Police harrasement was commonplace. Hobson was earning £1 a week writing a history of a private school, McCullough was traveling through the country tuning pianos ‘and the police call when he leaves a family or private house and make all sorts of enquiries about him in order to frightent he people out of employign him again’ McCartan wrote to McGarrity. McGarrity now offered Hobson the use of his farm in Carrickmore but Hobson readily admitted he knew little about general farming and that others believed he would have been blacklisted by the local clergy if he took the offer up. In a letter to McGarrity, he commented that the Sinn Fein Executive gave no leadership. While there was some talk of Hobson and McDermott going into a business partnership, the plans foundered as they lacked the necessary capital of £100.
The IRB Supreme Council in 1910 comprised of:
Ulster Dennis McCullough
Connaught John MacBride
Leinster Fred Allan
Munster M.F.Crowe
England –S P.S.O’Hegarty
England – N S. Barrett (Manchester)
SC Garrity
Co-opted: Thomas Clarke & Miceal Cowley.
Interview with Miceal Cowley by Diarmuid Lynch November 1, 1936. Lynch Family Archives 36-00028
General Election
from The Irish Times January 26th 1910
ANOTHER UNIONIST WAVE.
NET GAINS OF NINE SEATS.
FOURTH VICTORY IN ULSTER.
INDEPENDENT NATIONALIST PARTY.
The declaration of Monday's pollings gave another high-water mark to the flowing tide of Unionism. There were contests in 29 seats, and in ten cases the Unionists attack on Liberals was successful.
The turnover represented by the Unionist victories will be better understood by the following table, which shows how the contested seats stood at the dissolution, and how they now stand:
At the dissolution . . . 8 (U.), 17 (L), 1 (Lab), 3 (N).
New Parliament . . . . 18 (U), 8 (L), 1 (Lab), 2 (N).
One of the gains is from the Nationalists in Mid-Tyrone, where Mr. Brunskill scored the fourth gain for the Unionists in Ulster. In two divisions of Cork the Independent Nationalists defeated the United Irish League candidates, and their return brings the strength of the Independent party up to a figure which justifies its separate tabulation in the analysis of the election.
Tuesday's polling results began rather badly for the Unionists. The figures in eight contests were announced, and of these the Liberals gained two seats - both in Lanarkshire - but against this slight set-back we have to record a handsome Unionist gain in East Renfrewshire. The Unionist gains now number 113, and the Liberal and Labour gains from Unionists 16. The net Unionists gain of 97, counts 194 votes on a division, and reduces the Liberal majority of 336 at the dissolution to 142, including all the Nationalists. The position of the parties now is:
Unionists . . . . . . . . . 238
Liberals . . . . . . . . . . 212
Labour . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Nationalists . . . . . . . . 63
Independent Nationalists . . . 7
Total Elected - - - - - - - 557
To be Elected - - - - - - - 113
28:In Ireland, the Irish Parliamentary Party lost some ground, but returned 70 MPs. The new House of Commons political balance was precarious, 275 Liberals, 273 Conservatives and 40 new members from the Labour Party. Redmond and the Irish Party now holding the balance of power, agreed a deal with Asquith that in return for the Irish Party support on the House of Lords veto powers issue, the Liberal government would introduce a Home Rule Bill at the earliest opportunity. However, the 11 Independent Nationalists ( O’Brien-Healy Group ) thereatened the balance of power. As a group, they were more concerned with land and economic reform than Home Rule. Home Rule Leaders in America such as Michael J Ryan, Alexander O’Sullivan and Patrick Egan sent optomistic congratulations to John Redmond, but the American Ambassador to Britain saw otherwise. ‘Certainly this gives him [ Asquith ] no new mandate and no increased power with which to reform the House of Lords or enact HomeRule’ combined with the reality that Unionists in Ulster were prepared ‘to arm themselves and declare that they intend to meet any demand to set up a Dublin Parliament over them, by organised armed force’‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p16
February 1910
1: Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen murdered his wife with hyoscine and buried her in their basement, telling friends she had left him.
9: The first Australian warship ‘The Parramatta” was launched in Glasgow.
Austria-Hungary came to a cautious agreement with Russia to maintain the status-quo in the Balkans, since neither of them wanted another crisis – but neither of them had reckoned on the Balkan nations themselves.
