January 1911
An undated letter to Michael Lynch on ‘St Colman’s Health Insurance Society’ paper January 1911 titled ‘Landlord’s Ten Commandments’:
‘Dear Michael.
I often laugh of you since we met in Cork when I got bruised on Xmas Day. I said I would write those prayers. I hope you are enjoying health and also hope the old school mates are well. I will write to them soon.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
In the U.S., Daniel F Cohalan was appointed a Judge on the Supreme Court bench of the State of New York and was elected to a full term of 14 years. His speaking style was described as ‘direct, simple, forceful...his logic is inexorable...’
Judge Rooney in an ‘Appreciation of Daniel F Cohalan’ The Gaelic American. November 23, 1946. Lynch Family Archives.
Another crisis over Morocco erupted in early 1911, when the French sent troops to the Moroccan capital, Fes, to rescue the sultan, who was besieged in the city after a tribal uprising. Germany assumed that this was the precursor of a French takeover of Morocco, and demanded colonial compensation from France in return for Germany's agreement to a French protectorate over Morocco. To back up her demands, Germany dispatched a gunboat, the Panther, to the south Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911.
This further German challenge to the French again led to British intervention on the side of France: on July 21, 1911, in a speech at the Mansion House, London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, warned Germany against going too far in pressuring the French for compensation. After this speech, France stiffened her attitude to Germany's demands, and tension mounted as the Germans blamed Britain for French intransigence. During the summer Britain began to prepare for war with Germany. However, during the autumn a financial crisis in Berlin, together with the German emperor's unwillingness to go to war over Morocco, led to a Franco-German compromise on November 4, 1911, whereby France secured her protectorate over Morocco in return for transferring to Germany two strips of land in the French Congo.
7
Politicians are still politicians, irrespective of the year in which they sat on the benches. On this date, the Prime Minsister, Asquith announced that he intended to include provision for salaries for all members of the House of Commons in the next budget. Assuming that this would be a small, nominal sum, the Irish MP’s in Westminster ( both Nationalist and Unionist ) passed a resolution that the money allocated to them be spent instead on some useful purpose in Ireland. On May 16th, it was annoucned that the individual salary would be £400 a year - quite a considerable sum in those days - and the earlier resolution was quietly dropped.
Tom Clarke met with Pearse for the first time and organised for him to speak at the Robert Emmett commeration.
Americans increasingly considered the question of Irish self-Government within the British Empire, and proposed federal soloutions drawn from their own political experience.
The Chicago Citizen, echoing the majority views of Irish Americans commented ‘We Irish in America would be glad to hear that England had suffered defeat and disaster at the hands of Germany’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p215
The Irish Times demanded an inquiry into the failures of the Dublin City Council and remarked that without changes in local policy ‘the slums of Dublin will still be there whether we get Home Rule or not’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p48
Richard Strauss completed his opera Rosenkavalier.
9
Sir James Criag speaking against Home Rule in the House of Commons: ‘There is a spirit spereading abroad which I can testify to from my personal knowldege that Germany and the German Emperor would be preferred to the rule of John Redmond, Patrick Ford and the Molly Mguires [ i.e. the Ancient Order of Hibernians ]
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p25
10: Perth, Western Australia: The last of the Fenian’s, James Kiely who had been left behind in Fremantle Gaol in the Catalpa rescue 1876, was now living rough in a tent in the suburbs of Perth. Kiely was a well known public figure nonetheless, having held pride of place at the head of the St Patrick’s Day procession and was given the use of a cottage together with Thomas Duggan who was in ailing health, and whom he nursed.
17: Former President Roosevelt wrote to T.P.Gill of the Department of Agricultre in Dublin: ‘I believe that the grant of Home Rule to Ireland would be of very great importance in removing one source of friction between the United States and Great Britain.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p19
Roosevelt was also of the opinion that the reason why the Irish had not fully assimiliated into American society was because of the ‘Irish Question’.
In Belfast, the largest Protestant demonstration to date was held to protest against the ‘Nec Temere’ papal pronoucnement on mixed marriages. In Dublin, a similar protest was held, calling on freedom of interference from any church with those married in accordance with civil laws.
21: US – Anti-Taft Republicans elected Robert La Follette from Wisconsin as their leader and founded the ‘Progressive Party’ with the intentions of running for President in 1912.
23: The Ulster Womens Unionist Council fired the first shot in the battle against Home Rule with a resoloution declaring that ‘ we will stand by our husbands, our brothers, and our sons in whatever steps they may be forced to take in defending our liberties against the tyranny of Home Rule’
Orangemen revived an old slogan written in 1886 by Lord Randolph Churchill ‘Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right’.
Alf Smith ( 1873-1944 ) became the New York State Assembly majority leader. With origins in and representing a tenement district of New York City, he was sensitive to the needs of his constituents. As a reformer he was greatly influenced by the city's 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire, a disaster in which 146 workers, most of them female, lost their lives. Spurred on by Smith, the legislature launched an investigation, headed by Robert F. Wagner, Sr., of factory conditions. Smith worked closely with social reformers and sponsored bills to regulate the wages and hours of women and children, provide increased workers' compensation, and enforce sanitary, health, and fire standards.
February 1911
4: Granig: Margaret Lynch amended her last will and testament in the offices of Solicitor Maurice Healy. Her husband Timothy died on 28 December 1890 without making alterations to their will dated 28th October 1882. One of the trustees of the original will, William Cashman had died in the interim and the other, Jeremiah Ahern made clear that he did not intend to make any appointment under the provisions of the deed. Margaret therefore took responsibility of the property and made the following amendment: ‘I will bequeath and appoint the said two farms and all farming stock, horses,pigs, carts and cars, household furniture, farming implements, dairy utensils, crops in and above ground and other goods, chattels and effects in or upon or forming part of the equipment of the said farms but not including monies or securities for money or those herinafter specifically mentioned; to my son Daniel Joseph Lynch..’
So with Dan inheriting the farm, Margaret went on to bequeath £500 to her daughter Mary ‘as soon after my decease as possible’, the sum of £600 to Timothy, £600 to Michael, £150 to Dennis and £150 to Diarmuid. Piano and china sets also went to Mary along with all the remainder not accounted for to Mary, Timothy and Michael in equal shares. The executors were to be Timothy and Daniel along with William Ahern of Annacarriga, Minane Bridge. The will remained unchanged until 7th June 1913.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1: 1890-1914 – 00005
6: Ronald Wilson Reagan, future Hollywood Actor and US President (1980-88) born.
9: Churchill speech declaring British fleet a necessity and a German fleet a luxury
10: Thomas Clarke in a letter to John Devoy mentioned..’We have secured the Mansion House for 22 June [ Coronation Day ] to hold a nationalist demonstration – by way of celebrating Wolfe Tone’s birthday…I think we will be able to get..the Lord Mayor to preside and some of us will try to get every available man in Dublin to line up in opposition to ‘the enemy’…that of course is all on the quiet for the present…Jer Lynch [ Diarmuid Lynch ] of the Gaelic League New York, at present is in Cork City and doing well managing the seed and hardware dept. of the biggest firm in that line in Cork…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.396
15
John Redmond stated during a debate in the House of Commons on the King’s Speech that no Catholic Irishman would ever accept a settlement of the Home Rule question which would involve any oppression of Protestants. As was rightly pointed out at the time, was this official confirmation that there could or would be oppression should Ireland be granted Home Rule?
24:
Germany: The Reichstag votes to increase the German Army to 515,000.
Carson became leader of the Irish Unionist Mps at Westminster and head of the Ulster Unionist Council.
( Carson, a wealthy Dublin lawyer and more famous as the prosecuting counsel for Lord Alfred Douglas Home against Oscar Wilde. Considered a fine orator with a sense of the dramatic.)
Asquith passed the “Parliament Act” which effectively broke the power of the House of Lords in defying bills passed by the House of Commons. While this allowed the House of Lords to hold a bill for up to 2 years but when presented for a third time, consent would have to be granted. This removed ‘the last parliamentary bulwark against Home Rule legislation for Ireland…(but) outraged Irish Unionists, whose infuriated reaction to the threat of home rule unleashed violence into twentieth century Irish politics’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990.
In Ulster, the Unionist opposition to any proposed Home Rule began to gather momentum.
March 1911
3: Dublin: Robert Emmet commeration.
9: London – Government announces plans to build five more battleships for the Royal Navy. British plans for B.E.F. mobilization in event of British intervention in general contintental war ready (schedule of mobilization)
24: A Sinn Fein meeting attended by Arthur Griffith, Countess Markievicz and the O’Rahilly, expressed the views that no loyal address should be presented to King George V on his Irish visit and a body named the United Nationalist Socities was formed to co-ordinate anti-Royal visit activities. O’Rahilly offered himself as the honorary secretary.
‘A Monster meeting of the citizens of Dublin in Beresford Place, to demonstrate that many of them were oppose to any address of welcome to the British soverign. The meeting was fixed for 22 June 191, the same day as the new King was to be crowned in Westinster Abbey.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p75
25: New York: the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, a sweatshop in which immigrant women and girls worked in conditions close to slavery, burned down, killing 146 – mostly trapped in the building. This loss of life pushed reforms for workers and factory conditions.
26: American playwright Tennesse Williams born. ( d. 25 February 1983 )
April 1911
1: Titanic launched in Belfast.
2: Census is taken throughout Ireland.
The 1911 census of Ireland held a declared population of 4.39 million comprised of 91% Catholic. 250,000 of the population in the Southern counties were Protestant Anglo-Irish, and while holding reduced political power since the franschise acts & land legislation of the 1880’s held far greater wealth and social status. 891,000 Protestants & 691,000 Catholics lived in the Ulster counties. In the Armed Forces stationed in Ireland, 24% of the soldiers and 13% of the Officers were Catholic.
As for litteracy: 9.2% of the population over 9 years of age was illiterate. Leinster showed the lowest rates of illeteracy in the four provinces with 6.8%, the highest in Connaught with 15.2%.
3: A move to present a loyal address from Dublin Corporation was defeated 42 to 9. Dr Patrick McCartan cabled John Devoy with the news.
4: US – the Massachussets State legislature refuses women the right to vote.
As Cork Corporation prepared to present a loyal address to the King, a National Vigilance Committee was formed to protest the action. Black flags were raised over the City Hall and National Monument. The next Sunday, handbills were posted in various parts of the city detailing the names of the corporation members who had voted for the presentation.
11: Home Rule bill is introduced in the House of Commons.
21: The Parliament Bill first introduced in the House of Commons in April 1910 is re-introcudced. This Bill radically curtails the powers of the House of Lords to veto legislation.
30: Portugal gives women the vote.
May 1911
4: Lloyd George introduced the National Health Insurance Bill.
6: Major John McBride invited John Devoy to attend the 22 June protest in the Mansion House:
‘I know it is extremely difficult for you to get away, but if you would manage to come your visit would do an immense amount of good and clear the air over here considerably…your presence and words will do more to stire up our people than that of any man alive. The prospect of a Home Rule Bill seems to have muddled the brains of a considerable number of them…men that were fairly staunch and independent a few years ago are now something akin to blitering idiots and hold up their hands in hloy terror is one ventures to question the good faith of the Liberal Government and the great British democracy. However there is good material here and the younger men are inclined to be sturdy. All that is needed is a man of your standing and experience to give a lead….of course you will understand ..that we unfortunately could not cover the expenses of your trip, but I am sure our friends over there will see the importance of your visit from a national point of view and do the needful…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.396-7
John Devoy cabled that he was unable to attend. McBride next requested that Colonel Ric Burke be induced to visit
21: French occupy Fez (Morocco)
27: First issue of the Irish Worker, organ of the ITGWU, published. Edited by James Larkin, sales averaged 20,000 per issue Published until supressed in Dec 1914 but later revived for 2 years in 1930 by James Larkin Jnr.