14: Churchill becomes Home Secretary
21: Sir Edward Carson replaces Walter Long as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Irish American lobby groups were continuining to seek support from both Democrats and Republicans – with Patrick Egan advising Redmond that when former President Theodore Roosevelt would be passing through Britain in the early summer, that Dublin’s Lord Mayor should extend an official invitation. ‘such an invitation would be universally appreciated as a compliment to America and greatly help our cause – which even already is becoming fashionable’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p17
The O’Rahilly investigated the possibility of developing a turf industry in Ireland and approached the German firm of Buchau Wolf for a quotation on a briquette making plant. The company advised that an initial outlay of £20,000 would not be cost-effective, particularly as houshold coal was selling for around £1.50 a ton.
March 1910
10: China: The Imperial Government abolished slavery.
12: Timothy Harrington, Home Rule politician dies aged 59.
17: President William Howard Taft attended the St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the Irish Fellowship Club, a society of ‘highly succesful and respectable Chicago Irish Americans…his presence…represented official recognition and marked the degree of respectability that Irish Americans had achieved….for the first time since the 1880’s, Irish Americans merited the attention of national political figures.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p17
21: London: The British Government introduces a bill to abolish the Lords power of veto.
Disagreements and disunity within the Irish Political scene was both exagerated and magnified amongst Irish Americans, with factions diluting the effort and response. To counter this, Michael J Ryan, one of the pro-Home Rule Irish American leaders proposed to ‘amalgamate all Irish societies in the United States into a ‘federation’ which would smother small splinter groups under the weight of the majority’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p15
31: William O’Brien founds All For Ireland League in the Cork City Hall.
April 1910
Tom and Kathleen Clark rented a shop with accomodation overhead at 77 Amiens Street, leaving their first shop at # 55.
5: France: Kissing banned on French railways.
15: US: population up 21% on 1889 to 92 million.
21: Samuel Langhorne Clemens – alias Mark Twain dies aged 74.
27: The re-introduced ‘People’s Budget’ passed by the House of Commons.
30: The ‘peoples Budget’ was passed by the Lords without division.
May 1910
6: King Edward VII died aged 69 and his son, George took over as George V. At his funeral, all the crowned heads of Europe gathered for what was to be the last gathering of it’s kind.
Seven Sinn Fein members of Dublin Corporation voted against sending a message of condolence to George V. Public opinion was that a young and inexperienced monarch should not be subjected to the trauma of a full scale constitutional conflict, and so both Liberal and Conservative leaders began a private consultation to break the deadlock over the House of Lords.
7: The Abbey Theatre Dublin refuses to close in mourning for the King and as a result, it’s benefactor Ms Anne Horniman withdraws all financial support.
20: A celestial visitor made it’s 76 year return cycle. Halley’s Comet was visible over the Irish skies passing at it’s closest to earth at 13 million miles.
28: Russian Government orders Jews to leave Kiev.
In London, the 19 year old Michael Collins moved from the Post Office to a stockbroking firm, Horne and Co. in Moorgate Street where he was to remain for four years.
The biennial Clan na Gael convention took place. The I.R.B sent Fr. Eugene Sheehy, the bane of the Irish Hierarchy ( jailed during the Land League, suspended by his Bishop and only reinstated after a long fight. ) and received persmission from the Clan Executive to ‘speak for the Home organisation and also solicit subscriptions for the Wolf Tone Monument Association.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P36
June 1910
1: Captain Robert Scott and his ship the ‘Terra Nova’ left London bound for New Zealand and the Antartic in an effort to conquer the South Pole. The craft heavily laden with supplies, including 1,120 lbs of tobacco and 30,000 cigars. After their departure, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen announced he would also be mounting an expedition to be the first to reach the Pole.
Former President Roosevelt, returning to the US via England after a much publicised hunting trip in Africa, lunched at Westminster with Redmond, T.P.O’Connor and several Irish MPs.
22: Count Von Zeppelin’s new airship ‘Deutschland’ is the first to fly with fare paying passengers. 6 days later it crashed and was wrecked in the Teutoburg forrest.
23: The Senate of the new National University made Irish a compulsory matriculation subject from 1913.
Diarmuid Lynch returned to Cork and transferred from the Dublin Bartholomew Teeling Circle to the Cork City Circle, where
‘His sterling worth and organisational ability were at once recognised’ by the circle’s centre; Sean O’Hegarty.
A younger membership base within the I.R.B was growing and exerting its influence. P.T. Daly, the elderly, conservative Secretary of the organisation was expelled for allegedly misusing American funds. The Pro-Redmondite Irish-American group “ United Irish League of America” was now responsible for collecting the majority of funds for political work in Ireland. The I.R.B’s annual fund raising from America were limited to some £300 per year.