Larkin’s ‘Call to Arms’ appeared, writing that during the recent skirmish between
‘..labour and capitalism in Ireland, you got a foretaste of how your bowelless masters regard you. Their kept press spewed foul lies, innuendoes, and gave space to the knaves of our own class for the purpose of garotting our glorious movement. At present you spend your live sin sordid labour and have your abode in filthy slums; your children hunger, and your masters say your slavery must endure for ever. If you would come out of bondage yourself must forge the weapons and fight the grim battle.’
Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p14
31: SS Titanic launched from the Haarland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.
June 1911
In Tracton. Michael Lynch became ‘Centre’ of a small I.R.B. circle covering Tracton & Minane Bridge to Kinsale. Membership was only five: Tadg Lynch, Kinsale, Miceal Breatneach, Kinsale, John O’Brien and William O’Brien, Tracton.
Bureau of Military History 1913-1921. Statement by Michael Lynch. Lynch Family Archives.
17: London – Between 40,000 and 60,000 people marched through London calling for votes for women.
20: London - Roger Casement was awarded a Knighthood in the King’s Birthday honours list.
21: Casement wiritng to Stopford Green on his Knighthood commented ‘Very few can possibly beliebe that I have not worked for this, - for a ‘distinction’ ‘an honour’ or whatever they call it; instead in reality deeply desiring not to get it. Yes, it was Sir E Grey – I had a charming letter from him telling me he did it. But there are many in Ireland will think me a traitor – and when I think of that country and them I feel that I am…you don’t know how I hate the thing..I cannot be happy with the thing..’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p136
22: George V crowned king at Westminster Abbey.
Some 30,000 people gathered in Beresford Place – some claiming it was the largest gathering in Dublin since Parnell’s meeting in Inchichore 20 years before. Letters and telegrams of regret at inability to attend were read from John Devoy and Willie Redmond MP. Speakers included John MacBride, Dr Patrick McCartan, Laurence Ginnell MP, Countess Markievicz, Arthur Griffith, James Connolly and Cathal Brugha. The King's proposed visit to Ireland in July caused some rifts within the I.R.B. when it was decided that no I.R.B. member should publicly propose resolutions hostile to the royal visit.
30: Dublin Employers Federation founded by William Martin Murphy, it’s first president.
The Gaelic League began to increase the visibility and revival of the Irish language. The O’Rahilly targeted the Post Office in Ireland as they were not accepting mail addressed in Irish. One of the Irish MP’s in Westminster was asked to put down a question in the House of Commons to learn why the language of a substantial proportion of the Irish people would not be accepted in addressing mail. The Minister responsible replied that the refusal was reasonable, so the O’Rahilly decided on stronger action.
Messiny named French War Minister
Larkin’s weekly paper circulation had an average readship of 26,000.
July 1911
1
RIC reports on the level of arms held by the civilian population stated that ‘that in nearly every household in Ulster there was a firearm of some description, either shot gun or converted rifle, while in Belfast and the larger towns revolvers were in the possesion of the working classes to a very considerable extent’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P21
An Irish MP in the House of Commons following the coronation of King George V: ‘Our people will receive the King on his coming visit to Ireland with the generosity and hospitality which are traditional with the Irish race; and when the day comes that the King will enter the Irish capital to reopen the ancient Parliament of Ireland we believe he will obrtain from the Irish people a reception as enthuastic as ever welcomed a British monarch in any of his dominions’
Morocco: Another crisis erupted when the French sent troops to the Moroccan capital, Fes, to rescue the sultan, who was besieged in the city after a tribal uprising. Germany assumed that this was the precursor of a French takeover of Morocco, and demanded colonial compensation from France in return for Germany's agreement to a French protectorate over Morocco. To back up her demands, Germany dispatched a gunboat, the Panther, to the south Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911 ostensibly to protect German interests there.
4
In a revolutionary gesture, Countess Markievicz burned the Union Jack at a United National Societies open air meeting to protest against the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s address to welcome King George V and Queen Mary to Ireland. McCartan also ignored the IRB directive on anti-Monarchy protests, and while attending an Emmet Commemoration Concert, jumped on stage and proposed a motion protesting against loyal addresses to the King of England. Tom Clarke second the motion even though he warned McCartan about such action. The motion was passed with ‘great acclaim’.
Dublin Corporation did not vote an address of welcome to the King and surprisingly, neither did the Pembroke UDC, long viewed as a bastion of Unionism
5
23 warships of the Home fleet arrived in Kingstown harbour preceeding the Royal Yacht.
6
The Royal Yacht arrived off the harbour and that night the fleet was illuminated. Meanwhile, O’Rahilly and members of the United Nationalist Socieities erected a large canvas scroll across Grafton Street late on the night of the 6th reading ‘Thou art not conquered yet, dear land’. A proper application had been made to the Planning Department in the Corporation who obliged by lifting the pavement and making the necessary holes, expecting it to be a loyal declaration. Countess Markievitcz recalled: “at 11pm a lorry arrived and we loaded up our burden, and started off in a drizzling rain. There were very few people about; two or three policement looked at the strange little convoy and then followed us but they did not interfere, after some trouble the men got the poles firmly planted and the scroll into position. It made a splendid show. Of course, the enemy pulled it down, but not until quite late the next morning, and it had done it's work. Half Dublin had seen it, it had been photographed and the papers had howled.
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p75
7
The King made his official state entry to Ireland and reviewed 17,000 troops in the Phoenix Park.
During the visit which lasted until July 12, there were no demonstrations or disturbances. The I.R.B organised a march to the grave of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown Churchyard.
Sean O Faolain recalled the visit and the mood in the country ‘I was tremendously proud of belonging to the Empire as were at the time, most Irishmen. I gloried in all its trappings, Kings, Queens, dukes, duchesses, generals, admirals, soldiers, sailors, colonists, conqueros, the lot’.
Michael McCarthy Murrough ‘The Irish Century’ Widenfeld & Nicolson. London 1998 p.56
12
King George V,in an open letter to the Irish people after his visit to Dublin: ‘Without effort and without restraint, and in obedience to what seemed a natural impulse of goodwill, the entire populace, men, women and children, came out into the streets and parks to give us a true Irish welcome.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p25
20:
Dubail-Wilson agreement signed agreeing to British mobilization following intervention, specifiying 150,000 men and 67,000 horses to be landed at Havre, Boulogne and Rouen between 4th-12th day of mobilization and be sent to Mauberge region and ready for action on 13th day
21
This further German challenge to the French again led to British intervention on the side of France: on July 21, 1911, in a speech at the Mansion House, London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, warned Germany against going too far in pressuring the French for compensation. After this speech, France stiffened her attitude to Germany's demands, and tension mounted as the Germans blamed Britain for French intransigence. During the summer Britain began to prepare for war with Germany.
23
Debate on the Parliament Bill in the House of Commons opened with cries of ‘Traitor, Traitor’ as the PM rose to speak. The call was taken up by the Unionists with Carson moving that the debate be adjourned. The Speaker replied ‘with icy politeness that the debate had not yet begun.’ Redmond in turn implored the Irish MPs not to ‘behave like bloody fools’ but a minority led by William O’Brien, began to taunt the apoplectic Unionists. The verbal disturbances continued unabated for 90 minutes with the Speaker loosing control of the Parliament. For the first time in history, the House was adjourned on the grounds that a ‘state of grave disorder had arisen’.
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 65
August 1911
6: US actress, comedienne and producer, Lucille Ball born. ( D. 26.4.89 )
8: Massive riots in Britian as the Government attempted to take a tough line against striking dockers and railway men. Strike began on July 20th by the dockers demanding a minimum wage of 30/ weekly and better working conditions. 200,000 people marched in Liverpool wher much of the city was without electricity. In London, buses were taken off the streets due to shortage of petrol.
10:
The House of Lords passes the Parliament Act, curtailing it’s own powers of veto and opening the way for home rule.
13: Churchill sends Asquith a memorandum analyzing a Euopean war in which Germany atacks France through Belgium and recommends use of British Army to aid France
21: Irish Womens Suffrage Federation founded and incorporating Belfast Women’s Suffrage Society, Irishwomen’s Reform League and Munster Womens Franchise Association.
22: The Mona Lisa stolen from the Louvre, Paris. She would remain missing until December 1913.
The Parliament Act passed through the Commons and when presented in the House of Lords, produced a repeat performance of
what had happened the previous month, with normally sedate and august Lords engaged in an exchange of recriminations and
blame. It passed 131 to 114 with a notable number of lords abstaining. The Parliament Act now removed the power of veto
from the House of Lords, depriving it of power over money bulls and leaves it with suspensory veto of two years and the
maximum duration of Parliament reduced from 7 years to 5.
Redmond still held the balance of power in Westminster and it was now generally believed that Irish Home Rule could not be
delayed beyond two years at most. However, many in Ireland remained displeased and viewed the almost inevitability of Home
Rule as an unwelcome arrangement. Ulster Unionists considered it a sell out.
23: Asquith calls a secret meeting of Imperial Defense Committee asking for prepartion of war plans (Grey, Lloyd George and
Churchill present among others) Gen. Henry Wilson discusses Anglo-French "plans" against German invasion of Belgium and
France
26: Wexford: Two foundries, Pierces and the Star Works, told their staffs "no workman is acceptable if a member of the
ITGWU" The lock-out lasted six months, saw the importation of scabs from England and RIC (police) from Dublin, and the RIC
killing of a worker called Michael Leary. The bosses caved in, though as a face saving exercise they insisted that the strikers
form a different union. This was the Irish Foundry Workers Union (which was affiliated with the ITGWU and two years later
dropped the pretence and became a regular branch).
27: Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm in a speech made in Hamburg stated: ‘No one can dispute with us the place in the sun that is our due.’
Sir Roger Casement circulated privately in Ireland and the US a phamphlet titled ‘The Keeper of the Seas’ arguing that England’s martimime supremacy rested on the possesion of Ireland and that a free Ireland would ensure the freedom of the seas.
30
The Chamber of Commerce called for a link with Grenwich Mean Time throughout Ireland. At this stage, the clocks were 25 minutes behind GMT. This proposal was not adopted until over a year later.
A sculpture by Olive Sheppard ‘The Death of Cuchulainn’ was exhibited for the first time and later chosen as a memorial to the 1916 Rising. Placed in the GPO and unveiled by De Valera on April 25, 1935.
A third crisis, again in Morocco, occurred in 1911 when the German government sent a warship to Agadir in protest against French efforts to secure supremacy in Morocco. After threats of war on both sides, the matter was settled by a colonial compromise between France and Germany in November 1911. Taking advantage of the preoccupation of the Great Powers with the Moroccan question, Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911, hoping to annex the Tripoli region of northern Africa. Because Germany's policy of Drang nach Osten (“drive towards the East”) obliged it to cultivate friendship with Turkey, the Italian attack had the effect of weakening the Triple Alliance and encouraging its enemies.
September 1911
5: The Irish Women Workers Union founded by Delia Larkin as an affiliate of the ITGWU.
14: Russia’s hard-line Pemier – Stolypin assasinated as he sat in a theatre in Kiev with the Tsar.