The I.R.B method of recruiting had been notorious in the 1860’s, porous and transparent. It now became virtually impossible to infiltrate. Prospective members were subjected to a thorough scrutiny so as to make equally impossible for infiltration or for information to leak out.
Official belief was that the I.R.B had sunk into indolence and apathy.
“ ..the general belief was that the I.R.B. was long dead and gone...even our good friends in other organisations were under the same impression..”
Diarmuid Lynch to Geraldine Dillon ( Joseph Plunkett’s sister ) 1946. Diarmuid Lynch papers, National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(8)
The ‘All For Ireland League’was founded by William O’Brien after he broke with the United Irish League following its rejection of his call for a conference on the Irish Question. The Motto was ‘Conference, Conciliation, Consent’ believing that only through a conference of all interested parties could a solution be found. This was not acceptable to the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond or the majority of his party. It became the strongest party in Cork city and county. The League opposed partition with saying ‘All for Ireland, Ireland for all’.
Tom Clarke succeded in raising funds to start a sepreratist newspaper and a committee was formed including Sean MacDiarmada, Dr. McCartan, Bulmer Hobson, Ernest Blyth, Denish McCullough and Tom Clark. ‘A monthly paper was decided upon. The policy laid down for it was that it was to be sepratist and the priciples of Wolfe Tone were to be its guiding ones…it was to be called Irish Freedom. Sean MacDiarmada was appointed manager and McCartan acted as editor for a time; they had a small office in Findlater Place. The first issue came out in October, 1910….usually there was a meeting once a month, when selections were made from the many contributors, all free. Later they took an office at 12 D’Olier Street and Bulmer Hobson took over the editorship…from the start of Irish Freedom, the work towards the Rising began, and those connected with it had a fair idea of their ultimate aim. Most of the work was voluntary; men turned into the office after their day’s work was done to give a helping hand, particularly on publishing day, and to do the dispatch work. Sean O’Casey was one of the voluntary workers in the early days…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P41
* Time blurs dates in some recollections. The first issue of Irish Freedom was the 15th November 1910, priced at one penny. The original office address was 7 Synnot Place and annual subscriptions ‘post free for 1s 6d ‘. A handbill reproduced in ‘Devoy’s PostBag Volume 2 p.352/353 announcing the first issue calls for ‘the assistance of all Irishmen who believe that the teachings and sacrifices of those who strove to win the complete independence of Ireland should nto be forgotten, is earnestly invited’
The first issue’s lead article put the paper in the tradition of Tone, Emmet and Mitchell ..’Like them we stand for an Irish Republic’ It’s first editorial set the pace for the next 12 years ‘The big and succesful tyrannies will not last for ever – they are already crumbling – and the task before you is to plant the standard of Irish Freedom on the ruins of English rule in Ireland.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P26.
Nationalistic feeling at the time was limited. Kathleen Clarke described it as ‘apathy was the order of the day nationally at that time…the majority of the older people were hopeless; they were wedded to the Irish Parliamentary Party, and lived on the hope of all that the party was going to do for Ireland. If one talked to them about fighting for freedom, they would point to the failures of the various risings, and how hopeless it was to try and fight the British Empire…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P41/42
St Enda’s school moved to the Hermitage in Rathfarnham and became a boarding school
26 July: James Connolly returns to Ireland as an organiser of Jim Larkin’s Irish Transport and General Workers Union
( ITGWU ) and for the Socialist Party of Ireland. He wrote a Marxist interpretation of the Irish past in “Labour in Irish History”. Although a committed Catholic, he was mobbed in Cork on the grounds that the party represented atheism.
A new monthy paper with clear sepratist policies “Irish Freedom” was founded by Thomas Clarke and Denis McCullough. Dr Patrick McCartan became editor and his first editorial read "The big and successful tyrannies will not last forever. They are already crumbling, and the task before you is to plant the standard of 'Irish Freedom' on the ruins of English rule in Ireland.”
Thomas Clarke opens a tobacco shop in Parnell St. As a prominent revolutionary, he was heavily monitored, “..with as many as seven political detectives on duty outside his little tobacconist shop... his shop was much patronised by British soldiers, not because of any ecumenical welcome they got therein but because both they and the prostitutes with which the city abounded were confined to one side of the street.”
T.P.Coogan - “Ireland since the Rising” Pall Mall Press. 1966. p12.