Stolypin, Piort (1862-1911), conservative politician, initiator of Russian agrarian reforms, and prime minister of Russia from 1906 to 1911, born in Dresden, Saxony. As governor of two Imperial Russian provinces, Grodno (1902) and Saratov (1905), he quickly established himself both as a radical reformer and harsh subduer of peasant insurrection. In May 1906, Tsar Nicholas II, reeling from the fiasco of Bloody Sunday (1905), appointed him Minister of the Interior and in the same year he became President of the Council of Ministers in the first Duma, effectively Russian prime minister. He then presented his agrarian reforms, designed to enhance the economic and political stability of Russia through the creation of small landowners loyal to the Tsar. When these were rejected by the Duma, Stolypin dismissed the government and passed his legislation by executive decree. The so-called reforms were notorious, 3,000 peasant rebels being executed by noose, known as “Stolypin's necktie”. In 1907 Stolypin dismissed the second Duma in order to pass more legislation, this time restricting the electoral franchise of peasants, workers, and national minorities. His autocratic style alienated centre and left politicians, but in 1910 and 1911 he effected further agrarian reforms with the support of the moderate Octobrists, who dominated the third Duma. In September 1911 Stolypin was shot dead by a revolutionary, Dmitry Bogrov, during an opera performance in Kiev.
15: General railway stike in Ireland.
20: Anna Catherine Parnell, sister to Charles Stweart and founder of the Ladies Land League died aged 59.
23 At a demonstration in Craigavon attended by some 50,000, a number of Orange Order Lodges & Unionist Clubs from throughout Ulster paraded their military drill. According to police reports, over 300,000 persons ‘travelled on the road to Craigavon from the City to attend the meeting.’ Carson spoke, warning his listeners: ‘ We must be prepared the morning Home Rule passes, ourselves to become responsible for the government of the Protestant province of Ulster…We will yet defeat the most nefarious conspiracy that has ever been hatched against a free people...we ask or no privildges..we ask for no special rights, but we claim the same rights from the same government as every other part o the British Empire, and Heaven help the men who try to take them from us”
R.McNeil. Ulster’s stand for Union. London 1922. P49-51
The law permitted any two Justices of the Peace to authorise drilling and other military operations, and soon licences were being issued all over Ulster, permitting small local citizen armies to parade.
24
Russia: Future Soviet leader Konstantin Cherneko born. (d. 10.3.85 )
25
In Belfast, a conference of Unionist Clubs and Orange Lodges met and a committee resolved that:
“ ..recognising that the public peace of this country is in great and imminent danger by the reason of the threat to establish a Parlimment in Dublin and knowing that such a step will inevitably lead to disaster to the Empire and absolute ruin to Ireland” it demanded that arrangments should be made for a provisional government in Ulster.
R.McNeil. Ulster’s stand for Union. London 1922. p53.
Supplying arms to Unionist Clubs began early, judging by this comment from the RIC to Dublin Castle:
‘Information was received in the month of September, 1911 that ten cases containing 200 rifles and bayonets, were landed at Leith from Hamburg, for conveyance to Belfast.’ However following Customs discovery, they were unclaimed and returned to Hamburg where ‘they were removed surreptitiously…all trace of them was lost’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P21
Ulster's protest against Home Rule
from The Irish Times 25th September 1911
THE DUTY OF UNIONISTS.
NEED FOR PREPARATION.
THE DUKE OF ABERCORN'S MESSAGE.
ULSTER MERCHANTS' PROTEST.
SPEECHES BY THE EARL OF ERNE, AND MESSRS. SCOTT DICKSON, MP, AND WM. MOORE, MP
(FROM OUR REPORTER.)
BELFAST, Saturday.
Stands Ulster where she did? Has Ulster Unionism weakened since 1886 and 1893? For answer see the message that went forth to-day from the greatest anti-Home Rule demonstration that ever Ulster has seen, that made even the great Convention of 1892 seem parochial. Conjure the sight of seventy thousand Ulster Unionists, with bannerettes floating and hanos playing, marching in unbroken line through the heart of Ireland's industrial capital, through dense crowds of cheering citizens - marching across the Lagan, and on the rustic retreat of one of Ireland's foremost Unionists, and there, in an amphitheatre fashioned by nature herself, protesting as one man against any effort to sever the Union. It was a scene which will never fade from memory, as its import will never be erased from history's page. This solid phalanx that surged on the verdant slopes of Craigavon proclaimed to the world, with trumpet tongue, that, now as ever before "Ulster will not have Home Rule." There need be no doubt about the sincerity of that message. Somebody on the platform, erected in the hollow, sighed for the presence of the members of the Eighty Club who are now in Ireland. He said it would be an object lesson to them in Ulster's determination. Any man, be he from the Eighty Club or the AOH, who failed to grasp the significance of that vast gathering would indeed, be bereft of reason. Grim determination was plainly written on every face in that sea of faces that surrounded the platform. Theirs were the features of men determined to brook no interference with their rights, to countenance no tampering with their cherished institutions. There could be no mistaking their meaning. Their attitude was one of defiance to their foes, and the enthusiasm with which they responded to their leaders' call told how sincere they were to the cause they espoused. It was under such circumstances that the first shot in the Home Rule battle was fired to-day. It reverberated through the hills, it sped across the lough, and Cave Hill sent it out with redoubled force throughout the length and breadth of Ireland, and over the sea to Great Britain, where it will give pause to men who know not what they do.
The only cause of regret was that the Duke of Abercorn, the veteran of previous Home Rule fights, was unable to preside over the historic gathering. He was prevented from doing so owing to the family bereavement he has suffered in the death of Lady Claud Hamilton, but the message which he sent showed that his heart was, as it ever was, in the fight. His place was, however, capably filled by another trusted stalwart, the Earl of Erne, who delivered a speech befitting the occasion. The outstanding figure on the platform was that of Sir Edward Carson, who now leads the Unionist forces in Ireland. He delivered a trenchant speech, thoughtful and inspiring, and it told in no uncertain language that Ulster was ready. He was supported by Mr Charles Scott Dickson, MP; Mr William Moore, MP; Mr McMordie, MP, Lord Mayor of Belfast; the Earl of Leitrim, the Right Hon Thomas Andrews, and other stalwarts of Unionism. The meeting was to have started at half-past three, but it was five o'clock before the proceedings began. The delay was attributable to only one cause - the enormous extent of the procession. It left the City Hall punctually at 1.30 p.m., but it was not until just 5 o'clock that the last section of the procession entered the gates of the demesne. The procession took close on two hours to pass a given point. The order was - first the visiting Orange Lodges, then the Unionist Clubs, and next the County Grand Lodge of Belfast.
The ‘Playboy’ on tour:
Joseph McGarrity, the Clan na Gael District Officer in Philadelphia was responsible for prosecuting the touring Abbey Theatre, for performing ‘an immoral play’. The production which caused all the fuss was Synge’s ‘The Playboy of the Western World’. According to his papers, McGarrity had mixed feelings both about the play and demonstations that were following it.
John Devoy disaproved strongly of the “Playboy”, sharply commenting on it in the pages of the Gaelic American. ‘ He believed it was un-couth and did not give a true picture of the Irish people’. He was amongst the many who disrupted the play on it’s premier in New York shouting ‘Son of a bitch, that’s not Irish’. Both Yeats and John Quinn agreed that ‘Devoy was an old fool’.
John Quinn, an eminent Irish-American lawyer and friend of Yeats and Casement wrote to Cohalan a letter of protest at Devoy’s reaction to the play: ‘..in his paper for weeks and weeks, Devoy railed at the language of the ‘Playboy’ as foul, un-Irish, indecent, blasphemous, and so on…I don’t recognise his credentials as a dramatic or litterary critic…I used to respect and admire him. Now I can’t help feeling that his usefulness is ended.’
Charles Callan Tansill. “America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922” Devin-Adair Company. P 126/127
By the time the play reached Philadelphia, it was notorious. An Irish American delegation to the Mayor’s office failed to halt the production and it was decided to protest against it during the performances. McGarrity rose during the premier saying ‘I protest against this play which is a libel on Irish character and a gross misrepresentation of Irish peasant life’. He was removed from the theatre as others took his place and missiles were hurled on stage. Next day, McGarrity complained in a letter to the Philadelphia newspapers on the play ending with ‘The thing is immoral and blashemeous from start to finish’
All the publicity resulted in packed houses and even more so as the Irish American groups brought legal proceedings against the Abbey Touring Company. John Quinn defended the Abbeycompany with much humour and skill and charges of immorailty were dismissed.
James Larkin began publishing “The Irish Worker and People’s Advocate” , a lively muck-raking journal that soon had a weekly circulation of over 20,000. By comparison, Griffiths “United Irishman” had circulation at the time of over 5,000 copies.
Irish only speakers show a sharp decline - from 64,167 in 1881 to 16,873 in 1911. ( almost 75% )
The emerging power-bloc of the Irish vote in America became more aparent in the run-up to the 1912 Presidential elections. Incumbent President Taft made a more dramatic attempt to win Irish American support when following public pressure, he lobbied for the release of Luke Dillon from a Canadian Prison. Dillon, an old Fenian was serving a sentence for attempting to blow up the locks of the Welland Canal in Ontario to stop supplies going to the British during the Boer War in 1900. His earlier attempts included placing a bomb in the British Houses of Parliament during the Dynamiting Campaign in 1883-4. John T Keating of Clan na Gael commented earlier ‘Taft must do something to please somebody and the Anglo-Americans are his only friends now’. From the autumn of 1911 until the late summer of 1912, Taft stuggled with both the Canadian and British Governments without success. Dillon was released on humanitarian grounds in 1914.
A letter from Dillon to a friend, J.L.Gannon reveal something of the man and the movement for his release: ‘You seem very sanguine of my speedy release but I cannot share your joyful hopes… I know all about trolley cars and railroad trains but am not aquainted with automobiles and admit I might be in danger from them…I will have no trouble in getting ready, as I can easily put all my baggage in one pocket and all my wisdom in the other…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.399-400
28:
Italy: Just like Germany, Italy was also looking for it’s place in the sun and sent an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire demanding a cessation of any attempts to interfere with Italian invlovement with Tripoli. The Ottomans rejected this and Italy declared war and moved on the city.
30: Arthur Griffith’s contnuining opposition to James Larkin raised this response from another Sinn Fein member, Eamon Ceannt: ‘You appear to see Larkin at the botom of all trouble. Sufficient for you is that Larkin is the agitator causing troubles between employer and employed. In a similar manner the English Tory and his Irish allies described irihspoliticians as vile agitators who caused trouble between the good and kind landlors and their willing slaves, the tenant farmers of Ireland.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p25
Larkin’s average readship for his weekly paper peaked at 95,000 before beginning to stabilise at 20,000, ten times the readship of the nationalist weekly ‘Sinn Fein’.
Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p15
October 1911
1: A monument to Parnell is unveiled in Upper Sackville Street. 88 feet high, the foundation stone was laid in October 1899, and unveiled by John Redmond. The sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens received £5,000 for the commission.
7: Arthur Griffith responded to Ceannt’s defence of Larkin on September 30th: ‘In Dublin the wives of some men that Larking has led out on strike are begging in the streets. The consequences of Larkinsim are workless fathers, mourning mothers, hungry children and broken homes.’
11: Italy had by now occupied the coastal towns around Tripoli and consolidated it’s gains over the following months.
25: Churchill becomes First Lord of the Admiralty.
November 1911
A typical Dublin Tenement room in Newmarket Street cost 2/6 per week in rent. Take this sample case printed in the Irish Worker on November 4, 1911: ‘ A family, man and wife, resides in Dame Court. His occupation is that of a tailor but he can earn only 10/ a week. His rent is 2/6 which leaves 7/6 for food, fuel, light, clothes, bedding etc.. Their breakfast consists of dry bread and tea. They have only another meal, dinner and supper combined; it consists of dry bread and tea, herrings and occasionaly porridge’
Dublin 1913 A Divided City. O’Brien Press’83
4: Morocco: With the standoff between France and Germany it looked throughout the summer as if it would be war.
However, during the autumn a financial crisis in Berlin, together with the German emperor's unwillingness to go to war over Morocco, led to a Franco-German compromise on November 4, 1911, whereby France secured her protectorate over Morocco in return for transferring to Germany two strips of land in the French Congo. German thinking was now one that stand-downs would no longer back down.