A ‘Cause Celebre’ the McCann case, which served to remind Ulster Protestants of the possible extent of Catholic power. In this situation, a Belfast Catholic, McCann, deserted his Protestant wife, taking custody of their children. This followed an enforcement of the Papal ‘Ne Temere’ decree of 1908 which declared null and void all mixed religion marriages.
‘This case, skillfully exploited by unionist propagandists, proved to the Protestant in the street how the Papal viper could wriggle it’s way into the nuptial bed. The Protestant Bishop of Down, Dr D’Arcy insisted that Ne Temere ‘ is at this moment a burning question. Under Home Rule it would create a conflagration.’ There were in fact rather few potential opportunities of this sort in Ulster, where little mixed marriage occurred. Those who waxed most indigantly at the insolence of Roman claims also refrained most carefully from producing figures to buttress their fears’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P11
Roger Casement retired as Consul General at Rio de-Janeiro and returns to Britain. In his first communication with John Devoy, he paid for two subscriptions of the Gaelic American for himself and his sister in Ireland. In July, he left England to investigate conditions in the rubber reserves of the Putumayo region of the upper Amazon basin. He stayed there from September 22 to November 16, 1910.
Devoy recalled his occasional ‘small, but always very interesting items of news for him for publication, with brief suggestions as to their bearings on the Irish question….as his address was a British Consulate, I concluded he must be the young scion of an Irish Loyalist family newly converted to Nationalism…’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P408
Casement’s report on the abuses inflicted upon the natives in the Putumayo region was as sharply critical as his indictment of the conditions in the Congo. However, British Foreign circles were impressed with Casement’s report.
In the US, Daniel Cohalan was named with three men as suitable candidates to represent New York in the US Senate.
July 1910
1
‘Only the Irish working class remain as the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland’
James Connolly writing in Labour in Irish History.
US: Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker founded a small tool company in Baltimore.
14: London: Police hunt for Dr. Crippen after a woman’s body found in the cellar of his home.
31: Dr. Crippen became the first crominal to be arrested following information passed by radio. Aboard the SS Montrose with his 28 year old lover, Ethel Le Neve, he aroused the Captains suspicion by ‘holding hands’ with his male companion. The captain, reading reports of the missing Doctor, radioed a report to Britain. Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard took a faster boat, catching up with the Montrose and arrested both.
August 1910
8: Harry Ferguson make the first flight of ‘significant distance’ 3 miles at Dundrum Bay, Newcastle Co Down to win a £100 prize.
10: The House of Lords finally approved the Parliament Bill without amendment and on the 18th it became law. The way was now clear for the long awaited Home Rule legislation that Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party had promised.
The passage of the Parliament Bill caused some concern in Ulster with fears that Home Rule could now be pushed through Parliament. The intention to oppose Home Rule by armed resistance in Ireland took shape in December 1910 when a warning call was sent by the Grand Secretary and Committee of the Grand Lodge in Dublin. At the same time, the Standing Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council asked Viscount Templetown to revive the Unionist Clubs in Ulster which had been formed in 1893 to oppose Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill.
13: Florence Nightingale, the founder of nursing, died aged 90.
14: First eight miles of the Panama Canal opened.
His Grace, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. William J. Walsh wrote, on August 19 1910, to the Lord Mayor of the city complaining about plans to show a film of the 'brutalising' world heavyweight title fight between Johnson and Jeffries during Horse Show Week. "Things being as they are, the cinematograph display will be attended by a crowded audience. That, unfortunately, we cannot help. But we can at all events register a protest about it", he wrote. The show went ahead.
September 1910
8: Rome: Pope Pius X condemned modernism and warned the clergy not to be distracted by newspapers.
11: The 12th Zionist Congress in Germany raised 100,000 marks to purchase land for a Jewish colony in Israel.
He never made it to land but the flight is recognised as the first successful aeroplane flight across the Irish Sea. Robert Loraine flew from Holyhead to Howth on September 11 1910 - his engine cut out six times during the crossing and he landed in the sea a few hundred metres short of the Irish coast.
17: London: a prominent doctor announced that if insanity continues at the current rate, the sane will be outnumbered by 1950.
John Redmond and Devlin travelled to the US to fundraise for the anticipated general election. While T.P.O’Connor had made a similar tour the year before to poor results*, both of the Home Rulers were well received and returned home a month later with some $100,000 for the election fund.
* TP in fact had raised substantial funds with the United Irish League contributing some £10,000. Allegations however surfaced in February 1910 that the visit by O’Connor had in fact been a blind and that most of the funds raised were in fact given by the British Liberal party and that the visit was to induce Irish America to consider an Anglo-American entente so as to strenghten the Liberals.
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.390 Letter from John McBride to John Devoy.
October 1910
1: Jim Larkin released after serving three months in prison for his labour activities.
4: Portugal: Revoloution deposed the Monarchy after 275 years of the House of Braganza. The Republic of Portugal began with the presidency of Joaquim Braga.
7: Portugal: The Provisional Government orders the expulsion of all monks and nuns within 24 hours.
10: Woodrow Wilson, while campaigning for the seat of Govenor of New Jersey, said that Britain would be wise to create a federation that would permit the expression of the national aspirations of the Irish, Welsh and Scots. ‘This voice that has been crying in Ireland…this voice for Home Rule, is a voice which is now supported by the opinion of the world’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p18
17: Portugal: Next to go were the Royal Family as they were banished and all nobility abolished.
20: UK: The larges ship afloat to date, The Olympic launched. She was to be the sister ship of the Olympic.
22: London: Dr Crippen found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
23: Thomas Desmond (1838-1910) Originally from Cobh, Co. Cork. Assisted J.J.Breslin with the Catalpa Rescue of the Fenian Meilitary Prisoners from Fremantle Gaol, Western Australia in 1876. Following the rescue, he moved to San Francisco where he lived until his death. Elected City Sheriff for 1880-81, later became Secretary of the Knights of the Red Branch. Died 23 October 1910. His wake was held in the Knights of the Red Branch Hall in San Francisco. The Gaelic American commenting ‘In his death Ireland loses a devoted and faithful son, and the Clann na Gael one of it’s truest and stunchest members’
Only one member of the Rescue Team and prisoners survived, James Wilson.
30: Switzerland: Jean-Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross died aged 82.
November 1910
First issue of Irish Freedom published. Co-founded and managed by Sean MacDiarmada, published by Thomas J Clarke and editors included Bulmer Hobson and Patrick McCartan.
9: Portugal. The Portugeuse Republic was now recognised by most countries.
16: Sir Edward Carson warned that Ulster would fight any proposals for Irish Home Rule..”By that means, we can maintain our civil and religious liberty’.
18: London: 119 arrested following a Suffragette attack on the House of Commons.
20: Russia: Writer Count Leo Tolstoy dies aged 82.
23: London: Dr Crippen executed for the murder of his wife in February. His girlfriend, Ethel Le Neve survived until 1967, changing her name and hiding her past from he new family. The first inkling they had of ‘Mummy’ and ‘Nan’s connection with Dr Crippen came in 1985 with the 75th anniversary of the trial.
26: London: Balfour warns that behind the single chamber of the House of Commons ‘lurks socialism and Home Rule’
The Liberals in an attempt to gain a majority, dissolved Parliament on November 28th and another general election held. The Liberals only gained 2 seats leaving the Irish Parliamentary Party holding the balance of power.
30: The House of Lords again rejects the Liberal’s Budget, forcing a general election.
December 1910
- Germany: Census shows population now at 64.9 million.
7: The second general election of the year has resulted in dead heat of 272 seats each to the Liberals and the Tories. Independent Nationalists were reduced from their 11 seats in January down to 8. The Irish Party retained the balance of power.
Sidney Olcott makes the Lad from Old Ireland on location in Killarney, believed to be the first American film made on location outside of the US.
Whitelaw Reid, the US Ambassador to Britian saw the Independent Nationalists as a continuing threat to Irish unity ‘because they are certain to vote with the Unionists on any Irish measure.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p16
The ‘Irish Nation’ ceased publication when it’s plant and offices were seized for debt.
The annual Irish trade show sale was held in the Rotunda. This year, the O’Rahilly organised for Ireland’s first pilot, Harry Ferguson to bring his aircraft to the Rotunda and the plane was put on view in a separate room. For a small charge, vistorrs were ushered in to view it as well as experiencing the roar of the motor as it was started up. Model aircraft were also on sale, promising to fly for 50 yards for just 1 shilling.
10: Liberals annouce that reform of the House of Lords and home rule for Ireland are now on the Liberal Party’s agenda.
22: Lancashire: 350 men and boys killed in a pit explosion in Hutton Coillery near Bolton.
Hits of the year: “Ah, Sweet mystery of Life” and “Chinatown, my Chinatown”.