Yeats and Synge came in for some criticism…
:” The editors, like the patriots of the Boyle O'Reilly Club who fêted him in Boston, took Mr. Yeats at his own none too modest estimation. The United Irish Societies of this city denounced The Playboy, and an advanced Gaelic organ exposed its barbarities, but gave a clean bill of health to Mr. Yeats and the rest of his programme. Doubtless they also had not read the plays they approved. Well, we have read them. We found several among them more vile, more false, and far more dangerous than The Playboy, the bestial depravity of which carries its own condemnation; and we deliberately pronounce them the most malignant travesty of Irish character and of all that is sacred in Catholic life that has come out of Ireland. The details, which are even more shocking than those of The Playboy, are too indecent for citation, but the persistent mendacity of the Yeats press agency's clever conspiracy of puff makes it needful to give our readers some notion of their character.
Of Synge's plays only Riders to the Sea, an un-Irish adaptation to Connacht fishermen of Loti's Pecheurs d'Islande, is fit for a decent audience. None but the most rabidly anti-Catholic, priest-hating bigots could enjoy The Tinkers' Wedding. The plot, which involves an Irish priest in companionship with the most degraded pagans and hinges on his love of gain, may not be even outlined by a self-respecting pen. The open lewdness and foul suggestiveness of the language is so revolting, the picture of the Irish priesthood, drawn by this parson's son, is so vile and insulting, and the mockery of the Mass and sacraments so blasphemous, that it is unthinkable how any man of healthy mind could father it or expect an audience to welcome it. This is the "typical Irish play" which the "Irish Players" have presented to a Boston audience. “
“Our Irish Theatre: a chapter in autobiography” by Lady Gregory. New York: G. Putnam's Sons, 1913. pp. 306-3
6: Maine decides on a state-wide prohibition of alcohol.
8
Balfour announced that he was resigning the leadership of the opposition Conservative-Unionist Party. His record was impressive “ ..he led the party to three defeats...mismanged the budget and the parliament Bill crisis”. Rumour had it that he was too subtle to be effective in the ‘rough and tumble verbal encounters in the House of Commons’. The Party leadership went to Andrew Bonar Law, described by Asquith the Prime Minister as “meekly ambitious”. He was a compromise candidate, between the leader of the Unionists, Long and the Conservative Austen Chamberlain. Born in Canada but raised in Glasgow with an Ulster family background, Bonar Law was anything but ‘meekly ambitious’. He possessed a faculty for ‘vituperative language that flayed his opponents with such severity that few members wished to arouse his enmity’.
Diarmuid Lynch, while involved with the I.R.B. as a member of the Cork City Circle was elected as Divisional Centre for Munster and representative on the Supreme Council, a position he held until the Rising. His immediate ‘contact’ was Cathal Brugha, a sales representative who combined his work with ‘ a roving commission to do I.R.B. organising’ keeping contact with the ‘Centres in various towns and enrolled men as the occasion offered’. Diarmuid’s responsibilities included keeping in contact with the many country ‘centres’ and remaining well briefed on the I.R.B. activities within Munster. He attended Circle meetins when in a locality on business, but at times found that in certain areas ‘ there may not have been in a whole district a single man imbued with republican ideas! Reminiscing many years later in a letter to Florence O'Donoghue, Diarmuid recalled that ‘..it was not my duty to visit circles in the province. When I did pay visits, I was most likely looked on by the men as an ‘organiser’. My actual position would have been known only to the County Centres. Then again my visits to certain districts were, as a rule, both brief and irregular depending on my private business. Except by mere chance, it was impossible for me to locate a probable recruit - this job was necessarily in the hands of the local men. On occasion I got prior information which enabled me to test the qualifications of a probable recruit in some outlying district and to swear him in if I saw fit...
Diarmuid Lynch to Florence O'Donoghue. 20 November 1945.National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(1)
In addition, the rigorous selection and vetting process through which all suitable candidates for membership were put through, often resulted in many potential members loosing the priviledge through lack of tact, probity or if approved, not joining on religious grounds where joining a ‘secret organisation’ had been banned by Rome. While “pastoral letters occasionally warned young men from joining secret socities - the police knew mighty little about the I.R.B...as it was, any men who were prominently identified with Sinn Fein and/or the Volunteers were suspect of being ‘extremist’...’
Diarmuid Lynch to Geraldine Dillon ( Joseph Plunkett’s sister ) 1946. Diarmuid Lynch papers, National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(8)
Once a member, strict regulations were enforced. Speaking about the I.R.B. in public, known as ‘opening your mouth too wide’ left members open ‘perhaps to expulsion’.
Meanwhile the young sepratists within the I.R.B were meeting with some strong opposition from the old conservative guard on the Supreme Council: I.R.B President, Fred Allen, the Treasurer, John O’Hanlon and P.T.Daly. The previous month, the militants had increased their standing on the Supreme Council and found a strong ally in Tom Clarke. McCartan wrote to McGarrity that the opportunities for militancy were great ‘…if Home Rule does not come I believe parliamentarism is dead and damned – and so much the better.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P30
At this stage, the old guard on the Supreme Council moved against the ‘Young Turks’ in its ranks. Fred Allan, who controlled the Wolfe Tone Clubs made a move to take over the ‘Irish Freedom’ newspaper. McCartan commented to McGarrity that the Council ordered ‘the newspaper committee suspended. Tom (Clarke) asked to resign his position and thretened with trial for refusing to do so…the work at present is to kill the paper…don’t know what we may do, but you can tell all concerned that it would be a fight to the finish – may even be public.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P30
Things were to develop further the next month.
13: Andrew Bonar-Law, the Canadian born Glasgow bsuinessman and leader of the Unionist Party became Tory leader, suceeding Balfour.
18:
“The anti-Irish players come to New York on Nov. 20th, and will appear first in some of the other plays. The Playboy, it is announced, will be given later, but the date has not yet been given out. The presentation of the monstrosity is a challenge to the Irish people of New York which will be taken up. There will be no parleying with theatre managers, or appeals to Lady Gregory's sense of decency. The Playboy must be squelched, as the stage Irishman was squelched, and a lesson taught to Mr. Yeats and his fellow-agents of England that they will remember while they live …When a woman chooses to put herself in the company of male blackguards she has no right to appeal for respect for her sex.”
Gaelic American Novermber 18th 1911.
29
While the internal wranglings continued within the IRB, John Devoy wrote to Judge Daniel Cohalan on the fact that while Yeats was strenghtening the spirit of nationalism in Ireland…he overemphasised the contributions of the Gaelic League and the Irish Litterary Theatre…appeared to overlook the important services of the Clan na Gael:
“ Many things are occurring which have chilled my enthusasim for the Gaelic League. The worst is that Yeats has managed to fill every American editor with the idea that his theatre company is a product of the Gaelic League, has Hyde’s endorsement…and we are lectured as being ‘out of touch’ with Ireland by people who never knew Ireland. Hyde lets this go. Until he comes out with a denial, I will personally do no more for the Gaelic League…Hyde is making nonsensical speeches about the Irish having ‘got their land and going to get their nationality’. This is politics and the Gaelic League is supposed to be non-political…Hyde is constantly catering to Redmond, who does nothing for him and whose friends here are hostile to the League. it is time we insisted on being treated seriously..the time of our men is constantly taken up with raising money for the League, to the neglect of our own work…Shane Leslie is a young man of much promise and he may or may not develop. He has much to learn and one of the things ghe must learn quickly is that he must not talk such rot as he talked in Dublin…”
Charles Callan Tansill. “America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922” Devin-Adair Company.
And ‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p30
December 1911
The battle between the ‘progressives’ and ‘reactionaries’ within the I.R.B came to a head with publication of two editions of the Irish Freedom. A McCartan letter to McGarrity details the events:
‘The committee running it [ Irish Freedom ] was suspended by the Eexcutive of the Wolfe Tone Clubs ten days before publication…we decided to change the printers and bring the paper out at all costs. I went at once to our friends in Belfast and Glasgow to warn them of what had taken place…returned to Dublin on Thursday night. Next morning the office was raided by order of ‘Windows’ [ Fred Allan ]. Bulmer was present and as everything was out of the way, he made no resistance.
On Saturday, they went to our printer and threatened him with legal proceedings if he printed our paper…when our friends saw we were determined to keep the paper going, they decided to issue another and it has appeared this evening, but the agents won't handle it as they know us and don’t know them. Ours will be ready by tomorrow morning as usual.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P32
Sean O’Hegarty writing to Diarmuid Lynch 25 years later, gave some insight into the power struggle:
“... There was a row in November 1911 between Allan, O’Hanlon and Crowe on one hand, and McCartan and Hobson on the other. McCullough thinks it was something arising out of ‘Freedom’ and Hobson thinks it was just an attempt by Allan to slow up proceedings generally by slowing up ‘Freedom’. My own very clear impression is that Pat ( Dr. McCartan ) refused to accept a direction given him by the proper authorities of what nature I cannot remember...and they tried to remove him from the editorship of ‘Freedom’. He refused to go with the result there were two issues of ‘Freedom’ for December 1911... I know that a special meeting of the Supreme Council was summoned to deal with it... the matter was investigated by the Council itself... in the end McCartan and Hobson was exonerated and O’Hanlon, Allan and Crowe resigned. I do know it had nothing to do with the Royal visit...’
Diarmuid Lynch papers. 3 Nov 1936. National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(1)
McGarrity’s personal papers holds some further details on the events:
‘A meeting of the paper committee was held in Dublin and both the Doctor [ McCartan ] and Allan were removed for the sake of harmony. Sean MacDermott took the Doctor’s place as editor of Freedom or manager and O’Hegarty of London was made editor. They are both good men and I am glad to see the paper in good hands.’
McGarrity Papers – January 12, 1912. Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P30
Faced with loss of face, both Fred Allan and O’Hanlon resigned from the Supreme Council, thinking that others on the Council would follow suit. They did not, with the result that the progressives were now in control of the I.R.B leadership. Fred Allan died in 1936.
14: Nowegian explorer Roald Amudsen won the race to the South Pole and in a message from there, reported that he had seen no sign of Captain Robert Scott and his party. ‘In a graphic account of jis trek of nearly 2,000 miles at over 10,000 feet, Amudsen makes light of the mountain ranges, treacherous ice and crevasses which he, his four comrades and their dog teams had to cross before making their final dash for the Pole….the approach to the Pole itself was made in fine weather with the final slog being across a vast and apparently endless plain. ..the successul expedition relied entirely on dog-drawn sledges…’
Chronicle of the 20th Century – J.L. Publications, London. 1993. P160
16: The Local Authority (Ireland) (Qualification of Women ) Act is passed and allows women to become members of county and borough councils.
An undated letter to Michael Lynch on ‘St Colman’s Health Insurance Society’ paper January 1911 titled ‘Landlord’s Ten Commandments’:
‘Dear Michael.
I often laugh of you since we met in Cork when I got bruised on Xmas Day. I said I would write those prayers. I hope you are enjoying health and also hope the old school mates are well. I will write to them soon.’
- I am the Landlord who paternally condescends to take charge of all your earnings in the shape of rent.
- Thou shalt not have any other master for use of thy earnings, but be duly paid and delivered to me on every gale day at my offices in order I might live in a state befitting my rank and be sumtously fed without stooping to the ignominimy of labour or knowing the hardships of want.
- Remember thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day by labouring to earn the sacred obligations of rent and win for thyself the poverty and self-denial that is essential to eternal salvation.
- Thou shalt not speak disrespectfully or with covered head to your landlord, his agent, his dogman, his footman, his good mother, his grandmother or murmur against the holy doctrine ‘Obey the Landlord’.
- Thou shalt not kill any hare or set snare for a bord that will visit thy farms, neither shalt thou fish for catch or eat any fish found in the streams that flow through your fields or commit the sacrilegde of doubting the justices of these laws which give more protection to the game of the fields than to those moulded in the image of our Creator.
- Honour thy master the Landlord, that toil may be long in the land of birth and thy steward in some distant day evicition, poor house living or accidental emigration.
- Thou shalt not steal an idle moment from the blessed occupation of labour in my services, neither shall thy children indluge in worldy pleasures of reading books or newspapers nor listen to immoral teachings against my sacred perogatives as thy Landlord and Master.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against my valuation or the valuation of the Archangel Griffith, nether shalt thou speak to the evil agents of the National Land League, a society that is aiming at the destruction of Landlordism, but we will plunge these fanatical supporters into eternal peasant proprietary.
- Thou shalt not violate the great moral upon my estate which forbids the marriage of thy sons and daughters particualrly your daughters until myself or my agent take steps which may be beneficial to us.
- Thou shalt not covet the better condition of labour or sigh for worldly pleasures, welath or comfirt in which lieth evil for both body and soul. Neither shall thou envy me my horse carriages, lands or pleasures but continue to toil from early morning until late at night and rest satisfied with your dogs and blessed ignorance so that your reward may be heaped at your door by a legion of spirits in the uniform of the Royal Irish Constabulary to conduct thee and thy children to the mansion of penetential bliss which the government and myself have prepared for thy use - the jail or the poor house.
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
In the U.S., Daniel F Cohalan was appointed a Judge on the Supreme Court bench of the State of New York and was elected to a full term of 14 years. His speaking style was described as ‘direct, simple, forceful...his logic is inexorable...’
Judge Rooney in an ‘Appreciation of Daniel F Cohalan’ The Gaelic American. November 23, 1946. Lynch Family Archives.
Another crisis over Morocco erupted in early 1911, when the French sent troops to the Moroccan capital, Fes, to rescue the sultan, who was besieged in the city after a tribal uprising. Germany assumed that this was the precursor of a French takeover of Morocco, and demanded colonial compensation from France in return for Germany's agreement to a French protectorate over Morocco. To back up her demands, Germany dispatched a gunboat, the Panther, to the south Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911.
This further German challenge to the French again led to British intervention on the side of France: on July 21, 1911, in a speech at the Mansion House, London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, warned Germany against going too far in pressuring the French for compensation. After this speech, France stiffened her attitude to Germany's demands, and tension mounted as the Germans blamed Britain for French intransigence. During the summer Britain began to prepare for war with Germany. However, during the autumn a financial crisis in Berlin, together with the German emperor's unwillingness to go to war over Morocco, led to a Franco-German compromise on November 4, 1911, whereby France secured her protectorate over Morocco in return for transferring to Germany two strips of land in the French Congo.
7
Politicians are still politicians, irrespective of the year in which they sat on the benches. On this date, the Prime Minsister, Asquith announced that he intended to include provision for salaries for all members of the House of Commons in the next budget. Assuming that this would be a small, nominal sum, the Irish MP’s in Westminster ( both Nationalist and Unionist ) passed a resolution that the money allocated to them be spent instead on some useful purpose in Ireland. On May 16th, it was annoucned that the individual salary would be £400 a year - quite a considerable sum in those days - and the earlier resolution was quietly dropped.
Tom Clarke met with Pearse for the first time and organised for him to speak at the Robert Emmett commeration.
Americans increasingly considered the question of Irish self-Government within the British Empire, and proposed federal soloutions drawn from their own political experience.
The Chicago Citizen, echoing the majority views of Irish Americans commented ‘We Irish in America would be glad to hear that England had suffered defeat and disaster at the hands of Germany’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p215
The Irish Times demanded an inquiry into the failures of the Dublin City Council and remarked that without changes in local policy ‘the slums of Dublin will still be there whether we get Home Rule or not’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p48
Richard Strauss completed his opera Rosenkavalier.
9
Sir James Criag speaking against Home Rule in the House of Commons: ‘There is a spirit spereading abroad which I can testify to from my personal knowldege that Germany and the German Emperor would be preferred to the rule of John Redmond, Patrick Ford and the Molly Mguires [ i.e. the Ancient Order of Hibernians ]
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p25
10: Perth, Western Australia: The last of the Fenian’s, James Kiely who had been left behind in Fremantle Gaol in the Catalpa rescue 1876, was now living rough in a tent in the suburbs of Perth. Kiely was a well known public figure nonetheless, having held pride of place at the head of the St Patrick’s Day procession and was given the use of a cottage together with Thomas Duggan who was in ailing health, and whom he nursed.
17: Former President Roosevelt wrote to T.P.Gill of the Department of Agricultre in Dublin: ‘I believe that the grant of Home Rule to Ireland would be of very great importance in removing one source of friction between the United States and Great Britain.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p19
Roosevelt was also of the opinion that the reason why the Irish had not fully assimiliated into American society was because of the ‘Irish Question’.
In Belfast, the largest Protestant demonstration to date was held to protest against the ‘Nec Temere’ papal pronoucnement on mixed marriages. In Dublin, a similar protest was held, calling on freedom of interference from any church with those married in accordance with civil laws.
21: US – Anti-Taft Republicans elected Robert La Follette from Wisconsin as their leader and founded the ‘Progressive Party’ with the intentions of running for President in 1912.
23: The Ulster Womens Unionist Council fired the first shot in the battle against Home Rule with a resoloution declaring that ‘ we will stand by our husbands, our brothers, and our sons in whatever steps they may be forced to take in defending our liberties against the tyranny of Home Rule’
Orangemen revived an old slogan written in 1886 by Lord Randolph Churchill ‘Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right’.
Alf Smith ( 1873-1944 ) became the New York State Assembly majority leader. With origins in and representing a tenement district of New York City, he was sensitive to the needs of his constituents. As a reformer he was greatly influenced by the city's 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire, a disaster in which 146 workers, most of them female, lost their lives. Spurred on by Smith, the legislature launched an investigation, headed by Robert F. Wagner, Sr., of factory conditions. Smith worked closely with social reformers and sponsored bills to regulate the wages and hours of women and children, provide increased workers' compensation, and enforce sanitary, health, and fire standards.
February 1911
4: Granig: Margaret Lynch amended her last will and testament in the offices of Solicitor Maurice Healy. Her husband Timothy died on 28 December 1890 without making alterations to their will dated 28th October 1882. One of the trustees of the original will, William Cashman had died in the interim and the other, Jeremiah Ahern made clear that he did not intend to make any appointment under the provisions of the deed. Margaret therefore took responsibility of the property and made the following amendment: ‘I will bequeath and appoint the said two farms and all farming stock, horses,pigs, carts and cars, household furniture, farming implements, dairy utensils, crops in and above ground and other goods, chattels and effects in or upon or forming part of the equipment of the said farms but not including monies or securities for money or those herinafter specifically mentioned; to my son Daniel Joseph Lynch..’
So with Dan inheriting the farm, Margaret went on to bequeath £500 to her daughter Mary ‘as soon after my decease as possible’, the sum of £600 to Timothy, £600 to Michael, £150 to Dennis and £150 to Diarmuid. Piano and china sets also went to Mary along with all the remainder not accounted for to Mary, Timothy and Michael in equal shares. The executors were to be Timothy and Daniel along with William Ahern of Annacarriga, Minane Bridge. The will remained unchanged until 7th June 1913.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1: 1890-1914 – 00005
6: Ronald Wilson Reagan, future Hollywood Actor and US President (1980-88) born.
9: Churchill speech declaring British fleet a necessity and a German fleet a luxury
10: Thomas Clarke in a letter to John Devoy mentioned..’We have secured the Mansion House for 22 June [ Coronation Day ] to hold a nationalist demonstration – by way of celebrating Wolfe Tone’s birthday…I think we will be able to get..the Lord Mayor to preside and some of us will try to get every available man in Dublin to line up in opposition to ‘the enemy’…that of course is all on the quiet for the present…Jer Lynch [ Diarmuid Lynch ] of the Gaelic League New York, at present is in Cork City and doing well managing the seed and hardware dept. of the biggest firm in that line in Cork…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.396
15
John Redmond stated during a debate in the House of Commons on the King’s Speech that no Catholic Irishman would ever accept a settlement of the Home Rule question which would involve any oppression of Protestants. As was rightly pointed out at the time, was this official confirmation that there could or would be oppression should Ireland be granted Home Rule?
24:
Germany: The Reichstag votes to increase the German Army to 515,000.
Carson became leader of the Irish Unionist Mps at Westminster and head of the Ulster Unionist Council.
( Carson, a wealthy Dublin lawyer and more famous as the prosecuting counsel for Lord Alfred Douglas Home against Oscar Wilde. Considered a fine orator with a sense of the dramatic.)
Asquith passed the “Parliament Act” which effectively broke the power of the House of Lords in defying bills passed by the House of Commons. While this allowed the House of Lords to hold a bill for up to 2 years but when presented for a third time, consent would have to be granted. This removed ‘the last parliamentary bulwark against Home Rule legislation for Ireland…(but) outraged Irish Unionists, whose infuriated reaction to the threat of home rule unleashed violence into twentieth century Irish politics’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990.
In Ulster, the Unionist opposition to any proposed Home Rule began to gather momentum.
March 1911
3: Dublin: Robert Emmet commeration.
9: London – Government announces plans to build five more battleships for the Royal Navy. British plans for B.E.F. mobilization in event of British intervention in general contintental war ready (schedule of mobilization)
24: A Sinn Fein meeting attended by Arthur Griffith, Countess Markievicz and the O’Rahilly, expressed the views that no loyal address should be presented to King George V on his Irish visit and a body named the United Nationalist Socities was formed to co-ordinate anti-Royal visit activities. O’Rahilly offered himself as the honorary secretary.
‘A Monster meeting of the citizens of Dublin in Beresford Place, to demonstrate that many of them were oppose to any address of welcome to the British soverign. The meeting was fixed for 22 June 191, the same day as the new King was to be crowned in Westinster Abbey.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p75
25: New York: the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, a sweatshop in which immigrant women and girls worked in conditions close to slavery, burned down, killing 146 – mostly trapped in the building. This loss of life pushed reforms for workers and factory conditions.
26: American playwright Tennesse Williams born. ( d. 25 February 1983 )
April 1911
1: Titanic launched in Belfast.
2: Census is taken throughout Ireland.
The 1911 census of Ireland held a declared population of 4.39 million comprised of 91% Catholic. 250,000 of the population in the Southern counties were Protestant Anglo-Irish, and while holding reduced political power since the franschise acts & land legislation of the 1880’s held far greater wealth and social status. 891,000 Protestants & 691,000 Catholics lived in the Ulster counties. In the Armed Forces stationed in Ireland, 24% of the soldiers and 13% of the Officers were Catholic.
As for litteracy: 9.2% of the population over 9 years of age was illiterate. Leinster showed the lowest rates of illeteracy in the four provinces with 6.8%, the highest in Connaught with 15.2%.
3: A move to present a loyal address from Dublin Corporation was defeated 42 to 9. Dr Patrick McCartan cabled John Devoy with the news.
4: US – the Massachussets State legislature refuses women the right to vote.
As Cork Corporation prepared to present a loyal address to the King, a National Vigilance Committee was formed to protest the action. Black flags were raised over the City Hall and National Monument. The next Sunday, handbills were posted in various parts of the city detailing the names of the corporation members who had voted for the presentation.
11: Home Rule bill is introduced in the House of Commons.
21: The Parliament Bill first introduced in the House of Commons in April 1910 is re-introcudced. This Bill radically curtails the powers of the House of Lords to veto legislation.
30: Portugal gives women the vote.
May 1911
4: Lloyd George introduced the National Health Insurance Bill.
6: Major John McBride invited John Devoy to attend the 22 June protest in the Mansion House:
‘I know it is extremely difficult for you to get away, but if you would manage to come your visit would do an immense amount of good and clear the air over here considerably…your presence and words will do more to stire up our people than that of any man alive. The prospect of a Home Rule Bill seems to have muddled the brains of a considerable number of them…men that were fairly staunch and independent a few years ago are now something akin to blitering idiots and hold up their hands in hloy terror is one ventures to question the good faith of the Liberal Government and the great British democracy. However there is good material here and the younger men are inclined to be sturdy. All that is needed is a man of your standing and experience to give a lead….of course you will understand ..that we unfortunately could not cover the expenses of your trip, but I am sure our friends over there will see the importance of your visit from a national point of view and do the needful…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.396-7
John Devoy cabled that he was unable to attend. McBride next requested that Colonel Ric Burke be induced to visit
21: French occupy Fez (Morocco)
27: First issue of the Irish Worker, organ of the ITGWU, published. Edited by James Larkin, sales averaged 20,000 per issue Published until supressed in Dec 1914 but later revived for 2 years in 1930 by James Larkin Jnr.
Larkin’s ‘Call to Arms’ appeared, writing that during the recent skirmish between
‘..labour and capitalism in Ireland, you got a foretaste of how your bowelless masters regard you. Their kept press spewed foul lies, innuendoes, and gave space to the knaves of our own class for the purpose of garotting our glorious movement. At present you spend your live sin sordid labour and have your abode in filthy slums; your children hunger, and your masters say your slavery must endure for ever. If you would come out of bondage yourself must forge the weapons and fight the grim battle.’
Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p14
31: SS Titanic launched from the Haarland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.
June 1911
In Tracton. Michael Lynch became ‘Centre’ of a small I.R.B. circle covering Tracton & Minane Bridge to Kinsale. Membership was only five: Tadg Lynch, Kinsale, Miceal Breatneach, Kinsale, John O’Brien and William O’Brien, Tracton.
Bureau of Military History 1913-1921. Statement by Michael Lynch. Lynch Family Archives.
17: London – Between 40,000 and 60,000 people marched through London calling for votes for women.
20: London - Roger Casement was awarded a Knighthood in the King’s Birthday honours list.
21: Casement wiritng to Stopford Green on his Knighthood commented ‘Very few can possibly beliebe that I have not worked for this, - for a ‘distinction’ ‘an honour’ or whatever they call it; instead in reality deeply desiring not to get it. Yes, it was Sir E Grey – I had a charming letter from him telling me he did it. But there are many in Ireland will think me a traitor – and when I think of that country and them I feel that I am…you don’t know how I hate the thing..I cannot be happy with the thing..’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p136
22: George V crowned king at Westminster Abbey.
Some 30,000 people gathered in Beresford Place – some claiming it was the largest gathering in Dublin since Parnell’s meeting in Inchichore 20 years before. Letters and telegrams of regret at inability to attend were read from John Devoy and Willie Redmond MP. Speakers included John MacBride, Dr Patrick McCartan, Laurence Ginnell MP, Countess Markievicz, Arthur Griffith, James Connolly and Cathal Brugha. The King's proposed visit to Ireland in July caused some rifts within the I.R.B. when it was decided that no I.R.B. member should publicly propose resolutions hostile to the royal visit.
30: Dublin Employers Federation founded by William Martin Murphy, it’s first president.
The Gaelic League began to increase the visibility and revival of the Irish language. The O’Rahilly targeted the Post Office in Ireland as they were not accepting mail addressed in Irish. One of the Irish MP’s in Westminster was asked to put down a question in the House of Commons to learn why the language of a substantial proportion of the Irish people would not be accepted in addressing mail. The Minister responsible replied that the refusal was reasonable, so the O’Rahilly decided on stronger action.
Messiny named French War Minister
Larkin’s weekly paper circulation had an average readship of 26,000.
July 1911
1
RIC reports on the level of arms held by the civilian population stated that ‘that in nearly every household in Ulster there was a firearm of some description, either shot gun or converted rifle, while in Belfast and the larger towns revolvers were in the possesion of the working classes to a very considerable extent’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P21
An Irish MP in the House of Commons following the coronation of King George V: ‘Our people will receive the King on his coming visit to Ireland with the generosity and hospitality which are traditional with the Irish race; and when the day comes that the King will enter the Irish capital to reopen the ancient Parliament of Ireland we believe he will obrtain from the Irish people a reception as enthuastic as ever welcomed a British monarch in any of his dominions’
Morocco: Another crisis erupted when the French sent troops to the Moroccan capital, Fes, to rescue the sultan, who was besieged in the city after a tribal uprising. Germany assumed that this was the precursor of a French takeover of Morocco, and demanded colonial compensation from France in return for Germany's agreement to a French protectorate over Morocco. To back up her demands, Germany dispatched a gunboat, the Panther, to the south Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911 ostensibly to protect German interests there.
4
In a revolutionary gesture, Countess Markievicz burned the Union Jack at a United National Societies open air meeting to protest against the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s address to welcome King George V and Queen Mary to Ireland. McCartan also ignored the IRB directive on anti-Monarchy protests, and while attending an Emmet Commemoration Concert, jumped on stage and proposed a motion protesting against loyal addresses to the King of England. Tom Clarke second the motion even though he warned McCartan about such action. The motion was passed with ‘great acclaim’.
Dublin Corporation did not vote an address of welcome to the King and surprisingly, neither did the Pembroke UDC, long viewed as a bastion of Unionism
5
23 warships of the Home fleet arrived in Kingstown harbour preceeding the Royal Yacht.
6
The Royal Yacht arrived off the harbour and that night the fleet was illuminated. Meanwhile, O’Rahilly and members of the United Nationalist Socieities erected a large canvas scroll across Grafton Street late on the night of the 6th reading ‘Thou art not conquered yet, dear land’. A proper application had been made to the Planning Department in the Corporation who obliged by lifting the pavement and making the necessary holes, expecting it to be a loyal declaration. Countess Markievitcz recalled: “at 11pm a lorry arrived and we loaded up our burden, and started off in a drizzling rain. There were very few people about; two or three policement looked at the strange little convoy and then followed us but they did not interfere, after some trouble the men got the poles firmly planted and the scroll into position. It made a splendid show. Of course, the enemy pulled it down, but not until quite late the next morning, and it had done it's work. Half Dublin had seen it, it had been photographed and the papers had howled.
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p75
7
The King made his official state entry to Ireland and reviewed 17,000 troops in the Phoenix Park.
During the visit which lasted until July 12, there were no demonstrations or disturbances. The I.R.B organised a march to the grave of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown Churchyard.
Sean O Faolain recalled the visit and the mood in the country ‘I was tremendously proud of belonging to the Empire as were at the time, most Irishmen. I gloried in all its trappings, Kings, Queens, dukes, duchesses, generals, admirals, soldiers, sailors, colonists, conqueros, the lot’.
Michael McCarthy Murrough ‘The Irish Century’ Widenfeld & Nicolson. London 1998 p.56
12
King George V,in an open letter to the Irish people after his visit to Dublin: ‘Without effort and without restraint, and in obedience to what seemed a natural impulse of goodwill, the entire populace, men, women and children, came out into the streets and parks to give us a true Irish welcome.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p25
20:
Dubail-Wilson agreement signed agreeing to British mobilization following intervention, specifiying 150,000 men and 67,000 horses to be landed at Havre, Boulogne and Rouen between 4th-12th day of mobilization and be sent to Mauberge region and ready for action on 13th day
21
This further German challenge to the French again led to British intervention on the side of France: on July 21, 1911, in a speech at the Mansion House, London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, warned Germany against going too far in pressuring the French for compensation. After this speech, France stiffened her attitude to Germany's demands, and tension mounted as the Germans blamed Britain for French intransigence. During the summer Britain began to prepare for war with Germany.
23
Debate on the Parliament Bill in the House of Commons opened with cries of ‘Traitor, Traitor’ as the PM rose to speak. The call was taken up by the Unionists with Carson moving that the debate be adjourned. The Speaker replied ‘with icy politeness that the debate had not yet begun.’ Redmond in turn implored the Irish MPs not to ‘behave like bloody fools’ but a minority led by William O’Brien, began to taunt the apoplectic Unionists. The verbal disturbances continued unabated for 90 minutes with the Speaker loosing control of the Parliament. For the first time in history, the House was adjourned on the grounds that a ‘state of grave disorder had arisen’.
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 65
August 1911
6: US actress, comedienne and producer, Lucille Ball born. ( D. 26.4.89 )
8: Massive riots in Britian as the Government attempted to take a tough line against striking dockers and railway men. Strike began on July 20th by the dockers demanding a minimum wage of 30/ weekly and better working conditions. 200,000 people marched in Liverpool wher much of the city was without electricity. In London, buses were taken off the streets due to shortage of petrol.
10:
The House of Lords passes the Parliament Act, curtailing it’s own powers of veto and opening the way for home rule.
13: Churchill sends Asquith a memorandum analyzing a Euopean war in which Germany atacks France through Belgium and recommends use of British Army to aid France
21: Irish Womens Suffrage Federation founded and incorporating Belfast Women’s Suffrage Society, Irishwomen’s Reform League and Munster Womens Franchise Association.
22: The Mona Lisa stolen from the Louvre, Paris. She would remain missing until December 1913.
The Parliament Act passed through the Commons and when presented in the House of Lords, produced a repeat performance of
what had happened the previous month, with normally sedate and august Lords engaged in an exchange of recriminations and
blame. It passed 131 to 114 with a notable number of lords abstaining. The Parliament Act now removed the power of veto
from the House of Lords, depriving it of power over money bulls and leaves it with suspensory veto of two years and the
maximum duration of Parliament reduced from 7 years to 5.
Redmond still held the balance of power in Westminster and it was now generally believed that Irish Home Rule could not be
delayed beyond two years at most. However, many in Ireland remained displeased and viewed the almost inevitability of Home
Rule as an unwelcome arrangement. Ulster Unionists considered it a sell out.
23: Asquith calls a secret meeting of Imperial Defense Committee asking for prepartion of war plans (Grey, Lloyd George and
Churchill present among others) Gen. Henry Wilson discusses Anglo-French "plans" against German invasion of Belgium and
France
26: Wexford: Two foundries, Pierces and the Star Works, told their staffs "no workman is acceptable if a member of the
ITGWU" The lock-out lasted six months, saw the importation of scabs from England and RIC (police) from Dublin, and the RIC
killing of a worker called Michael Leary. The bosses caved in, though as a face saving exercise they insisted that the strikers
form a different union. This was the Irish Foundry Workers Union (which was affiliated with the ITGWU and two years later
dropped the pretence and became a regular branch).
27: Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm in a speech made in Hamburg stated: ‘No one can dispute with us the place in the sun that is our due.’
Sir Roger Casement circulated privately in Ireland and the US a phamphlet titled ‘The Keeper of the Seas’ arguing that England’s martimime supremacy rested on the possesion of Ireland and that a free Ireland would ensure the freedom of the seas.
30
The Chamber of Commerce called for a link with Grenwich Mean Time throughout Ireland. At this stage, the clocks were 25 minutes behind GMT. This proposal was not adopted until over a year later.
A sculpture by Olive Sheppard ‘The Death of Cuchulainn’ was exhibited for the first time and later chosen as a memorial to the 1916 Rising. Placed in the GPO and unveiled by De Valera on April 25, 1935.
A third crisis, again in Morocco, occurred in 1911 when the German government sent a warship to Agadir in protest against French efforts to secure supremacy in Morocco. After threats of war on both sides, the matter was settled by a colonial compromise between France and Germany in November 1911. Taking advantage of the preoccupation of the Great Powers with the Moroccan question, Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911, hoping to annex the Tripoli region of northern Africa. Because Germany's policy of Drang nach Osten (“drive towards the East”) obliged it to cultivate friendship with Turkey, the Italian attack had the effect of weakening the Triple Alliance and encouraging its enemies.
September 1911
5: The Irish Women Workers Union founded by Delia Larkin as an affiliate of the ITGWU.
14: Russia’s hard-line Pemier – Stolypin assasinated as he sat in a theatre in Kiev with the Tsar.
Stolypin, Piort (1862-1911), conservative politician, initiator of Russian agrarian reforms, and prime minister of Russia from 1906 to 1911, born in Dresden, Saxony. As governor of two Imperial Russian provinces, Grodno (1902) and Saratov (1905), he quickly established himself both as a radical reformer and harsh subduer of peasant insurrection. In May 1906, Tsar Nicholas II, reeling from the fiasco of Bloody Sunday (1905), appointed him Minister of the Interior and in the same year he became President of the Council of Ministers in the first Duma, effectively Russian prime minister. He then presented his agrarian reforms, designed to enhance the economic and political stability of Russia through the creation of small landowners loyal to the Tsar. When these were rejected by the Duma, Stolypin dismissed the government and passed his legislation by executive decree. The so-called reforms were notorious, 3,000 peasant rebels being executed by noose, known as “Stolypin's necktie”. In 1907 Stolypin dismissed the second Duma in order to pass more legislation, this time restricting the electoral franchise of peasants, workers, and national minorities. His autocratic style alienated centre and left politicians, but in 1910 and 1911 he effected further agrarian reforms with the support of the moderate Octobrists, who dominated the third Duma. In September 1911 Stolypin was shot dead by a revolutionary, Dmitry Bogrov, during an opera performance in Kiev.
15: General railway stike in Ireland.
20: Anna Catherine Parnell, sister to Charles Stweart and founder of the Ladies Land League died aged 59.
23 At a demonstration in Craigavon attended by some 50,000, a number of Orange Order Lodges & Unionist Clubs from throughout Ulster paraded their military drill. According to police reports, over 300,000 persons ‘travelled on the road to Craigavon from the City to attend the meeting.’ Carson spoke, warning his listeners: ‘ We must be prepared the morning Home Rule passes, ourselves to become responsible for the government of the Protestant province of Ulster…We will yet defeat the most nefarious conspiracy that has ever been hatched against a free people...we ask or no privildges..we ask for no special rights, but we claim the same rights from the same government as every other part o the British Empire, and Heaven help the men who try to take them from us”
R.McNeil. Ulster’s stand for Union. London 1922. P49-51
The law permitted any two Justices of the Peace to authorise drilling and other military operations, and soon licences were being issued all over Ulster, permitting small local citizen armies to parade.
24
Russia: Future Soviet leader Konstantin Cherneko born. (d. 10.3.85 )
25
In Belfast, a conference of Unionist Clubs and Orange Lodges met and a committee resolved that:
“ ..recognising that the public peace of this country is in great and imminent danger by the reason of the threat to establish a Parlimment in Dublin and knowing that such a step will inevitably lead to disaster to the Empire and absolute ruin to Ireland” it demanded that arrangments should be made for a provisional government in Ulster.
R.McNeil. Ulster’s stand for Union. London 1922. p53.
Supplying arms to Unionist Clubs began early, judging by this comment from the RIC to Dublin Castle:
‘Information was received in the month of September, 1911 that ten cases containing 200 rifles and bayonets, were landed at Leith from Hamburg, for conveyance to Belfast.’ However following Customs discovery, they were unclaimed and returned to Hamburg where ‘they were removed surreptitiously…all trace of them was lost’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P21
Ulster's protest against Home Rule
from The Irish Times 25th September 1911
THE DUTY OF UNIONISTS.
NEED FOR PREPARATION.
THE DUKE OF ABERCORN'S MESSAGE.
ULSTER MERCHANTS' PROTEST.
SPEECHES BY THE EARL OF ERNE, AND MESSRS. SCOTT DICKSON, MP, AND WM. MOORE, MP
(FROM OUR REPORTER.)
BELFAST, Saturday.
Stands Ulster where she did? Has Ulster Unionism weakened since 1886 and 1893? For answer see the message that went forth to-day from the greatest anti-Home Rule demonstration that ever Ulster has seen, that made even the great Convention of 1892 seem parochial. Conjure the sight of seventy thousand Ulster Unionists, with bannerettes floating and hanos playing, marching in unbroken line through the heart of Ireland's industrial capital, through dense crowds of cheering citizens - marching across the Lagan, and on the rustic retreat of one of Ireland's foremost Unionists, and there, in an amphitheatre fashioned by nature herself, protesting as one man against any effort to sever the Union. It was a scene which will never fade from memory, as its import will never be erased from history's page. This solid phalanx that surged on the verdant slopes of Craigavon proclaimed to the world, with trumpet tongue, that, now as ever before "Ulster will not have Home Rule." There need be no doubt about the sincerity of that message. Somebody on the platform, erected in the hollow, sighed for the presence of the members of the Eighty Club who are now in Ireland. He said it would be an object lesson to them in Ulster's determination. Any man, be he from the Eighty Club or the AOH, who failed to grasp the significance of that vast gathering would indeed, be bereft of reason. Grim determination was plainly written on every face in that sea of faces that surrounded the platform. Theirs were the features of men determined to brook no interference with their rights, to countenance no tampering with their cherished institutions. There could be no mistaking their meaning. Their attitude was one of defiance to their foes, and the enthusiasm with which they responded to their leaders' call told how sincere they were to the cause they espoused. It was under such circumstances that the first shot in the Home Rule battle was fired to-day. It reverberated through the hills, it sped across the lough, and Cave Hill sent it out with redoubled force throughout the length and breadth of Ireland, and over the sea to Great Britain, where it will give pause to men who know not what they do.
The only cause of regret was that the Duke of Abercorn, the veteran of previous Home Rule fights, was unable to preside over the historic gathering. He was prevented from doing so owing to the family bereavement he has suffered in the death of Lady Claud Hamilton, but the message which he sent showed that his heart was, as it ever was, in the fight. His place was, however, capably filled by another trusted stalwart, the Earl of Erne, who delivered a speech befitting the occasion. The outstanding figure on the platform was that of Sir Edward Carson, who now leads the Unionist forces in Ireland. He delivered a trenchant speech, thoughtful and inspiring, and it told in no uncertain language that Ulster was ready. He was supported by Mr Charles Scott Dickson, MP; Mr William Moore, MP; Mr McMordie, MP, Lord Mayor of Belfast; the Earl of Leitrim, the Right Hon Thomas Andrews, and other stalwarts of Unionism. The meeting was to have started at half-past three, but it was five o'clock before the proceedings began. The delay was attributable to only one cause - the enormous extent of the procession. It left the City Hall punctually at 1.30 p.m., but it was not until just 5 o'clock that the last section of the procession entered the gates of the demesne. The procession took close on two hours to pass a given point. The order was - first the visiting Orange Lodges, then the Unionist Clubs, and next the County Grand Lodge of Belfast.
The ‘Playboy’ on tour:
Joseph McGarrity, the Clan na Gael District Officer in Philadelphia was responsible for prosecuting the touring Abbey Theatre, for performing ‘an immoral play’. The production which caused all the fuss was Synge’s ‘The Playboy of the Western World’. According to his papers, McGarrity had mixed feelings both about the play and demonstations that were following it.
John Devoy disaproved strongly of the “Playboy”, sharply commenting on it in the pages of the Gaelic American. ‘ He believed it was un-couth and did not give a true picture of the Irish people’. He was amongst the many who disrupted the play on it’s premier in New York shouting ‘Son of a bitch, that’s not Irish’. Both Yeats and John Quinn agreed that ‘Devoy was an old fool’.
John Quinn, an eminent Irish-American lawyer and friend of Yeats and Casement wrote to Cohalan a letter of protest at Devoy’s reaction to the play: ‘..in his paper for weeks and weeks, Devoy railed at the language of the ‘Playboy’ as foul, un-Irish, indecent, blasphemous, and so on…I don’t recognise his credentials as a dramatic or litterary critic…I used to respect and admire him. Now I can’t help feeling that his usefulness is ended.’
Charles Callan Tansill. “America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922” Devin-Adair Company. P 126/127
By the time the play reached Philadelphia, it was notorious. An Irish American delegation to the Mayor’s office failed to halt the production and it was decided to protest against it during the performances. McGarrity rose during the premier saying ‘I protest against this play which is a libel on Irish character and a gross misrepresentation of Irish peasant life’. He was removed from the theatre as others took his place and missiles were hurled on stage. Next day, McGarrity complained in a letter to the Philadelphia newspapers on the play ending with ‘The thing is immoral and blashemeous from start to finish’
All the publicity resulted in packed houses and even more so as the Irish American groups brought legal proceedings against the Abbey Touring Company. John Quinn defended the Abbeycompany with much humour and skill and charges of immorailty were dismissed.
James Larkin began publishing “The Irish Worker and People’s Advocate” , a lively muck-raking journal that soon had a weekly circulation of over 20,000. By comparison, Griffiths “United Irishman” had circulation at the time of over 5,000 copies.
Irish only speakers show a sharp decline - from 64,167 in 1881 to 16,873 in 1911. ( almost 75% )
The emerging power-bloc of the Irish vote in America became more aparent in the run-up to the 1912 Presidential elections. Incumbent President Taft made a more dramatic attempt to win Irish American support when following public pressure, he lobbied for the release of Luke Dillon from a Canadian Prison. Dillon, an old Fenian was serving a sentence for attempting to blow up the locks of the Welland Canal in Ontario to stop supplies going to the British during the Boer War in 1900. His earlier attempts included placing a bomb in the British Houses of Parliament during the Dynamiting Campaign in 1883-4. John T Keating of Clan na Gael commented earlier ‘Taft must do something to please somebody and the Anglo-Americans are his only friends now’. From the autumn of 1911 until the late summer of 1912, Taft stuggled with both the Canadian and British Governments without success. Dillon was released on humanitarian grounds in 1914.
A letter from Dillon to a friend, J.L.Gannon reveal something of the man and the movement for his release: ‘You seem very sanguine of my speedy release but I cannot share your joyful hopes… I know all about trolley cars and railroad trains but am not aquainted with automobiles and admit I might be in danger from them…I will have no trouble in getting ready, as I can easily put all my baggage in one pocket and all my wisdom in the other…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.399-400
28:
Italy: Just like Germany, Italy was also looking for it’s place in the sun and sent an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire demanding a cessation of any attempts to interfere with Italian invlovement with Tripoli. The Ottomans rejected this and Italy declared war and moved on the city.
30: Arthur Griffith’s contnuining opposition to James Larkin raised this response from another Sinn Fein member, Eamon Ceannt: ‘You appear to see Larkin at the botom of all trouble. Sufficient for you is that Larkin is the agitator causing troubles between employer and employed. In a similar manner the English Tory and his Irish allies described irihspoliticians as vile agitators who caused trouble between the good and kind landlors and their willing slaves, the tenant farmers of Ireland.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p25
Larkin’s average readship for his weekly paper peaked at 95,000 before beginning to stabilise at 20,000, ten times the readship of the nationalist weekly ‘Sinn Fein’.
Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p15
October 1911
1: A monument to Parnell is unveiled in Upper Sackville Street. 88 feet high, the foundation stone was laid in October 1899, and unveiled by John Redmond. The sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens received £5,000 for the commission.
7: Arthur Griffith responded to Ceannt’s defence of Larkin on September 30th: ‘In Dublin the wives of some men that Larking has led out on strike are begging in the streets. The consequences of Larkinsim are workless fathers, mourning mothers, hungry children and broken homes.’
11: Italy had by now occupied the coastal towns around Tripoli and consolidated it’s gains over the following months.
25: Churchill becomes First Lord of the Admiralty.
November 1911
A typical Dublin Tenement room in Newmarket Street cost 2/6 per week in rent. Take this sample case printed in the Irish Worker on November 4, 1911: ‘ A family, man and wife, resides in Dame Court. His occupation is that of a tailor but he can earn only 10/ a week. His rent is 2/6 which leaves 7/6 for food, fuel, light, clothes, bedding etc.. Their breakfast consists of dry bread and tea. They have only another meal, dinner and supper combined; it consists of dry bread and tea, herrings and occasionaly porridge’
Dublin 1913 A Divided City. O’Brien Press’83
4: Morocco: With the standoff between France and Germany it looked throughout the summer as if it would be war.
However, during the autumn a financial crisis in Berlin, together with the German emperor's unwillingness to go to war over Morocco, led to a Franco-German compromise on November 4, 1911, whereby France secured her protectorate over Morocco in return for transferring to Germany two strips of land in the French Congo. German thinking was now one that stand-downs would no longer back down.
Yeats and Synge came in for some criticism…
:” The editors, like the patriots of the Boyle O'Reilly Club who fêted him in Boston, took Mr. Yeats at his own none too modest estimation. The United Irish Societies of this city denounced The Playboy, and an advanced Gaelic organ exposed its barbarities, but gave a clean bill of health to Mr. Yeats and the rest of his programme. Doubtless they also had not read the plays they approved. Well, we have read them. We found several among them more vile, more false, and far more dangerous than The Playboy, the bestial depravity of which carries its own condemnation; and we deliberately pronounce them the most malignant travesty of Irish character and of all that is sacred in Catholic life that has come out of Ireland. The details, which are even more shocking than those of The Playboy, are too indecent for citation, but the persistent mendacity of the Yeats press agency's clever conspiracy of puff makes it needful to give our readers some notion of their character.
Of Synge's plays only Riders to the Sea, an un-Irish adaptation to Connacht fishermen of Loti's Pecheurs d'Islande, is fit for a decent audience. None but the most rabidly anti-Catholic, priest-hating bigots could enjoy The Tinkers' Wedding. The plot, which involves an Irish priest in companionship with the most degraded pagans and hinges on his love of gain, may not be even outlined by a self-respecting pen. The open lewdness and foul suggestiveness of the language is so revolting, the picture of the Irish priesthood, drawn by this parson's son, is so vile and insulting, and the mockery of the Mass and sacraments so blasphemous, that it is unthinkable how any man of healthy mind could father it or expect an audience to welcome it. This is the "typical Irish play" which the "Irish Players" have presented to a Boston audience. “
“Our Irish Theatre: a chapter in autobiography” by Lady Gregory. New York: G. Putnam's Sons, 1913. pp. 306-3
6: Maine decides on a state-wide prohibition of alcohol.
8
Balfour announced that he was resigning the leadership of the opposition Conservative-Unionist Party. His record was impressive “ ..he led the party to three defeats...mismanged the budget and the parliament Bill crisis”. Rumour had it that he was too subtle to be effective in the ‘rough and tumble verbal encounters in the House of Commons’. The Party leadership went to Andrew Bonar Law, described by Asquith the Prime Minister as “meekly ambitious”. He was a compromise candidate, between the leader of the Unionists, Long and the Conservative Austen Chamberlain. Born in Canada but raised in Glasgow with an Ulster family background, Bonar Law was anything but ‘meekly ambitious’. He possessed a faculty for ‘vituperative language that flayed his opponents with such severity that few members wished to arouse his enmity’.
Diarmuid Lynch, while involved with the I.R.B. as a member of the Cork City Circle was elected as Divisional Centre for Munster and representative on the Supreme Council, a position he held until the Rising. His immediate ‘contact’ was Cathal Brugha, a sales representative who combined his work with ‘ a roving commission to do I.R.B. organising’ keeping contact with the ‘Centres in various towns and enrolled men as the occasion offered’. Diarmuid’s responsibilities included keeping in contact with the many country ‘centres’ and remaining well briefed on the I.R.B. activities within Munster. He attended Circle meetins when in a locality on business, but at times found that in certain areas ‘ there may not have been in a whole district a single man imbued with republican ideas! Reminiscing many years later in a letter to Florence O'Donoghue, Diarmuid recalled that ‘..it was not my duty to visit circles in the province. When I did pay visits, I was most likely looked on by the men as an ‘organiser’. My actual position would have been known only to the County Centres. Then again my visits to certain districts were, as a rule, both brief and irregular depending on my private business. Except by mere chance, it was impossible for me to locate a probable recruit - this job was necessarily in the hands of the local men. On occasion I got prior information which enabled me to test the qualifications of a probable recruit in some outlying district and to swear him in if I saw fit...
Diarmuid Lynch to Florence O'Donoghue. 20 November 1945.National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(1)
In addition, the rigorous selection and vetting process through which all suitable candidates for membership were put through, often resulted in many potential members loosing the priviledge through lack of tact, probity or if approved, not joining on religious grounds where joining a ‘secret organisation’ had been banned by Rome. While “pastoral letters occasionally warned young men from joining secret socities - the police knew mighty little about the I.R.B...as it was, any men who were prominently identified with Sinn Fein and/or the Volunteers were suspect of being ‘extremist’...’
Diarmuid Lynch to Geraldine Dillon ( Joseph Plunkett’s sister ) 1946. Diarmuid Lynch papers, National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(8)
Once a member, strict regulations were enforced. Speaking about the I.R.B. in public, known as ‘opening your mouth too wide’ left members open ‘perhaps to expulsion’.
Meanwhile the young sepratists within the I.R.B were meeting with some strong opposition from the old conservative guard on the Supreme Council: I.R.B President, Fred Allen, the Treasurer, John O’Hanlon and P.T.Daly. The previous month, the militants had increased their standing on the Supreme Council and found a strong ally in Tom Clarke. McCartan wrote to McGarrity that the opportunities for militancy were great ‘…if Home Rule does not come I believe parliamentarism is dead and damned – and so much the better.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P30
At this stage, the old guard on the Supreme Council moved against the ‘Young Turks’ in its ranks. Fred Allan, who controlled the Wolfe Tone Clubs made a move to take over the ‘Irish Freedom’ newspaper. McCartan commented to McGarrity that the Council ordered ‘the newspaper committee suspended. Tom (Clarke) asked to resign his position and thretened with trial for refusing to do so…the work at present is to kill the paper…don’t know what we may do, but you can tell all concerned that it would be a fight to the finish – may even be public.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P30
Things were to develop further the next month.
13: Andrew Bonar-Law, the Canadian born Glasgow bsuinessman and leader of the Unionist Party became Tory leader, suceeding Balfour.
18:
“The anti-Irish players come to New York on Nov. 20th, and will appear first in some of the other plays. The Playboy, it is announced, will be given later, but the date has not yet been given out. The presentation of the monstrosity is a challenge to the Irish people of New York which will be taken up. There will be no parleying with theatre managers, or appeals to Lady Gregory's sense of decency. The Playboy must be squelched, as the stage Irishman was squelched, and a lesson taught to Mr. Yeats and his fellow-agents of England that they will remember while they live …When a woman chooses to put herself in the company of male blackguards she has no right to appeal for respect for her sex.”
Gaelic American Novermber 18th 1911.
29
While the internal wranglings continued within the IRB, John Devoy wrote to Judge Daniel Cohalan on the fact that while Yeats was strenghtening the spirit of nationalism in Ireland…he overemphasised the contributions of the Gaelic League and the Irish Litterary Theatre…appeared to overlook the important services of the Clan na Gael:
“ Many things are occurring which have chilled my enthusasim for the Gaelic League. The worst is that Yeats has managed to fill every American editor with the idea that his theatre company is a product of the Gaelic League, has Hyde’s endorsement…and we are lectured as being ‘out of touch’ with Ireland by people who never knew Ireland. Hyde lets this go. Until he comes out with a denial, I will personally do no more for the Gaelic League…Hyde is making nonsensical speeches about the Irish having ‘got their land and going to get their nationality’. This is politics and the Gaelic League is supposed to be non-political…Hyde is constantly catering to Redmond, who does nothing for him and whose friends here are hostile to the League. it is time we insisted on being treated seriously..the time of our men is constantly taken up with raising money for the League, to the neglect of our own work…Shane Leslie is a young man of much promise and he may or may not develop. He has much to learn and one of the things ghe must learn quickly is that he must not talk such rot as he talked in Dublin…”
Charles Callan Tansill. “America and the fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922” Devin-Adair Company.
And ‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p30
December 1911
The battle between the ‘progressives’ and ‘reactionaries’ within the I.R.B came to a head with publication of two editions of the Irish Freedom. A McCartan letter to McGarrity details the events:
‘The committee running it [ Irish Freedom ] was suspended by the Eexcutive of the Wolfe Tone Clubs ten days before publication…we decided to change the printers and bring the paper out at all costs. I went at once to our friends in Belfast and Glasgow to warn them of what had taken place…returned to Dublin on Thursday night. Next morning the office was raided by order of ‘Windows’ [ Fred Allan ]. Bulmer was present and as everything was out of the way, he made no resistance.
On Saturday, they went to our printer and threatened him with legal proceedings if he printed our paper…when our friends saw we were determined to keep the paper going, they decided to issue another and it has appeared this evening, but the agents won't handle it as they know us and don’t know them. Ours will be ready by tomorrow morning as usual.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P32
Sean O’Hegarty writing to Diarmuid Lynch 25 years later, gave some insight into the power struggle:
“... There was a row in November 1911 between Allan, O’Hanlon and Crowe on one hand, and McCartan and Hobson on the other. McCullough thinks it was something arising out of ‘Freedom’ and Hobson thinks it was just an attempt by Allan to slow up proceedings generally by slowing up ‘Freedom’. My own very clear impression is that Pat ( Dr. McCartan ) refused to accept a direction given him by the proper authorities of what nature I cannot remember...and they tried to remove him from the editorship of ‘Freedom’. He refused to go with the result there were two issues of ‘Freedom’ for December 1911... I know that a special meeting of the Supreme Council was summoned to deal with it... the matter was investigated by the Council itself... in the end McCartan and Hobson was exonerated and O’Hanlon, Allan and Crowe resigned. I do know it had nothing to do with the Royal visit...’
Diarmuid Lynch papers. 3 Nov 1936. National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(1)
McGarrity’s personal papers holds some further details on the events:
‘A meeting of the paper committee was held in Dublin and both the Doctor [ McCartan ] and Allan were removed for the sake of harmony. Sean MacDermott took the Doctor’s place as editor of Freedom or manager and O’Hegarty of London was made editor. They are both good men and I am glad to see the paper in good hands.’
McGarrity Papers – January 12, 1912. Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P30
Faced with loss of face, both Fred Allan and O’Hanlon resigned from the Supreme Council, thinking that others on the Council would follow suit. They did not, with the result that the progressives were now in control of the I.R.B leadership. Fred Allan died in 1936.
14: Nowegian explorer Roald Amudsen won the race to the South Pole and in a message from there, reported that he had seen no sign of Captain Robert Scott and his party. ‘In a graphic account of jis trek of nearly 2,000 miles at over 10,000 feet, Amudsen makes light of the mountain ranges, treacherous ice and crevasses which he, his four comrades and their dog teams had to cross before making their final dash for the Pole….the approach to the Pole itself was made in fine weather with the final slog being across a vast and apparently endless plain. ..the successul expedition relied entirely on dog-drawn sledges…’
Chronicle of the 20th Century – J.L. Publications, London. 1993. P160
16: The Local Authority (Ireland) (Qualification of Women ) Act is passed and allows women to become members of county and borough councils.